Congratulations, Snigdha Nandipati!/Recap

Snigdha from California is the champion! Her winning word was guetapens. She was so happy and joyful! My guess list was not messed up!

The only five-peat who has ever won the National Spelling Bee still remains at Kerry Close (2006). Nicholas Rushlow could have claimed the championship, but he misspelled vetiver (vetover). It is a type of grass in Asia. The origin is Tamil to French. Great job your final year, Nicholas! I swear I have seen that word somewhere in a perfume store (It is not all the time I am at a perfume store), but I did pay attention to some of the perfumes, even if I forgot all the names of them. I wish I had brought a notebook with me that day. When I heard the word, I had a feeling that there was a tricky spot (the schwa). When I heard French, i popped in my head. French derives from Latin, therefore the schwa in Latin is usually an i (In Greek, it's an o). That was also when I realized that I had seen that word before!


Arvind misspelled schwannoma, which comes from a German name. It was spelled schvonoma, but he will most likely be back next year! He misspelled Jugendstil last year, which is another German word, and it is now his favorite word!

Stuti Mishra misspelled schwarmerei. Now I know when this word was used: 2004 when Akshay Buddiga placed second. He misspelled the word, also. It is best to study results from prior years, because those words will appear again one year or another.

Here are the spellers who may have a shot at the national title: Arvind Mahankali, Vismaya Kharkar, Grace Remmer, Vanya Shivashankar, Lori Madison, Pranav Sivakumar, Rachael Cundey, and Emily Keaton. Rachael Cundey and Emily Keaton will be five-peats next year! Good luck to all the spellers, and congratulations! See you next year.

I will continue my posting throughout the summer (I end school next Friday). It is time to prepare for next year. I will be coaching a few of my friends and perhaps more!

Championship Finals

What a great introduction by 2011 Champion, Sukanya Roy! Feel the pressure! Who will win?

Misspelled Words so Far
canities (Round 7) conities
ridotto (Round 7) redatto
porwigle (Round 8) porwiggle

Nicholas almost startled me when he got rouille. If you remember him during the past years, he has received French words. In 2010, he misspelled devant. From 2009 to 2011, he has received French words during the first semifinal round.

Gifton still continues to amaze me with his amazing manners: "Please", "Thank You", and more! His coach coached the 1998 champion. He misspelled ericeticolous, but a great standing ovation!

Arvind just received the word quattrocento: I hope he doubles the consonant. He asked for alternate pronunciation, and there were laughs, and he gets the word right.

Nicholas is back up: vetiver. He just misspelled it as vetover. Those crazy schwas! He has been eliminated, but there are still a few other spellers left.

Lena just misspelled geistlich, and she received a standing ovation.

Three spellers remain: Snigdha Nandipati, Stuti Mishra, and Arvind Mahankali.

Commentary: They said that Nicholas may be back on the Olympics (he's a swimmer)

Snigdha: saccharolytic

Stuti: prolegomenon

Arvind: schwannoma was misspelled. (schvonoma). At least he has next year! Good luck!

Snigdha or Stuti - one of these two will be the champion. I'll be honest, but these two were unexpected, but at least they are on my guess list for the champion.

admittatur
chionoblepsia 
arrondissement (Thank you, French class)!
schwarmerei (I am 100% sure this has been used at the National Spelling Bee before!). And she misspells it? Could Snigdha be the champion?

Here it comes: guetapens, and Snigdha wins! Congratulations!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Amazing! She seemed so happy, and it was well deserved! Congratulations!

Vismaya Kharkar - Salt Lake Valley Champion (2011 and 2012)

Speller #254 - Vismaya Kharkar has participated in the Salt Lake Valley Spelling Bee since 2009 and has done amazing all those years, including 2011 and 2012. I do not remember what word she misspelled in 2009, but in 2010 I do not remember what happened with sarsaparilla, but there was some confusion with the word.

During the 2010 Salt Lake Valley Spelling Bee I remember when she received the word Qatari, she turned to the pronouncer and asked something like, "If the word has a capital letter, do you have to say that it is capital?" She knew it, and I remember another of her words was cheka.

After that Bee my mom said that Vismaya would make it to nationals one day, do outstanding, and possibly win.  She has made it to nationals, done outstanding, and all she needs to do now is win. Now that she is out of the Bee for this year, she can start studying for next year. Utah has never had a champion, but it is possible that she may be first. Her fellow Utah spellers: #252 - Jared Ward and and #253 - Sophie Choate may be back next year.

