Haileybury College’s spelling champ Zac Cheng not only knows how to spell ‘indomitable’, but he embodies it.
From the second year back-to-back, Zac took out a national Years 7-8 title in the Prime Minister’s Spelling Bee.
Zac cleared past puzzling words such as ‘translucent’, as well as ‘suffragette’, ‘indomitable’, ‘catarrh’ and ‘aggregate’, to compile a 28/30 score in a whirlwind 1 minute 25 seconds.
That’s an average of less than three seconds a word.
His preparation is to do what he loves – which is reading.
“I don’t do any quizzes because the odds of one of those words coming up in the Spelling Bee is very unlikely.
“I didn’t really get nervous but I always deal with nerves by reading and doing something I enjoy.”
His tip for other competitors is to “read plenty of books in genres that you enjoy so you are more likely to remember the words.”
The two curlers he stumbled on were ‘Burramys’ – a mountain pygmy possum – and ‘cystitis’.
“I was pretty sure I was not going to win after getting 28. I honestly couldn’t believe I won,” he says.
Haileybury students Will (Year 4) and Aariyan (Year 8) were also placed second and fifth respectively.
Zac won an iPad and books and his school received a $1,000 voucher for books, technology or other equipment and resources.
He will join other Spelling Bee winners in travelling to Canberra to meet the Prime Minister later this year.
“I’m looking forward to meeting the Prime Minister again and seeing if maybe he recognises me,” he said.
The Prime Minister’s Spelling Bee attracted close to 60,000 students from across the country.
Competitors were given 30 random words from their reading level word list and up to 25 seconds to spell each word.
