Raksheet Kota, speller 200, is in his first year at the Bee. And he made it to the Finals.
“I’m feeling pretty excited,” he said. “I like spelling because you can get lucky. I’ve been lucky so far.”
Raksheet also likes math – he likes solving problems.
“When you spell a word you don’t know, it feels really good,” he said.
With his twin sister, he started a math and science club. He also participates in Science Olympiad and the math team. Earlier this year, he won a gold medal at the Science Olympiad competition.
He misspelled oedemerid, a soft-bodied elongate beetle that is usually strikingly colored and whose larvae feed on decaying wood.