- Get'cha official program here, including a FAQ on page 10 ("Dr. Bailly mispronounced the word. What can be done?" A: He didn't mispronounce the word.)
- Map of the spellers
- The AP checks in with Nupur Lala
- Tara Singh, 8, this year's youngest competitor (by twenty-six months)
- Alex Cameron's prayer for spellers
- Merriam-Websters' Peter Sokolowski talks with NPR about the history of spelling bees, and the 1913 NYT article he references is here.
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
WHO'S UP FOR SOME BOUILLABAISSE WITH ROUILLE? Early afternoon bullet points:
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The speller from my hometown (Amarillo, Texas) attends my former middle school. Sonia Chen is, therefore, my sentimental favorite. (Plus, her bio picture is absolutely adorable.)
ReplyDeleteThe map corresponds roughly with population density. From my experience though, the actual difficulty of winning a sponsor-level bee depends mostly on the top few students you happen to be competing against from around the area. If you know more relevant words and language patterns than them, you'll have a good shot at earning a trip to nationals one year or another.
ReplyDeleteThe Preliminaries Test was over this morning, but while the results are still unknown, here are my top 20 predictions:
1. Vanya Shivashankar
2. Arvind Mahankali
3. Sriram Hathwar
4. Grace Remmer
5. Emily Keaton
6. Chetan Reddy
7. Rachael Cundey
8. Pranav Sivakumar
9. Vismaya Kharkar
10. Gokul Venkatachalam
11. Max Lee
12. Christal Schermeister
13. Christian Allen
14. Amber Born
15. Mary Horton
16. Jae Canetti
17. Anuk Dayaprema
18. Ashwin Veeramani
19. Joseph Delamerced
20. Aditya Mishra
I'd speculate that many will make the semifinals, and some into the finals, but I have no idea who will become the eventual champion. The field seems more even than most recent years, really anything could happen.
The role of luck to get to primetime is also reduced somewhat. This year, two-thirds of the threshold points from both the prelims and semis (48 out of 72) are computerized test words that are the exact same for everyone. Misspelling in an oral round is still an outright elimination though. My advice to my students remains just the same as before though - don't be afraid of the lights and cameras, just keep calm and focus on the word.
I'm a fan of local kids Donovan Rolle (D.C. - he was so poised and calm when he did the D.C. Bee) and Jae Canetti (Fairfax).
ReplyDelete"What happens if the Bee runs out of words?
ReplyDeleteThat’s
not a significant concern of Bee officials, as the list contains enough
words for us to conduct spelling through dawn on Friday morning."