The Case of American Involvement in the Philippines Insurrection and the French in Algeria

The Case of American Involvement in the Philippines Insurrection and the French in Algeria Introduction The French involvement in Algeria and the American involvement in the Philippines during the 19th and 20th centuries are comparable as both nations applied military warfare to quell insurgents. However, several differences between the two cases are evidence. The purpose of this paper is to develop a comparative analysis of the French military involvement in Algeria and the American military incursion in Philippines.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The Case of American Involvement in the Philippines Insurrection and the French in Algeria specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Tactical strategic principles applied by the French in Algeria versus those applied by the US in the Philippines Similarities The French military involvement in Algeria during the counterinsurgency displayed a couple of similarities and differences with the tactics that the American forces used in countering the insurgency in Philippine. T aking the military tactics at the strategic and organizational levels, it is worth noting that the French in Algeria used military tactics aimed at controlling the situation. Both focused on controlling some important economic and political areas like the ports (House, 2008). They hoped to establish some ‘free fire zones’, where the insurgents would not attack, while leaving out the others areas of less economic important prone to insurgency. This is similar with what the Americans had done years before in the Philippine Islands (Boot, 2002). The Americans were interested in controlling some major islands of economic importance as well as major cities where American and European interest would be guarded. Most other areas considered of less military and economic importance were left prone to rebel attacks. Secondly, both the US and the French militaries won the war against insurgency due to their ability to mobilize and achieve international support. In addition, they w ere capable of providing their troops with adequate supplies and support, while ensuring that the insurgents had little support and resources at their disposal (Boot, 2002). In fact, both the US and the French achieved success over the rebels through cutting them off from vital resources and logistics rather than using excessive force to persuade them. In both cases, the foreign powers’ military involvements were not accepted at home, despite the government support the militaries had. For instance, in New York and Washington, a number of demonstrations took place, with the people calling the government to withdraw its forces from Manila and relinquish power to the locals (Horne, 1977).Advertising Looking for essay on history? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Similarly, the French were not happy with the incursions in Algeria, despite the government’s continued support to the military counterinsurgency ef forts. In both cases, the war took an incredible toll of lives, especially the locals rather than the opposing forces. Finally, the French and American forces in Algeria and Philippines respectively suffered guerilla-like attacks as both the Philippine rebels and the Berbers in Algeria, once they saw they could not fight the foreign powers, resolved to guerilla warfare. This is the point at which both the French and the American forces lost a good number of their troops. Differences On the other hand, the two cases differed significantly. While the American involvement in the Philippines resulted into the foreign power relinquishing power and appointing locals in major offices, the French in Algeria were determined to hold on to the rule, as it was common with the European colonialists (Boot, 2002). Secondly, the American goal to stick in the Philippines was not actually to maintain its rule there, rather it wanted to protect itself from possible attacks by Japan and her allies (Med off, 2011). On the other hand, the French were interested to maintain Algeria as a colony and increase its influence over the entire North African region. Moreover, while American forces seem to have allowed the insurgents to retain their rule over some islands, the French forces in Algeria carried out massive attacks and isolation of the insurgents, driving them into the mountains and deserts where their rule could not be viable (Medoff, 2011: House, 2008). References Boot, M. (2002). The Savage Wars of Peace: Small Wars and the Rise of American Power. New York: Basic Books. Horne, A. (1977). A Savage War of Peace. New York: The Viking Press.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The Case of American Involvement in the Philippines Insurrection and the French in Algeria specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More House, J. M. (2008). Historical Case Study: The French in Algeria, 1954-62. New York: US Army Sergeants Major Academy. Me doff, A. (2011). COIN and HNGs: Philippine Insurrection (1899-1902). Web.

