The Voting Rights Act Of 1965 - 1549 Words

The United States is a country anchored on the principle of inclusivity and mutual respect. The country has a dark past characterized with instances of racial profiling and discrimination which culminated into civil unrests realized in the mid-20th century. Moving forward, the country adopted strategic frameworks that were to guide towards a new era devoid of discrimination. The aspect of political participation was one fundamental instrument that was subsequently integrated into the American social dynamics. The enactment of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 sought to empower the minority groups to participate in the electoral processes, and to eliminate the barriers that existed in the political landscape. Some of the achievements of the act†¦show more content†¦Section 5 highlights that any changes in the state electoral laws, which are deemed to have the potential to disenfranchise the minority groups must first be approved by the federal agencies including the US attorney g eneral and the US District Court for D.C. In addition, the section defines the need for the states with a significant population of minority groups to develop bilingual ballot papers to ensure that the voters make informed decisions when taking part in the electoral process. On the other hand, section 4 of the act highlights the need to adopt special coverage formulas to integrate the minority groups in the entire electoral process. In many instances, the act requires that such special coverage formulas to be cleared by the federal agencies before they can be applied. The fundamental goal of the preclearance provision is to prevent discrimination against certain groups of voters who may be deemed to antagonize the general position of their local political trends. However, this provision has since been deemed unconstitutional in the Shelby County v. Holder Case of 2013 (Fuller, 2014). Despite the perceived unconstitutionality of the two sections of the act, and the attempts to review the act to eliminate the clauses, analyses of the political dynamics indicate that the two sections are still relevant in American politics. Justifications for the Need for Sections 4 and 5 The first factor which makes the sections necessary is that theyShow MoreRelatedThe Voting Rights Act Of 19651575 Words   |  7 Pagesthe Voting Rights Act initially enacted in 1965. There are two sections of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that are of particular concern in most cases, sections 4 and 5. Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act requires certain states, districts, and localities to obtain federal preclearance before making any changes or alterations to their election laws or practices (Overby). Section 4 specifies a formula for determining whether a geographical area is subject to section 5 (Overby). When the Voting RightsRead MoreVoting Rights Act of 1965766 Words   |  4 Pagesresearch topic is the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and I chose this topic because I always found it amusing that it took so long for African Americans to legally be allowed to vote. I also thought this topic was appropriate since we now have an African American president, and the African Americans ci tizens need to know that voting I important because we didn’t always have that right. II. Statement of research question, hypothesis Topic: Voting Rights Act of 1965 Issue: ImportanceRead MoreThe Voting Rights Act Of 19652148 Words   |  9 PagesVoting has been a fundamental right, and has changed over the past one hundred years to allow not only women but minorities to vote. However, in Texas there have been arguments about the revision of Section five of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Not only has Texas politicians accepted the new Voting Rights act, but the legislation itself has also been accused of redistricting parts of the state to aid voter turn out to the party in power. With the ever growing minority population, legislative actionRead MoreThe Voting Rights Act Of 19652010 Words   |  9 PagesThe Constitution gave each state the right to determine its own voting laws (May 50). This privilege has been amended to ensure that minorities, and other groups who would be otherwise left out of the voting process, are not prevented from voting in federal and state elections. The most prominent piece of legislation ensuring equal tr eatment of all citizens at the voting booth is the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Amended many times since its initial adoption, the Act is generally considered the most successfulRead MoreThe Voting Rights Act Of 19651288 Words   |  6 Pagesoccurred during the year 1965; these changes positively impacted the minority community. During this year, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act and the Immigration and Nationality Act Amendments. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 helped enforce the 15th Amendment and prohibited racial discrimination in voting. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 abolished quotas based on nationality and allowed Americans to sponsor relatives from their countries of origin. The Voting Rights Act and the ImmigrationRead MoreThe Voting Rights Act Of 1965947 Words   |  4 PagesThe Supreme Court rulings led to a number of acts which helped the civil rights movement attain its goals. The first example is the Voting Rights Act of 1965. On January 23rd, 1964, th e 24th amendment stopped the poll tax, which initially had been introduced in eleven southern states after reconstruction to make it difficult for poor blacks to vote. On August 10th, 1965, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act, making it easier for Southern blacks to register to vote. Anything that could limit theRead MoreThe Voting Rights Act Of 1965925 Words   |  4 Pagesdisenfranchisement. As it stands right now most states have restrictions on felons and voting. Florida, for example, requires you to wait 5 years before a convicted felon can apply for clemency to vote (ProCon.org). Out of all the states, there are only 2 states that have no restrictions, and allow convicted felons to vote absentee ballots from within prison (ProCon.org). Compared to other modern societies, the United States â€Å"features the harshest restrictions on offender voting rights† (Sigler). ConvictedRead MoreThe Voting Rights Act Of 1965862 Words   |  4 Pagesdecided to gut the Voting Rig hts Act of 1965 in Shelby County v. Holder by deciding Section 4(b) of the Voting Rights Act is unconstitutional. The Voting Rights Act was meant to prevent historically discriminatory states from passing discriminatory voting laws. The purpose was to end racial discrimination in voting. Section 4(b) lays out the formula for which these states are selected. Basically, if the state had a history of restricting votes through tests or other means, their voting laws would be subjectRead MoreThe Voting Rights Act Of 19651456 Words   |  6 Pagesdiscriminated against their voting rights. They have not only been unrepresented in the number of candidates running for positions but also the number of voters who are registered and participate in elections. After the Voting Rights Act of 1965, it was prohibited for voters to be racially discriminated against. But since then, many revisions have been added, tightening the rules for registering and participating in voting. Many of these rules p revent minorities from voting but aren’t considered raciallyRead MoreThe Voting Rights Act of 1965 Essays1217 Words   |  5 Pagesbe caused by pieces of paper. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was a law passed that primarily gave African Americans the right to vote without having to take any sort of literacy tests. African Americans were widely ignored in voting rights because they were forced to take literacy tests to be eligible to vote. Having this event in our nation’s civil rights movement was a landmark that allowed the other half of our nation’s voice to be heard. â€Å"The Voting Rights Act itself has been called the single

Review of The Odyssey by Homer Free Essays

Throughout history, women have been expected to behave a certain way in order to uphold some kind of ideal image. The woman is expected to be a virtuous and upright person, forever loyal and subservient to her husband. However while history adheres to this common image of the woman, a very different mold is shaped for the man. We will write a custom essay sample on Review of The Odyssey by Homer or any similar topic only for you Order Now This establishes a double standard between the two genders. The dictionary defines the term ‘double standard’ as a â€Å"system, code, or criterion applied unequally; specifically a code of behavior that is stricter for women than for men, especially in matters of sex† (Agnes et al. 29). This phrase defines women’s history, as women are constantly viewed under different guidelines and principles than their male counterparts. Written by Homer, the epic poem entitled The Odyssey epitomizes the idea of the double standard in Ancient Greek society. It revolves around the subject of promiscuous behavior in the sexual sense, as males engaged in the behavior while females were expected to abstain from it. The idea of sexual promiscuity in The Odyssey creates an unfair double standard between its male and female characters. The difference of accepted sexual behavior between gods and goddesses is exemplified in an angry speech given to the gods by the goddess Calypso. When Hermes informs her that the prisoner Odysseus must return home, Calypso becomes frustrated. Oh you vile gods, in jealousy supernal! You hate it when we choose to lie with men – immortal flesh by some dear mortal side†¦ Then Demeter of the tasseled tresses yielded to Iasion, mingling and making love in a furrow three times plowed; but Zeus found out and killed him with a white-hot thunderbolt (Homer 5. 24). In this passage, Calypso points out the fact that the male gods can engage in promiscuous behavior. However when the goddesses try to involve themselves in the same activities, they face persecution by their counterparts. The gods disapprove so much that they resort to murder as a type of negative reinforcement, discouraging the goddesses from such sexual acts. Calypso’s ability to refer to specific past instances of this behavior proves that the tendency to place women under different guidelines than men exists. The fact that Calypso could cite more than one occurrence of the double standard shows that the goddesses were not allowed to engage in such activity, and that this was at the fault of their male counterparts, who were allowed to participate in such sexual looseness. In this speech she outwardly scrutinizes the norms of society, deeming them as hypocritical. This difference in standard concerning sexual promiscuity is present in the highest class of Greek culture, the gods, which is proof enough of its prevalence. The Odyssey highlights this idea further by projecting the ideas onto not just immortal beings, but mortal beings as well. Odysseus is a prime example. Although he claims loyalty to his wife Penelope, Odysseus does not hesitate to submit to the Greek goddess’ desire for him. Calypso did nothing to conceal her longing for Odysseus when she held him captive on her island. Stranded, Odysseus spent many years with the Greek goddess and â€Å"he lay with her each night, for she compelled him† (Homer 5. 