MADISON, Wis. -- A Madison eighth grader is preparing herself for a return visit to the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Isabel Jacobson, who attends O'Keefe Middle School, will leave for Washington D.C. on Sunday. She participated in last year's event and placed tied for 14th among more than 250 participants.

"Today a guy asked me how to spell 'blah blah blah,'" said Jacobson about the number of requests she gets from kids at school to spell random things.

Her title run last year ended short when she misspelled "symminct." I totally didn't know it, guessed and spelled it starting with "ci," Jacobson said.

Slowly, the Madison student is becoming known for spelling skills. Shortly after her return from last year's competition, she was approached by University of Wisconsin-Madison teacher Jeff Kirsch to see if she was interested in having a teacher to work with on spelling. Jacobson jumped at the idea.

Jacobson and Kirsch have developed a program to better prepare for the competition. She studies from a consolidated list of past spelling bee words as well as words from different languages.

"They like to repeat words, so it's all the words they've used before," said Jacobson of her studying routine.

She said the goal this year is to use last year as a learning experience to win the nationally televised event.

"I'm going to try as hard as I can," Jacobson added.

This is Jacobson's last year of eligibility for the competition. She will be a freshman at Madison East High School next year.

The Jacobson family said it is excited for another crack at the title but family members said they are keeping things in perspective.

"Knowing how to spell is good, but there is spell check," Jacobson joked about the sport.

Round 1 of the competition begins Wednesday. The finals air live on ESPN. Jacobson is one of 286 spellers in the competition -- the highest number in the history of the event.