8 Striking Ideas to Get out of Professional Essay Samples

8 Striking Ideas to Get out of Professional Essay Samples 8 Striking Ideas to Get out of Professional Essay Samples Many students struggle with writing essays. Some have not received quality instruction in the process of essay writing, or they may be too overwhelmed with the demands of day-to-day life to be able to focus on creating quality essays. Professional essay samples can be an invaluable tool if you find yourself really stuck. As long as you choose a good writing service, a sample can be instrumental in moving you quickly from staring blankly at your computer screen to creation of a real masterpiece. Here are the ways how a professional essay sample can help you with the writing process. 1. Choosing a Topic Are you completely stuck on trying to come up with the right topic for your paper? This initial step can feel daunting and often prevents the most well-intentioned students from even starting. But a sample essay can point you to the right direction and make you think about some great possibilities. It can even help you with that other daunting initial task coming up with a thesis statement. 2. Writing a Strong Opening The first impression is quite powerful. That’s why any expert will tell you that the most important part of any piece of writing is the first paragraph. The opening is the place where you either capture the reader’s attention or completely lose it. How does the professional sample essay begin? Does it have a strong hook that gets the reader’s attention? Does it state the purpose of the essay clearly so that the reader feels that it has a clear direction? Use these tactics while constructing your own first paragraph. 3. Organization Well-written essays have a logical flow and they are organized in a clear manner, with several main ideas and relevant supporting details for each of these. Imagine how an outline would look like for this sample essay, and use it while creating your own outline. 4. Sources Research can often be the most challenging aspect of the writing process. It’s difficult to know where to find reliable sources that can be used to support your thesis statement. The sources cited in your sample essay can give you an idea of where to start. 5. Proper Citation It can be confusing to master various citation styles. Some instructors require APA, others MLA. These look very different. Reading the rules or hearing a description of them isn’t all that helpful. You need concrete examples to give you confidence that you cite sources for your own paper the right way. 6. Transitions It is an art to make smooth transitions in an essay. You need a few well-placed transition words and an effortless segue from one paragraph to the next one. Easier said than done, right? Follow the sample essay and you will see how easily you tackle this issue. 7. Word Choice Good writers always know the right words to evoke certain emotions in their readers. Take note of the strong words used in your professional essay sample and how they impact you as a reader. Use this to get some idea of the kind of language that will be especially strong and effective for your own essay. 8. Argumentation Skill A good writer can skillfully argue their position. What are the techniques that the professional essay writer use to persuade readers to his/her point-of-view? You can use some of these strategies to develop your own argument. So don’t waste any more time feeling stuck wondering what to write and how to write it. Trust a professional to guide you in the process and make it less painful and more inspiring.

Effects of Accounting, Taxes and Regulations on Merger and Research Paper

Effects of Accounting, Taxes and Regulations on Merger and Acquisitions - Research Paper Example It is the objective of numerous medium and small-sized organizations, as they look to reduce the cost per unit through the enhancement of economies of scale. It makes simpler for the companies to enter and gain access to cheaper markets when they look for purchase in bulk as their requirement is also enhanced. The main factor that leads to a merger and acquisition is the motivation for revenue enhancement. The expectation to sell the product to a larger base of consumers by an increase in the distribution channels of the combined entity. (Schubert) Some companies also embark the use of product diversifications as they merge with other organizations in different geographical locations where they have no access previously such that their market becomes available in other places as well. It is also argued that the revenue enhancement is a more difficult aspect to realize compared to that of cost reduction as only a few firms are able to expand in a new market and procure further distribution channels. Companies in quest of mergers and acquisitions are always looking to reduce the risk that they bear in the market environment by adding up further capital, means of expansion and steady growth which could secure their place in the market. There is a great impact of risk management on the merger and acquisition transaction as the firms that are looking to merge share the burden of each other and can put forward more capital input together, therefore sharing the risk of capital exhaustion. Since the companies together have a better strength of payback, they are able to acquire more loans in time of need as their payback capacity also enhances through their combination. The mitigation of risk is the prime factor of merger and acquisition as entities that merge or acquire other entities have access to more resources where they can handle more pressure at a difficult time.

Memo 6 M Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Memo 6 M - Essay Example This clearly indicates that their loyalty is directed to the parties. The other work by Daniel Butler and David Nickerson takes a different perspective where it covers the question on whether the legislators are aware of the opinions of their constituents. The experiment to determine this was cautiously chosen so that the accuracy could not be affected by external factors. The experiment was conducted in a 2008 New Mexico’s special legislature session in which the constituent’s opinion on one time budget spending were forwarded to their legislators. The legislatures who received the opinions of their respective constituents were more likely to vote in favor of the constituents opinions. This implies that raising awareness on the opinions of the constituents could affect the representation. One of the shortcomings of the study is that it does not assess other groups that may influence the decision taken by the legislator such as parties and lobbyists. The important part that I feel has not been answered is whether legislators should be trustees or delegates. From a personal viewpoint, they should be trustees because they are not different from institutional board members. This is because shareholders elect the board members to help in leading the company and the legislators are elected to do the same but for the

