Queens Boy, 13, Wins Scripps Spelling Bee With ‘Knaidel’

[Vikrant]

The fourth trip to the Scripps National Spelling Bee was the charm for Arvind V. Mahankali, 13, from Bayside, Queens.

...

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/31/n...s-scripps-spelling-bee-with-knaidel.html?_r=0

 

[Noomi]

I would fail dismally if I ever attended one of those, lol.

 

[Vikrant]

[MENTION=38085]Noomi[/MENTION]

Me too. I wonder how these kids can remember to spell those words that I have never heard of.

 

[Noomi]

I am a terrible speller, always having to check google to ensure a word is spelled right before I make a post!

 

[Vikrant]

^ Oh boy. We are so alike.

 

[MHunterB]

So he could spell it - but can he cook it?

More importantly, who would settle for just one???? Either way, the fellow deserves a hearty 'Mazel Tov!'

Knaidlach (Matzoh Balls) Recipe - CHOW

 

[Lipush]

Yum yum!

 

[editec]

A boy from Queens win with the word knaidel?

Oy!

One cannot help but wonder if a kid from the US heartland might not have been quite so familiar with such a word.

How unfortunate that a kid from Queens won the title on that particularly ethnic word.

 

[Vikrant]

Yummy!

 

[eots]

A boy from Queens win with the word knaidel?

Oy!

One cannot help but wonder if a kid from the US heartland might not have been quite so familiar with such a word.

How unfortunate that a kid from Queens won the title on that particularly ethnic word.

Indeed..

 

[waltky]

Tie again for the 3rd straight year...

National Spelling Bee ends in tie for 3rd straight year
Friday 27th May, 2016 - The words were tougher. The final rounds lasted longer. The result was the same.

The Scripps National Spelling Bee ended in a tie for the third consecutive year Thursday night, with Jairam Hathwar and Nihar Janga declared co-champions after a roller-coaster finish. Thirteen-year-old Jairam is the younger brother of the 2014 co-champion, Sriram Hathwar. Nihar, at age 11, is the youngest winner of the bee on record. "I'm just speechless. I can't say anything," Nihar said as he hoisted the trophy. "I mean, I'm only in fifth grade!" Scripps made the bee tougher after two consecutive ties, forcing the last two spellers to get through three times as many words as in years past. Jairam misspelled two words, but both times, Nihar followed up with a miss and the bee continued. Sriram also got a word wrong during his bee, but his eventual co-champion, Ansun Sujoe, also followed up with a miss. Each will receive a trophy and $45,000 in cash and prizes.

The Scripps National Spelling Bee ended in a tie for the third consecutive year Thursday night, May 26, 2016, with Jairam Hathwar and Nihar Janga declared co-champions after a roller-coaster finish​

In another change, bee organizers didn't stick to a predetermined list of 25 "championship words" for the last two or three spellers. No one will know whether the bee had harder words in reserve, but former spellers said Jairam and Nihar nailed the toughest words in recent memory. "It was insane," Jairam said. Because the best spellers become fluent in Latin and Greek roots, the bee went to words derived from trickier or more obscure languages, including Afrikaans, Danish, Irish Gaelic, Maori and Mayan. Jairam's winning word was Feldenkrais, which is derived from a trademark and means a system of body movements intended to ease tension. Niram won with gesellschaft, which means a mechanistic type of social relationship.

Among the words they got right: Kjeldahl, Hohenzollern, juamave, groenedael, zindiq and euchologion. At his best, Nihar wowed the crowd by shouting out definitions immediately after the words were announced. He looked unbeatable. But given two chances to hold the trophy by himself, he stumbled. The two boys have become close friends over the past year, but Nihar said he didn't misspell on purpose. He just didn't know the words. Snehaa Kumar of Folsom, California, finished third, and Sylvie Lamontagne of Lakewood, Colorado, was fourth. Both are 13-year-old eighth-graders, meaning this year was their last chance.

National Spelling Bee ends in tie for 3rd straight year

 

[Vikrant]

Wow! This thread was started almost 3 years ago.

 

[waltky]

Yea...

... dey still holdin' dem spellin' bees...

... woulda thought dey woulda strung dem words together...

... an wrote a book by now.

 

[TheOldSchool]

 

[320 Years of History]

Arvind V. Mahankali illustrates the value of hard work and perseverance. Kudos to him. Would that most people in our country practiced and displayed comparable levels of tenacity and unrelenting commitment to setting and achieving substantive goals and rising above mediocrity, many of the ills we today decry either would not exist or being extant, have but the import of a gnat to a knave.

Off Topic:
Out of curiosity, I looked at Arvind's school's website enumeration of requirements. I was surprised to discover how so-so the standards are for students to qualify for placement on the Honor Roll. In other folks' here experience, is what is shown below typical in public middle schools?

Honor Roll

• 85% minimum overall average
• No failing grade in any subject
• No conduct grade below "S"
• Minimum of 75% in all subjects
• SP and G&T students must meet all requirements for class
• No grade less than Satisfactory in class that meet less than 3 times a week.
• No more than 10% lateness to school for a marking period (4 latenesses)

I was surprised to see the standards are what they are not because I think an overall 85% performance rate in middle school is bad, for it's definitely not, but rather because I know that performance level isn't high enough to provide a reasonable basis for one, students, to handily distinguish themselves in high school, and later upon applying to and attending college, have the process feel like and be much other than a "crap shoot." Even for kids who aim to attend a trade school or to enlist in the military, the foundation they'll build in middle school -- study habits, focus, attention to detail, along with learning basic facts, figures and processes -- are a huge boon later when high achievement truly matters.

Be that as it may, what is even more disconcerting has nothing to do with the school itself, but rather with New York's overall quality measures for school performance. To understand what I mean, take a look at Nathaniel Hawthorne's NYC Progress Report. For some strange reason, what qualifies as first rate progress/performance for school children, 90%+, is far higher than what the state equates to "A-level" progress for itself. (See top middle section of the report.) Am I the only person here who find the disparity puzzling? To NHMS' credit, it seems to generally surpasses the minimum expectations NY sets. (Links to detailed performance information for NHMS are here.)