OK, so I’m wallowing in the past tonight.
These were mine:
In 5th grade I misspelled nickel.
In 6th grade I misspelled shepherd.
In 7th grade I misspelled parallel. Intentionally. I just didn’t want the pressures of winning the bee and going to the next level of competition.
In the 5th grade, in the school spelling bee, I missed ‘janitress’. I got second place in that one, and since number one was unable to go to the county spelling bee (I forget why), I got to go. That was where I got screwed.
Missed ‘laceration’. I spelled it ‘elaceration’. Why? The woman giving us the words pronounced it that way. I knew the word ‘laceration’, and I thought maybe that’s what she was trying to say, but I asked her to repeat the word, and this time she put an even bigger emphasis on that non-existent first syllable. I figured it must be some variation of laceration, gave my best shot, and missed it. After that I knew how to spell each and every word given, I could have gone on to state, and I was the youngest kid in the bee.
Choose the correct spelling.
[list=1]
[li]annoint / anoint[/li][li]coolly / cooly[/li][li]supersede / supercede[/li][li]irresistible / irresistable[/li][li]developement / development[/li][li]alright / all right[/li][li]seperate / separate[/li][li]tyranny / tyrrany[/li][li]harrass / harass[/li][li]desiccate / dessicate[/li][li]indispensable / indispensible[/li][li]recieve / receive[/li][li]pursue / persue[/li][li]reccomend / recommend[/li][li]desperate / desparate[/li][li]liquify / liquefy[/li][li]seize / sieze[/li][li]cemetary / cemetery[/li][li]subpoena / subpena[/li][li]definately / definitely[/li][li]ocassion / occasion[/li][li]consensus / concensus[/li][li]inadvertant / inadvertent[/li][li]minuscule / miniscule[/li][li]judgment / judgement[/li][li]inoculate / innoculate[/li][li]drunkenness / drunkeness[/li][li]occurence / occurrence[/li][li]dissipate / disippate[/li][li]weird / wierd[/li][li]alot / a lot[/li][li]accomodate / accommodate[/li][li]embarrassment / embarassment[/li][li]ecstacy / ecstasy[/li][li]repetition / repitition[/li][li]battalion / batallion[/li][li]despair / dispair[/li][li]irritable / irritible[/li][li]accidently / accidentally[/li][li]liaison / liason[/li][li]memento / momento[/li][li]brocolli / broccoli[/li][li]millennium / millenium[/li][li]yeild / yield[/li][li]existence / existance[/li][li]independent / independant[/li][li]sacreligious / sacrilegious[/li][li]insistent / insistant[/li][li]excede / exceed[/li][li]privilege / priviledge[/li][/list=1]
Ok - pencils down...
Results??
Don't ask me, I can't spell any of these words.
:confused:[sub]but at least one of the two is correctly spelled[/sub]As it happens, the one spelling bee I remember, I won.
4th grade: I missed ‘ferry.’ If I could have wrapped my brain around the concept I would have gotten it…but I was panicked and couldn’t get ‘fairy’ out of my mind.
8th grade: ‘apropos.’ Didn’t know it had a final “s.” Hell, in 8th grade I hadn’t even HEARD the word before.
After that they gave up on me.
I actually went to the National Spelling Bee in Washington, DC when I was in the 8th grade. I misspelled “arsenide”, which is an arsenic-metal compound (good thing I didn’t grow up and become a chemist, I guess). I came in 36th out of 151 contestants, but it was still heart-breaking, especially since the winning word was “luge”. Luge, for pete’s sake! I mean, come on! Everybody knows how to spell that!
Not that I’m still bitter or anything…
I was constantly disqualified in spelling bees. Not because I was a particularly bad speller, but I always forgot to say the word before and after I spelled it.
For example:
“Now, Chuck, spell ‘martyrdom’”
“m-a-r-t-y-r-d-o-m”
“Sorry, that’s wrong.”
I finally said, screw it and stopped bothering.
