Magical Realism Essay Example

Magical Realism Essay Third person omniscient and third person with magical realism tend to diverge in the ways that authors use them. Magical realism allows the reader to speculate about aspects of the story that arent specified by the author, while an omniscient point of view is restrictive, drawing the readers focus to specific aspects of the story, allowing little room for speculation. A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings makes the free- form nature of magical realism apparent In the multiple ways to Interpret the old Nans presence, while in A Good Man Is Hard to Find; the more realistic omniscient point of view gives definitive descriptions of almost everything allowing little room for creative thought. In IA Very Old Man with Enormous Wings, very little Is presented to you In terms of clarification. You are left with an old man with large wings and a rather superstitious body of townsfolk. Then you see the townsfolk, especially Appeal and Allseed, reacting to the presence of this foreign object. Though you are given a grand scope of things with phrases Like, [t]he world had been sad since Tuesday (285), and [t]he curious came from far away (2881 you allowed to freely interpret these events as they unfold your eyes. They can also allow you to speculate about topics that arent specified within the story, such as, why is this winged man here? What purpose does he serve? Even though you get to look over a broad scope you are given the same information, or lack there of, that the townspeople are eating. We will write a custom essay sample on Magical Realism specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Magical Realism specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Magical Realism specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer None of the information you are provided with in absolute though. For instance you are given the opinion of a neighbor woman who knew everything about life and death, who says that it is some sort of fallen angel. Although the townspeople accept this information and start calling it an angel, you the author are not restricted to this. Since the source isnt absolute, the old man can be virtually anything to you. Since you are free to speculate, he is only an angel if you interpret him as one.