Amos and Hosea Essay Example for Free

Amos and Hosea Essay Amos was a Judean who believed he was commissioned by Yahweh to address his words to Israel, However Hosea was a native Israelite. With these two men was the custom of recording oracles which appear to have begun, for if the words of their prophetic predecessors were preserved in a written form, then they would have long since been lost to us all. Within a few years, prophets sharing similar concerns with Amos and Hosea began to be active in Judah and their words too, were preserved. II Kings 15 and Amos 1-9 Amos stood in judgment of moral and ethical evil but, unlike them, he did not limit himself to single issues or to individual situations, but dealt with the decline of Yahwism and human behavior in all levels of society. Cities he mentions), patterns of cause and effect (3:3 ff.), and Israelite cult practices. His vivid imagery, drawn from nature, suggests an intelligent observer capable of relating his insights and experiences in powerful terminology. Perhaps the very simplicity of his life caused him to be shocked at the extravagances of the rich and the terrible poverty and helplessness of those who were the prey of the powerful. The luxury of summer and winter palaces as opposed to the hovels of the poor, the greedy demand of the very rich contrasted with the cry for justice and equity of the underprivileged drove him to harsh pronouncements against powerful, smug, content men and women, priests and king. The thrust of Amos condemnation is against the division of life into compartments. He argues for unity. What a man does in the market place, in the Court of law or, in his dealings with others cannot be walled off from worship. Yahweh is a God of all people; therefore the dealings of man with man are directly related to the dealings of God with man. His is a cry for the recognition of mans moral responsibility before God. But let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an Overflowing stream. Amos 5:24 AMOS RELIGIOUS CONCEPTS Amos beliefs concerning Yahweh and divine-human relationships were similar. Yahweh the creator, the God of hosts Amos never speaks of Yahweh as God of Israel), or possessed power over nature and nations. Despite the unrealistic emphasis, Yahwehs particular concern was Israel, the chosen or  elected people, Amos emphasized Yahwehs action in history in bringing the Hebrews to nationhood and greatness, and pointed out that the continuance of power and security rested in Yahweh.

Name and Chance of Success Essay examples -- Black and White Names, So

According to all the birth certificates from California dating from 1961 to 2001 DeShawn, DeAndre, Marquis, Tyrone, Imani, Ebony, Shanice, and Aaliyah are the â€Å"blackest† names a person could have (Levitt and Dubner 169-170). The whitest names are Jake, Connor, Tanner, Wyatt, Molly, Amy, Katie, and Madeline. This starkly demonstrates that black and white parents name their children differently (Levitt and Dubner 168-169). Additionally more black boys have names that are unique in society than white boys do (Fryer and Levitt 776). These cultural variations raise questions that stem from why and what does it mean? Will a name change the outcome of an individual’s life? Do names lead to different success rates in job acceptance, Income level, or personal accomplishment? If so, is the name really the cause of such outcomes or is it perhaps only a proxy for variables such as race or socioeconomic status? Evidence from audit studies, statewide birth certificate data, an d African American naming trends stemming from the civil rights movement support a correlation between name and chance of success. Correlation does not infer causation, however, so there may be more at play. Name is an indicator of socioeconomic status and that status is what will have an effect on chance of success. Audit studies show the correlation between name and chance of success. They test how names affect success rates in job acceptance. These types studies consist of sending two identical rà ©sumà ©s to prospective employers except one rà ©sumà © contains a white sounding name and the other contains a black or ethnic sounding name. The ratio of the white sounding applicants being called back for an interview versus the ethnic or black sounding applicant in then record... ...the 44th president of our United States. To these men, and many others in the world, the meaning of their name, or what their name connotates about their history or race, did not stop them from succeeding in society. The people who are born into lower class neighborhood and carry a distinctively black name are only less likely to succeed, however, it does not mean that they won’t. Just as a person born into a wealthy neighborhood is more likely to succeed but isn’t insured of it. Names, although a proxy for socioeconomic status, will not be a deciding factor in a person’s life. Of course it can be easier for a person to succeed who come from a wealthy educated family, and of course it can be harder for a person to succeed who comes from an uneducated poor family, but it is those factors, not a name, that will affect the chances of one’s success in today’s society.