Salt Lake Valley Champions and Winning Words:
2009: Henry Korous (precocious)
2010: Miranda Hulsey (plutonium)
2011: Vismaya Kharkar (infarction)
2012: Vismaya Kharkar (aberrant)

2011 National Spelling Bee

• Round 2: maillot
• Round 3: affianced

2012 National Spelling Bee

• Round 1: kielbasa
• Round 2: Requiem
• Round 4: dysthymia
• Round 5: allothogenic
• Round 6: pissaladiere (pisaladierre)

No speller from Utah has done this well. Last year, Anna-Marie Sprenger made it to Round 5 before misspelling privatim as privatum, but there is an actual word in Latin spelled privatum, which has a similar meaning ("not openly or in public")

Good luck to the Nine Championship Finalists tonight!

Update on June 1, 2012: http://m.sltrib.com/sltrib/mobile2/54218048-218/kharkar-national-bee-spelling.html.csp

Semifinals Updates/Championship Finalists

I am at school right now in a class where we seem to be doing nothing, so I have been following the results of the Bee, because I do not have access to ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPN3 here.

cephalalgia - "headache" or "pain in the head" (It has the Greek to Latin combining form cephal- meaning head. I remember this word, because it was used in the 2002 Documentary Spellbound.
hinoki
phalarope (phallorope)
stochastically
projicient
berserker
oxyacetylene
drosophilia
cicatrize
proselytizer
intravitam
coulisse
endergonic
nefast
cassideous
nephropathy
freddo (fredo)
cancrivorous
ditokous
polyptych
mumpsimus
carpophore
attermine
ergastulum
sylloge (syllogy)
pidan
tendenz (tendentz)
sciophyte (sciaphyte)
toxophilite
frore
caryatid
exergue
douceur
mephitis
stannum
pratincolous (pretincolous)
bacitracin
monocotyledon (This word was used in my Biology class)
victorine
cataphract
enthymeme 
survigrous (servigrous)
catallatics
phlogistic
tondino
cochineal
pleurodynia (pleuradynia)
podilegous (podilogous)
dysthymia (Go, Vismaya!)
habendum


I will stop at those words for now, because I have to go to my next class.

Update: Vismaya is headed to Round 6. This is Utah's best!
Her words:
Round 4: dysthymia
Round 5: allothogenic


Unfortunately, Vismaya misspelled pissaladiere as pisaladierre. Congratulations, Vismaya! I hope you make it back to nationals next year! This is the best Utah has done at the Scripps National Spelling Bee, ever! Rahul Malayappan, Vanya Shivashankar, Grace Remmer, and Nabeel Rahman were also eliminated in earlier rounds, and they were also high contenders to win.


Apparently Rounds 5 and 6 were the killer rounds this year.

Here are the Championship Finalists (9) - that is the least there has been, but these spellers are really strong!:

Speller #19 - Snigdha Nandipati (San Diego, California) - She always seems to be confident under pressure.
Speller #30 - Frank Cahill (Parker, Colorado) - This may be his first year, but he has been impressive.
Speller #44 - Stuti Mishra (West Melbourne, Florida) - She is a semifinalist from last year, and she may win or have a very high ranking.
Speller #89 - Gifton Wright (Spanish Town, Jamaica) - His manners are impressive, and he seems to be very confident. If he wins, he will be the second Jamaican and the second speller from a different country to win the National Spelling Bee (1998 - Jody-Anne Maxwell from Jamaica)
Speller #136 - Jordan Hoffman (Lee's Summit, Missouri)
Speller #162 - Arvind Mahankali (Bayside Hills, New York) - Keep in Mind: Only 2011 Championship Finalists Remaining!!!!
Speller #193 - Nicholas Rushlow (Pickerington, Ohio) - He finally made it to Championship Finals after all this time! He is the only five-peat remaining in the Bee.
Speller #213 - Lena Greenberg - The constant motion seems to calm her down.

Good luck and congratulations, everyone! I will be posting tonight!

Round 1 Words Out/Semifinals

Spellers had to get at least 23 points to advance to semifinals, and fifty spellers will be heading to semifinals.    http://cdn.spellingbee.com/bee/round_one.pdf. I read in a news article that Vanya Shivashankar was the only speller to get a perfect score.