How to Improve Your ACT English Score 9 Tips From a Perfect Scorer

How to Improve Your ACT English Score 9 Tips From a Perfect Scorer SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Are you struggling with ACT Englishscores between 14-24? You're not alone - hundreds of thousands of other students are scoring in this range. But many don't know the best ways to break out of this score range and get 26+on the ACT. Here we'll discuss how to improve ACT Englishscore effectively, and why it's so important to do so. Put these principles to work and I'm confident you'll be able to improve your score. Brief note: This article is tailored for lower-scoring students, currently scoring below a 26 on ACT English. If you're already above this range, my perfect 36 ACT Englishscore articlewill be better for you as it contains advanced strategies. In this article, I'm going to discuss why scoring high is a good idea, what it takes to score a 26, and then go into ACT English tips. Stick with me - this is like building a house. First you need to lay a good foundation before putting up the walls of the house and pretty windows. Similarly, we need to first understand why you're doing what you're doing, before diving into tips and strategies. In this guide, I talk mainly about getting to a 26. But if your goal is to get to a 24 or lower, these tips still equally apply. Understand the Stakes At this ACT score range, improving your low ACT Englishscore to a 24 range will dramatically boost your chances of getting into better colleges. The reason? A 26 puts you at right about the 83rd percentile, well above the national average of all ACT test takers. This is roughly equivalent to a 1200 out of 1600 on the SAT. Let's take a popular school, University of Central Florida (UCF), as an example. Its average ACT score is a 27. Its 25th percentile score is a 23, and 75th percentile is a 28. Furthermore, its acceptance rate is 49%. In other words, a little less than half of all applicants are admitted. Good odds, but the lower your scores, the worse your chances. In our analysis, if you apply with an ACT score of 23, your chance of admission drops to 23%, or around 1/4 chance. But if you raise your score to a 28, your chance of admission goes up to 55% - a very good chance of admission. For the Englishsection, this is especially true if you want to apply to humanities or language programs. They expect your Englishscore to be better than your math score, and if you score low, they'll doubt your ability to do college-level humanities work. It's really worth your time to improve your ACT score. Hour for hour,it's the best thing you can do to raise your chance of getting into college. Curious what chances you have with a 26 ACT score? Check out ourexpert college admissions guide for a 26 ACT score. Know that You Can Do It This isn't just some lame inspirational message you see on the back of a milk carton. I mean, literally, you and every other student can do this. In my work with PrepScholar, I've worked with thousands of students scoring in the lower ranges of 15-21. Time after time, I see students who beat themselves up over their low score and think improving it is impossible. "I know I'm not smart." "I've just never been good at writing, and I can't see myself scoring high." "I don't know what to study to improve my score. Is it grammar rules? Do I do practice?" It breaks my heart. Because I know that more than anything else, your ACT score is a reflection ofhow hard you work and how smartly you study. Not your IQ and not your school grades. Not how Ms. Anderson in 10th grade gave you a C on your essay. Here's why: the ACT 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? You've learned grammar before in school. You know some basic grammar rules. But the ACT questions just seem so much weirder. It's purposely designed this way. The ACT can't test difficult concepts, because this would be unfair for students who never took AP English. It can't ask you to decompose Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov. The ACT is a national test, which means it needs a level playing field for all students around the country. So it HAS to test concepts that all high school students will cover. How to transition between paragraphs, grammar rules like subject verb agreement, etc. You've learned all of this throughout school. But the ACT still has to make the test difficult, so it needs to test these concepts in strange ways. This trips up students who don't prepare, but it rewards students who understand the test well. Example Question Here's an example: find the grammar error in this sentence: The senator, along with his dozen campaign staff, are running a competitive race against the newcomer. This is a classic ACT English question. The error is in subject/verb agreement. The subject of the sentence is commissioner, which is singular. The verb is "run," but because the subject is singular, it should really be "runs." If you didn't see an error, you fell for a classic ACT English trap. It purposely confused you with the interrupting phrase, "along with his 20 staff members." You're now picturing 20 people in a campaign - which suggests a plural verb! The ACT English section is full of examples like this. Nearly every grammar rule is tested in specific ways, and if you don't prepare for these, you're going to do a lot worse than you should. Here's the good news: this might have been confusing the first time, but the next time you see a question like this, you'll know exactly what to do: find the subject and the verb, and get rid of the interrupting phrase. So to improve your ACT English score, you just need to: learn the grammar rules that the ACT tests study how the ACT tests these grammar rules and learn how to detect which grammar rule you need in a question practice on a lot of questions so you learn from your mistakes I'll go into more detail about exactly how to do this. First, let's see how many questions you need to get right to get a certain score. What It Takes to Get a 26in ACT English If we have a target ACT score out of 36 in mind, it helps to understand how many questions you need to get right on the actual test. The ACT English section has 75 questions on it. Depending on how many questions you get right, you'll get a Scaled score out of 36. Here's the raw score to ACT English Score conversion table. (If you could use a refresher on how the ACT is scored and how raw scores are calculated, read this.) Scaled Raw Scaled Raw Scaled Raw Scaled Raw 36 75 27 62 18 41-42 9 18-19 35 72-74 26 60-61 17 39-40 8 15-17 34 71 25 58-59 16 36-38 7 12-14 33 70 24 56-57 15 32-35 6 10- 32 68-69 23 53-55 14 29-31 5 8-9 31 67 22 51-52 13 27-28 4 6-7 30 66 21 48-50 12 25-26 3 4-5 29 65 20 45-47 23-24 2 2-3 28 63-64 19 43-44 10 20-22 1 0-1 So if you're aiming for a 26, on this test you need to get just 60 questions correct. This is just an 80% on the test! Also, keep in mind that you'll be able to GUESS on a lot of questions. Because there are 4 answer choices, you get a lot of questions right with a 25% chance! So here's an example. Let's say you know how to solve just 55 questions for sure. You guess on the remaining 20, and get 5 of them right by chance. This gives you a raw score of 60, or a scaled score of 26! This has serious implications for your testing strategy. In essence, you only need to answer 4/5 of all questions right. We'll go into more detail below about what this means for your testing strategy below. Whatever you're scoring now, take note of the difference you need to get to a 26. For example, if you're scoring a 21, you need to answer 10-13 more questions right to get to a 26. Once again, if your goal is a score below 26, like a 23, the same analysis applies. Just look up what your Raw Score demands above. OK - so we've covered why scoring a higher ACT Englishscore 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 actually get into actionable ACT English tipsthat you should use in your own studying to maximize your score improvement. Tipsto Improve Your Low ACT English Score Strategy 1: Know What's On the Test. It's Not Just About Grammar! The first tip to doing well on the ACT is understanding what you're actually going to be tested on. You need to predict every type of question that comes up so you have a game plan to get the right answer. If you've studied ACT English before, you've probably worried about memorizing grammar rules like subject/verb agreement or pronoun antecedent. The truth is, grammar is only half of the test. The other half is made up of what are called "Rhetorical Skills" s of concepts you need to know are Wordiness (how to phrase things concisely) and Transitional Logic (how to connect sentences and paragraphs together). For these skills, you don't just memorize grammar rules - you need to understand how to write effectively in the context of the ACT. At PrepScholar, we believe in dividing ACT English into individual skills you can attack separately. This is the best way to divide and conquer - understand what the ACT tests, and focus on mastering individual skills. Here's a complete breakdown of the skills in ACT English: Grammar (53% of ACT English) Punctuation - Commas Punctuation - General Number Agreement Pronouns Verb Forms Comparison/Description Word Choice Idioms Run-On Sentences Sentence Fragments Parallelism Modifiers Rhetorical Skills (47% of ACT English) Relevance Author Intent Transitional Logic Macro Logic Wordiness Formality and Tone That's it! All of ACT English is wrapped up in these 18 skills. What seemed like a scary, giant 75-question section can actually be wrapped up entirely in these 18 skills. Now, don't get overwhelmed. This may LOOK like a lot of stuff to study,but when you're aiming for a 26, you only have to master a fraction of these skills. I'll explain more in the next strategy. For a more detailed look, check out our guide breaking down theACT Englishsection. Strategy 2: Learn the Most Important Grammar Rules. Ignore the Others If you've tried studying for ACT English before, you might have been daunted by the large number of grammar rules you seem to have to know. The reality is, there is a huge difference in how important different grammar rules are on the test. Just as an example, Transition questions appear roughly 9 times per test, but Logical Comparison questions show up only once per test. So some skills show up nearly 10x more often than other skills!This has a huge implication on what you should be spending your precious time on studying - not all study hours are treated equal. If you study the most important grammar rules first, you will get the biggest bang for your buck. Here's the complete list of skills and how often they appear on a typical ACT English section: Skill Category # per Test % per Test Transitional Logic Rhetoric 9 12.41% Relevance Rhetoric 7 9.49% Wordiness Rhetoric 7 9.49% Punctuation - Commas Grammar 5 6.93% Punctuation - General Grammar 5 6.93% Macro Logic Rhetoric 5 6.57% Author Intent Rhetoric 4 5.84% Run-On Sentences Grammar 4 5.84% Idioms Grammar 4 5.47% Verb Forms Grammar 4 5.% Sentence Fragments Grammar 3 4.01% Word Choice Grammar 3 4.01% Formality and Tone Rhetoric 3 3.65% Pronouns Grammar 3 3.65% Number Agreement Grammar 2 3.28% Parallelism Grammar 2 2.92% Modifiers Grammar 2 2.92% Comparison/Description Grammar 1 1.46% Look at the difference in commonality between the skills. Transitional logic shows up a whopping 9 times per test, while modifiers shows up just 2 times. If it takes the same amount of time to study both skills, clearly your time is better spent on studying Transitional logic. Remember what we said about how you only need to get 80% of questions correct to get a 26? If you master the top 10 skills above and get all those questions right, you can totally ignore the other 8 skills!This is what I mean by bang for your buck. Unfortunately, most books and test prep resources ignore this distinction - they just treat every skill equally. They'll give you the same number of practice questions and give you no guidance on how to spend your time. This means you can waste a lot of time studying things that truly don't matter on the ACT. (Why do they do this? I believe this is usually because these companies hire people who are good at English to write their materials, NOT people who are good at taking tests. These are different skills). At PrepScholar, we strongly believe in getting our students the biggest score improvement for every hour they spend on ACT prep. This is why our program focuses your attention on the most important skills that will lead to the most ACT score improvement. You only have limited time to study, and we don't want to waste it.We designed our program this way because they were the same methods we used to get perfect scores on the ACT. If you plan to study by yourself - make sure you organize your time well.Instead of reading a book cover to cover, you should be focusing on the most critical grammar rules to improve your score most. Strategy 3: Find Your Grammar Weaknesses and Drill Them If you're like most students, you're better at some areas in ACT English than others. You might know transitions really well, but you'll be weak in sentence fragments. Or maybe you really like parallel construction, but have no idea what faulty modifiers are. If you're like most students, you also don't have an unlimited amount of time to study. You have a lot of homework,you might have intense extracurriculars, and you want to spend time with your friends. This means for every hour you study for the ACT, it needs to be the most effective hour possible to raise your ACT score. 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 ACT isn't like painting a house. You're not trying to apply thin coats of understanding evenly across a lot of subjects. What these students did wrong was they wasted time on subjects they already knew well, and they didn't spend enough time improving their weak spots. Instead, studying effectively for the ACT is like plugging up the holes of a leaking 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 ACT English? You need to find the most important grammar rules that you're having the most trouble in, and then practice hard until it's no longer a weakness. Fixing up the biggest holes. Doesn't this make sense? For every question that you miss, you need to identify the type of question it is, and why you missed it. When you notice patterns to the questions you miss, you then need to find extra practice for this grammar rule. Say you miss a lot of comma punctuation questions (the mostcommon ACT English grammar rule). You need to find a way to get lesson material to teach yourself the main concepts that you're forgetting. Then you need to find more practice questions for this skill so you can drill your mistakes. This is by far the best way for you to improve your Englishscore. Bonus: If all of this is making sense to you, you'd love our ACT 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 ACT skills, including individual grammar rules. PrepScholar then creates a study program specifically customized for youto maximize your score. 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. For example, if you're weak in Subject/Verb Agreement, we'll give you a dedicated quiz focused on that skill so that you master your weakness. 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: Strategy 4:Attack Passages Sanely - By Paragraph ACT English has a passage-based format. You get a passage with 4-6 paragraphs, and you get 15 questions per passage. When you go into the test, you MUST have a plan on how to attack the passage and answer the questions. Students make two common mistakes on ACT English: They panic about how many questions there are (75!) and they rush through the passage, making careless mistakes along the way. They think that only sentences that are underlined are important, and they ignore the sentences in between. This makes you ignore context, which is critical for Rhetoric questions like Transitions and Organization. Have you ever felt this way before? The good news is, there's a sane way to attack the passage. We call it the "paragraph method." Here's how it works: Read a paragraph in the passage. Answer the questions in that paragraph. Here's an example passage: In this case, you read the passage until you hit the purple line. Then you answer all the questions marked in purple boxes. Next, you read the passage until you hit the green line. Then you answer the question marked in a green box. That's it. Pretty simple, but here's why it works: by reading each paragraph one at time, you force yourself to understand the context around the sentences. This is critical for Rhetoric questions like, "Should this sentence be deleted?" or "Sentence 3 should be placed before..." For example, notice how Question 26 comes at the beginning of the paragraph, but it requires you to understand the rest of the paragraph first: "which one most effectively introduces the information that follows in this paragraph?" In our experience, this is the most effective and sanest way to attack the ACT English passage. If you want to read more about this strategy, and possible alternatives to this method, read more: "The Best Way to Approach ACT English Passages." Because strategy lessons like this can be very effective in improving your score quickly, we include many of them in our PrepScholar ACT program. Learn how to eliminate answer choices systematically. Strategy 5: Don't Pick Answer Choices Based on "Sounding Weird." Know the Specific Rule Being Tested The ACT tests proper English grammar very strictly. Imagine that it's a 60-year-old English professor with perfect diction and grammar. It's not going to be the same language you use when you talk to your friends or text. For example: "Jake and me went to the ball game." This might be something you say informally in conversation, but it's 100% wrong on ACT English. A lot of students figure out grammar mistakes by what "sounds wrong" to their ear. The problem is,if you usually don't spot grammar errors easily, you can't fully rely on your ear to figure out what "sounds wrong."The ACT knows this, and it purposely puts in traps that will trick you if you can't precisely identify what's wrong and what's correct. Here's what you should do instead. For every wrong answer choice that you eliminate, you should justify to yourself clearly why you are eliminating that answer choice. Here's an example of a real ACT English question: Here's my thinking as I go through the question: When I see this sentence, there's a comma splice error. "The shop opens at six in the morning" and "I arrive thirty minutes early to set up" are both independent clauses. Two independent clauses can only be joined with a semicolon, or a comma and a conjunction (like ", and") F: NO CHANGE is incorrect because it keeps the comma splice error we just found. G: This gets us closer - there's a comma here, followed by "however," The problem is that "however" isn't a conjunction - it's a conjunctive adverb. That means it doesn't behave like "and" - it needs to follow a semicolon or a period. Strike this out. H: This is what we were looking for - a comma and a conjunction. This is grammatically correct. J: This is just removing the comma, which doesn't solve the error - it then becomes a "run on sentence" where the two independent clauses are still improperlyjoined. I've eliminated every answer choice but H, which must be the correct answer. Note that I'm not literally thinking all these words in my head, but this gives the gist of my thinking. I've identified the specific grammar error, so I know what I'm looking for. It's like if I told you, "The bee fly to the hive." You know this is wrong instantly if you say it aloud because it feels wrong. After a few more seconds, you'd be able to point out that "bee" is singular and "fly" is plural, so we have a subject/verb agreement error. By learning more grammar rules and practicing them, you'll be able to do this elimination very quickly and naturally. You'll pinpoint exact reasons that a phrase has a grammar error and use that to eliminate answer choices. This is a lot better than guessing based on things "sounding weird" and you'll get many more questions right. It really does take repetition to train grammar skills to this level, though. You need both lesson material to teach you the core content, then lots of practice questions to hammer the concepts home. That's whyinPrepScholar ACT, every ACT English skill gets a detailed strategy lesson, followed by dozens of practice questions to test what you just learned. We've found this to be the most effective method to learn the most important ACT English concepts. If you're studying by yourself without a program, make sure you can find the best study material to teach you grammar and give you enough practice. Strategy 6: Understand ALLYour ACT English 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. Too many students scoring at the 12-20score range spend too little time studyingtheir mistakes. It's harsh. I get it. It sucks to stare your mistakes in the face. It's draining to learn difficult concepts you don't already understand. So the average student will breeze past their mistakes and instead focus on areas they're already comfortable with. It's like a warm blanket. Their thinking goes like this: "So I'm good at subject/verb agreement? I should do more subject/verb agreement problems! They make me feel good about myself." The result? NO SCORE IMPROVEMENT. Think about this: let's say you were learning how to cook, and you cut your finger accidentally while chopping carrots. Would you just ignore this, brush it aside, and keep chopping? No! You'd figure out where you went wrong - are you holding the knife incorrectly? Are you holding the carrot incorrectly? Is the knife sharp enough? You would do everything you can to avoid cutting yourself, because it's painful. ACT English is the very same way. You HAVE to understand WHYyou're making mistakes, and how you're going to AVOID making this mistake in the future. So 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, keep a separate section by grammar rule. Write down: the gist of the question why you missed it what you'll do to avoid that mistake in the future 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. In our ACT prep philosophy, reviewing your mistakes is the #1 way to improve your ACT score.We've designed our program accordingly - after you take a quiz inour PrepScholar ACT program, we give you immediate quiz results to review. We basically force you to review your mistakes before you do anything else. It's that important. No excuses when it comes to your mistakes. Strategy 7: Go Deeper - WHY Did You Miss a English Question? Now, what are some common reasons that you missed a question? Don't just say, "I didn't know this material." That's a cop out and you won't learn anything from this. 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 question, and how you take the analysis one step further: Content:I didn't learn the knowledge or grammar rule needed to answer this question. One step further:What specific knowledge do I need to learn, and how will I learn this skill? Incorrect Approach:I knew the content or grammar rule, but I didn't know how to approach this question. One step further:How do I solve this question? How will I solve questions like this in the future? Careless Error:I misread what the question was asking for or I missed a grammar rule I already knew. One step further:Why did I misread the question? Why did I miss this grammar error? What trick did the ACT play on me? What should I do in the future to avoid this? Get the idea? You're really digging into understanding why you're missing questions. Yes, this is hard, and it's tiring, and it takes effort.That's why most students who study the easy way - just reading a book cover to cover - don't improve. 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. If you find it hard to understand why you're making mistakes, then you might find a program like PrepScholar helpful. Every one of our questions has a detailed answer explanation explaining how to solve the question, how to eliminate each wrong answer choice, and common ACT English traps. We purposefully write these explanations to guide you when you've missed an answer choice. Strategy 8: Don't Spend More than 30 Seconds per Question Of all sections, ACT English has the least amount of time per question. In one section, you get 60minutes to answer 75 questions, which means only 48 seconds per question! Remember what we said above about getting a 26? You only need a raw score of 60 out of 75. This is 80%. Therefore, DON'T feel bad about skipping a question. Chances are, it's actually a pretty hard question designed to waste your time. You're better off skipping it so you can get more questions right elsewhere in the section. Furthermore, you can't predict which questions are easy or hard. Unlike ACT Math, where the questions increase in difficulty from start to finish, ACT English is more or less random. So if you find yourself spending more than 30 seconds on a single question, skip it for now. You might have enough time to come back to it. You definitely want to avoid sucking up 2 minutes on a single question. This is taking up way more time than a single question deserves, and you're better off spending that time on other questions to get extra points. This requires discipline during the test, and many students ignore the clock until it's too late. Don't run out of time. And now, my final ACT English prep tip: Strategy 9: Don't Study General Grammar. Target ACT English When many low-scoring students think about studying ACT English, they think it's mainly a matter of learning grammar. So to prep for ACT English, they'll use general grammar books from school or English class. This points you in the wrong direction. Remember, ACT English tests grammar in very SPECIFIC ways. You're not learning how to write a good essay and using good grammar generally. You're learning how to defeat ACT English. The ways that grammar rules like punctuation or run-on sentences appear on ACT English are very formulaic - they show up in similar ways each time, with similar wrong answer choices. A run-on sentence question will have the same types of wrong answer choices, time and time again. Your job is to learn these patterns, screen out wrong answer choices, and get the right answer. So to do well on ACT English, you have to train with the best materials focused on ACT English. This means realistic practice questions that test Grammar and Rhetoric skills in the same way. Understanding the ACT at a deep level isn't easy. That's why at PrepScholar, we hire only the country's leading experts on the ACT to craft our test content. All of our test content writers scored perfect ACT scores or in the 99th-percentile, and they've often tutored for hundreds of hours before joining us. We turn down dozens of applicants who score a 34 or below on the ACT. Our standards for content are extremely high, because we want our students to have the most realistic practice possible. If you don't use PrepScholar, make sure you're confident of the quality of the materials you're using.If you train on low quality practice questions, you're going to develop bad habits and learn to attack questions the wrong way. In Overview These are the main ACT English tips I have for you to improve your score. If you're scoring a 15, you can improve it to a 20. If you're scoring a 21, you can boost it to a 26. I guarantee it, if you put in the right amount of work, and study like I'm suggesting above. Notice that I didn't actually teach you that many grammar rules. I didn't point to any tips and tricks that you need to know, or specific grammar rules that will instantly raise your score. That's because these one-size-fits-all, guaranteed strategies don't really exist. (And anyone who tells you this is deceiving you). Every student is different. Instead, you need to understand where you're falling short, and drill those weaknesses continuously. You also need to be thoughtful about your mistakes and leave no mistake ignored. This is really important to your future. Make sure you give ACT prep the attention it deserves, before it's too late, and you get a rejection letter you didn't want. What's Next? We have a lot more useful guides to raise your ACT score. Read my corresponding guides for other ACT sections: Get a 26 in ACTMath, ACT Reading, and ACT Science. What's a good ACT score for you? Read our detailed guide on figuring out your ACT target score. Want a bunch of free ACT practice tests to practice with? Here's our comprehensive list of every free ACT practice test. Want to improve your ACT score by 4+ points?We have the industry's leading ACT prep program. Built by Harvard grads and ACT 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. Check out our 5-day free trial today: Have friends who also need help with test prep? Share this article! Tweet Allen Cheng About the Author As co-founder and head of product design at PrepScholar, Allen has guided thousands of students to success in SAT/ACT prep and college admissions. He's committed to providing the highest quality resources to help you succeed. Allen graduated from Harvard University summa cum laude and earned two perfect scores on the SAT (1600 in 2004, and 2400 in 2014) and a perfect score on the ACT. You can also find Allen on his personal website, Shortform, or the Shortform blog. Get Free Guides to Boost Your SAT/ACT Get FREE EXCLUSIVE insider tips on how to ACE THE SAT/ACT. 100% Privacy. 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Can Hydrofluoric Acid Disintegrate Bone