Why Did the Tsarist Regime Collapse in 1917

Why did the Tsarist regime collapse in 1917? ‘By the beginning of 1917, tsarism was rotting from within. ’(1) Romanov’s had ruled Russia since 1613 but people were unhappy and the Tsarist regime was due to collapse for and it was inevitable that it would happen soon, it finally did under Tsar Nicholas II in 1917. There were many factors as to why the Tsarist regime collapsed some of the most important were Tsar’s personality, political opposition ,peasants and workers and The World War I. One of the factors that lead the tsarist regime to collapse was Tsar’s personality.Nicholas II was coronated in 1894 but he wasn’t ready to be a Tsar because just in 1881 he witnessed his granddads, Alexander II’s assassination when his carriage was blown up. Nicholas was not a strong character and he didn’t want to be a Tsar but he was religious and both he and his wife Alexandra believed they were chosen by God and couldn’t challenge hi s decision. ‘He had intelligence†¦ faith and courage but he was†¦ ignorant about governmental matters. Nicky had been trained as a soldier. He had not been taught statesmanship and†¦ as not a statesman. ’ (2) Also he was more of a family man rather than a ruler and was a devoted husband and father who looked good in the eyes of his people but he didn’t really bother about what happened to Russia and didn’t really do what he was meant to do; rule the country, which weakened him significantly. Although he was a good father he was unhappy as his only son Alexis suffered from haemophilia and it was likely to die young which again out the Tsar away from ruling the country. He was ignorant and refused to share power. He mistrusted most of his ministers and yet was incapable of carrying out the task of ruling the vast Russian empire alone. ’ (7) At first peasants were loyal to him and believed he’d carry on what his granddad did, free servants, relax censorship of the press, improve conditions of the army, change education and bring in Zemstva; locally elected councils, however he made the government weaker, he was almost the ‘invisible’ Tsar as he never travelled so his people didn’t know him and he couldn’t see what was best for them.People were poor, the communication and travel were awful as Russia was such a massive country, there were all sorts of nationalities and religions in the country so people couldn’t communicate well, the society was ‘backward’ as there were too many workers and peasants (82% of population) and they were poor and had no laws, the nobles had everything. As the tsar didn’t travel he couldn’t stop any revolutions and so he weakened himself. People began to question him and his ability to rule Russia; they were unhappy and started to plot on how to overthrow him. The present ruler has lost absolutely the affection of Russian people, and whatever the future may have in store for the dynasty, the present Tsar will never again be safe in the midst of his people. ’ (9) This showed people he was careless and weakened him. Another factor that lead the tsarist regime to collapse was the political opposition. ‘The key question is this-is the peaceful renovation of the country possible? Or is it possible only by internal revolution? ’(6) There were many people who wanted the Tsar to collapse.Some like Octobrists or Kadets were more peaceful. Kadets were middle-class liberals who wanted elected parliament. They had the support of well educated wealthy people in towns, but that wasn’t enough people and they didn’t attract peasants and workers which was bad as they were the majority. The Social Revolutionaries and Social Democrats wanted revolution. ’Both groups were prepared to work with the liberals, providing the latter continued to push the tsarist regime towards greater democracy and parliamentary power. (5) Social Revolutionaries were supported be peasants and they wanted to give peasants land to make their life better and make them happy, however because of the size of the country and ignorance of the peasants, the revolution was impossible. They were divided in aims and methods as some wanted to share land and some wanted communism and eventually their revolution didn’t happen. Lenin and Trotsky were in the Social Democrats; they were supported by factory workers and followed communist teachings.They wanted to overthrow the government, however they were also divided; Mensheviks wanted to get a big group of people including the middle class but Bolsheviks wanted small amount of people who would organise strikes and demonstrations. ‘We Bolsheviks will not shirk the task. ’(1) This showed the people that if so many people wanted change then surely there is something wrong with the Tsar’s ruling. The 1905 revolutions was the perfect opportunity for opposition to show the Tsar how many people needed change and to show people the Tsar was not fit to rule.The spark that started it off was the Bloody Sunday it was a peaceful petition from Father Gapon to ask for change but the Tsar got troops to attack the 200,000 workers who marched to him to ask for help, but the Tsar didn’t care he feared for his life, maybe he knew he was a bad Tsar and thought that people were coming to assassinate him like his grandfather. This got people to think whether the Tsar actually care about his people.The economic problems also led to the revolution, the government borrowed money, the violence from troops continued, the taxes for poorest went up, the working and living conditions were terrible and people were angry. The Russo-Japanese war meant prices went up and shops lacked food and goods, industries closed leaving people unemployed and hungry and even though Tsar thought war was a good idea he became less popul ar as people thought he was incapable to rule and Russia got defeated and humiliated which was yet another one of Tsars mistakes. There were riots and disorders in the streets, and I think it’s the best description of a revolution; people were smashing up shops, looting bread