Margarita Wilson, winner of the Postmedia Canspell regional spelling bee, says her next competition will be more intense.

The 12-year-old Grade 7 student from Nor’Wester View Public School won the Postmedia Canspell National Spelling Bee earlier in the month. From that victory, she moved onto the next phase of the competition and will fly to Toronto Wednesday afternoon for the Canspell National Finals.

A top three finish in that spelling bee will move her into the international competition in Washington, D.C.

Margarita and her father, Harold Wilson, plan to spend a few days taking in the sights before the big competition on Sunday, but said she would be cramming for at least two hours before she heads to Toronto.

With 20 regional spelling bee champions expected at the competition, Margarita admits she is a bit nervous.

"I’m under a lot of pressure I can tell you that," Margarita said Tuesday afternoon. "(The pressure) is so much higher at the national levels. Everybody there is a good speller but it’s the pressure that’s going to knock people off. The stakes are higher."

Officials with the competition released a list of about 1,000 words for the competitor to look over. The list organizes the words by name and language of origins. Margarita has gone over the list several times to ensure she knows the words inside and out.

It isn’t enough just to know how to spell each word. The young speller has to make sure that she knows the language of origin of every word, which could mean the difference between a word spelled correctly or her going home.

But whatever happens in Toronto, Margarita has the support of her school and her family behind her.

"This is going to be huge for me," she said. "There was an assembly in my school for me. I was kind of red faced. It’s weird. I don’t know how celebrities do it."

Harold Wilson plans to head to Toronto with his daughter, but the rest of the family won’t be able to arrive until the weekend. He said he is excited for his daughter and hopes she goes far at the competition.

Margarita competed and lost at the regional spelling bee last year. Harold Wilson said her experience at that competition taught her a valuable lesson about staying cool under pressure.

"She calls it spelling in the moment," he said. "It’s about not being overwhelmed. It’s just one word at a time. She knows what she’s doing. She has a very high level of confidence in this. So we’re making sure that that (level of confidence) stays with her."