Can Hydrofluoric Acid Disintegrate Bone The intriguing pilot of AMCs drama Breaking Bad keeps you tuned in for the second episode, to see what the protagonist, a chemistry teacher named Walt, was going to do. Is it going out on a limb to suspect that most chemistry teachers dont keep big jugs of hydrofluoric acid in their labs? Walt apparently keeps plenty on hand, and use some to aid in disposing of a body. He told his partner-in-crime, Jesse, to use a plastic bin for dissolving the body, but didnt tell him why. When Jesse puts the dead Emilio in a bathtub and adds the acid, he proceeds to dissolve the body, as well as the tub, the floor supporting the tub, and the floor below that. Hydrofluoric acid is corrosive stuff. Hydrofluoric acid attacks the silicon oxide in most types of glass. It also dissolves many metals (not nickel or its alloys, gold, platinum, or silver), and most plastics. Fluorocarbons such as Teflon (TFE and FEP), chlorosulfonated polyethylene, natural rubber, and neoprene all are resistant to hydrofluoric acid. This acid is so corrosive because its fluorine ion is highly reactive. Even so, it is not a strong acid because it does not completely dissociate in water. Dissolving a Body  in Lye Its surprising Walt settled on hydrofluoric acid for his body disposal plan, when the notorious method for dissolving flesh is using a base rather than an acid. A mixture of sodium hydroxide (lye) with water can be used to liquefy dead animals such as farm animals or roadkill (this can obviously also include homicide victims). If the lye mixture is heated to boiling, tissue can be dissolved in a matter of hours. The carcass is reduced to a brownish sludge, leaving only brittle bones. Lye is used to remove clogs in drains, so it could have been poured into a bathtub and rinsed away, plus it is much more readily available than hydrofluoric acid. Another option would have been the potassium form of lye, potassium hydroxide. The fumes from reacting large quantities of either hydrofluoric acid or a hydroxide would have been overwhelming to our buddies from Breaking Bad. People who dissolve bodies in their homes this way would likely become dead bodies themselves. Why the Strongest Acid Wouldnt Work You may be thinking the best way to rid yourself of a corpse is to use the strongest acid you can find. This is because we generally equate strong with corrosive.  However, the measure of an acids strength is its ability to donate protons. The very strongest acids in the world do this without being corrosive. The carborane superacids are over a million times stronger than concentrated sulfuric acid, yet they dont attack human or animal tissue.

