What makes a good speller (or a bad one)? [ Tue, 31 May 2016 13:47:27 EDT ]By the time he was 6 or 7 years old, Sameer Mishra was a pretty confident speller. His memory was sharp, he liked to read, and he actually enjoyed the weekly tests at school. While his parents drilled his older sister, a National Spelling Bee competitor, he'd angle for his own list of words.