Round 3 - I'm Writing This During the First Half

Several of these words were used at the 2007 National Spelling Bee: pappardelle and rascacio. They were both spelled by the 2007 champion, Evan O'Dorney. Perhaps words such as zacate, fauchard, genizah, sagittal, coryza, epaulement, reblochon, clevis, truttaceous, cilice, and videlicet, will appear again! Another word I remember being used is calenture. 


Veronica took a while spelling vaquero. I am pretty sure she knew the word, but she wanted to make sure she had the right letters!


I am proud of Rachael Cundey for spelling both of her words correctly today. In 2009 and 2010, she misspelled her words. In 2010, the judges to a while to confirm whether she had correctly spelled or misspelled mihrab. I assume that she accidentally added an e (mihreab). She seems more confident this year!

I do not see a certain topic on which the words are on this year. Last year, there were plenty of culinary and science words.

I am glad that I watched replays and live contests this year, because a lot of the words are from those bees. They were used in Canspell National Spelling Bee, Salt Lake Valley Spelling Bee, Utah Valley Spelling Bee, Virginian-Pilot Spelling Bee, and perhaps all the Local Bees around the U.S.! A lot of words are from Canspell Finals, including rupicolous, hirsutism, edacious, brachiate, hordeolum, appetency, and clavichord. A lot of the words are from Spell It!

Oh no! Swetha Jasti from Olathe, Kansas misspelled commissar as comissar. She beat Vanya Shivashankar as the Olathe District Bee. I hope she got a good score on the written test! If you do not make it to semifinals, you still have next year, unless Vanya beats you. Good luck and continue spelling!

The sentences are great this year, and a lot of them have to do with the National Spelling Bee. One  sentence was something like "After the National Spelling Bee, I watched the replays over and over again, to hear my mellisonant voice." The sentence for threnody was funny, but long, so I do not quite remember it.

One girl was getting waiting to see if she spelled tokamak correctly, because she mispronounced "t". She spelled it correctly. After, the computers had to update.

This is getting more intense. Speller #114 was waiting for the signal to see if he correctly spelled divagate. Yes, he is correct!

What fell that made a loud sound? Dr. Bailly said, "The show must go on!"

Aha! There is another Canspell word: propinquity.


I get very nervous when a 2008-2010 semifinalist and/or championship finalist comes up. I am not a not a nervous person, but it is nerve-racking to watch other spellers. I have a lot of confidence at the microphone, but when it is the other spellers, I feel as if I am going to pass out, and that is how I feel right now.


The timer has not been showing a lot. Then again, this is preliminaries. It will show more tomorrow, with the sting of that dreaded bell. Ding!

From Round 2: I am so glad that Vismaya spelled her word correctly: maillot. That word is in How to Spell Like a Champ, and she told me that she has that book. She'll be okay, because she studied the Consolidated Word List, too.

First half of Round 3 is over. Cataclysmic concludes the end of Round 3. Unfortunately it was misspelled as cataclysmatic.

Round 2

Spellers are doing great!

When Laura Newcombe came up to the microphone I was shaking, then when I heard equinoctial, I calmed down. Veronica startled me most of all the spellers. She received the word Fauntleroy, and thought about it for a while. Graham, was very confident while spelling alkali. I hope all three of them make it to semifinals.

Results for Utah
Matthew - keest (kiest)
Jared - Ulyssean
Anna-Marie - persillade (I love how you knew the origin right away!)
Vismaya - maillot (You are very confident)

Four-peats
Rahul - anomaly
Nicholas - clairsentience 
Julianna - tahini

Round closes with brontophobia.

Round 2 is over!

I was very impressed with #254 Ethan Ruggeri. He flawlessly spelled glabrous. Keep in mind that this kid is only eight. If he wins this year, next year, or the year after that, he will be the youngest champion. Virginia hasn't had a champion since 1992 (winning word: lyceum). He reminds me of Samir Patel (speller from 2003-2007), who was only a third grader when he tied for 3rd. I think he skipped a grade, but I do not remember, because it has been such a long time since Samir Patel. If you do not know who Samir Patel is, I suggest watching the video and reading the article:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=3414046

http://espn.go.com/espn3 

It is Time!