Third grade. The one and only spelling bee that I competed in. I’m nervous and can’t stand still. There are about 15 of us standing in front of the school on the stage. I’m up. OK, here we go.
“Please spell: ghost.”
(Ghost, ghost. Well I think you spell it g-h-o-s-t, but that can’t be right. How do you spell toast? T-o-a-s-t. Yeah, that sounds better.)
“G-o-a-s-t”
“That’s incorrect. Thank you. You can sit down.”
Walk back through the gym to sit with my class. Promptly tell all my friends that I missed it on purpose. Haven’t attempted to spell ghost out loud since then.
“Ostracize,” in 8th grade. Oh, how poetic… a dorky 8th grader prone to being beaten up and picked on misspelling “ostracize.”
In a 3rd grade classroom bee, I misspelled “clean” as “cleen.” Stephanie McGrath, my supposed best friend at the time, later called my house and revealed my shame to my mother. B-i-t-c-h.
7th grade: arithmetic.
8th grade: argillaceous.
I maintain to this day that I said “e” and not “a” in arithmetic, but it wasn’t worth battling over. As to the latter word, well–hell, I don’t even know that I’ve spelled it right here, and I’m not going to look it up to find out what the hell it meant. 
LL
5th Grade: I spelled obedient “obediant.”
I find it most appropo that I missed on that particular word…it’s not one that really applies to me. (“Love, honor, and obey” is coming out of the wedding vows!)
I’;ll try the quiz:
1 anoint
2 coolly
3 supersede
4 irresistable
5 development
6 all right
7 separate
8 tyranny
9 harass
10 desiccate
11 indispensable
12 receive
13 pursue
14 recommend
15 desperate
16 liquefy
17 seize
18 cemetery
19 subpoena
20 definitely
21 occasion
22 consensus
23 inadvertent
24 miniscule
25 judgement
26 innoculate
27 drunkenness
28 occurrence
29 dissipate
30 weird
31 a lot
32 accommodate
33 embarrassment
34 ecstacy
35 repetition
36 battalion
37 despair
38 irritable
39 accidentally
40 liaison
41 memento
42 broccoli
43 millennium
44 yield
45 existence
46 independent
47 sacreligious
48 insistent
49 exceed
50 privilege
headshok, no kidding! I went to the Scripps-Howard National Spelling Bee when I was in eighth grade, too. I missed the word “refocillate.” I came in 36th out of 252? or something like that.
I’m actually not bitter. That was one of the best weeks of my life.
I came in third in the county spelling bee. I missed “ensilage.” It was most annoying because I KNEW what “Silage” was and had ensilage been pronounced like it, I would’ve nailed it. But the pronounciation threw me and I had no idea it was related. I thought it was “ensolage.”
Never forgot that word since.
None at my school.
However, I didn’t make it past the written test in the county level, and really didn’t care.
Sixth grade, I missed ‘papyrus’ in the city spelling bee.
Won the school because I was the only person to get ‘cemetery’ right.
Nice that I can remember that, but forgot to bring a lunch to work and have no idea where I parked my car this morning.
Lowell
“Potato”
5th grade, Florida State spelling bee, third round.
The kid before me messed up on “kilometer”. I figured no sweat, this’ll be cake.
My word?
Intellectualization.
Yes, a 19 letter word for a 5th grader. Assholes :o)
Liaison. I still see this wor mis-spelled in a lot of Navy correspondence.
My problem word is “receive.” I think I know how it’s spelled, but I never trust myself. I check it nearly every time I type it. If you drop my AH dictionary on the deck, nine times out of ten it’ll open to 1087 rebellion/receive.
I misspelled rigorous in the fifth (I think), because I never heard the word before in my life and assumed vigorous was actually being said. I asked for a sentence, and got something like “The exercise program was rigorous.” So I spelled vigorous instead. It was the upper-state bee, and not only was I the first person to mess up, I was the second person to even go. It was really embarrassing.
Did you guys have geography bees? I did one of those in sixth and seventh grade and fared a little better.