This has been very helpful. I hope you don't mind answering a couple more questions:
Did your parents know about your difficulties in spelling, and if so, did they discuss with your teachers how you might improve?
Did you know any people who were really good at spelling, and if so, did you wonder how they were able to be good at it?
To get an idea of the intent of my queries, I'm trying to understand the nature of the highly talented mind – how the talented learn and retain information; how they may have been influenced by early exposure; for things which they don't receive early exposure, do they struggle in similar ways to people who may not be considered talented. In particular I'm interested in how this affects people who pursue careers in the sciences and engineering, when they show promise but do not do as well (academically) as some other students. For example, if you take a look at this CollegeConfidential thread on a struggling student (http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/engineering-majors/577794-mid-term-wake-up-call-freshman-engineering-student.html), you'll see an example of someone who arguably showed promise before getting into a top college, but is now struggling. Arguably, he is taking on too many things, but there are some people I've heard of who can take 7-8 challenging science and/or engineering courses, participate in some extracurriculars, and still maintain high GPAs. These people tend to be sought after by employers and startup investors, whereas others have more difficulty, and are more at risk to layoffs, etc.
The link in the previous paragraph refers to another CC thread on how people learn and process information (http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/engineering-majors/560590-how-do-you-study-how-fast-do-you-process-info.html). The OP is frustrated because he's not doing well; he feels he must understand the underlying principles before he is able to do well in classes, but it's very time consuming. He does not understand how some of the more talented students are able to do well (and the talented students are unable to explain how they are able to do well). In your case, it seems as if you got some useful, early exposure to mathematical principles, etc. that helped you become a successful engineer, but you weren't told some things about spelling that would have enabled you to do it better. But you have not been hurt by lesser spelling ability in the same ways some of these kids are who struggle in college because they don't have stronger backgrounds in math, etc.
no subject
To get an idea of the intent of my queries, I'm trying to understand the nature of the highly talented mind – how the talented learn and retain information; how they may have been influenced by early exposure; for things which they don't receive early exposure, do they struggle in similar ways to people who may not be considered talented. In particular I'm interested in how this affects people who pursue careers in the sciences and engineering, when they show promise but do not do as well (academically) as some other students. For example, if you take a look at this CollegeConfidential thread on a struggling student (http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/engineering-majors/577794-mid-term-wake-up-call-freshman-engineering-student.html), you'll see an example of someone who arguably showed promise before getting into a top college, but is now struggling. Arguably, he is taking on too many things, but there are some people I've heard of who can take 7-8 challenging science and/or engineering courses, participate in some extracurriculars, and still maintain high GPAs. These people tend to be sought after by employers and startup investors, whereas others have more difficulty, and are more at risk to layoffs, etc.
The link in the previous paragraph refers to another CC thread on how people learn and process information (http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/engineering-majors/560590-how-do-you-study-how-fast-do-you-process-info.html). The OP is frustrated because he's not doing well; he feels he must understand the underlying principles before he is able to do well in classes, but it's very time consuming. He does not understand how some of the more talented students are able to do well (and the talented students are unable to explain how they are able to do well). In your case, it seems as if you got some useful, early exposure to mathematical principles, etc. that helped you become a successful engineer, but you weren't told some things about spelling that would have enabled you to do it better. But you have not been hurt by lesser spelling ability in the same ways some of these kids are who struggle in college because they don't have stronger backgrounds in math, etc.