163). Despite the fact that Calypso required him to sleep with her on a regular basis, nothing in the text indicates that Odysseus literally did just that. An analysis of the circumstances surrounding this situation suggests otherwise. Calypso, a forever young and beautiful goddess, wants to have sexual relations with Odysseus. Although he is a married man, he is still a man by nature. No one can deny the universal fact that men have an inherent need for sex. The text remains ambiguous towards the situation, which in itself alludes to the notion that he did indeed have intercourse with Calypso, despite the fact that Penelope awaited his return. On the other hand, nothing in the text indicated that Penelope was at all sexually promiscuous during the time apart from her husband, suggesting that she remained faithful. Another example of sexually promiscuous behavior can be found in Book Ten, when Odysseus and his crew happen upon the island of the goddess Circe, who turns the crew into pigs. She and Odysseus reach a compromise in which he consented â€Å"[to enter] Circe’s flawless bed of love† (Homer 10. 390). The pact seems almost trivial to Odysseus, since the text inputs nothing to indicate any feelings of guilt over betraying Penelope, who back in Ithaca remained faithful to him by continually snubbing her suitors. This situation shows the different expectations of men and women regarding their sexual behavior. In both incidences, Odysseus seems hypocritical due to the fact that his actions do not coincide with his claim to remain loyal to his wife. Through him, The Odyssey projects the idea of promiscuity as an acceptable act for only the male characters of the epic tale. In The Odyssey, women were discouraged by society to become sexual promiscuous while men were allowed to indulge their sexual impulses. Homer’s projection of this theme to both immortal and mortal beings makes it apparent that it was a societal norm. As with many aspects of Greek culture, this too has also been adapted into modern day society. President Bill Clinton did not receive nearly as much criticism for his affair with Monica Lewinsky as Britney Spears did for her activities following her breakup with Justin Timberlake. Disapproval fell upon Spears despite the fact that there was no substantial proof of sexual promiscuity on her part, and while Clinton’s was quite apparent, he did not receive the same amount of backlash. The double standard regarding sexual promiscuity is a subject that has lasted from Ancient Greece, documented in The Odyssey, up until the present date, documented in today’s popular culture. How to cite Review of The Odyssey by Homer, Papers

Social Media Technology in Business Free-Samples for Students

Question: Discuss about the Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Social Networks in Business. Answer: The aim of the following paper is to pursue a literature review on the topic of the advantages and disadvantages of the utilization of social media and networks in business. The present paper would critically review a good extent of literatures related to the considered topic and thereafter would make critical evaluation of the contents presented in them. For accomplishing the aforementioned aim, the paper would identify the similarities as well as the dissimilarities between them and thereafter would attempt to synthesize the contents. It is significant to mention in the initial section that in the contemporary era of digitalization, social media and networks dominate the field of marketing in business organization. It can be said that the social media plays the role of a modern tool to address or approach the target market. As stated by Leonardi et al. (2013), over last few years social media and network has transformed from being a digitalized channel that is used for socializing from other media to a potential marketing tool or medium for operating business operations like marketing and increasing brand awareness. Prior to understand the advantages and disadvantages of the use of social media in business, it is essential to mention that according to Okazaki and Taylor (2013), social media is related with peoples interest in being connected with other people and information. Moreover, social media and networks have become a preferred place for the audience of the contemporary society for discussing about issues and collecting opinions regarding brands, products. As per Trainor et al. (2014), most of the people find social media a resourceful premise to get aware about a particular business organization prior to become their customers and it is one of the chief causes because of which organizations use social media networks in order to advance their business. The utilization of social media has fundamentally changed the way of interaction between business organizations and their customers (Trainor et al. 2014). Based on Laroche et al. (2013), at the initial stage, the use of social media in business has been considered as an innovative approach to business though gradually social media turned out to be a necessity for the business organization. According to the historical perspective of the utilization of social media in business organizations started with three different paths. First is the use of public sites like Twitter, G-talk and Face book, second has been individual private implementation of proprietary software through an organizations own server or through acquired cloud-based system (Tsimonis and Dimitriadis 2014). The third path has been the in-house proprietary solutions, which are created in form of prototypes for commercial offerings by software vendors. In the contemporary world of business, social media has become an essential medium for varied operations like customer service, public relations, brand recognition, brand awareness and most importantly marketing. However, as contradicted by Vinerean et al. (2013), besides making business operations smoother and more attractive, the utilization of social media in business is time intensive, difficult in time quantifying return on investment and its dynamic nature. The aforementioned statement is justified because social media is an interactive tool and therefore in order to accomplish business success through social media, it is required to establish long-term relationship with the external environment. Therefore, tasks like continuous monitoring, sharing information and responding to the enquiries are some of the essential responsibilities related with it (Kasemsap 2014). Henceforth, for smoothly making use of social networking in business, every business organization requires to hav e an individual or a group of individual for accomplishing all the aforementioned activities. Nevertheless, in the words of Badea (2014), it is true that the use of social media marketing is time intensive though there is no better way than social media to accelerate brand recognition. According to Badea (2014), it cannot be ignored that the application of social media in business is one of the most convenient ways for creating brand awareness as well as to stay in touch with the clients. Most significantly, a business enterprise can successfully share organizational news, business-related photos and can advertise any product that is going to be launched recently using social media. It has been identified that none of the considered article writers have contradicted the fact that the biggest advantage of using social media is its power of immediacy (Ooms et al. 2015). More precisely, with the help of social media business organizations can avail responses instantly from potential target market or other external stakeholders. Therefore, it is indicative of the fact that with t he utilization of social media, an organization can effortlessly determine whether the target market or other significant external stakeholders prefer their service or products, which have been advertised through social media and networks (Harrigan et al. 2015). Therefore, it can be said that two the biggest responsibilities that the social media can accomplish for an organization are market research as well as market study. According to Harrigan et al. (2015), the utilization of social media should be increased based on the reason that it helps to save a huge amount of cost of physical marketing. It is justifiable based on the reason that marketing become virtual through social media and networking and most of the familiar social media networking sites are nowadays free to access. Therefore, with the use of social media networking, marketing becomes a cost-saving operation where marketers do not need to invest cash or employ a huge extent of human force for promoting a business. On the other side, it has been argued by Kasemsap (2014), with the application of social media marketing business organizations bear chances of receiving negative feedbacks from external stakeholders and also chance of being hacked by malware, brand hijacking as well as viruses. Moreover, marketing through social media is often accused of being intrusive. As identified from most of the considered literary accounts related to the topic, most of the time, sharing information on social networking site proved to be unsafe. It is a considerable fact that with the use of social media or network for marketing or other business purpose, risks in the field of privacy increases (Kasemsap 2014). It has been also understood that the emergence of the confidentiality controversy and offensive reaction have become frequent in the organizational practice or application of shaping advertisements and campaigns on product or service launch and about any service related information. In such case, in place of getting brand recognition and a profit-based marketing, an organization earns bad reputation, which sometimes leads to huge financial loss (Tsimonis and Dimitriadis 2014). On the other side, it has been agreed in almost each of the reviewed articles that the use of social media and networking are helpful for flexibly pursuing as well as managing communication among the employees and internal stakeholders. Specifically, with the use of online social media like Face book, Twitter and electronic mails and other online messaging applications, it has become easy for management as well as for an organizational authority to inform employees on any kind of organizational decision and policy (Okazaki and Taylor 2013). Therefore, it can be said that with the help of social media and social networking business organizations can save time from organizing meeting and workshops in physical level. According Ooms et al. (2015), nowadays more than pursuing communication with the target market and other external stakeholders, business organization employ social media for accomplishing the purpose of internal communication. As per Vinerean et al. (2013), unlike the use of social media for external communication, for the purpose of internal communication, most of the organizations do not use varied media platforms as they prefer to integrate an unique social media platform that contain numerous functions. For example, business organizations nowadays design customized individual online portals for both managers and employees along with creating individual websites. Through this, organizations share information related to organization and do social tagging. One of the most commonly used social media and networking platform is emails through which in the contemporary business sector, workers as well as management get aware of any upcoming meeting, policy or authorial decision (Tsimonis and Dimitriadis 2014). Thus, following social medias contribution in the internal organizational premise, it can be said that social media and networking assist an organization to make visible communicative activities. In the context of identifying the distinct advantages of using social media in business