What Spelling Bee Kids Can Teach Future Lawyers
- Tommy Sangchompuphen
- May 26
- 5 min read
I have always had an appreciation for spelling bees.
Part of that comes from personal experience. Years ago, I competed in a spelling bee, and my run ended on the word pneumatography.
I can still remember standing there on stage trying to work through the spelling and realizing that I had missed it as I was still saying the letters. And at that moment, my spelling bee journey ended.
That memory came back to me because the preliminary rounds of the Scripps National Spelling Bee begin today, bringing together some of the nation’s top young spellers. Watching the national spelling bee is a reminder that success on big stages is rarely about natural ability alone. More often, it's the product of preparation, repetition, and countless hours of practice.
At the time, losing on pneumatography felt disappointing. Looking back now, though, the experience taught me something that still resonates years later in legal education and bar preparation.
Success in a spelling bee isn't about naturally knowing every word in the dictionary. It's built through preparation, repetition, curiosity, and learning from mistakes. The same is true in law school and on the bar exam.
When people watch the Scripps National Spelling Bee, they often marvel at contestants spelling words they have never heard before and assume these students simply know everything. The reality is far less mysterious. They build knowledge one word at a time.
Future lawyers do the same.
Curiosity Matters
Elite spellers don't merely memorize words and their spellings. They often study the origins of words, the languages from which they derive, common patterns, and recurring rules. Understanding that a word has Greek roots, for example, may provide clues that help narrow possible spellings. Their preparation isn't simply rote memorization; it involves understanding relationships and patterns.
Law students benefit from the same approach.
Students sometimes view legal education as an exercise in memorizing rules and elements. While memorization certainly matters, deeper understanding often comes from asking questions. Why does this rule exist? What policy is the rule trying to promote? Why is one doctrine treated differently from another?
Consider Evidence. Students may memorize that statements by an opposing party are excluded from hearsay, but understanding why the rule exists often makes it easier to remember and apply. The same can be said for many bar subjects. Understanding the purpose behind consideration, the rationale for Fourth Amendment protections, or the policies supporting defenses to negligence can transform learning from memorization into comprehension.
Curiosity creates connections. Those connections often improve retention and make the law feel less like isolated rules and more like an interconnected system.
Small Daily Practice Adds Up
No spelling bee champion wakes up one day already knowing thousands of difficult words.
Preparation happens gradually. One study session becomes another. One list of words turns into dozens. Over time, the accumulation of those small efforts creates expertise.
Law school and bar preparation work much the same way.
Students sometimes underestimate the power of consistency because individual study sessions may not feel significant in the moment. Reviewing a single rule, writing one essay, completing twenty multiple-choice questions, or updating an outline may seem minor compared to the enormity of the bar exam.
Yet those small efforts add up.
Many students imagine progress as dramatic breakthroughs or major milestones, but progress is often quieter than that. It happens through repetition and consistency. The student who steadily completes practice questions, reviews explanations, and builds habits over time frequently outperforms the student who relies on occasional marathon study sessions.
Bar preparation is often less about heroic effort and more about sustained effort.
Practice the Performance
Spelling bee competitors don't only study words.
They practice standing at a microphone. They rehearse responding under pressure. They become comfortable performing in front of judges, audiences, and cameras because eventually knowledge has to be demonstrated.
The bar exam requires the same mindset.
Students can spend months reading outlines and watching lectures, but eventually preparation must shift from learning to performance. The exam requires examinees to apply rules under time constraints, analyze facts efficiently, and maintain concentration over long periods.
This is one reason simulated exams matter.
Writing an essay in thirty minutes feels very different from discussing it in class. Completing one multiple-choice question differs significantly from completing one hundred. Full-day practice exams do more than assess knowledge; they build endurance and familiarity with the testing experience itself.
Preparation isn't only learning the material. It's learning how to perform with the material.
Mistakes Are Feedback
I still remember losing on pneumatography.
At the time, it was easy to focus only on the outcome. I missed the word. I was out. Like many setbacks, the immediate reaction was centered on the result rather than the process.
Looking back now, the more important lesson was realizing that mistakes provide information.
Spelling bee competitors don't simply move on from missed words. They often review them carefully. Was there a language origin they overlooked? Did they miss a pattern? Was there a clue hidden in the pronunciation or derivation? The mistake becomes an opportunity to identify what needs attention before the next competition.
Bar preparation should work the same way.
Students sometimes treat missed multiple-choice questions as tally marks: right or wrong, success or failure. But the real value often comes after the answer is revealed. A missed question provides insight into the student’s thinking process.
Did you misread the facts? Did you miss the issue? Did you apply the wrong rule? Did you fall for a distractor? Did you rush because of timing? Did you misunderstand the call of the question?
The answer matters, but so does understanding why the answer was missed.
This is one reason I frequently remind students to spend at least as much time reviewing explanatory answers as they spent answering the questions themselves. The objective isn't simply to complete more questions. It's to learn from them.
Mistakes aren't merely evidence of what students don't know. They're often the clearest roadmap for what to work on next.
Confidence Comes From Preparation
Watch spelling bee competitors closely.
Many appear remarkably calm while standing alone on a stage in front of judges, cameras, and a national audience. To viewers, that confidence can seem effortless.
It isn't.
What appears to be confidence on stage is usually the product of countless unseen hours beforehand. Vocabulary lists. Practice rounds. Missed words. Corrections. More practice. Confidence is built long before the competition begins.
Law school and bar preparation work much the same way.
Students often talk about wanting to “feel ready” or “feel confident” before an exam. The challenge is that confidence rarely appears first. More often, confidence follows preparation.
The student who has written essays under timed conditions usually feels more comfortable on exam day. The student who has completed practice questions and reviewed explanations often approaches multiple-choice sets with greater assurance. The student who has taken full simulated exams is generally less surprised by the physical and mental demands of the testing experience.
Confidence is rarely something students discover at the last minute.
It's built gradually through preparation. And, by the time students walk into the exam room, much of their confidence has already been earned.
I may not have conquered pneumatography, but the experience stayed with me because becoming a lawyer, much like becoming a champion speller, isn't about already knowing everything.
It's about building knowledge gradually through curiosity, repetition, performance, and reflection one rule, one questions, one essay, one study session at a time. And eventually, those small efforts become something much bigger.
