The night of Dec. 10, I turned in early. I studied an ACT tip book that I had borrowed from a friend, glancing over the main sections one last time. I retired to bed at about 10 p.m., which never happens.

The morning of the 11th, I was up, awake, ready to go. I ate breakfast, which rarely happens. I even put little encouraging sticky notes on my mirror so I could have the right attitude while I took the ACT.

Naively, I thought it worked. I actually believed that I did better this time around than on my highest-scoring test, which I had first taken on a muggy June day after my sophomore year. I had a terrible attitude and basically hated everything during the four hours I spent taking the test. And yet, I got the same score on these two completely different occasions.

Unfortunately, this score was not high enough for me to qualify for an all-tuition scholarship to Oklahoma Baptist University, where I intend to enroll next fall. I missed it by one point.

Don’t they say if you put your mind to it, you can achieve anything? According to this theory, I fail to understand how I managed to get the same score in these polar states of mind. I suppose this theory may be inaccurate. Break the news to your overly optimistic teachers gently.