At 8:00 Eastern Time, it is time for Round 2 to begin. I am a little nervous for the spellers. Whenever it comes to the Bee, I'm never nervous, but I am for the spellers. I will try and post as the Bee is going on, and during the commercial breaks. If you want to watch, here is the link:

http://espn.go.com/espn3

As the spellers do last minute studying, let us breathe.

Preliminaries - Rounds 2 and 3/Predicting a Champion

Tomorrow, Preliminaries continue, and it is on ESPN3. 275 will take the stage tomorrow. Still, I would rather be there than watch at home. I do not have any clear favorites this year, because I am cheering for every single speller. The batch is strong this year, and it will be hard to predict a champion. Every year, it is hard to predict a champion, but when there is a certain group that I predict, at least one of them wins.

I did a good job guessing from 2008-2010.

2008 - four-peats and five-peats (Champion: Sameer Mishra - four-peat)
2009 - 2008 Returning Championship Finalists (Champion: Kavya Shivashankar - fourth place in 2008)
2010 - 2009 Returning Championship Finalists (Champion: Anamika Veeramani - fifth place in 2009)

My guesses were messed up in 2007, when Kunal Sah, Samir Patel, Jonathan Horton, Tia Thomas, and Matthew Evans, were eliminated. 2006, I expected Kerry Close to win, because she was a five-peat! In 2005, I had no guesses, because that was my first year to watch the Bee.

My 2011 Champion Predictions:

• 2010 Returning Championship Finalists (Laura Newcombe, Julianna Canabal-Rodriguez, and Joanna Ye)
• Four-peats (Rahul Malayappan, Nicholas Rushlow, and Julianna Canabal-Rodriguez)
• Canadians (Laura Newcombe, Veronica Penny, and Graham Abraham)
• Spellers who were close to championship finals (Sukanya Roy*, Julia Denniss, Arvind Mahankali, and Grace Remmer)

*In 2009, Sukanya was eliminated in Round 6, which was one round away from championship finals, but in 2010, she was eliminated in Round 5.

Tomorrow, I will have my notebook ready to spell with you.

Round 1 Words

Excuse the font from yesterday about the Round 1 test. Today is the day! Here are the words used in Round 1:

http://twitpic.com/551pap



If you cannot see the words from words 1-18, here they are:

1. fourteen
2. drowsy
3. wasteland
4. secrecy
5. generate
6. normalize
7. youthquake
8. unswerving
9. remembrance
10. electromagnetic
11. appointee
12. oracular
13. theatricality
14. quietive
15. jiggety
16. infobahn
17. benediction
18. calenture

I have seen all these words before. Calenture was used at the 2007 National Spelling Bee, Kafkaesque is one of my favorite words, so it is in almost all my lists. For you spellers who watched or competed at the 2006 National Spelling Bee, you may remember the 2006 champion, Kerry Close, who correctly spelled hukilau. Thanks to my reading and paying attention in school that I knew all these words. I heard benediction in church before, theatricality was a term used in my theater class, and as I said before, reading is very helpful. It is going to be difficult to knock spellers out tomorrow! I have a strong feeling that a few spellers from Utah have already made it.

I almost expected blouwildebeesoog, bhutatathata, and Bewusstseinslage on that list. Although Bewusstseinslage will remain my favorite word, it was already used on the 2007 Round 1 Test. A lot of these words appeared in the Consolidated Word List, so that would have been very helpful to study.

Thank goodness that the last word I studied last night was pinealectomy! Bonobo was a word in my list called "Words that Remind Me of Something Else". It reminded me of a ride at Lagoon Theme Park called Bombora.

Hopefully the spellers do well tomorrow. It would be hard if all 275 spellers got 25 points on the test, then both words correct tomorrow. Would there be another round? Let's just wait and see. Tomorrow, I have to get up at 5:45 A.M. just to do last minute studying and watch Rounds 2 and 3. I am going to bed at 10:00 tonight!