organization, it is to require mentioning that in recent times most of the multinational companies like to use social media for enabling employees access to the knowledge experts inside an organization. It is an important aspect of every organizational culture to provide employees easy access for acquiring significant knowledge as well as information regarding the work field. For example, multinational and IT giant IBM prefers to maintain an impressive extent of social media aspects for integrating one large social media platform for pursuing a flexible internal organizational communication (Vinerea et al. 2013). It has been identified that the organization has built a blogging community for the internal stakeholders as well as blog central. On the other hand, organizations like Microsoft maintain an internal blogging community that is activated through the organizations own intranet platform. How ever, in terms of disadvantages of the process included in the installation and integration of social media platform is the chance of getting prohibited for not to undermine the brokerage position (Vinerea et al. 2013). Besides, the aforementioned disadvantage, it has been also identified that excess utilization of social media for bringing ease to internal communication is considered as a potential source of creating a low stakes environment. Moreover, with frequent use of social media for facilitating flexible internal communication, the organizational boundaries between private communication and work-related communication gets blurred (Harrigan et al. 2015). Consequently, in an organization, the impact of personal similarities upon work communication increases. Most significantly, in terms of disadvantage, use of social media for enabling internal organizational communication can encourage the aspect of strategic self-presentation to avoid being tracked and quantified. Additionally, the excessive use of social media for enabling easy internal communication may compel employees to refrain from the communication in social platform (Ooms et al. 2015). Henceforth, various time social media and networ k is called as a leaky pipe for business enterprises. However, as contradicted by Leonardi et al. (2013), social media is also considered to be an aspect enacting echo chamber in business organization. It is because, internet as one of the most convenient element of social media platform possesses the ability to link an individual with other. Internet is one of those user-friendly elements of social media that connect people and help them to express individual views regarding a particular subject. In organization, with the help of internet, internal blogging premise is created through which employees share varied information related to organizational culture. The particular procedure helps the new joiners in getting accustomed with the organizational culture as well as to cultivate the sense of belonging within the workplace (Okazaki and Taylor 2013). Therefore, it can be determined that the use of social in business organization is act as social lubricants that fruitfully help an organization to advance social capital within the workpl ace. At the same time, it should be also considered that organizational application of social media and networking helps to stimulate any kind of development of the disingenuous relationships in workplace (Traino et al. 2014). Therefore, the above discourse it can be interpreted that in the contemporary world of digitalization, the use of social media in business organizations do carry both advantages and disadvantages. The above paper is indicative of the fact that in terms of advantages, social media and networking helps in pursuing the activity of brand recognition, marketing and flexible communication with the external stakeholders. On the other hand, for the purpose of internal communication, use of social media proves most convenient. However, in terms of disadvantages, use of social media in business brings the chances of privacy breech and at the same time social media can earn bad reputation for an organization as well. References Badea, M. 2014. Social media and organizational communication.Procedia-social and behavioral sciences,149, 70-75. Kasemsap, K. 2014. The role of social networking in global business environments.Impact of emerging digital technologies on leadership in global business, 183-201. Laroche, M., Habibi, M. R., and Richard, M. O. 2013. To be or not to be in social media: How brand loyalty is affected by social media?.International Journal of Information Management,33(1), 76-82. Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., and Steinfield, C. 2013. Enterprise social media: Definition, history, and prospects for the study of social technologies in organizations.Journal of Computer?Mediated Communication,19(1), 1-19. Okazaki, S., and Taylor, C. R. 2013. Social media and international advertising: theoretical challenges and future directions.International marketing review,30(1), 56-71. Ooms, W., Bell, J., and Kok, R. A. 2015. Use of social media in inbound open innovation: Building capabilities for absorptive capacity.Creativity and Innovation Management,24(1), 136-150. Harrigan, P., Soutar, G., Choudhury, M. M., and Lowe, M. 2015. Modelling CRM in a social media age.Australasian Marketing Journal (AMJ),23(1), 27-37. Trainor, K. J., Andzulis, J. M., Rapp, A., and Agnihotri, R. 2014. Social media technology usage and customer relationship performance: A capabilities-based examination of social CRM.Journal of Business Research,67(6), 1201-1208. Tsimonis, G., and Dimitriadis, S. 2014. Brand strategies in social media.Marketing Intelligence and Planning,32(3), 328-344. Vinerean, S., Cetina, I., Dumitrescu, L., and Tichindelean, M. 2013. The effects of social media marketing on online consumer behavior.International Journal of Business and Management,8(14), 66.

The Madina Collection Of Islamic Art At The Lacma Essay Example For Students

The Madina Collection Of Islamic Art At The Lacma Essay The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) announced recently that it had acquired the remarkable Madina Collection of Islamic art. The collection contains works of various media dating from the late 7th through 19th centuries from the vast areas that comprise the Islamic world, from Southern Spain to Central Asia (Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2005). While the museum already had quite an extensive collection of Islamic art, this particular exhibit truly adds the collections as a whole. The Madina Collection of Islamic Art The first item to be examined is a bowl from the 14th century, from either Egypt or Syria (Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2005). It is ceramic, fritware and is underglazed-painted (Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2005). It is 10 and   inches in diameter. The design is very symmetrical and incredibly colorful in its green and cream along with black lines. Without knowing what the design symbolizes one could imagine that it is very much an Islamic design, and appears to be religious or spiritual in content. There is a Mandela presence to the design, with very strong lines and striking elements. We will write a custom essay on The Madina Collection Of Islamic Art At The Lacma specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now The next piece to be examined is cup from the 13th century, from Greater Iran. This cup is Silver, gilded, chased and punched and measures 3 7/8 x 4 5/8 in. (9.84 x 11.75 cm) (Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2005). It is a relatively simple cup, almost seemingly like a cup with very little, if any, base. It is very rounded and almost appears as though it is to be only held, and never set down. There is a design around the rim of the cup. The design is a repetitive design and appears to be an almost universal type design that could be attributed to any culture. It is something of a floral, or leaf design and looks to be gold rather than silver as is the rest of the cup. It is a very balanced and beautifully simple piece. There is a finial from the 14th century Northern Iran, perhaps from Mazanderan (Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2005). This piece is intricately carved from wood and possesses traces of paint (Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2005). It measures 14 inches tall and 6 inches in diameter at its widest point. It is wide at its base and tapers off, not completely to a point, at the top. It is a very solid as well as very patterned piece of art, or architecture. Like the previous items discussed or examined, it seems to have a very symmetrical feel to it, as there is not necessarily a picture to be seen, but a repetitive element that is seen throughout the piece, or all around the piece in this case. The carving appears to be open carving in that there are holes in the finial where there is no wood as part of the carved out design. The last piece to be discussed or examined is the base of a candlestand. This piece from Syria or Egypt during the 13th century and is made from bass, with inlaid silver and gold (Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2005). It measures 2 3/8 x 5 1/4 in. this piece appears to have three sides along with three feet. Though not all sides are shown online, it can be assumed that all three sides are the same, especially considering how the previous works discussed seem to present a repetitive pattern. The side seen shows intricate details of three birds flying through design elements, around a circular centerpiece. The three legs are somewhat scrolled, and the entire piece is very flowing and organic in design, yet also possesses a somewhat sharp geometrical position in its triangular shape. .ud3678adef3b1a85bf3e64fe12d813012 , .ud3678adef3b1a85bf3e64fe12d813012 .postImageUrl , .ud3678adef3b1a85bf3e64fe12d813012 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .ud3678adef3b1a85bf3e64fe12d813012 , .ud3678adef3b1a85bf3e64fe12d813012:hover , .ud3678adef3b1a85bf3e64fe12d813012:visited , .ud3678adef3b1a85bf3e64fe12d813012:active { border:0!important; } .ud3678adef3b1a85bf3e64fe12d813012 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .ud3678adef3b1a85bf3e64fe12d813012 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .ud3678adef3b1a85bf3e64fe12d813012:active , .ud3678adef3b1a85bf3e64fe12d813012:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .ud3678adef3b1a85bf3e64fe12d813012 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .ud3678adef3b1a85bf3e64fe12d813012 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .ud3678adef3b1a85bf3e64fe12d813012 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .ud3678adef3b1a85bf3e64fe12d813012 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .ud3678adef3b1a85bf3e64fe12d813012:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .ud3678adef3b1a85bf3e64fe12d813012 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .ud3678adef3b1a85bf3e64fe12d813012 .ud3678adef3b1a85bf3e64fe12d813012-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .ud3678adef3b1a85bf3e64fe12d813012:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Rap As Art EssayThe pieces presented and examined come from the 13th or 14th century and are all pieces that are on display in the museum. Some of the pieces presented in the museums website about the exhibit are not currently on exhibit and those chosen for discussion were partly chosen because they are for the public to view at present. The information presented on these items is presented only as suggestive to assist the student with the further development of their own analysis of this, or another, exhibit in California.