Creative of Art Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Creative of Art - Essay Example When space is small, the number of objects that one can view or learn about is limited including the number of people visiting. A small space denies individuals the opportunity to have adequate experience as opposed to a large space. Some consideration that should be taken into account when arranging objects for a show in a museum include; educational purpose, state, and preservation facilities. Educational purpose should be a key factor when arranging objects in a showroom in a museum. Artifacts are arranged according to the educational purpose they delivered to the viewers (Danilov 108). The artifacts that are more educative are arranged in the first row followed by the ones that are less educative. Artifacts states should be considered since objects in poor states are not attractive. There is a tin difference between art and craft as the two are based on diverse forms of creativity. However, the differences can be established on their definitions and how they are executed. Art is categorically defined as the form of work that expresses emotions while craft is defined as the form of work that results into an output that is tangible. Examples of craft work include moulding and carving among other forms. Artworks are open ended and unstructured in design and form while craft works are structured clearly and are visible. They can also be qualified as opposed to art works. Today most functional art objects are as avidly obtained by collectors as their fine-art brethren, and are treasured for their beauty as well as their use value. For instance, ancient Chinese vases that performed their originally anticipated function such as displaying flowers which are valued for their historic and artistic value more than anything else. As noted, dedaic is an instruction based methodology that is applied in enabling effective understanding of phenomenon’s. The methodology is commonly

Means of Dispute Settlement Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Means of Dispute Settlement - Assignment Example It is highly advocated since it saves the expensive court fees and reduces the backlog of the court cases. Under the Arbitration Act, the judgment is valid and binding (Twomey and Jennings 26). In mediation, the mediator has no power to make judgment therefore acting neutral and as a messenger, in presentation of the offer made. However, the mediator might influence the plaintiff’s decisions by making statements or views that may affect the plaintiff’s choice. Mediation is an efficient process especially where none of the parties have any intention of lessening their attitudes towards each other (Twomey and Jennings 26). The reference to a third person is almost the same as mediation, though in this case the third party has implied powers to make a decision regarding the dispute in question. Since the third party is independent and neutral, the decision reached herein is enforceable and cannot be appealed further. The damages sought are fixed according to the judgment of the mediator (Twomey and Jennings 26). Basically, medarb is an alternative dispute resolution method which almost resembles the arbitration method. However in medarb, the arbitrator who was hearing the facts from both sides of the aggrieved parties; also acts as the mediator in that, he presents the offer made by the defendant so as the plaintiff can make a decision (Twomey and Jennings 26). In rent a judge, the parties involved voluntarily hire a judicial judge to hear their case. The hired judge acts as referee and hears the case as in the normal trial. After hearing of the case, the judge makes a decision which will be enforceable between the two parties. Unless, if stated in the contract clause; the judgment can be reversed through an appeal (Twomey and Jennings 27). If both parties belong to an association, the dispute is normally resolved by a tribunal formed by the associations. The tribunal is