shops; women particularly. ’(1) Everyone hated the Tsar which weakened the Tsarist regime as people knew the Tsar wasn’t fit to rule them. The next factors that lead the Tsarist regime to collapse were the peasants and workers. At first the people saw Tsar as a father figure as that was what the Orthodox Church taught and people were very religious and they blamed landlords and factory owners.People believed Russia will change under Nicholas, when he was crowned ‘The crowds have been building up for two days. ’(1) However this quickly began to change and peasants and workers realised that the Tsar didn’t care about them but they had hope. The workers, worked over 12 hour s, they were poor, and they had hard work and had no privacy. Factories were open 24/7 and 30 people had to be cramped into a one little room and worked for minimal wages.Whole families including children were working just so they could buy something to eat and improve their lives. Both workers and peasants ate cheap, awful food and their life expectancy was less than 40 years. The peasants didn’t have enough land; some of them were taken to work in factories as 4/5 people at that time were peasants. This angered them and they started to blame the Tsar directly. ‘They receive terrible wages and generally live in overcrowded conditions†¦ but manufactures have received permission to use overtime. (3) People were so fed up they ‘increasingly formed protests. ’ (4) Which was really bad for the Tsar, as peasants and workers formed protests everyone would soon find out and join them. There were so many of the workers that when Father Gapon made a petition â €˜Do not refuse to help your people. Destroy the wall between yourself and your people. ’(12), it wasn’t hard to get 200,000 people to march to Tsar with him but the Tsar was already threatened and killed most of them, ‘The soldiers fired all day long. (8) However peasants didn’t give up on wanting their bit of land and so when after 1905 revolution they were promised it as the Tsar promised it to them, they stopped all protests and were overwhelmed but a year later the Tsar took it away from them, which was a massive mistake as he proved that he didn’t care about his people at all and was another reason to get rid of him. Russian people were angry and wanted to get rid of the Tsar. Instead of ‘destroying the wall’ Nicholas II made it bigger and this weakened his regime.The last factor that lead the Tsarist regime to collapse was the World War I. Russia suffered from shortage of food due to bad harvests, poor transport and loosing ri ch farmland to Germans, people were starving and were unhappy ‘The combination of a population explosion, backward farming techniques and poor policy making had made for a grave crisis’(5) but the Tsar decided to leave Russia went to be the commander-in-chief of the war. ‘His decisions showed him to be hopelessly out of touch. (1) Russia had no good rifles and soldiers had to wait for someone in front of them to die so they could take their rifle and participate in the war. ‘If we should have three days of serious fighting, we might run out of ammunition altogether. ’(10) The support of the army ebbed away and the Tsar could no longer blame the defeats on his subordinated and had to take the responsibility himself, the soldiers now blamed him directly for their misery.The peasants who made up most of the army and had the image of the wise and caring Tsar further shattered. As the Tsar left, he left Tsarina in charge of Russia, Alexandra refused to tak e any advice from loyal middle-class ‘Alexandra was the dominant personality in the relationship’ (7) and she refused to share power like the Tsar, and so she was blamed for everything that went wrong. The patriotic people became frustrated at Tsarina’s incompetence; they were convinced someone else would be better.People hated everything German, they even changed the name St. Petersburg to Petrograd as it sounded too German, but Tsarina was German, which made her more unpopular. There were rumours that she was sabotaging Russia and was a German spy so that Germany could win the war. Rasputin was believed to be a holy man as he healed Alexis and so he had a lot of influence over Tsarina, there were a lot of scandals surrounding them which made Tsarina even more unpopular. People believed they had an affair and there were rumours that they were German agents. Alexandra made decisions based on whims or messages from God, mediated by Rasputin. ’(1) People bel ieved he was leading the country to its doom. Russian’s were angry as Rasputin was just a peasant and he helped to rule the country and they didn’t understand why such person should be allowed to do that. Some were also wondering why the Tsar allowed Rasputin to be so close with the royal family ‘I did realise that the man possessed great hypnotic power. ’(11) Finally in December 1916, Rasputin got murdered by a group of jealous nobles ‘Rasputin was dead†¦ ur hearts filled with hope’ (1) but it was too late to restore the reputation of the royal family in the eyes of Russian people and so this weakened and lead to the destruction of Tsarist regime. In conclusion I think that the most important weakness was Tsar’s personality as, he didn’t want to be a Tsar in the first place, he was ignorant and if he tried to listen to his ministers he wouldn’t have made as many mistakes as the Russo-Japanese war or the Bloody Sunday ; so in effect the 1905 revolution.The peasants and workers didn’t want much so only if he improved their wages and gave them some land and continue what his granddad Alexander II had done, he would’ve had their support and avoid weakening himself. If he was travelling around and was liked by his people, political opposition wouldn’t form and so there would be peace in Russia and he would’ve been a strong Tsar. If he didn’t care only about himself and his family, the Tsarist regime would have been strong and Russian people would have been satisfied and the Tsarist regime would continue.