Semifinals will commence at 10:00 A.M. Eastern Time, and it will be nerve-wracking. Although I am not competing, I feel as if I am going to faint. As I was working on advanced assignments, I was sweating, and I got very dizzy. 

There may be many favorites this year, but I have no idea who will win. 

Possibilities of the Champion

Five-Peats and Four Peats: #31 - Rahul Malayappan and #193 - Nicholas Rushlow; #49 - Rachael Cundey, #79 - Gina Solomito, and #94 - Emily Keaton

2011 National Spelling Bee Finalists: #155 - Nabeel Rahman and #162 - Arvind Mahankali (highest returning finisher from last year)

Canadians: #25 - Jennifer Mong and #27 - Mignon Tsai

Spellers Who Were One Round Off of Making it to Championship Finals: #40 Grace Remmer, #42 Vaidya Govindarajan

Others - #19 - Snigdha Nandipati, #44 - Stuti Mishra, #66 - Pranav Sivakumar, #89 - Gifton Wright, #92 - Vanya Shivashankar, #185 - Sunny Levine, #237 - Chetan Reddy, #213 - Lena Greenberg #254 - Vismaya Kharkar, and #264 - Jae Canetti

I am almost sure that one of these spellers will win! Perhaps there may be co-champions! Good luck to the remaining fifty spellers!

Semifinalists Announced/Recap on Preliminaries

After two grueling rounds today, semifinalists have been determined!

There are fifty semifinalists, and that is a first in such as very long time!
http://internal.spellingbee.com/files/spellingbee.com/semifinalists.pdf

This is Utah's second year advancing to semifinals, and the first time a speller from the Salt Lake Valley has gone this far! Go Vismaya Kharkar! She has competed in the Salt Lake Valley Spelling Bee since it first began in 2009. I think she placed ninth her first year, sixth the second year, and she finally made it in 2011 and 2012). Last year she did not advance to semifinals, but one of her fellow Utah spellers did.

Both five-peats, Nicholas Rushlow and Rahul Malayappan advanced to semifinals.

Two of three Canadians: Jennifer Mong and Mignon Tsai will be on stage tomorrow.

Two of three 2011 Championship Finalists: Nabeel Rahman and Arvind Mahankali will be vying for that trophy.

Vanya Shivashankar will be heading to semifinals! She is the sister of 2009 Champion, Kavya Shivashankar!

There is one speller who is at the national bee for his first time: Jae Canetti. He did very well in 2010 (fourth) and 2011 (second) at his local bee, and he finally came to nationals this year! He started competing as a second grader, and he was also in the same local bee as Tim Ruiter back in 2010. Tim tied for second at the 2009 National Spelling Bee which made him a favorite to win in 2010, even if he did not.

I also have to congratulate Speller #238, as well, because she commented on my blog on one of my posts. Congratulations, Abigail Spitzer, and good luck tomorrow!

Preliminaries Recap

I was only able to watch the first half of Round 2 before heading to school. During my first period today, we did not do anything, so I followed the results on the Bee website. There were many known words, but there were some I had never heard of before. A lot of the words came from Spell It! apparently, then the rest came from the Sponsor Bee Guide. I am about to watch the replays of the Bee, but I will post on what I had while I was watching.

Before one of the spellers received her word, there was a long pause. That must have been very nerve-wracking for her, but she got through her word flawlessly, and she will be going to semifinals!

The sentences were pretty hilarious this year. One of them was with the word irrepressible. "...irrepressible urge to shout "Hi, Mom and Dad!"

I have been impressed with the Jamaicans at the National Spelling Bee. Every single speller from there has had amazing manners, such as "Please" and "Thank You, Sir". Great job on keeping that up, Gifton Wright, and good luck tomorrow!

Great job, Vanya on using your knowledge of roots on debellation!

Since I'm from Utah, I should post the words the the spellers from my state spelled in Rounds 2 and 3.

Round 2:
Jared Ward: etesian
Sophie Choate: mellifluous
Vismaya Kharkar: kielbasa


Round 3:
Jared Ward: rayonnant
Sophie Choate: amniocentesis 
Vismaya Kharkar: Requiem 


I was just watching speller #126 in Round 3 when he received the word idiosyncratically. When he realized that he misspelled the word, he just started to mix in a bunch of random letters and numbers. That is the best mess-up I have ever seen so far in all the years of the Bee! This was what he spelled: i-o- (he knew he messed up) q-r-s-z-3-4 (he said cuatro) - f-l-v-r-q. I think this is funnier than sardoodledom!
Good luck to the fifty spellers heading to semifinals tomorrow!