The play that follow, have on Mompesson Essay Example for Free

The play that follow, have on Mompesson Essay The decision to close the village which is made my Mompesson and Stanley together, was a tough one to make, but together they explained their plans to the villagers, and the people listened, and agreed to stay in the village. This shows Mompesson has found the strength somewhere inside him to make an important decision and stick to it. The village is in shock, and a few obviously are not keen on the idea of staying in the village to die, but they agree. Once Mompesson and Stanley have announced their plan, they are left alone. God help us Mompesson. What have we done? This is the last we hear about the announcement of the plan to close the village, and it is a very emotional moment for Mompesson and Stanley. At the start of the play Mompesson had his own views, and he did not have any view of compromise either. He begins in the village very weak, although on the outside he is strong, inside he is weak. As the plague gets worse, and more people die, he becomes stronger, and learns to deal with pain. At the beginning Mompesson is very self righteous, but as the play goes along, he becomes more matured, and slowly changes into a better person. One decision that was hard for Mompesson to make was when Catherine asked to send the children out the village. They discuss whether or not to send the two young children, and in the end come to the conclusion that they must smuggle them out when everybody is asleep, without either of them. The decide that the children must go on their own, but Mompesson will take them to Catherines brother in Yorkshire. This decision was hard for them, but it is definite, the children had to go. His greatest pain is when Catherine dies. She tells him gently and calmly but he cant understand why it has happened. He loses his trust in God, and turns away from his religion. He cries out to God, and asks him why it had to happen to him. You cant do that! God, Father, you cant do that to me! He expresses his anguish whilst Catherine tries to stay calm, she tells him that they should go to the rectory, and that she wants a comfortable death. He is stunned. Pain is hard for him, but he learns from his anguish, but it was to be hard. Catherine always gave him advice, and now he was going to have to survive without her. After Catherines death, Mompesson had to go on without her and without the children. He tries to confess that he sent the children away but the villagers already know. We knew all along about your children, Rector. Right from the first. Old Unwin saw you creep out of the door with them at midnight, looking so guilty. Even though the villagers knew, they didnt say anything until Mompesson did, as they didnt mind. They know he did it for them, and forgive him for it. The small crowd that surround Mompesson continue on to tell him they have faith in him, and their prayers are with him in his time of pain. But you loved us with all your heart, too, in the hardest way. Not with words. With actions. They explain to him they realise how much he has done for them. He has changed so much since the beginning when he arrived in Eyam. At first he didnt care for them at all, but he had learnt to love and care for them. I loved them? I felt nothing And they forgave me, with what might be their last breath I dont understand. Mompesson cant see that he has loved them, he still believes that he is how he was at the beginning. But really he has got off his pedestal above them, and become more of a human being. As the play went on, Mompessons words and actions change, they go from bad to good. He learns to deal with suffering, and forgets that he didnt want to work there. The plague arrived in Eyam in the Autumn of 1665, and it ended in the Autumn of 1666. This means that Mompesson has only ages one year, but mentally he has aged a great deal more. He has matured and learned to come to terms with pain and loss. He has grown in mind, in such a small amount of time. Mompessons actions throughout the play show and prove that in the end, he did care for the villagers, whether they cared for him or not. His relationship with Stanley also comes to a halt, and they part on good terms.

Misery Essay examples -- Essays Papers

Misery STORYMAP 1. Sidewinder Colorado- Paul Sheldon, a novelist that has been writing a series about a character named Misery Chastain. Got in a car wreck on the icy streets in sidewinder. He got in the accident from being drunk because of the celebration he had after completing the series. Paul shatters both of his legs, dislocates his pelvis and crushes one of his knees. There he rolls off the side of the road and is knocked un-conscious. This is very important to the character because this makes him very vulnerable to his â€Å"number one fan† Anne Wilkes who holds him in her house and won’t let him go. The event starts the conflict of the story. 2. Farmhouse- In the secluded, snowy forest Paul Sheldon wakes up in a house after receiving CPR. Anne Wilkes is an ex-nurse with all kinds of medicines and painkillers that she gives to Paul for his legs. She is crazy and gives him pills with soapy water out of a wash bucket. Anne is helping Paul so he can write her novels about the ended series of misery. She obviously didn’t want it to end. This is important because Anne Wilkes is saving Paul’s life but won’t let him go. So this is a major problem he has to face in the story. He needs to escape and get to a real hospital or anywhere else but there. 3. Outside- This is outside the house where Anne goes everyday to do her daily chores which are to feed the animals and do lawn work. This is important for Paul because when she is gone he can think about how t...

Pros and Cons

Nowadays the majority of women prefer hospital when they give birth, though there are other places offering apparent benefits for pregnant women outside the hospital setting. When a woman is preparing for birth she needs to make up decision where to have a baby. Many women would be surprised finding out that hospitals don’t always have available places for women who give birth. Therefore, women are seeking for new places outside hospitals and birth centers are possible the best ones.Hospitals provide only standardized care meaning the women are obliged to do things the hospital’s way without responding to their individual needs. In contrast to hospitals, birthing centers welcome women to walk around, to drink, to eat and to choose the most comfortable position when giving birth. Further, birth centers are claimed to be more private and intimate than hospitals. Patients get acquainted with al staff members and when it is time for women to give birth, she may be the only patient giving birth at that time.One more benefit is that birth centers provide more attention when they teach patients about breastfeed. Speaking about other advantages of birthing centers it is necessary to note that there are fewer medical interventions, higher commitment of medical staff, natural pain relief option, better freedom of movements during birth of baby and, finally, better conditions. Many birth centers provide help of doulas for future mothers.Doulas offer wide range of support for women including massage, aromatherapy, coping techniques and continuous reassurance. Support of doulas result in reduced cesarean rate, epidural requests, analgesia use and forceps delivery. Nevertheless, certain disadvantages of birthing centers exist. For example, centers have no available anesthesia. They have difficulties with transferring from centers to hospitals if there are complications with wither women or infant.Also birthing centers aren’t suited for women expecting tw ins, suffering from diabetes and having high blood pressure. References Birthing Center. Retrieved April 27, 2007, from http://www. americanpregnancy. org/labornbirth/birthingcenter. html Birthing Choices: Care Providers and Labor Locations. Retrieved April 27, 2007, from http://www. americanpregnancy. org/planningandpreparing/birthingchoices. html Rooks, J. & Weatherby, N. (1989). Outcomes of Care in Birth Centers. The New England Journal of Medicine, 321, 26, 1804-1811.