Objectives of Project Management

Objectives of Project Management The objectives of project management can be summarized as the end results that are to be achieved from a project. What must be understood is that, from a literal perspective, the term objectives can be defined as the driving force which pushes an individual or group towards a set of defined goals.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Objectives of Project Management specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Taking this particular definition into consideration, objectives in project management can thus be defined as a series of goals by which a project manager or a project team will attempt to reach via their work strategies or strategic positioning resulting in the advancement of their agenda (Street Daniels, 2010). Another way of looking at project management objectives is to see it from a perspective where a set of particular results need to be accomplished by the project manager or team. This can come in the form of increasing the level of productivity in assembly lines through the use of Six Sigma processes or new technologies which increase the efficiency and effectiveness of an assembly line. Other examples of project management objectives come in the of figuring out new and innovative ways of decreasing the cost of labor through the use of outsourcing, implementing new methods of environmental and work safety compliance as well as reducing a companys overhead through the use of new resource strategies (Street Daniels, 2010). Based on these examples it can be seen that objectives in project management can be described as the end result brought about from the completion of a project. It must be noted though that objectives are not immovable sets of goals that need to be followed exactly, rather the unique aspect of project management objectives lies in the fact that they can be modified depending on the end goals of a particular project and the various influences and changes that occurs within a busin ess environment. One example of this can be seen in the project management objective of developing a new chicken based product that will sell well within the targeted demographics in the companys various restaurants. If there are issues related to the availability of local and international suppliers regarding the necessary chicken parts then the project management objectives will subsequently adjust due to the provided information and attempt to modify itself to proceed in another direction (Andersen, 2010). What must be understood is that businesses do not operate within a vacuum wherein decisions on specific operations within a particular project dont undergo eventual changes due to market forces. As markets and the factors that influence them change so too do the objectives that drive a specific project. Failure to properly adjust a project’s objectives can lead to disastrous consequences for a company due to possible ramifications in terms of time and resources lost in s upporting an objective that didnt take into consideration changing market events (Andersen, 2010). One example of this can be seen in Microsofts ill fated attempt at penetrating g into the music player industry with their new product the Zoon.Advertising Looking for essay on project management? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More This particular device was meant as a response to Apples growing dominance of the portable music player industry yet as evidenced by the failure of the Zoon it was obvious that Microsoft didnt take into consideration the sheer amount of market influence already possessed by Apple which would make almost any attempt at penetrating the same market an utter and complete disaster. Other companies ranging from Hp to Dell have had similar experiences with a host of other experimental products and as such can be considered evidence of the necessity of adjusting project management objectives based on an examination of outside information and changing as necessary. Why is it so essential in developing information systems? Information systems can be described as the interface between people, organizations and technology enabling the business to accomplish a specific task or action (Willcocks Whitley, 2009). One example of an information system are the various applications and websites utilized by Amazon in selling products, accepting client payments through credit card processing applications, contacting their warehouses and shipping bought products to the correct addresses indicated by their consumers. While this is only a one example of the plethora of information systems out there what must be understood is that information systems act as methods of integration for a company helping to streamline specific processes so that they can be controlled, influenced and improved when necessary (Willcocks Whitley, 2009). Developing proper information systems is an essential aspect for a company for without it a company will be unable to properly deal with the buying, selling and the utilization of resources across various locations in the country. Due to the varied and often complicated nature of company operations it becomes a necessity to streamline and integrate product delivery processes, methods of operation, customer service and various other operational capacities. A company cannot just simply develop and market a product without taking into consideration how best to allocate specific resources in determining where a product needs to go, which branch needs it most, how will product returns be processed and how HR services will deal with salaries for the myriad employees within a company. A company requires an efficient and up-to-date information system in order to integrate the factors mentioned into an efficient and effective operational strategy so as to better serve its clients. The larger a company get the more hectic and haphazard its operations tend to become, especially in instances where its operations are located in different countries (Saunders, 2007).Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Objectives of Project Management specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Organizations need to understand how to properly allocate resources to specific international locations, how suppliers can be contacted, what are the limits of production on a daily basis and how will each branch location contact each other (Saunders, 2007). In other words information systems can be classified as solutions to identified problems or necessary methods of integration. What must be understood is that while managers and CEOs are great at coming up with specific solutions to problems they are lost when it comes to implementing these particular solutions when they require computer programming as one of the factors behind the implementation. Information systems and information system specialists bridge thi s gap by being able to integrate the ideas of managers and CEOs into viable technological applications that can be implemented on a company wide basis (Al-Abdul-Gader, 1999). For example, if a company is currently having problems with its archaic method of form based ordering in order to get products from the warehouse to consumers a manager or CEO would think to implement a faster and better means of getting orders to warehouses without having to rely on someone physically going there and handing them the orders. They would of course think to apply a computer based system for this particular solution and this is where information systems come in. An information system in this particular situation becomes an applied solution where it is developed in order to help a company resolve a particular problem. On the other hand if the company was to expand and have a more diverse array of products and factories further development of the initial information systems becomes necessary in orde r to adapt to the growing needs of the company. It is based on this that it can be seen that information systems act as a necessary method of process integration which enables a company to do its job better and as such it is essential to have it within a company. Reference List Al-Abdul-Gader, A. H. (1999). Managing Computer Based Information Systems inDeveloping Countries : A Cultural Perspective. IGI Global. Andersen, E. (2010). Are we getting any better? Comparing project management in the years 2000 and 2008. Project Management Journal, 41(4), 4-16.Advertising Looking for essay on project management? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Saunders, C. (2007). Information Systems in Developing Countries. MIS Quarterly,  31(2), iii-vi. Street, J. N., Daniels, R. L. (2010). Reducing Risk of Unacceptable Project Performance: A Demonstration Case Analysis. Cost Engineering, 52(12), 10-19. Willcocks, L., Whitley, E. A. (2009). Developing the Information and Knowledge Agenda in Information Systems: Insights From Philosophy. Information Society,  25(3), 190-197.

How to Get 800 on SAT Reading 11 Strategies by a Perfect Scorer

How to Get 800 on SAT Reading Strategies by a Perfect Scorer SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Are you scoring in the 600-750 range on SAT Reading + Writing? Do you want to raise that score as high as possible - to a perfect 800? Getting to a perfect SAT Reading test score isn't easy. It'll require perfection. But with hard work and my strategies below, you'll be able to do it. I've consistently scored 800 on Reading on my real SATs, and I know what it takes. Follow my advice, and you'll get a perfect score - or get very close. Brief note: This article is suited for advanced students already scoring a 600 on SAT Reading or above (this equates to a Reading Test Score of 30+ out of 40 on the New SAT). If you're below this range, my "How to Improve your SAT Reading Score to a 600" article is more appropriate for you. Follow the SAT Reading tips in that article, then come back to this one when you've reached a 600. Also, the New 2016 SAT now has a single 800 Reading + Writing score, combining the individual Reading and Writing test scores. Technically, when I mention a perfect Reading test score, I'm referring to a perfect 40/40 test score, which is essential to getting an 800 Reading and Writing score. In this guide, I'll use800 and 40 interchangeably to mean a perfect Reading score. We won't talk about Writing here, but if you want to improve your Writing score too, check out my Perfect SAT Writing score guide. Overview Most guides on the internet on how to score an 800 are pretty low quality. They're often written by people who never scored an 800 themselves. You can tell because their advice is usually vague and not very pragmatic. It's not enough to be reminded of simple Reading tips like "don't forget to guess on every question!" In contrast, I've written what I believe to be the best guide on getting an 800 available anywhere. I have confidence that these strategies work because I used them myself to score 800 on SAT Reading consistently. They've also worked for thousands of my students at PrepScholar. In this article, I'm going to discuss why scoring an 800 is a good idea, what it takes to score an 800, and then go into the key SAT Critical Reading strategies so you know how to get a perfectSAT Reading score. Stick with me - as an advanced student, you probably already know that scoring high is good. But it's important to know why an 800 Reading and Writing score is useful, since this will fuel your motivation to get a high score. This guide has been updated for the New 2016 SAT, so you can be sure my advice works for the test you're about to take. Final note: in this guide, I talk mainly about getting to an 800. But if your goal is a 700, these strategies still equally apply. Understand the Stakes: Why an 800 SAT Reading + Writing? Let's make something clear: a 1550+ on an SAT is equivalent to a perfect 1600. No top college is going to give you more credit for a 1590than a 1550. You've already crossed their score threshold, and whether you get in now depends on the rest of your application. So if you're already scoring a 1550, don't waste your time studying trying to get a 1600.You're already set for the top colleges, and it's time to work on the rest of your application. But if you're scoring a 1540 or below AND you want to go to a top 10 college, it's worth your time to push your score up to a 1550 or above. There's a big difference between a 1450and a 1550, largely because it's easier to get a 1450(and a lot more applicants do) and a lot harder to get a 1550. A 1540places you right around average at Harvard and Princeton, and being average is bad in terms of Ivy League-level