Shrey Parikh, who secured third place in the 2024 Scripps National Spelling Bee, is making a determined push in his final year of eligibility, a stark contrast to his stunning exit from his school bee just last year.
The 14-year-old from Rancho Cucamonga, California, embodies the modern, intensive approach to competitive spelling, employing three coaches, investing in specialized word lists and study guides, and meticulously learning Greek and Latin roots, language patterns, and every potential bee-worthy word. His commitment extends to year-round participation in online competitions against the nation’s elite spellers.
This rigorous strategy, proven effective for past champions, has propelled Shrey into the semifinals, vying for a spot in the coveted finals. However, his method stands in sharp relief against at least one fellow semifinalist who has embraced an “old-school” approach, eschewing external assistance in favor of the dictionary as his sole guide.
Sam Evans, a coach to the last two champions, firmly believes in the latter, particularly for the high-stakes words encountered in the finals. “At the end of finals, most of the words aren’t going to have a really clean-cut language pattern or rule that you can pull from. So I think memorization is really important,” Evans stated. “Sometimes it gets a bad reputation, but you have to do it.”
While a foundational understanding of etymology and linguistic origins is almost indispensable for reaching the finals, some champions have distinguished themselves through extraordinary recall, instantly visualizing words or even reciting dictionary definitions verbatim. Nihar Janga in 2016, Zaila Avant-garde in 2021, and Bruhat Soma in 2024 are prime examples. Sarv Dharavane, a 12-year-old sixth-grader from Dunwoody, Georgia, who finished third in 2025 as a relative unknown, might be the next to join this group.
Sarv’s unique path involves no coaches, no online bees, and a single, comprehensive study resource: Merriam-Webster’s Unabridged dictionary. “The book is my coach,” Sarv declared, explaining that his past success validated his method.
“I didn’t really change anything because my strategy got me far last year, but I did more of what I did before,” he said. “I used to read the dictionary and set aside difficult words to study later. I did it a lot, so I got a lot of words and it was really easy just to go through them. I’ve always been able to remember pretty well, and I can read through long lists without getting tired, so this strategy works pretty well for me.”
Conversely, Dev Shah, the 2023 champion, advocates a more “artistic” approach, as championed by his coach, Scott Remer.
This method emphasizes mastering roots, language patterns, and identifying exceptions, enabling spellers to deduce words they’ve never encountered. Shah acknowledged the impossibility of memorizing the entire dictionary – “No one can,” he asserted – believing that if faced with an unknown word, he could figure it out.
“The skill of guessing is everything,” he wrote in a Washington Post op-ed. He later clarified that the best spellers, including Avant-garde, strike a balance between memorization and mastery, especially for quirky words with obscure origins. Shah added that a conceptual understanding helps under pressure when memory might falter, admitting he finds memorizing vast quantities of words daunting.
Sohum Sukhatankar, a former champion and Shrey’s coach, stresses efficiency. “When you’re at the highest level, you have to be prepared for hundreds of thousands of words,” he explained. “You want to do as little memorization as possible to avoid the chance that you just forget it, so it’s all about efficiency.”
Shrey’s current meticulous preparation is deeply rooted in past setbacks. A year ago, a fever led to him “blanking” on the word “calipers” at his school bee, resulting in a devastating loss.
This experience, coupled with a rushed performance in 2023 where he mispronounced a word, taught him the importance of slowing down at the microphone. He now relies on study guides like Onyma, an AI-assisted platform co-launched by Sukhatankar and Evans, and SpellPundit, a resource favored by many past champions. Despite winning several online bees, Shrey admits these victories can create “more pressure to perform.”
Ultimately, Sam Evans advises spellers to use their study time efficiently, but also acknowledges the fundamental truth: “There’s a common joke among spellers that says everything’s in the dictionary, so it’s all ‘on-list.’ The dictionary is the most basic thing that spellers need to know.”