Comparison and Contrast of Hispanic Culture and Anglo-American Culture Essay

There is no universal culture amongst the world society as each community embraces a unique culture that guides and defines their behavior. The differences that are exhibited within any particular group of people in a country or a cultural group are usually greater than those differences that may be in a homogeneous group. The differences are usually noted in level of education, social standing, religious beliefs, personality definition, previous experiences, and affection that prevails in the home among other many factors that have an influence on human behavioral and cultural practices. Cultural differences are persistent even in the globalized world. It is therefore important to take note of the differences in order to have good knowledge of the customs, beliefs, values and norms of the divergent cultural groups. Cross cultural studies therefore are essential as they assist in coming up with a comparison of the various cultural differences that is observed in the various ethnic groups. When conducting cross-cultural studies, comparison becomes the main essence of the study thereby ensuring that generalized assumptions are inevitable as the researchers seek to categorize the cultural groups. We need however to be cautious that generalizations may lead to serious negative impacts especially when they are made from faulty observations. This paper shall aspire to give a comparison and contrast of the Hispanics and the Anglo-American cultures Hispanics: An analysis of the Hispanic community in the United States is not an easy task as there are several Hispanic groups in the country having different backgrounds especially in relation to their point of origin. The Hispanics are therefore not a single group with similar cultural characteristics as they exhibit differences in regard to political views, customs, religious beliefs, familial and other conventions that distinguish each group from the others. The focus on the Hispanics in this paper shall focus on four categories which include the Mexicans Americans, the Puerto Ricans, Cuban Americans, and those from the Central American region. The Mexican Americans trace their place of origin from Mexico while the Puerto Ricans are considered the citizens of the United States given that Puerto Rico is a United States’ territory. The Cuban Americans on the other hand are those who fled Cuba due to the political and economical turmoil that has been experienced in their country for quite some time. Lastly, the Hispanics from the central part of the Americas are said to have originated from various countries in the region (Kanellos, 1994). The Anglo-Americans: The Anglo-American refers to the ethnic group of individuals of European origin. The term ‘Anglo’ has come to be used to refer to the English speaking Americans with little reference to their particular origin more like the term Hispanic has been used to refer to the various groups that make the Native American population. The Anglo-Americans comprise of English speaking Americans who are in most instances Protestants with minority of them adhering to the Roman Catholicism. The term Anglo-American has been used to refer to all those individuals who originated from countries that traditionally spoke English as their main language and also those whose families have adopted the English speaking culture in the United States and Canada to perfection (Diaz-Guerrero & Szalay, 1991). Comparison and Contrast of the Hispanic and the Anglo-American Cultures: As stated earlier, there are various groups in the United States which form the larger Hispanic category. Nevertheless, the different groupings within the Hispanic block have distinct features which come out especially when compared to the Anglo-American way of doing things. The Mexican Americans for instance, are known to speak Spanish and they are taught in bi-lingual classes which involves English as their second language. The Mexican Americans have various values which are unique of the Anglo-Americans. The familial values of the Mexican Americans for instance are uniquely different from that exhibited by the Anglo-Americans. The Mexico Americans for instance emphasizes on the social structure that is rooted in the family unit (Kanellos, 1994). Though the women are greatly respected in their culture, the Mexican Americans holds that the women are inferior to their husbands in the homes. The husband is seen as the figure of authority and the chief decision maker for the family. They usually cherish large families and extended family ties are maintained. This is in contrast to the typical Anglo-American culture where both the man and woman in the house enjoy equal or almost equal right in the decision making process for the family. The family is based on democratic principles and small nuclear families are cherished. The bond for extended family ties is usually loose in the setting of the Anglo-American culture. Most Mexican Americans are also observed as Catholics and they put emphasis on the holding of religious moral values than their Anglo-American counterparts. Politically, the Mexican Americans have not been quick to stamp their authority in the political landscape within the United States save for the appointment of Alberto Gonzales as America’s Attorney General (Kanellos, 1994). This is in contrast to their Anglo-Americans who have dominated the political scene with most being identified with the Republican Party. Economically, the Mexico-Americans have remained generally sidelined as their Anglo-Americans counterparts continue to dominate the economic landscape. From the study done in 1989 it was revealed that Mexicans Americans earned 21% wages lower than the Anglo-Americans. Though these statistics can no longer be relied upon die to the passage of time, there still remains a significant gap between economic gains by these two groups (Franklin, 2010). The Puerto Ricans are well known for their general proficiency in Spanish and English languages. This concept has made life for this group of Hispanics more bearable than any of the other Hispanic groups. Contrary to the Mexican Americans, most of the households amongst the Puerto Ricans are headed by females. The Puerto Ricans submit to various religious groups which include Baptism, Catholics, Methodist and any other of the world religion more like their Anglo-Americans counterparts. Politically, the Puerto Rican have limited access to the same rights and political privileges enjoyed by any other American citizen though Puerto Rico is considered a United States’ territory from the year 1917. They are for instance not allowed to take part in presidential election. They are however exempted from paying the federal income tax. Though they have limitation on the rights associated with citizenship, the Puerto Ricans continue to enjoy exceptional unrestricted US migration (Diaz -Guerrero & Szalay, 1991). The Cuban Americans have come from a difficult background that was characterized by unstable political environment in their backyard and difficult economic conditions. They however carried with them much of the Spanish culture given that the Spanish had great influence on the Caribbean Island. Most of the Cuban Americans are Catholics though some traces of Protestantism, Jewish, Santeria, and nonreligious beliefs can be traced. It has however been noted that most Cuban Americans have been assimilated in the mainstream culture meaning that they have taken most of the Anglo-American culture leaving their own though they have kept a small portion of their original culture (Diaz -Guerrero & Szalay, 1991). The other Spanish group from the Central American region comprise of the Venezuelan Americans most of whom are Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese. Though most of them came to stay in America after the completion of their college studies in the US, they still maintain their familial ties which are very strong. They imbue in their children the value of family as an important aspect of the society at an early age. The familial ties are so strong that they at tomes make it hard for them to get assimilated in the American mainstream culture. Most of the Venezuelan Americans are Catholics though most do not hold religion in high esteem as the other Hispanic groups (Franklin, 2010). Other general aspects of the Hispanic groups’ culture include privacy which is only handled by the family members. They value modestly as part of their culture and that the area between the waist and the knees is considered as private. This is not common with the Anglo-Americans who are often exposes their body parts that would otherwise be considered private in Hispanic culture. The old members of the family are greatly respected given their experience with life. In regard to health practice, the Hispanics are known to be emotionally expressive and individuals are expected to be pampered when they fall ill. To most Hispanics, birth control measures are not entertained a part from the natural ones given that most are Catholics. They also view thinness as a problem and plumpness is considered ideal. This is in contrast to the Anglo-Americans who are pragmatic on heath issues and readily accept the birth control methods and also despise plumpness of the body (Culturediversity. rg, 2008). In a study conducted by Pablo G. Cardona, Bonnie C. Nicholson, and Robert A. Fox, in the year 2000 entitled ‘Parenting Among Hispanic and Anglo-American Mothers With Young Children’ it was found that Hispanic mothers had higher frequency of discipline and a lower frequency of nurturing with their young children compared to their Anglo-American counterparts though no differences were recorded in the expectations of both the Hispanic and Anglo-America n mothers (Cardona, Nicholson, and Fox, 2000). Conclusion: The cultural comparisons between the two cultural categories can go on and on without any sign of stopping any soon. The cultural differences observed between the Hispanics and the Anglo-Americans are reflected most in the familial affiliation, language, and religion. Most of the Hispanic groups in the United States have very strong family bonds, they subscribe to the Catholic faith and that they speak Spanish. This contrasts with the Anglo-Americans who speak English as their first language, have loose familial bonds and Protestantism is their main religion. Nevertheless, among the Hispanic groups are some differences especially in regard to how they have been able to get assimilated to the American lifestyle. The Puerto Ricans and the Cuban Americans are the most assimilated followed by the Venezuela Americans who are in the middle of being assimilated whereas the Mexican Americans are the least assimilated.