admissions, since the admissions rate is typically below 10%. So why get an 800 on SAT Reading+Writing? Because it helps you compensate for weaknesses in other sections. By and large, schools consider your composite score more sothan your individual section scores. If you can get a perfect 40 in SAT Reading, you can get a 39 in SAT Writing (for a total of 790 in Reading + Writing) and a 760 in SAT Math and still be confident about your test scores. This gives you a lot more flexibility. Harvard's 75th percentile Reading score is 800. There's another scenario where an 800 in SAT Reading is really important. If you're planning to apply as a humanities or social science major (like English, political science, communications) to a top school. Here's the reason: college admissions is all about comparisons between applicants. The school wants to admit the best, and you're competing with other people in the same "bucket" as you. By applying as a humanities/social science major, you're competing against other humanities/social science folks: people for whom SAT Reading is easy. Really easy. Here are a few examples from schools. For Harvard, Princeton, Yale, and U Chicago, the 75th percentile SAT Reading score is an 800. That means at least 25% of all students at these schools have an 800 in SAT Reading. But if you can work your way to an 800, you show that you're at an equal level (at least on this metric). Even if it takes you a ton of work, all that matters is the score you achieve at the end. I'll be honest - SAT Reading wasn't my strong suit in high school. When I started studying, I was scoring around the 700 range. I was always stronger in math and science. But I learned the tricks of the test, and I developed the strategies below to raise my score to an 800. Now I'm sharing them with you. Know That You Can Do It This isn't just some fuzzy feel-good message you see on the back of a Starbucks cup. I mean, literally, you and every other reasonably intelligent student can score a perfectSAT Reading score. The reason most people don't is they don't try hard enough or they don't study the right way. Even if language isn't your strongest suit, or you got a B+ in AP English, you're capable of this. Because I know that more than anything else, your SAT score is a reflection ofhow hard you work and how smartly you study. SAT Reading is Designed to Trick You. You Need to Learn How Here's why: the SAT is a weird test. When you take it, don't you get the sense that the questions are nothing like what you've seen in school? I bet you've had this problem: in SAT Reading passages, you often miss questions because of an 'unlucky guess.' You'll try to eliminate a few answer choices, and the remaining answer choices will all sound equally good to you. Well, you throw up your hands and randomly guess. This was one of the major issues for myself when I was studying SAT Reading, and I know it affects thousands of my students at PrepScholar. The SAT is purposely designed this way to confuse you. Literally millions of other students have the exact same problem you do. And the SAT knows this. Normally in your school's English class, the teacher tells you that all interpretations of the text are valid. You can write an essay about anything you want, and English teachers aren't (usually) allowed to tell you that your opinion is wrong. This is because they can get in trouble for telling you what to think, especially for complex issues like slavery or poverty. But the SAT has an entirely different problem. It's a national test, which means it needs a level playing field for all students around the country. It needs a solid test to compare students with each other. Every question needs a single, unambiguously, 100% correct answer. There's only ever one correct answer. Find a way to eliminate three incorrect answers. Imagine if this weren't the case. Imagine that each reading answer had two answer choices that might each be plausibly correct. When the scores came out, every single student who got the question wrong would complain to the College Board about the test being wrong. If this were true, the College Board would then have to invalidate the question, which weakens the power of the test. The College Board wants to avoid this nightmare scenario. Therefore, every single Reading passage question has only one, single correct answer. But the SAT disguises this fact. It asks questions like: The author would most likely agree with which of the following statements? The first paragraph primarily serves to: In line 20, 'dark' most nearly means: Notice a pattern here? The SAT always disguises the fact that there's always one unambiguous answer. It tries to MAKE you waver between two or three answer choices that are most likely. And then you guess randomly. And then you get it wrong. You can bet that students fall for this. Millions of times every year. Students who don't prepare for the SAT in the right way don't appreciate this. BUT if you prepare for the SAT in the right way, you'll learn the tricks the SAT plays on you. And you'll raise your score. The SAT Reading section is full of patterns like these. To improve your score, you just need to: Learn the types of questions that the SAT tests, like the one above Learn strategies to solve these questions, using skills you already know Practice on a lot of questions so you learn from your mistakes The point is that you can learn these skills, even if you don't consider yourself a good reader or a great English student.I'll go into more detail about exactly how to do this. One last point: let's make sure we understand how many questions we can miss to score an 800. What It Takes to Get a Perfect 40 in Reading If we have a target score in mind, it helps to understand what you need to get that score on the actual test. There are 52 questions in the Reading section, and how many questions you miss determines your scaled score out of 40. From the Official SAT Practice Tests, I've taken the raw score to scaled score conversion tables from 4 tests.(If you could use a refresher on how the SAT is scored and how raw scores are calculated, read this.) Raw Score Test 1 Test 2 Test 3 Test 4 52 40 40 40 40 51 40 39 40 39 50 39 38 39 39 49 38 37 38 38 48 38 37 38 37 47 37 36 37 36 46 37 35 36 35 45 36 35 36 35 These grading scales are harsh. For tests 2 and 4, if you miss just ONE question, you get dropped down to a 39. This means your maximum Reading + Writing score is a 790. For tests 1 and 3, if you miss one question, you're still at a perfect 40, but miss another and you drop down to a 39. The scoring chart curvedepends on the difficulty of the test. The harder the test, the easier the curve. But you can't predict what kind of test you're going to get on test day. The safest thing to do is to aim for perfection. On every practice test, you need to aim for a perfect raw score for an 800. Whatever you're scoring now, take note of the difference you need to get to a 800. For example, if you're scoring a 35 raw score, you need to answer six to seven more questions right to get to a perfect 40 and an 800. As a final example, here's a screenshot from my exact score report from March 2014, showing that I missed one question and earned an 800. (This was from the previous 2400 version of the SAT, but it had a similar grading scale). OK - so we've covered why scoring a higher Reading score is important, why you specifically are capable of improving your score, and the raw score you need to get to your target. Now we'll get into the meat of the article: actionable strategies and reading tips that you should use in your own studying to maximize your score improvement. Strategies to Get aPerfectSAT Reading Score What's your greatest weakness? Strategy 1: Understand Your High Level Weakness - Time Management or Passage Strategy? Every student has different flaws in SAT Reading. Some people don't have good strategies for tackling the passage questions. Others don't manage their time correctly and run out of time before getting through all the questions. Here's how you can figure out which one applies more to you: Find an official SAT practice test, and take only the Reading section. We have the complete list of free practice tests here. For each section, use a timer and have it count down the 65 minutes for the Reading section. Treat it like a real test. If time runs out for that section and you're 100% ready to move on, then move on. If you're not ready to move on, keep on working for as long as you need. For every new answer or answer that you change, mark it with a special note as "Extra Time." When you're ready, grade your test using the answer key and score chart, but we want two scores: 1) The Realistic score you got under normal timing conditions, 2) The Extra Time score. This is why you marked the questions you answered or changed during Extra Time. Get what we're doing here? By marking which questions you did under Extra Time, we can figure out what score you got if you were given all the time you needed. This will help us figure out where your weaknesses lie. If you didn't take any extra time, then your Extra Time score is the same as your Realistic score. Here's a flowchart to help you figure this out: Was your Extra Time score a 35or above? If NO (Extra Time score 35), then you have strategy and content weaknesses. All the extra time in the world couldn't get you above a 35, so your first angle of attack will be to find your weaknesses and attack them (We'll cover this later). If YES (Extra Time score 35), then: Was your Realistic score a 35 or above? If NO (Extra Time score 35, Realistic 35), then that means you have a difference between your Extra Time score and your Realistic score. If this difference is more than 3points, then you have some big problems with time management. We need to figure out why this is. Are you using the best passage reading strategy for you? Does it take you too much time to get the answer for each question? Generally, doing a lot of practice questions and learning the most efficient passage strategies will help reduce your time. More on this later. If YES (both Extra Time and Realistic scores 35), then you have a really good shot at getting an 800. Compare your Extra Time and Realistic score - if they differed by more than 2 points, then you would benefit from learning how to solve questions more quickly. If not, then you likely can benefit from shoring up on your last content weaknesses and avoiding careless mistakes (more on this strategy later). Hopefully that makes sense. Typically I see that students have both timing and content issues, but you might find that one is much more dominant for you than the other. For example, if you can get a40with extra time, but score a 35 in regular time, you know exactly that you need to work on time management to get a 40. This type of analysis is so important that it's a central part of my prep program, PrepScholar. When a new student joins, he or she gets a diagnostic that figures out specific strengths and weaknesses. The program then automatically customizes your learning so that you're always studying according to where you can make the most improvement. No matter what your weakness is, my following strategies will address all weaknesses comprehensively. Strategy 2:Learn to Eliminate 3 Wrong Answers This strategy was by far the most effective for me in raising my Reading score. It completely changed the way I viewed passage questions. I spent some time talking above about how the SAT always has one unambiguous answer. This has a huge implication for the strategy you should use to find the right SAT Reading answer. Here's the other way to see it: Out of the four answer choices, three of them have something that is totally wrong about them. Only one answer is 100% correct, which means the other three are 100% wrong. You know how you try to eliminate answer choices, and then end up with a few at the end that all seem equally likely to be correct? "Well, this can work...but then again this could work as well..." STOP doing that. You're not doing a good enough job of eliminating answer choices. Remember - every single wrong choice can be crossed out for its own reasons. You need to do a 180 on your approach to Reading questions. Instead, find a reason to eliminate three answer choices. "Can I find a reason to eliminate this answer choice? How about this one?" You have to learn how to eliminate three answer choices for every single question. "Great, Allen. But this doesn't tell me anything about HOW to eliminate answer choices." Thanks for asking. One thing to remember is that even a single word can make an answer choice wrong. Every single word in each answer choice is put