Stanley-Boyd eighth grader Mason Vait is going to state—for the spelling bee.
Competing at the CESA 10 Regional Spelling Bee Monday Feb. 12, Vait outperformed over 42 other spellers to take third for the contest, held at the CESA 10 Conference Center in Chippewa Falls.
The recent regional win is a repeat performance of sorts, with Vait taking fourth at last year’s CESA 10 Spelling Bee. The now State Spelling Bee contender took time out recently to share more on the spelling bee and qualifying for state competition at Madison.
“I had to take a spelling test to qualify for the school one, Vait said. “You get a piece of paper numbered 1 to 10.” From this test, 40 kids qualify to participate in the school spelling bee.
The top three from each school then advance to compete in their CESA regional. The top five from each CESA regional qualify for state.
Come the regional competition, things took a step up. With words like enumerated, insolent, attrition, equivocate, fugue, doldrums, legato, and surrealist, the final three spots determined in rounds. To win third, Vait correctly spelled fugue,” a word from Italian meaning “flight.”
He got out at the Regional, meanwhile, on chemise,” a word of Spanish origin meaning meaning an “evergreen shrub.”
To study for the contest each speller is given a 4,000 word packet to memorize, meaning that efficient study is important. Vait shared more on his method for efficient word acquisition.
“I just go through the packet and mark the ones I don’t know,” he said. Then making a video of himself saying the word,” with practice helping make perfect on spelling. “If not I go back and do it again,” Vait said.
With Regionals now over, the State Spelling Bee is on March 16 at Madison College at 1 p.m. on the Truax Campus.
As for study plans, Vait plans to continue what he did for regional competition.
“Just do the same method,” he said of study plans. “It works pretty well.”