Data communications system Essay

1.Message. 2.Sender 3.Receiver. 4.Transmission medium. 5.Protocol. Q1-11) Why are protocols needed? To achieve end-to-end delivery of data. Q-17) Explain the difference between an Internet draft and a proposed standard? – An Internet draft is a working document (a work inprogress) with no official status and a six- month lifetime. – A proposed standard is elevated to draft standard status after atleast two successful independent and interoperable implementations. Q2-5) A host communicates with another host using the TCP/IP protocol suite. What is the unit of data sent or received at each of the following layers? a. application layer:Message b. network layer:Datagram c. data-link layer:Frame Q2-12) When we say that the transport layer multiplexes and demultiplexes application layer messages, do we mean that a transport-layer protocol can combine several messages from the application layer in one packet? Explain. The TCP/IP protocol suite uses several protocols at some layers, we can say that we have multiplexing at the source and demultiplexing at the destination. Multiplexing in this case means that a protocol at a layer can encapsulate a packet from several next-higher layer protocols (one at a time); demultiplexing means that a protocol can decapsulate and deliver a packet to several next-higher layer protocols (one at a time). To be able to multiplex and demultiplex, a protocol needs to have a field in its header to identify to which protocol the encapsulated packets belong. At the transport layer, either UDP or TCP can accept a message from several application-layerprotocols. At the network layer, IP can accept a segment from TCP or a user datagram from UDP. IP can also accept a packet from other protocols such as ICMP, IGMP, and so on. At the data-link layer, a frame may carry the payload coming from IP or other protocols such as ARP. P1-4) For each of the following four networks, discuss the consequences if a  connection fails. a. Five devices arranged in a mesh topology. It Will not failed b. Five devices arranged in a star topology (not counting the hub). It Will not failed c. Five devices arranged in a bus topology. It will failed d. Five devices arranged in a ring topology. It will failed P2-11) Protocol layering can be found in many aspects of our lives such as air travelling. Imagine you make a round-trip to spend some time on vacation at a resort. You need to go through some processes at your city airport before flying.You also need to go through some processes when you arrive at the resort airport. Show the protocol layering for the round trip using some layers such as baggage checking/claiming, boarding/unboarding, takeoff/landing. 1-Print your boarding pass and check your luggage. 2-Head to security. 3-Find your gate/terminal. 4- Hang out and wait for your plane. 5-Wait for the announcement to board. 6-Get your boarding pass checked. 7-Enter the aircraft. 8-Stow your carry-on items. 9- Get settled in.

Free Essays on How To Click It Or Ticket

Click it or ticket â€Å"Click it or ticket†, that is what my grandson has to say every time someone gets ready to leave in an automobile. I can’t believe what one child has to say would make such a difference in my life. I was one who hated when the law passed, making not wearing seat belts illegal. I truly felt that seat belts could cause death or major injury. This was real to me, because when growing up, I was in a car accident with my sister. She was driving me and my friend to pick up a birthday cake. A Car came out of now where, ran a stop sign and completely removed the front end of the car. She was not wearing a seat belt and was able to jump into the back seat where we were. That saved her, otherwise she would have probably loss her legs or been paralyzed. Another time, about 15 years ago, she was involved in another accident. Again, not wearing a seat belt, she was broad sided on both sides of her car (a chevette). On one side by a 18 wheel vehicle and the other, a pick up truck. She was just like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, smashed together. Luckily she was not in a seat belt and was able to scoot over to the center of the vehicle. The accident was so bad; they had to get her out of the car with the Jaws of Life. She only had a few bruises and sore bones. The thing that changed my mind about seat belts happened about 4 months ago. I would never put on a seatbelt, but when listening to my grandson repeat over and over the slogan he had heard on television â€Å"click it or ticket†, I appeased him, and for this was the right thing to do. As I left home one morning, he ran up to me saying â€Å"click it or ticket† grandma, I Love You! I put on my seat belt and drove off. Not even 2 blocks away, a speeding car came through the intersection, not stopping for the sign. Guess what? BANG! There I was being hit on the tail end of my car. My car went spinning around in circles, hitting a fire hydrant, and ending ... Free Essays on How To Click It Or Ticket Free Essays on How To Click It Or Ticket Click it or ticket â€Å"Click it or ticket†, that is what my grandson has to say every time someone gets ready to leave in an automobile. I can’t believe what one child has to say would make such a difference in my life. I was one who hated when the law passed, making not wearing seat belts illegal. I truly felt that seat belts could cause death or major injury. This was real to me, because when growing up, I was in a car accident with my sister. She was driving me and my friend to pick up a birthday cake. A Car came out of now where, ran a stop sign and completely removed the front end of the car. She was not wearing a seat belt and was able to jump into the back seat where we were. That saved her, otherwise she would have probably loss her legs or been paralyzed. Another time, about 15 years ago, she was involved in another accident. Again, not wearing a seat belt, she was broad sided on both sides of her car (a chevette). On one side by a 18 wheel vehicle and the other, a pick up truck. She was just like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, smashed together. Luckily she was not in a seat belt and was able to scoot over to the center of the vehicle. The accident was so bad; they had to get her out of the car with the Jaws of Life. She only had a few bruises and sore bones. The thing that changed my mind about seat belts happened about 4 months ago. I would never put on a seatbelt, but when listening to my grandson repeat over and over the slogan he had heard on television â€Å"click it or ticket†, I appeased him, and for this was the right thing to do. As I left home one morning, he ran up to me saying â€Å"click it or ticket† grandma, I Love You! I put on my seat belt and drove off. Not even 2 blocks away, a speeding car came through the intersection, not stopping for the sign. Guess what? BANG! There I was being hit on the tail end of my car. My car went spinning around in circles, hitting a fire hydrant, and ending ...