there by the SAT for a reason. If a single word in the answer choice isn't supported by the passage text, you need to eliminate it, even if the rest of the answer sounds good. There are a few classic wrong answer choices the SAT loves to use. Here's an example question. For example, let’s imagine you just read a passage talking about how human evolution shaped the environment. It gives a few examples. First, it talks about how the transition from earlier species like Homo habilus to neanderthals led to more tool usage like fire, which caused wildfires and shaped the ecology. It then talks about Homo sapiens 40,000 years ago and their overhunting of species like woolly mammoths to extinction. So then we run into a question asking, "Which of the following best describes the main subject of the passage?" Here are the answer choices: A: The transition between Homo habilus and neanderthals B: The study of evolution C: How the environment shaped human evolution D: The plausibility of evolution E: The influence of human development on ecology (We're using five answers for purposes of illustration - the SAT will only have four choices). As you're reading these answer choices, a few of them probably started sounded really plausible to you. Surprise! Each of the answers from A-D has something seriously wrong about it. Each one is a classic example of a wrong answer type given by the SAT. Wrong Answer 1: Too Specific A: The transition between Homo habilus and neanderthals This type of wrong answer focuses on a smaller detail in the passage. It’s meant to trick you because you might think to yourself, "well, I see this mentioned in the passage, so it’s a plausible answer choice." Wrong! Think to yourself – can this answer choice really describe the entire passage? Can it basically function as the title of this passage? You’ll find that it’s just way too specific to convey the point of the overall passage. Wrong Answer 2: Too Broad B: The study of evolution This type of wrong answer has the opposite problem – it’s way too broad. Yes, theoretically the passage concerns the study of evolution, but only one aspect of it, and especially as it relates to the impact on the environment. To give another ludicrous example, if you talked to your friend about your cell phone, and he said your main point was about the universe. Yes, you were talking about the universe, but only a tiny fraction of it. This is way too broad. Wrong Answer 3: Reversed Relationship C: How the environment shaped human evolution This wrong answer choice can be tricky because it mentions all the right words. But of course the relationship between those words needs to be correct as well. Here, the relationship is flipped. Students who read too quickly make careless mistakes like these! Wrong Answer 4: Unrelated Concept D: The plausibility of evolution Finally, this kind of wrong answer preys on the tendency of students to overthink the question. If you’re passionate about arguing about evolution, this might be a trigger answer since ANY discussion of evolution becomes a chance to argue about the plausibility of evolution. Of course, this concept will appear nowhere in the passage, but some students just won’t be able to resist. Do you see the point? On the surface, each of the answer choices sounds possibly correct. A less prepared student would think that all of these were plausible answers. But plausible isn't good enough. The right answer needs to be 100%, totally right. Wrong answers might be off by even one word - you need to eliminate these. Carry this thought into every SAT Reading passage question you do and I guarantee you will start raising your score. Strategy 3: Predict the Answer Before Reading the Answer Choices As we've discussed already, the SAT is designed to goad you into making mistakes by putting really similar answer choices next to each other. In Strategy 2, we covered the strategy of ruthless, unforgiving elimination of answer choices. Here's another Strategy that works well for me. Before reading the answer choices, come up with your own answer to the question. Gaze into your crystal ball and predict the right answer. This strategy is exactly designed to counteract the trickiness of the answer choices. If you DON'T apply this strategy, your thinking process likely meanderslike this: "OK, I just read the question. Answer A is definitely out. B can kind of work. C...it doesn't exactly fit, but I can see how it mightwork." and so on. By now, you've already fallen into the College Board's trap of muddling the answer choices. Take the opposite approach. While you're reading the question, come up with your own ideal answer to the question before reading the answer choices. This prevents you from getting biased by the SAT's answer choices, especially the incorrect ones. If it's a "Big Picture" type question asking about the main point of the passage, answer for yourself, "What would make a good title for this passage?" If it's an "Inference" question, answer for yourself, "What would the author think about the situation given in the question?" Even if you can't answer the question straight away - for example, if you have to refer back to the line number to remember what the passage was saying - try to solve the question before looking at the answer choices. The key here is that the passage must support your answer choice. Every correct answer on SAT passages needs to be justified by the passage - otherwise the answer would be ambiguous, which would cause problems of cancelling questions I referred to earlier. Warning: this only works if you can read and understand passages well, and if you have prior experience with SAT Reading questions! That's why I don't recommend this strategy yet before you hit a 600 level since you're more likely to come up with the wrong answer choice in your head. Strategy 4: Experiment With Passage Reading Strategies and Find the Best for You In your prep for the SAT, you may have read different strategies for how to read a passage and answer questions. Some students read the questions before reading the passage. Others read the passage in detail first. At your high level, I can't predict which method will work best for you. We're going for perfection, which means that your strategy needs to line up with your strengths and weaknesses perfectly, or else you'll make mistakes or run out of time. What I will do, however, is go through the most effective methods. You'll then have to figure out through your test data which one leads to the highest score for you. Passage Method 1: Skim the Passage, Then Read the Questions This is the most common strategy I recommend to our students, and in my eyes the most effective. I prefer this one myself. Here it is: Skim the passage on the first read through. Don't try to understand every single line, or write notes predicting what the questions will be. Just get a general understanding of the passage. You want to try to finish reading the passage in 3 minutes, if possible. Next, go to the questions. If the question refers to a line number, then go back to that line number and understand the text around it. If you can't answer a question within 30 seconds, skip it. My preferred way to tackle a passage: skimming it on the first read-through. This strategy is a revelation for students who used to close-read a passage and run out of time. This skimming method works because the questions will ask about far fewer lines than the passage actually contains. For example, lines 5-20 of a reading passage might not be relevant to any question that follows. Therefore, if you spend time trying to deeply understand lines 5-20, you’ll be wasting time. By taking the opposite approach of going back to the passage when you need to refer to it, you guarantee reading efficiency. You're focusing only on the parts of the passage that are important to answering questions. Critical Skill: You must be able to skim effectively. This means being able to quickly digest a text without having to slowly read every word. If you're not quite good at this yet, practice it on newspaper articles and your homework reading. Passage Method 2: Read the Questions First and Mark the Passage This is the second most common strategy and, if used well, as effective as the first method. But it has some pitfalls if you don't do it correctly. Here's how it goes: Before you read the passage, go to the questions and read each one. If the question refers to a series of lines, mark those lines on the passage. Take a brief note about the gist of the question. Go back to the passage and skim it. When you reach one of your notes, slow down and take more notice of the question. Answer the questions. Here's an example passage that I marked up, with questions coming first. Notice that beyond underlining the phrase referenced in the question, I left clues for myself on what's important to get out of this phrase. (questions not relating to specific lines aren't shown above) In the hands of an SAT expert, this is a powerful strategy. Just like Method 1 above, you save time by skipping parts of the passage that aren't asked about. Furthermore, you get a head start on the questions by trying to answer them beforehand. But there are serious potential pitfalls to this method if you're not careful or prepared enough. Here's one: when you first read the questions before the passage, you won't have enough time to digest the actual answer choices (nor will they make sense to you). So you have to make your best guess for what the question is asking when you're writing a note along the passage. In some cases, this can lead you astray. Take this example from above: When I read the question, I saw that it asked me to find how Woolf characterized the questions I marked in lines 53-57. The problem is how broad the question is. How something can be characterized gives a wide range of options. Here are a number of plausible characterizations as I read the text: important, life-changing ("have to ask ourselves") communal ("we") detail-oriented ("on what terms?") urgent ("here and now") ambitious progressive and future-looking ("where is it leading us") There's a lot of flexibility in interpretation here, since the questions really do touch upon all these characterizations. It turns out "important" and "urgent" are the right interpretations, for answer choice C. But when I'm reading the passage and see my note, I can waste a lot of time coming up with potential options that aren't even correct answer choices. In the worst case, it can bias me toward the wrong answer. Critical Skill: You need to have so much experience with the SAT Reading section that you can anticipate what the question is going to ask you for your notes to be helpful. If you're not sure of this, you can easily be led down the wrong track and focus on the wrong aspect of the passage. Passage Method 3: Read the Passage in Detail, Then Answer Questions This method is what beginner students usually use by default, because it's what they've been trained to do in school. Some beginner books like Princeton Review and Kaplan also suggest this as a strategy. It's my least favorite method because there are so many ways for it to go wrong. But for the sake of completeness, I'm listing it here in case it works best for you. Here's how it goes: Read the passage in detail, line by line. Take notes to yourself about the main point of each paragraph. Answer the questions. As you might guess, I don't like this method for the following reasons: By reading the passage closely, you absorb a lot of details that aren't useful for answering questions. The notes you take aren't directed toward helping you answer the questions. By interpreting the passage ahead of time, you risk being led astray. But this might work especially well for you if you're very good at reading for understanding, and if you have so much expertise with the SAT that you can predict what the test is going to ask you about anyway. Choose Which Works Best for You, Based on Test Data Because I can't predict which one will work best for you, you need to figure this out yourself. To do this, you need cold, hard data from your test scores. Try each method on 2 sample test passages each, and tally up your percentage score for each. If one of them is a clear winner for you, then develop that method further. If there isn't a clear winner, choose the one that feels most comfortable for you. As part of our PrepScholar program, we give you advanced statistics on your score performance so that you can experiment with methods that work best for you. Next strategy:Understand your mistakes. Strategy 5: Understand Every Single Mistake You Make On the path to perfection, you need to make sure