Good luck and continue to have fun!

Round 1 Test/Busy Schedule

Spellers, it is time to begin the first day of competition tomorrow! Remember, only 50 spellers will advance to semifinals. If you do not advance, remember that being one of the 275 spellers is already amazing! If you do not win, remember that by the end of the week, that only 87 spellers out of millions hopefuls have seen their dream come true.

All 275 spellers take the written 25-word Round One Test during the Assembly, which begins at 8:00 a.m. Spellers sit in assigned seats at tables in the center front section of the Maryland Ballroom and all other individuals sit in unreserved seats on a first-come, first-served basis. 

The pronouncer, Dr. Jacques Bailly, recites the first word, followed by any alternate pronunciations, the part of speech, origin, definition and its use in a sentence. He repeats the word and information, pauses for 30 seconds, then proceeds on to the next word. After the 25 words have been given, Dr. Bailly will recite each word once in order from 1 to 25 with no word information.

Each word is worth one point and all 25 spellings will count toward each speller's Preliminaries score.

Source: http://spellingbee.com/about-bee-week


Guess what spellers from 2002-2007, the written test is back (That is if it is multiple-choice) This is going to be exciting and less painful. If I were going, it would probably be a little more painful for me. I am not used to taking multiple-choice tests, because I do not take many of them at school. A lot of them I've taken would be knowing the answer and using what you know. It would not hurt to try the written test. 


Some of my teachers gave me spelling lists to study for the spelling bee. After the Bee, I will post my spelling bee career autobiography.


Spellers, remember the mnemonic BLT (not Bacon, Lettuce, and Tomato): Breathe, Listen, Think. This is my strategy for taking listening tests. Do not get nervous, or you will have a hard time focusing. Only pay attention to the pronouncer and your work. Do not talk to other spellers while taking the test. Go to the restroom before the test. You will not be able to complete the test if you leave before you are finished. Only leave if it is an EMERGENCY, such as if you are dying, passing out, or if the building is collapsing, which I doubt will happen.


Do I have to have a busy schedule this summer! 


1. Spelling Bee Club Planning
2. Taking Geometry this summer
3. Coaching my sister, cousins, and friends for he spelling bee
4. Swimming
5. Flute Lessons (memorizing a twenty-five minute concerto)
6. Writing my spelling bee stories
7. My spelling bee blog
8.  Cousins coming
9. California (Legoland!)
10. Reading
11. French
12. International Children's Choir Summer Camp with the Drakensberg Boys' Choir at the University of Utah - June 4 (Drakensberg Boys' Choir will also be singing with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir on Music and the Spoken Word - June 5)
13. Piano
14. Camp
15. Lagoon Theme Park (the best theme park in the State of Utah)
16. Olympic Park
17. Las Vegas (I go there every year)
18. Babysitting my sister
19. Trying to write music






I still need helpers for the spelling bee club! spellingchamp135@gmail.com 

B-a-r-b-e-c-u-e!

From what I've heard and seen from spelling bee media, the barbecue was fun! When the Salt Lake Valley Spelling Bee comes again next year, I will ask #251 Vismaya how the Bee was. Since a lot is new this year, everything is new to all of the spellers. If I was there, I would have posted hundreds of photos. Just in case you did not know, I love to take pictures, too!

Find your favorite speller!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgOt_bMc078

I even found someone from Utah in that video! Go U-t-a-h! Since 2009, there have been four spellers from Utah. I have only known the spellers from the Salt Lake Valley (2009-2011). I never went to any other local Bee, but I almost went to the Davis County Spelling Bee. Woods Cross is not far from Sugarhouse. I do not live in Sugarhouse, but I was at a choir rehearsal there.

Good luck on the written test tomorrow. I hope at least one Utahn will make it to semifinals this year. Since 2002, I have seen no Utahn make the cut. Some have been very close, but did not make it. I also hope all the four-peats make it to semifinals, or else, that will really hurt.

Do not get nervous. Breathe, listen, think. BLT.