How to Improve Your ACT Reading Score 8 Expert Tips

How to Improve Your ACT Reading Score 8 Expert Tips SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Are you struggling with ACT Readingscores between 14 and 24? You're not alone- hundreds of thousands of students are scoring in this range. But many don't know the best ways to break out of this score range and score 26 or higher. Here, we'll discuss how to improve your ACT Reading score effectively, and why it's so important to do so. Unlike other fluffy articles out there, I'm focusing on actionable strategies.Put these eight strategies to work, and I'm confident you'll be able to improve your ACT score. Brief note: This article specifically targets lower-scoring students- i.e., those scoring below 26 on ACT Reading. If you're already above this range, my perfect 36 ACTReading score article is more appropriate for you as it contains more advanced strategies. In this article, I'm going to discuss why scoring high is a good idea, go over what it takes to score a 26, and then jump into our top ACTReading tips andstrategies. Stick with me- this is like building a house. You need to lay a solid foundation before you can put up the walls and pretty windows. Similarly, we need to make sure we understand why you're doing what you're doing before we can dive into tips and strategies. In this guide, I talk mainly about getting to a 26. But if your goal is a 24 or lower, these concepts still equally apply to how you should study. This is a pretty long article, so here's what we'll be covering (in case you want to skip around or review a section): Getting a 26 on the ACT: Understand the Stakes Know That You Can Get a 26 ACT Score or Higher What It Takes to Get a 26 in ACT Reading Strategy 1: Save Time on Reading Passages by Switching Your Reading Strategy Strategy 2:Learn to Eliminate the 3 Wrong Answers Strategy 3:Find Your Reading Skill Weaknesses and Drill Them Strategy 4: Only Use High-Quality ACT Reading Sources Strategy 5:Don't Focus On Vocab Strategy 6:Skip the Most Difficult, Time-Consuming Questions Strategy 7:Understand All Your Reading Mistakes Strategy 8: Guess on EveryQuestion You Don't Know Getting a 26 on the ACT: Understand the Stakes At this score range of 14-24, improving your ACT Reading scoreto a 26 or higher will dramatically boost your chances of getting into better colleges. Let's take a popular school as an example: the University of California, Riverside. The average ACT score of admitted applicants to UC Riverside is 23(out of 36). Its 25th percentile score is 22, and its 75th percentile score is 28. Furthermore, its acceptance rate is 56%. In other words, a little more than half of all applicants are admitted.But the lower your ACT score is, the worse your chances are of getting in. In our analysis, if you score around 22, your chance of admission drops to just 43%. But if you raise your score to 26, your chance of admission goes up to 75%- that's a really good chance of admission!And the higher your score gets, the more certain you are to get in. In short, improving your ACT Reading score will bump up your average composite score.And improving your ACT composite score, even by just 5 points, can make a huge difference in your chances of getting into your target colleges. For the Reading section, this is especially true if you want to apply to humanities majors and programs, such as English or communications. They expect you to have a strong Reading score. If you have a low one, they'll doubt your ability to do college-level humanities work. Even if you're a math superstar and are applying to a science major, schools still need to know that you can process difficult texts at a college level. A low Reading score will cast huge doubt on you. 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 ACTscore? Check out ourexpert college admissions guide for a 26 ACT score. Know That You Can Get a 26 ACT Score or Higher This isn't just supposed to be a vague happy-go-lucky message you see in a fortune cookie. I mean, literally, you and every other student can do this. In my job here at PrepScholar, I've worked with thousands of students scoring in the lower ranges of around 14-20. Time after time, I see students who beat themselves up over their low scores and think improving them is impossible. They often say the following: "I know I'm not smart." "I just can't read passages quickly, and I don't know how to improve my ACT Reading score." "I was never good at