every single one of your weak points is covered. Even just one mistakewill knock you down from an 800, as we saw in the score charts above. The first step is simply to do a ton of practice. If you're studying from free materials or from books, you have access to a lot of practice questions in bulk. As part of our PrepScholar program, we have over 1,500 SAT questions customized to each skill. The second step - and the more important part - is to be ruthless about understanding your mistakes. Every mistake you make on a test happens for a reason.If you don't understand exactly why you missed that question, you will make that mistake over and over again. I've seen students who did 20 practice tests. They've solved over 3,000 questions, but they're still nowhere near a perfectSAT Reading score. Why? They never understood their mistakes. They just hit their heads against the wall over and over again. Think of yourself as an exterminator, and your mistakes are cockroaches. You need to eliminate every single one - and find the source of each one - or else the restaurant you work for will be shut down. Here'swhat you need to do: On every practice test or question set that you take, mark every question that you're even 20% unsure about. When you grade your test or quiz, review every single question that you marked, and every incorrect question. This way even if you guessed a question correctly, you'll make sure to review it. In a notebook, write down 1) the gist of the question, 2) why you missed it, and 3) what you'll do to avoid that mistake in the future. Have separate sections by question type (vocab questions, big picture questions, inference questions, etc). It's not enough to just think about it and move on. It's not enough to just read the answer explanation. You have to think hard about why you specifically failed on this question. By taking this structured approach to your mistakes,you'll now have a running log of every question you missed, and your reflection on why. No excuses when it comes to your mistakes. Always Go Deeper - WHY Did You Miss a Reading Question? Now, what are some common reasons that you missed a question? Don't just say, "I didn't get this question right." That's a cop out. Always take it one step further - what specifically did you miss, and what do you have to improve in the future? Here are some examples of common reasons you miss a Reading question, and how you take the analysis one step further: Elimination: I couldn't eliminate enough incorrect answer choices, or I eliminated the correct answer. One step further: Why couldn't I eliminate the answer choice during the test? How can I eliminate answer choices like this in the future? Careless Error:I misread what the question was asking for or answered for the wrong thing. One step further:Why did I misread the question? What should I do in the future to avoid this? Vocab: I didn't know what the key word meant. One step further:What word was this? What is the definition? Are there other words in this question I didn't know? Get the idea? You're really digging into understanding why you're missing questions. Yes, this is hard, and it's draining, and it takes work. That's why most students who study ineffectively don't improve. Many people don't know the right way to study. Of the people who do, very few will diligently apply the right methods, day in, and day out, with discipline. But you're different. Just by reading this guide, you're already proving that you care more than other students. And if you apply these principles and analyze your mistakes, you'll improve more than other students too. Reviewing mistakes is so important that in PrepScholar, for every one of our 1,500+ practice questions, we explain in detail how to get the correct answer, and why incorrect answers are wrong. We also point out bait answers so that you can you can learn the tricks that the SAT plays on test takers like you. Bonus Tip: Re-Solve the Question Before Reading the Answer Explanation When you're reviewing practice questions, the first thing you probably do is read the answer explanation and at most reflect on it a little. This is a little too easy. I consider thispassive learning - you're not actively engaging with the mistake you made. Instead, try something different - find the correct answer choice (A-D), but don't look at the explanation. Instead, try to re-solve the question once over again and try to get to the correct answer. This will often be hard. You couldn't solve it the first time, so why could you solve it the second time around? But this time, with less time pressure, you might spot a new reason to eliminate the wrong answer choice, or something else will pop up. Something will just "click" for you. When this happens, what you learned will stick with you for 20 times longer than if you just read an answer explanation. I know this from personal experience. Because you've struggled with it and reached a breakthrough, you retain that information far better than if you just passively absorbed the information. This is perfect for SAT Reading because you'll often miss a question because of an incorrect interpretation of the text. By forcing yourself to get the right answer, you'll practice getting the CORRECT interpretation of the text. Even better, you'll be scrounging the passage for clues as to why the correct answer is correct, which is exactly what you need in your passage strategy to begin with. It's too easy to just read an answer explanation and have it go in one ear and out the other. You won't actually learn from your mistake, and you'll make that mistake over and over again. Treat each wrong question like a puzzle. Struggle with each wrong answer for up to 10 minutes. Only then if you don't get it should you read the answer explanation. Strategy 6:Find Your Reading Skill Weaknesses and Drill Them Reading passage questions might look similar, but they actually test very different skills. At PrepScholar we believe the major passage skills to be: Big Picture/Main Point Little Picture/Detail Inference Words and Phrases inContext Citing Textual Evidence Perspective Analyzing Word Choice Analyzing Text Structure Analyzing Multiple Texts Analyzing Quantitative Info Whew - that's a lot of skills. That's a much more detailed breakdown than what appears at first glance, and what most books and courses offer. Each of these question types uses different skills in how you read and analyze a passage. They each require a different method of prep and focused practice. The SAT requires a lot of skills. Make sure you know which ones are your weaknesses. If you're like most students, you're better at some areas in Reading than others. You might be better at getting the Big Picture of a passage, compared to the Inference. Or you might be really strong in vocabulary, but weak in understanding the function of sentences in a passage. If you're like most students, you also don't have an unlimited amount of time to study. This means for every hour you study for the SAT, it needs to be the most effective hour possible. In concrete terms,you need to find your greatest areas of improvement and work on those. Too many students study the 'dumb' way. They just buy a book and read it cover to cover. When they don't improve, they're SHOCKED. I'm not. Studying effectively for the SAT isn't like painting a house. You're not trying to cover all your bases with a very thin layer of understanding. What these students did wrong was they wasted time on subjects they already knew, and they didn't spend enough time on their weaknesses. Instead, studying effectively for the SAT is like plugging up the holes of a leaky boat. You need to find the biggest hole, and fill it. Then you find the next biggest hole, and you fix that. Soon you'll find that your boat isn't sinking at all. How does this relate to SAT Reading? You need to find the sub-skills that you're weakest in, and then drill those until you're no longer weak in them. Fix up the biggest holes. Within reading, you need to figure out whether you have patterns to your mistakes. Is it that you don't get Inference questions? Or maybe you're really weak at interpreting details? Or from strategy 1: is it that you're running out of time in reading passages? For every question that you miss, you need to identify the type of question it is. When you notice patterns to the questions you miss, you then need to find extra practice for this subskill. Say you miss a lot of inference questions (this is typically the hardest type of question for students to get). You need to find a way to get focused practice questions for this skill so you can drill your mistakes. Bonus: If all of this is making sense to you, you'd love our SAT prep program, PrepScholar. We designed our program around the concepts in this article, because they actually work.When you start with PrepScholar, you’ll take a diagnostic that will determine your weaknesses in over forty SAT skills. PrepScholar then creates a study program specifically customized for you. To improve each skill, you’ll take focused lessons dedicated to each skill, with over 20 practice questions per skill. This will train you for your specific area weaknesses, so your time is always spent most effectively to raise your score. We also force you to focus on understanding your mistakes and learning from them. If you make the same mistake over and over again, we'll call you out on it. There’s no other prep system out there that does it this way, which is why we get better score results than any other program on the market. Check it out today with a 5-day free trial: SAT Free Signup // Strategy 7:Read the Italicized Passage Introduction This is a quick tip that many students ignore. Each passage comes with an italicized introduction, like this for the passage shown above: This is a freebie. It gives you context for the entire passage. By knowing that the passage is about "the situation of women in English society," you hit the ground running when you read the very first sentence. This helps a lot. Sometimes, the introduction alone can giveyou the answer for the "Big Picture" question about what the main point of the passage is. Always always make sure that you read this introduction, no matter what passage method you use from Strategy 4. Strategy 8: Be Interested in the Passage Subject Matter The SAT has passages about a lot of weird topics. Victorian novels, underwater basket-weaving, and the evolution of gerbils are all fair game. It's unlikely that you're naturally thrilled about all the subjects you'll read about. This makes it easy to tune out when you're reading the passage. This makes it harder to answer the questions, which will make you more frustrated. Instead, adopt this mindset: For the next 10 minutes, I am the world's most passionate person about whatever subject this passage is about. This passage is the most frickin' exciting thing I could be reading right now. For every single passage, be as excited as she is. Force yourself to care about what the passage is telling you. Pretend that your LIFE depends on understanding this passage. Maybe you're about to give a lecture on this subject. Or someone's holding a puppy hostage if you don't answer enough questions correctly. Or your crush turns out to be a huge mid-18th century English literature fan, so you pay rapt attention to every single word. When I was preparing for the SAT in high school, I took this so far to the extremethat I ended up genuinely fascinated bywhatever the passage was telling me about. I remember reading a passage about volcanic activity and thinking, "Wow, I'm really glad I just learned this." (I know this sounds crazy.) If you stay engaged while reading, you'll understand the passage so much better, and you'll answer questions with way more accuracy. Strategy 9: DON'T Spend Time on Vocab Vocab typically gets way too much attention from students. It feels good to study vocab flashcards, because it seems like you're making progress. "I studied 1,000 vocab words - this must mean I improved my score!" This is why other test prep programs love teaching you vocab - it feels like they're teaching you something useful worth your money, but it's not obvious that vocab actually isn't helping your score. Fortunately, vocab doesn't play a big role in your SAT Reading score anymore. This is especially true in the redesigned 2016 SAT. They've completely taken out Sentence Completion questions, and the words that you have to analyze in context are usually pretty common. Here are examples of words that you need to understand in context in the current SAT: ambivalent clashes convey plastic postulate These are somewhat advanced words, but they're nowhere