Anxiety, stress and exhaustion are words some may associate with the ACT test. But this year, it didn’t seem so bad. I had expected what the test would feel like, since I had taken some practice ones before and had already had a real one in February, but I must say, this last test seemed to be my best yet.

As I rolled through the English portion, which is the first of the four sections, it reminded me of grade school: The times kids would debate which word sounds better compared to ones that don’t flow as easily. There were times I knew what answer fit best, but sometimes I was stuck. I sat there quietly reciting the sentence aloud between choices A and C. Brought or Brung. I chose brought. Let’s hope I was right. English, for me, seems the most simple, since it’s basically knowing what words fit and what don’t.

Next was Math, which is kind of my forte. I like knowing there’s really only one solution and you have to be the one to solve it. Funny enough for me, I had an ACT fiasco. Earlier that day I had just filled up my obnoxiously huge aluminum water bottle at the water fountain. And since I had extra space in my backpack and I really didn’t want to hold this thing all day long, I decided, stupidly, to set the water bottle in my backpack. And there’s my mistake.

As I strolled into the classroom before all testing had started, I pulled out my calculator and turned it on, just checking before we got started. And here’s where any nerd’s disaster came into play. It was broken. It stalled and didn’t do anything I asked. I came to the conclusion that it had water damage from the stupid condensation of my aluminum water bottle. Thank you, Science. So there I was, about to start one of the most important tests of my life and my calculator had just broken. Wasn’t I lucky?!

So instead of using my awesome graphing calculator that had never failed me before, I was stuck with one of those 5-cent ones that teachers give out, which are as basic as calculators can get. But as math went on, I seemed to fly through it. I scribbled all up and down the sides of the test booklet inputting answers and eliminating others. After, I felt pretty confident about what I had done, even without my handy dandy TI (whatever it is) calculator. But come on, that’s like one of the worst things that can happen for testing, other than throwing up or something.

After was Reading, which is not my best because I can never focus. There’s always someone blowing their nose or another who is scribbling away with their obnoxious pencil. I got through it, cutting my time pretty close though. I had spent too much time focusing on one of the reading sections that was about dog training or something. At least I aced that part of the reading.

Then was the oh-so dreaded Science portion, but I was ready to conquer this section. Using my ACT-prep class strategies, I managed to understand this part of the test much more easily than I had done in the past. Before, my head would go crazy trying to know what the heck the graphs were saying and what meant what. But this time, I was calm and I finished confident with my answers.

Lastly, was Writing. I was just ready to be done with this test, so I pushed through this part, writing away any ideas I had on the given topic. This part was probably my worst part of the test since I never really focused on studying for writing, but I finished it and was happy with my work.

And finally I was finished. I walked out of the room happy with how I felt about the test. My brain wasn’t fried, my hand wasn’t cramped and I wasn’t dying from exhaustion. I was pretty normal. Now, I’m not saying I’m expecting a 36 on this thing or anything, but I definitely know I did a lot better than my previous test just based on how confident I feel about it. It’s not that scary. But I do have some advice for you all: Don’t put your water bottle in the same section as your calculator. Nothing good can come out of that.