Round 1 Test/Rounds 2 and 3

Many of you, spellers, have completed the Round 1 Test, but some of you have not even taken the test yet. It is very nerve-wracking to wait, but remain calm and relax. Remember that once you are finished with the test, you must not tell other spellers the words, because you may be eliminated. The same goes for school: Do not tell other students who have not taken the test what is going to be on it, or else it will result in a zero (at least at my school). One 25 of the 50 words will be chosen as score words.

Rounds 2 and 3
You will be facing the lights, cameras, and audience tomorrow, but do not worry. All you need to do is block out all the distractions around you, and focus on the word. Make sure you look presentable and clean, because you will be in front of the cameras. Do not bite your nails, run your fingers through your hair, etc.

When you get your word, make sure you ask the questions you can ask. These words will come from the Sponsor Bee Guide List you were given and Spell It! If you misspell a word, the bell will not ring, but Dr. Bailly will provide the correct spelling for you. Each word spelled correctly in these rounds are three points.

After Rounds 2 and 3, semifinalists will be announced. Rounds 1, 2, and 3 can total up to 31 points. No more than fifty spellers will be named semifinalists. Last year only forty-one spellers advanced to semifinals.

I do not want to put a lot of pressure on any of you, but remember to be confident while you are spelling. Good luck!

Round 1 Test, Tomorrow!

I know today is the barbecue, but tomorrow is the notorious Round 1 Test! From what I've heard, it is computerized this year.

1. Make sure you read a lot tonight, because those words may appear on the test.
2. There are fifty words on the test, but only twenty-five will go to your full score (combined with Rounds 2 and 3). This score will determine if you advance to semifinals or not.
3. Relax and listen to the word. Pay attention to the pronunciation, and read all the information.
4. If you do not know how to spell a word, make your best guess using your knowledge of patterns.
5.You can go back to a word and change it.
6. After the test, do not talk about the words to the other spellers, because this may cause elimination.

Here is the test from last year to help you practice: http://spellingbee.com/sample-test

Good luck!

Five-Peats, and Possibly Six-Peats and Seven-Peats!/Do Not Underestimate What a Young Child Can Do

What does it take to be a five-peat? A lot of diligence, dedication, and time and effort. Not very many spellers become five-peats. This year, Nicholas Rushlow and Rahul Malayappan are the first five-peats since 2008, and both of them said that it is a lot of hard work! For example, Nicholas said that he spent hours studying, and ever since his first year in 2008, he never took a break from studying.

In a few years, we will probably see six-peats and seven-peats. Lori Madison (Age 6) is the youngest speller in the history of the Bee. This proves that you should not underestimate what a young child can do.

It is not just Lori, but others, as well. Sriram Hathwar was the other record holder before Lori, and he did very well his first year, even if he did not advance to semifinals. His second year, he was able to advance to semifinals, then he missed 2010, but he improved his ranking in 2011 tying for sixth. Unfortunately, he will not be heading to nationals this year, but we hope to see him in the upcoming years.

Other than the spellers, you may have seen Andrew Johnston on Britain's Got Talent and Jackie Evancho on America's Got Talent. They are amazing and beautiful singers, and they both placed very high. Someone younger than you can do better than you, but age does not matter.

Good luck!

Bee Week Has Arrived/Memorial Day/Fun Facts

It is time for Bee Week to begin, but let us begin with important business. Tomorrow is Memorial Day - a day to honor those who died for our country.

Here are some words in honor of this important day:

• patriotic
• honor
• flowers
• barbecue
• monument
• marines
• soldier
• memories
• unknown
• tomb
• battle
• legion
• cemetery
• remembrance 
• casualties
• ceremonies
• commemorate
• valor

Fun Facts About the Scripps National Spelling Bee: 

• It is the nation's longest educational program!
• The first National Spelling Bee (1925) only had nine spellers. This year, there are 278 spellers going participating, but the record was in 2009 (293 spellers). 
• The first winning word was "gladiolus", and last year's winning word was "cymotrichous". The Bee has come a long way since then.
• Bee Week has more than just spelling; it takes place in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan area, so I think you can assume what many spellers love to do: sight-seeing! Spellers also go to a barbecue on Memorial Day, they hang out with friends, they cheer for and congratulate each other, there is a banquet on Friday, and so much more!
• The official pronouncer of the the Bee, Dr. Jacques Bailly, was the 1980 Champion (winning word: elucubrate); The director of the Bee, Paige Pipkin Kimble, was the 1981 Champion (winning word: sarcophagus); One of the judges, Blake Giddens, was the 1983 Champion (winning word: Purim); another judge, George Thampy, was the 2000 Champion (winning word: demarche).