near the level of the words you used to have to know, like "baroque," "diatribes," "platitudes," and "progenitor." College Board lowered the emphasis on vocab because of complaints that memorizing esoteric vocab was useless in college success and career success. Instead, it's now asking you to figure out the meaning of more common words the way the author intended. For example, "plastic" can mean "malleable," "artificial," or "sculptural." Only one of these is right in the context of the passage. This doesn't mean that vocab is totally useless. For one, SAT Writing still has a few vocab questions (read more about this in my Perfect SAT Writing guide). Furthermore, sometimes knowing the definition of the words in context is helpful. Here are a few tips on what to learn, and how to learn vocab effectively. First, I've written a super detailed guide on the best way to study SAT vocabulary. This method makes your studying much more efficient so you retain words longer and engage with the most difficult vocab most often. Second, you need to take notes on vocab words that you don't know that you see in your practice questions. Don't just focus on the right answers- understand the definition of wrong answers as well. Only take notes from official SAT tests. It's hard to predict what words the SAT will use, and the SAT doesn't often repeat words from previous tests. But the official free practice tests from the Official Study Guide that we integrate in our PrepScholar program are the best sources. Strategy 9B: Don't Spend Time Reading Books or Magazines Over the many years I've studied for tests or run a test prep company, I've heard this advice for SAT Reading: "Read great novels and well-written magazines, like in the New York Times or the Atlantic. This will help with reading comprehension." I hate this advice. A test like SAT Reading is very specific. It tests reading comprehension in very specific and formulaic ways, as I showed with all the question types in Strategy 3. Reading for general leisure does NOT train you effectively for the test. You're not exercising the same skills you need on the test, nor is it goal-driven enough to help you make progress. This terrible advice is like saying you can train for a swim meet by standing in the shower for longer. Yes, by being in the shower, you'll be in water, just like you will in the swimming pool. But you're not using the same skills. Yes, if you have a lifetime of strong reading, with thousands of hours of leisure reading experience, you will do better on SAT Reading. But right now, reading general material won't help you efficiently. Take your extra time and do SAT Reading practice questions instead. Strategy 10: Finish With Extra Time and Double Check Your goal at the end of all this work is to get so good at SAT Reading that you solve every question and have extra time left over at the end of the section to recheck your work. In high school, I was able to finish a Reading section in about 60% of the time allotted. For SAT Reading, this means finishing all 5 passages and 52 questions in 40 minutes. This means I have a whopping 25minutes left over to recheck my answers two times over. How did I get so fast? 1) I have an efficient reading strategy that works best for me. Namely, I skim the passage and work through the questions afterward. 2) Through a lot of hard work, I have a strong instinct for the test. I understand the test so well that when I read a question, I can predict the answer within a few seconds. I can rule out wrong answers instantly because they just feel wrong. I've surveyed thousands of questions and understood every single SAT skill deeply to design PrepScholar, so I can typically understand exactly what the College Board is asking. Kind of like Neo seeing code in The Matrix. Here are some time benchmarks that might help: You should finish skimming a long passage within three minutes. Each passage question should take you no more than 30 seconds. If you can do this well, you'll finish the entire section in 40 minutes, leaving a lot of time to double check. What's the best way to double checkyour work? I have a reliable method that I follow: Double check any questions you marked that you're unsure of. Try hard to eliminate answer choices. If it's a reading passage question, make sure that the passage supports your answer. If I'm 100% sure I'm right on a question, I mark it as such and never look at it again. If I'm not sure, I'll come back to it on the third pass. At least two minutes before time's up, I rapidly double checkthat I bubbled the answers correctly. I try to do this all at once so as not to waste time looking back and forth between the test book and the answer sheet. Go five at a time ("A D B C B") for more speed. If you notice yourself spending more than 30 seconds on a problem and aren't clear how you'll get to the answer, skip and go to the next question. Even though you need a near perfect raw score for an 800, don't be afraid to skip. You can come back to it later, and for now it's more important to get as many points as possible. Quick Tip: Bubbling Answers Here's a bubbling tip that will save you two minutes per section. When I first started test taking in high school, I did what many students do: after I finished one question, I went to the bubble sheet and filled it in. Then I solved the next question. Finish question 1, bubble in answer 1. Finish question 2, bubble in answer 2. And so forth. This actually wastes a lot of time. You're distracting yourself between two distinct tasks - solving questions, and bubbling in answers. This costs you time in both mental switching costs and in physically moving your hand and eyes to different areas of the test. Here's a better method: solve all your questions first in the book, then bubble all of them in at once. This has several huge advantages: you focus on each task one at a time, rather than switching between two different tasks. You also eliminate careless entry errors, like if you skip question 7 and bubble in question 8's answer into question 7's slot. By saving just ten seconds per question, you get back 200 seconds on a section that has 20 questions. This is huge. Note: If you use this strategy, you should already be finishing the section with ample extra time to spare. Otherwise, you might run out of time before you have the chance to bubble in the answer choices all at once. Strategy : Be Ready for Turbulence in Scores Now you know what it takes to achieve perfection in SAT Reading. You know the best strategies to use for tackling the passage. You know how to identify your weaknesses and learn from them. You know how to save time, and you know to stay engaged while reading a passage. Even despite all this, sometimes a passage just won't click with you. Of all SAT sections, I find that Reading has the most volatile score. How you vibe with a passage has a big impact on your score. You might get a string of questions wrong just because you couldn't really understand what the passage was really about. This doesn't happen on Math or Writing. No matter what happens, you need to keep calm and keep working. You might swing from an 800 on one practice test to a 710 on another. Don't let that faze you. Don't start doubting all the hard work you've put in. Keep a calm head, and, like always, work hard on reviewing your mistakes. This might even happen on the real SAT. You might get below your target score and be crestfallen. Pick yourself up. This happens. If you've consistently been getting 800's on practice tests, you should take the test again and try to score higher. Very likely, you will. And because most schools nowadays Superscore the SAT, you can combine that new 800 with your other sections for an awesome SAT score. In Overview Those are the main strategies I have for you to improve your SAT Reading score to an 800. If you're scoring above a 600 right now, with hard work and smart studying, you can raise it to a perfect SAT Reading score. Even though we covered a lot of strategies, the main point is still this: you need to understand where you're falling short, and drill those weaknesses continuously. You need to be thoughtful about your mistakes and leave no mistake ignored. Here's a recap of all the strategies, in case you want to go back and review any: Strategy 1: Understand Your High Level Weakness: Time Management or Passage Strategy Strategy 2:Learn to Eliminate 3 Wrong Answers Strategy 3: Predict the Answer Before Reading the Answer Choices Strategy 4: Experiment with Passage Reading Strategies and Find the Best for You Strategy 5: Understand Every Single Mistake You Make Strategy 6:Find Your Reading Skill Weaknesses and Drill Them Strategy 7:Read the Italicized Passage Introduction Strategy 8: Be Interested in the Passage Subject Matter Strategy 9: DON'T Spend Time on Vocab Strategy 10: Finish With Extra Time and Double Check Strategy : Be Ready for Turbulence in Scores Keep reading for more resources on how to boost your SAT score. What's Next? We have a lot more useful guides to raise your SAT score. Read our complete guide to a perfect 1600, written by me, a perfect scorer. Read our accompanying guide to a 800 on SAT Math. Learn how to write a perfect-scoring 12 SAT essay, step by step. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points?We have the industry's leading SAT prep program. Built by Harvard grads and SAT full scorers, the program learns your strengths and weaknesses through advanced statistics, then customizes your prep program to you so you get the most effective prep possible. I built the PrepScholar program based on the principles in this article - the principles that worked for me and thousands of our students. I'm confident they'll also work with you. Check out our 5-day free trial today:

Enter preneuship Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Enter preneuship - Essay Example The international business scene offers unlimited opportunities for entrepreneurs in generating income and increased revenues. However, such success does not come without a close analysis of the market, as well as the factors that are likely going to contribute to the success of the business at the international markets. Thus, different factors contribute to either the success or failure of businesses operating at an international level. This essay discusses the factors that entrepreneurs should bear in mind whenever trying to establish their operations at the international level. Culture According to Neelankavil (2007), culture of the people is one of the most important factors to consider before establishing a business at the international market. Different countries have different cultures and within these countries, people hold diverse cultural practices and beliefs. Experts argue that since United States is the most developed country globally, assuming that all cultures in the w orld resemble the United States is the worst mistake that a business could make. ... This is however not true as some cultures do not embrace technology at all. Subsequently, whenever deciding on the methods to use in advertising for the products, putting into consideration the level of technology absorption is important. Using technological modes of advertising such as the internet and social media, live adverts and television targeting such people is less likely to have any impact. Further, some communities due to their religious beliefs do not use some products. These could be either processed foods or elements of technology, which they consider unspiritual and unhealthy. An entrepreneur should be aware of such issues in the society before establishing operations in any place. Additionally, observing the traditional cultural events and practices of different communities is equally important for the success of any entrepreneur at the international market (McDonald & Burton, 2002). Observing and respecting these events in addition to making the business appealing to the local people reduces the levels of conflicts with the people. By showing respect and engaging in these events with the people engages the business, thus creating a good relationship with the locals. This could contribute to the success of the business in this market. Legal factors Every country has different legal systems from each other. As constitutions govern different countries, the constitution establishes the laws governing businesses operating within its jurisdiction. As such, any entrepreneur seeking to establish operations at the international level ought to consider the laws governing the businesses in target countries. The most important law to put into consideration is taxation of the businesses in the country (McDonald &