Q&A: Scripps co-champion Christopher Serrao, Lehigh Valley spelling bee ace, on how to win

What does it take to become a historic octa-champ of the Scripps National Spelling Bee?About 20 hours of studying a week, according to Christopher Serrao, of Whitehouse Station in Hunterdon County, New Jersey.The 13-year-old three-time champion of the Discover Lehigh Valley Regional Spelling Bee was one of eight winners on the national stage on Thursday ― an unprecedented conclusion to a nail-biter competition in which all eight finalists out-spelled the dictionary. Each speller was given a $50,000 cash prize.Following a night of minimal sleep and amid a heavy schedule of media interviews, Serrao spoke with The Morning Call by phone Friday morning. The responses have been edited for clarity.Q: So you won and broke the Scripps National Spelling Bee. How do you feel?A: Very happy. It feels very surreal because I don’t think anything like this has ever happened in history.Q: Did you do anything to celebrate?A: Not really. I went right to bed because it ended really late. Today’s been a really big schedule.Q: Can you remember when you first started thinking about competing in spelling bees?A: I first started in fourth grade. My sister [Danielle] won her [Discover Lehigh Valley] regional spelling bee in eighth grade, when I was in fourth grade. I didn’t make it far that year, but I got a feel for what it was. In fifth grade, I made it to the national stage.Q: What is your study strategy? A: As far as a strategy … language patterns are invaluable because they help you decode a word you don’t know. Rote memorization helps with the exceptions.Q: How many hours a day do you study?A: It depends how many activities I have going on, but on weekdays, usually 2 to 3 hours. On weekend days, again it depends, but 4 to 5 hours. I do all kinds of things ― I look into books, onto the computer.Q: Does it come easily to you?A: I was pretty good at spelling beforehand, but that was mostly basic words. When you build an entire foundation of words, then other words fit together in giant families. For example, if you have telegram, and then roentgenogram is similar. I try to see when looking at multiple words how they’re related.Christopher Serrao, of Hunterdon County, New Jersey, won the Discover Lehigh Valley Regional Spelling Bee for the third year in a row this March. He advanced to the Scripps National Spelling Bee, where he won, along with 7 other champions. (Contributed Photo/Discover Lehigh Valley/)Q: Are there words that notoriously trip you up?A: Yeah, there’s a lot. Sometimes I’ve got a word many times right, and then haven’t reviewed in a while and forget. And then there’s ones that you just can’t seem to master. Like Kondratieff.Q: What is that?A: It’s a type of business cycle.Q: At this point you’ve been in many competitions ― do you get nervous?A: Most of the time on stage I’m really, really nervous. When I get my word I’m usually calmer. If I don’t know it, I’m still pretty positive I can decode it. I’m just grateful to God ― he makes me feel calm.Q: This is your third time at the Scripps and each time you got better, advancing to the final round last year and becoming a champion this year. Did you tweak your training at all, or was it just a matter of getting more practice competing?A: I think my first year I would just try to learn words and memorize them. But then I read the book “Words of Wisdom” by Scott Remer. He explains how to decode words and figure them out. Also, I have some other people helping me: tutors, a previous champion, Dhyana Mishra; Scott also helped me.Q: Does your family help you study?A: My mom quizzes me a lot. My dad looks for words in the newspaper. My sister helped me understand diacritics ― writing symbols and pronunciations. You can still miss the words if you don’t know to how to pronounce them.Q: What do you want to do when you grow up?A: I’ve thought about it some, but it hasn’t been one fixed thing. Maybe environmental science, but before that, I was thinking all different kinds of things.Q: Will you compete anywhere again?A: For most of the other spelling bees, if you won Scripps, you can’t participate. But as I see a spelling bee, I would see if I could participate, because it’s really enjoyable.Q: What do you enjoy about it, the learning or the competing?A: Both. The competing part teaches you a lot of life lessons, like how to stay calm. It gives you a chance to show what you have learned. Learning ― it’s fun to explore a topic. I know from spelling, it’s not as much what you see on the surface. Everything has its own big network of ideas. Spelling on the surface is just writing down a word, but I didn’t know all the language patterns and relationships beneath.
Source: Morningcall