The ACT contains 4 sections English, Math, Reading, and Science. English was the hardest section for me. It was the only section holding me down from achieving my perfect score. 

It was the middle of August, only 3 weeks until school started. I was sitting down at a library in Brooklyn. I was at the Grand Army Plaza Library, and I was up on the 3rd floor, the most silent part of the library. Sitting there with an ACT practice test and my phone as a timer, I have been sitting on the third floor for most of the summer. I had a study schedule that I followed. I would study Monday-Thursday mostly in the English section. I would take a practice test every 2 weeks to see my improvement. Fortunately, I would mostly see improvement every 2 weeks, but sometimes my grade would stay the same.

Everyone was quiet on their laptops or reading a book. The windows were huge and a lot of sunlight was passed through them. It was a great place to study or take a test. I had 45 minutes on the timer for the first Section. There were 75 English questions I had to answer. Most of the questions were grammar questions. I was ready and focused with my pencils sharpened. I was pretending that this was the real test. I was hoping by the end of it I would score a 30/36 on the English section. This was the last whole test I would take before school starts. School starting was the doom of my parade because my time wouldn’t be spent on only ACT studying instead It would be spent on classes as well. Realizing this, I clicked on the “run” button on my timer and started the first section of the English section. 

As I was on the English section, I noticed that the preposition mistakes and the comma mistakes started looking more easier to spot. I usually didn’t finish the english section in 45 minutes. I was always at the 50th or 60th question when the 45 min were over, but this time I finished the 75 questions in 45 minutes. I have been spending most of my time practicing the english sections, maybe 6 hours every 2 weeks. I figured the work was paying off. The other sections were a lot easier than the english section.  3 hours later and I was done with the whole test. I sat there with a smile on my face. I packed my bag and rushed out of the library. I put on my headphones and listened to some daft punk.

 As I was walking to the train station, I thought to myself “I finally finished my test on time. Is my grade going to show huge improvement?”. I thought about the progress in my head. The English section was the hardest section of all of them. When I first started, my grammar was terrible. I did not know what nouns or verbs were, and I used past tense incorrectly. I also noticed as I was learning, I would constantly see my parents using improper grammar, and using past tense and common phrases incorrectly. It is highly likely that my parents have given me those terrible skills while chatting with me in english. 

I began to question my parents’ intelligence, are they dumb people? The question seemed like the right question since they spoke english so badly, but I knew my mother wasn’t a dumb person for using grammar incorrectly because she excelled in many other things. She was incredibly fluent in spanish, really good at math, and was a great problem solver. She just couldn’t communicate properly and when she did it sounded funny. My dad was also a fluent spanish speaker, really good at math, and extremely good at photography. My conclusion was that they both are intelligent and capable of many things. The only thing they weren’t good at was English.

I finally arrived at the train station. It was 7th ave on the F line. I paid for my fare and waited for the next train headed in the direction of Coney Island. I came to a home cooked meal and ate with my family. After the usual table conversations filled with arguments, laughter, and teasing, I finally sat at my desk and pulled out my test from the library. I logged on my computer and searched up the test’s answer sheet. As I was grading my test, I noticed more checks than usual. I graded all the sections and found the full test score. I got a 24/36 which was an improvement but not what I wanted. I wanted to get a 30/36 or at least a 28/36. The goal seemed too far away and I didn’t have much time left. I realized that my improvement was significant from the first score I got which was a 17/36, but it still wasn’t enough. I sat there with a frown on my face angry at the world and angry at myself. I started comparing myself to other people, for example, my friends. I was confused on why my friends were able to get high english grades and I wasn’t, were they born good at English and I wasn’t? Of course not, I remember my thoughts about my parents on the train. I remembered that my friends’ parents were professionals. They are college graduates who had to be good at english. My friends’ parents have probably helped with english since they were little kids. My friends’ parents also paid for tutors so they could be by their side to correct his mistakes. My parents have only graduated highschool and they couldn’t afford a tutor. 

I realized that the ACT test is more advantageous towards people who have money for tutors, and kids whose parents are native english speakers. That test was obviously not in my favor, but I can’t be complaining because it was my choice to study for the test. I also found no reason to complain to my parents since it wasn’t their fault. I realized that once I finished the test I wouldn’t have to take another flawed test like that. I continued to study on my own during school. I took the official ACT test in October and got a 25/36. It was the best score I have ever gotten so I stopped there.