A Book on Writing for Novelists

A Book on Writing for Novelists A Book on Writing for Novelists A Book on Writing for Novelists By Maeve Maddox Before launching myself into the historical novel Ive been thinking about, I decided to read some books on writing before getting too far along. My luck was to pick up Sol Steins How to Grow A Novel. Some writing books are good for beginners, but some are not. I think that the writer who has completed a book length manuscript will get more out of the Stein book than one who is just getting started. I almost didnt read this book because of its title. As Ive mentioned elsewhere in DWT, the use of the transitive verb grow with a non-biological direct object produces a blackboard moment in me. Im glad that I didnt let this prejudice keep me from the trove of great advice to be found in this book. What hooked me was the subtitle: The Most Common Mistakes Writers Make and How to Overcome Them Stein knows what hes talking about. Hes a writer as well as an editor. He has written plays, poetry, and novels. The book is arranged in four sections of unequal length: The Responsibilities of the Writer The Responsibilities of the Publisher Envoi Practical Matters The first section is the meat of the book and discusses the expectations of the reader, the importance of conflict in every scene, and the development of plot, character, dialogue, and setting. Im not going to comment on every section. Theyre all useful, but I know that this is a book Ill read more than once. This time around I was most taken with what Stein says about conflict. Chapter Two poses the question Is Conflict A Necessity? This is how Stein answers it: Yes, conflict was and is a necessity, it is the essence of dramatic action. The engine of fiction is somebody wanting something and going out to get it. And if you let him get it right away, youre killing the storyWithoutopposition, fiction is a vehicle without an engine. What Ive taken away from this first reading of How to Grow a Novel is the importance of planning conflict into every scene before I take the time to write the scene. As I gear up to write my historical novel, Im taking the time to create a scene outline that I think will be more practical than any chapter outline Ive used for my previous novels. My new mantra is Conflict runs the engine. Each scene I sketch has a character who wants something and either gets it or doesnt get it by the end of the scene. When Ive got the first draft on paper, Ill go back to Steins book for help in revising it. You can find the book on Amazon.com Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Book Reviews category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:How to Format a UK Business LetterIn Search of a 4-Dot Ellipsis35 Synonyms for Rain and Snow

