Spelling and math competition

           We had spelling and math competitions through my grade school years. I did ok as a general rule, but I never won a competition as an individual. When we would compete as a team we won some and lost some. There were some girls in my classes who were simply too good at spelling for me to ever win.

            I consistently made an A in spelling. This was not because I was a great speller but I was great at short term memorization. The teacher would give us 20 to 30 spelling words for the next day and I would memorize them in short order. The next day I could spell them all. One week later it would have been a different story if I had ever been tested on those same words.

            I would have most likely won some math competition but for one boy who was in my class who was a whiz at math. He was not good in other subjects and he spoke with a stutter, but he could make the chalk fly when he was at the board doing math problems. 

The way we did math competition was to chose two people to begin at the board with chalk and an eraser the teacher would give the problem and let them write it on the board. Then she would say begin. The student who got through first with the correct answer would win and the next student in line would come to the board and the process would repeat itself. When all the students had been to the board, whoever was the person who won the last problem was the winner. I don’t remember if the math whiz won all the time. He most likely did not. I don’t remember me ever winning. Although, I was most likely in the top 25 percent of my class.