I will post more facts as the week goes along! For now, good luck spellers and "may the odds be ever in your favor!"

Most Spellers Will Arrive in D.C. Tomorrow!/Spelling Bee Trailer

Good luck, spellers! Most of you will be headed to the Bee tomorrow, and I cannot wait to watch the Bee!

Here is a Spelling Bee Trailer I Made in Honor of the Bee

8 More Days Until Spellers Arrive in D.C.

It has been a while since my last post! I have had a lot of testing, activities, choir performances, and student council elections.

Here are some study tips:

• Study word origins - roots, patterns, exceptions, and words from unknown and imitative origins
• Parts of Speech - patterns and exceptions
• Rules to Words
• Memorize rules, such as i before e, except after c, but there are exceptions to this rule, as well.
• Practice as if you were actually in a spelling bee (ask questions and think deeply)
• If this helps, do something while studying, such as video games, jump rope, Legos, basketball, and more!

Some Rules 

-Ent/-Ence and -Ant/-Ance

-ant and -ent: used to create nouns and adjectives, and -ance and -ence are used to create nouns. There are not many rules that will help with most of these words, so memorizing is the best way to go. 

• After a soft c (with an s sound) or g (with a j sound), use -ent/-ence (rubescent/acquiescence)
• After a hard c or g, use -ant/-ance. (mitigant/elegance)

-Ise, -Ize, and -Yze Ending

All of them have the eyes sound. 

-ise  is usually from French (abscise)

-ize (cause to form) is usually from Latin (systemize)

-yze is usually from Latin, which is found in the root -lyze meaning to produce or go under disintegration (acetolyze) and comes from the Latin root -lysis (decomposition; breaking down) 

If if an l is heard before the eyes sound, check to see if it is a variant of one of the verbs (-lyze), and if it is not, spell it -lize.

Good luck, and I will try to post more!

Consolidated Word List/Bee Schedule/Spelling Bee in the Summer

Thanks to the speller who gave me the link to the Consolidated Word List!

Consolidated Word List Please Read the Preface

Television Schedule (You can watch all on ESPN 3)
Preliminaries - ESPN3 - Wednesday, May 30 - 8:00 A.M. Eastern (I guess I have to be up before 6:00 Rocky Mountain Time; I will be watching and posting only before I go to school, so I will be able to watch for two hours. I will watch the replay when I get home)
Semifinals - ESPN2 - Thursday, May 31 - 10:00 A.M. Eastern (I will watch the replay before Championship Finals when I return from school)
Championship Finals - ESPN Thursday, May 31 - 8:00 P.M. Eastern

Speller Schedule
Most Spellers Arrive in D.C./Registration (Gaylord National Hotel) - Sunday, May 27
Memorial Day Barbecue - Monday, May 28 (I'm pretty sure it's on this day as they usually have it.)
Round 1 Test - May 29 - Various Times Throughout the Morning (I don't know if it's written or computerized this year, but they have returned to the fifty words, but only having twenty-five go to the full score)
Preliminaries, Semifinals, Championship Finals - See Television Schedule

Replays of the 2011 Scripps National Spelling Bee
http://espn.go.com/espn3/spellingbee

The spelling bee continues throughout the summer, and it's not just spellers studying. The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee will be playing at Tuacahn Amphitheatre in Ivins, Utah (near St. George, Utah). For several years, I have been going to the Tuacahn Amphitheatre, and every show I've seen has impressed me, and I hope this show will impress me, too! I imagine the show is different every performance (It was nominated for six Tony Awards, and it won two, including Best Book). I guess it is going to be a great way to put my love for spelling and musical theater together!
Here is my post on the show, and keep in mind that it is not a review: http://annespellingbee.blogspot.com/2012/03/spelling-bee-musical.html

Good luck to all the spellers!