Do You Really Need Fiske Guide to Colleges Expert Review

Do You Really Need Fiske Guide to Colleges Expert Review SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Deciding which guidebooks will be most useful to you in the college research process can be pretty tricky. The Fiske Guide to Colleges is a commonly used resource for prospective college students, and it does contain a lot of useful information. However, it also has some major drawbacks and may not be very helpful in making a final decision on where to apply. In this review, I'll tell you all about the exclusive content of the guide, its overall pros and cons, and whether you should actually buy it and use it in your college search. Overview The Fiske Guide to Colleges has been around for over 30 years, but this review will focus on the 2015 edition of the guide.The Fiske Guide contains information about over 300 four-year colleges that its writers consider to be the â€Å"best and most interesting institutions in the nation†. In other words, it contains the schools that are the most relevant to the highest number of prospective students.The book is edited by Edward Fiske, the former education editor of the New York Times (hence its title). The Fiske Guide includes 175 of the most selective schools in the nation.In addition to schools with extremely high academic standards, it includes colleges that lend geographic diversity to the list and create an equal balance of private and public schools.The guide also incorporates specialty schools that may be based around engineering, a particular religious denomination, or a devotion to environmental conservation. Finally, it includes schools that the writers simply found interesting based on their unique curriculum. The Fiske Guide's reviews of colleges include lots of student testimony.Each college was provided with a questionnaire for students to fill out that asked about their experiences at the school with regards to accessibility of professors, quality of housing, nightlife, and campus dining.Administrators also were allowed to weigh in about their school and send information to the writers of the guide to aid in their understanding of the school’s goals and inner workings.Each school in the guide is accompanied by a 1,000 to 2,500-word descriptive essay incorporating student feedback and other information accumulated through published resources and visits to these colleges. What's your least favorite aspect of your college? It doesn't have enough money to buy a desk so I can fill out this questionnaire like a normal human being. What Specific Information and Resources Does the Guide Give You? Now that you have a basic idea of what the Fiske Guide to Colleges is, let's take a look at what information it can actually give you. The guide contains statistics and ratings for each school, lists of colleges broken down by category, and a survey to help determine your college preferences. Statistics Every college page is equipped with a sidebar of quick facts that gives you an overview of some essential statistics about the school. This offers a succinct look at the school's positive and negative qualities if you don't have time to read the full essay. College Cost The Fiske Guide gives you the percentage of students receiving financial aid at each school.You’ll also see a rating for how expensive the school is, ranging from one dollar symbol to four.This comes along with an indication of whether the college is public or private. A school that has the most expensive rating ($$$$) as a private college will be far more expensive than a public college with the same rating. You can find a guide to these ratings at the beginning of the book. For public schools, one $ indicates a price of less than $8,000, and for private schools it indicates a price of less than $37,000.Specific numbers are not provided because tuition prices can change from year to year, so these would become out of date very quickly.You’ll see statistics for the percentage of students who take out loans as well, along with the average debt for students at each school. Test Scores The Fiske Guide provides SAT and ACT score ranges for each school.The ranges reflect the middle 50% of admitted students, meaning the low end represents the 25th percentile of scores, and the high end represents the 75th percentile. Admissions and Enrollment Admissions statistics include the number of applicants, acceptance rate, and percentage of students enrolled out of the pool of accepted candidates.The guide also provides eachschool’s graduation rate after six years and the percentage of returning freshman. The total enrollment at the school along with the number of undergraduate students and the male/female ratio are included as well. I won't tell anyone you didn't actually graduate if you tell prospective students that we're installing giant waterslides on the green next year. Ratings These ratings are unique to the Fiske Guide, and they can be a helpful overview of how well-balanced a school is when considering both its academic offerings and social scene. Each is recorded on a scale of one to five. Academic Rating This rating is based on the school's reputation in the academic world, the quality of the faculty, the level of teaching and research, the academic ability and seriousness of students, and the quality of the academic facilities. Social Life Rating This measures the level of recreational student interaction on campus and how much time students devote to socializing in general. Quality of Life Rating The Fiske Guide has this rating category because sometimes schools with good academics and a healthy amount of socializing still don't have a particularly happy student body. In these rare cases the college's atmosphere might not be supportive or the location might be very isolated, leading to a decline in general quality of life. This rating measures overall student satisfaction. Low quality of life. Lists and Other Resources The Fiske Guide contains consolidated lists of schools that will help you find exactly what you're looking for based on price and curriculum focus. It also includes a college survey for those of you who still aren't sure of exactly what you want in a college. Best Buy Colleges and List of Schools by Price The guide's list of â€Å"Best Buy† colleges represents the schools that give you â€Å"outstanding academics with relatively modest prices†.The Fiske Guide for 2015 lists 44 Best Buy schools divided equally between public and private institutions.Essentially, they represent an intersection of four or five star academic ratings and one or two dollar signs price ratings(inexpensive to moderately expensive).Fiske also catalogs schools by price and public or private status at the beginning of the book so you can target your search towards the ones with the cheapest price tags. Lists of Schools by Type There are a couple of lists at the beginning of the guide that may help you narrow your search if you have a concentrated academic focus.One list, entitled â€Å"A Guide for Preprofessionals†, lists schools that are strongest in nine different preprofessional areas including architecture, art/design, business, communications/journalism, engineering, film/television, dance, drama, and music.This list also includes schools that are strong in environmental studies and international studies, two increasingly popular interdisciplinary majors.There are two other lists as well: schools that offer strong support for students with learning disabilities and schools that are test optional (they don't require SAT or ACT scores). College Search Survey Within its introduction, the Fiske Guide contains a mini-guide to your college search process.This includes a â€Å"sizing-yourself-up† survey that asks some basic questions about your likes, dislikes, and preferences for size, location, and academic/extracurricular offerings.The survey will give you a basic idea of what you want out of college, although it may be difficult to apply the results to your search within the book itself (more on this later). You seem like you have a lot of negative energy - you should probably buy the Fiske Guide 2015 2.0. It costs $2,000, but it will CHANGE YOUR LIFE. (Making fun of Scientology will never get old.) Pros and Cons: What Makes this Guide More or Less Useful for You? Now you know what's in the guide, but will it actually help you find your dream college? I'll go over the pros and cons of the guide so you can decide whether or not to buy one for yourself. Pros of the Fiske Guide If you already have some schools in mind, this guide can give you great insight into the perspectives of real studentsthrough its descriptive essays. You may not be able to find such a concise yet comprehensive overview of what campus life is like anywhere else. The Fiske Guide has reliable connections to students and administrators at the best schools in the country, and many of the essays provide more relevant student feedback than college review sites. The essays cover information in roughly the same order for each college.This makes it simple to look at a couple of essays about different schools and compare two topic descriptions (for example, descriptions of the academic climate at a school are always at the beginning of each essay). The statistics are easy to digest and not too overwhelming. With the pricing scales and symbolic representations of ratings, it’s easy to tell whether a school is a good fit without sorting through a bunch of confusing numbers. Specialized lists give you the means to conduct your search more logically. If you’re interested in a specific preprofessional area of study or are looking for schools that don’t require test scores, the lists in the Fiske Guide will quickly reveal your options. The introduction and college search survey go into detail about how to conduct your searchso it doesn’t feel as confusing. Cool, sounds good! Cons of the Fiske Guide Although this guide might be more fun to read than some other resources, it makes it difficult to filter out schools.The essays paint most schools in a pretty good light. For example, a school in the middle to lower end of the pack in the guide (3-star ratings and a 70% admissions rate) is heralded as an "undiscovered gem". There are also many statements like "humanities programs are very strong, but science majors are also enormously popular" and "students get the best of several worlds: excellence in engineering and the liberal arts, abundant research opportunities, and a healthy social life". While this may get you more excited for college and can be encouraging, it makes it tough to narrow down your list of schools.Every school seems to have so much going for it that it's nearly impossibly to pick favorites. The statistics are easy to understand, but they’re not particularly detailed. If you want more specific information about the costs of schools including in-state vs. out of state tuition and room and board, you will have to look elsewhere. It's true that tuition changes frequently, so the guide would be inaccurate very quickly if it gave specific numbers, but there are still some exact figures you should know before deciding on a college. Subjectivity, as outlined by the authors in the introduction, is a key feature of the Fiske Guide. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it does mean that you can’t take all the ratings as indisputable fact.It is easy to get caught up in the fact that one school has a four-star quality of life rating and another school has a three-star rating while ignoring the fact that the three-star school might be a better fit for you in other ways.For the Fiske Guide to be helpful, you have to be on your guard about which statistics are real and which are loosely based on reality but not true for every single student. Academic ratings, in particular, can be difficult to sort out.The guide only recommends comparing these ratings directly from one school to another if both schools are of a similar â€Å"type† - that is, two large public colleges or two small private colleges.A small private college with a five-star academic rating may have a very different academic climate than a large public college with the same rating. This makes differentiating between schools challenging if you don’t already have many of your preferences for size, location, and resources in mind. My wheat is w[h]eeping from these cons. Should You Use the Fiske Guide to Colleges? The Fiske Guide is a nice accessory for your college search, but it can sometimes lead to more doubts and confusion. It contains so many seemingly great options that it becomes very difficult to sort through them. My advice is to only usethe Fiske Guide if you’re (a) in the earliest stages of looking at colleges or (b) already have a strong idea of your preferences that won't be influenced too strongly by the guide's more subjective ratings. Underclassmen If you’re a freshman or sophomore and are just starting to investigate colleges, the Fiske Guide is a good way to start investigating what life is like at different schools without the pressure of having to make major decisions.It presents the college experience as an exciting and rewarding time in your life, and might help to motivate you to work towards ambitious academic goals early in high school. If this is your situation, a smart way use the book is to read descriptions of schools that vary significantly across different dimensions. For example, read the entry for a very small college and a very large college, and see which one appeals to you more. By doing this, you'll begin to see what your preferences are without having to zero in on a specific school. At this early stage, you could also just skim the book straight through and read more closely for schools that are of particular interest. There's no need to force yourself into any commitments. Juniors and Seniors The Fiske Guide also works well when you already have concrete preferences in mind and want to compare specific schools or types of schools that interest you.If you already have a narrower scope in mind for your search, the Fiske Guide can be a useful tool for evaluating the student experience at the types of schools that interest you.You’ll be able to make more logical and useful comparisons based on ratings if the schools you’re looking at already have many traits in common. For example, if you know cost is important to you, you can look at the school index by price and just read the descriptions of schools that are within your price range. If you're planning on going into a specific professional field, you can focus solely on schools listed as having top programs in that area. If you know where in the country you want to go to school, you can look only at schools that fit those location preferences. The College of Fine Arts at Carnegie Mellon, one of the private colleges listed in the Fiske Guide as having an excellent architecture program. If you aren’t sure where to begin with your college search and are already a junior or older, you may want to consult other resources before turning to the Fiske Guide.While the guide does contain a â€Å"sizing-yourself-up survey† to help you figure out what your preferences are for college, it may be difficult to apply your answers to your search within the book. Instead, trystarting with online resources that allow you to search by college type and provide more in-depth statistics on schools. Sites like Cappex (a college matchmaking site that includes suggestions for schools you might like based on your academic performance and other preferences), College Navigator (a site that allows you to search for schools by location, program type, and other factors), and FastWeb (for scholarships and other information about paying for college) are good places to narrow down your search and determine what you want out of college.When you have a better idea of what your preferences are, you can use the Fiske Guide to get a more colorful picture of student life that you might not see onthese sites. Overall, the Fiske Guide is fun to use, but it's not overly helpful in narrowing down your college choices if you’re unsure of what you want in the first place.It should be used in addition to, not as a substitute for, a great deal of introspection about what you want out of your higher educational experience. What's Next? If you're looking for tips on how to get started in your college search, read my article onhow to choose a college. Before you look at any guidebooks or websites, it can be helpful to narrow down your college preferences in terms of size and location. Learn more about the characteristics of large and small colleges and about whether you're better suited to a school that's close to home. Another good way to whittle down your choices is to decide if you might be interested in an in-state school. Take a look at this article to get a better idea of whether an in-state school might be a good choice for you. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points?We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:

Personal Statement Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 37

Personal Statement - Essay Example hieve the needed personal and professional in the absence of education, especially Higher Education that is known for setting the paradigm for organizations to be run. Personally, I have chosen marketing as a course and this is the area I want to penetrate with my academic studies at UCAS. My reason for choosing marketing is influenced by a number of factors, major among which is the need for me to take total advantage of booming oil and gas riches that is currently in place in Qatar. For me to take advantage of the oil and gas riches do not mean enriching myself through marketing but equipping my knowledge, skill and competence with the ever growing media and advertising popularity in Qatar. Because of the oil and gas riches, a lot of companies continue to spring up by the day. Because the companies are many, there is so much competition among them that they can hardly survive in the absence of media publicity and advertisement. This is where my professional knowledge in marketing will become useful. My ambitions as a marketer in Qatar are well laid out. In the first place, I am hoping to start from the relatively lower rank where I shall work for a number of up and coming multinational companies. As my experience grows, I would move on to higher grounds by taking state-oriented positions, especially towards the World Cup 2022. The World Cup is certainly a very big event that the government attaches so much importance to. The World Cup 2022 will bring Qatar closer to the whole world and thus the need to glorify the image of the country through a successful hosting. This is where the need for the tournament and country in general to be well marketed comes in. I therefore a person who can be described as very hungry for success since my ambition run very high into the long term. I currently have so many experiences, interests and background that make me very suitable for my ambition to go as far as marketing the World Cup 2022 in Qatar. For example I am a very