English, and my English teachers have never told me I did a good job." This breaks my heart. Because I know that, more than anything else, your ACTscore is a reflection ofhow hard you work and how smartly you study. Not your IQ and not your school grades. Not how Mr. Crandall in 10th grade gave you a C on your essay. The key point here is thatACT Reading is designed to trick you- and you need to learn how. Here's why: the ACT is a weird test. When you take it, don't you feel as though the questions are different from those you've seen in school? I bet you've had this problem: withACT Reading passages, you often miss questions because of an "unlucky guess." You try to eliminate a few answer choices, but the remaining choices all seem like they are equally likely to be correct. So you throw up your hands and randomly guess. The ACT is purposely designed this way to confuse you.Literally millions of other students have the exact same problem you do. And the ACT lovesthis. Normally, in your school's English class, your teacher tells you that all interpretations of a 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. They can get in trouble for telling you what to think, and they feel bad about restricting your creativity. But the ACT has an entirely different problem. It's a national test, meaning it needs a level playing field for all students around the country. It's even used in many states as a statewide standardized test. As a result, the test needs to be rock solid. And every question must have a single, unambiguously, 100% correct answer. There's only ever one correct answer. Find a way to eliminate three incorrect ones. Imagine if this weren't the case. Imagine that a Reading question had two answer choices, both of which might beplausibly correct. When scores come out, every single student who got the question wrong would probably complain to ACT, Inc., about the test being wrong or misleading. If this were true, ACT, Inc., would then have to throw out the question, which is a huge hassle. Have too many of these incidents, and there'd be a big scandal about the ACT failing to do its job. ACT, Inc., wants to avoid this nightmare scenario. Therefore, every single Reading passage question has only one correct answer. This is an important concept to remember. It makes your life a lot easier- all you have to do is eliminate the three wrong answer choices to get the single right one. But the ACT purposely disguises this fact to make life more difficult for you. It asks questions that are typically worded as so: It can reasonably be inferred that: Which of the following best describes: The author's contemporaries for the most part believed: Notice a pattern here? The ACT always disguises the fact that there's only 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 ACT in the right way don't appreciate this. But if you prepare for the ACT in the right way, you'll learn the tricks the ACT plays on you.And you'll raise your score. The ACT Reading section is full of patterns like these. To improve your score, you just need to do the following: Learn the types of questions the ACT tests, such asthe ones above Learn strategies to solve these questionsusing skills you already know Practice with a lot of realistic 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. First, though, let's see how many questions you need to get right to get a 26 on Reading. What It Takes to Get a 26in ACTReading If we have a target score in mind, it helps to understand what you need to get that score on the actual test. Remember that we're aiming for a Reading test score of 26,out of 36. Here's the raw score to ACT Reading Score conversion table. (If you could use a refresher on how the ACT is scored and how raw scores are calculated, read this guide.) Raw Scaled Raw Scaled Raw Scaled Raw Scaled 40 36 29 26 19 19 9 12 39 35 28 25 18 18 8 38 34 27 24 17 17 7 10 37 33 26 23 16 16 6 10 36 32 25 23 15 16 5 8 35 32 24 22 14 15 4 7 34 31 23 21 13 14 3 6 33 30 22 21 12 14 2 5 32 29 21 20 13 1 3 31 28 20 19 10 12 0 1 30 27 Source: Official ACT Practice Test 2017-18 Note that if you're aiming for a 26 in ACT Reading, you'll need a raw score of 29/40.This is a 72% score. This has serious implications for your testing strategy. In essence, you only need to get right about 3/4 of all Reading questions.We'll go into more detail below about what this means for your approach to this ACT section. Whatever you're scoring now, take note of the difference you'll need to get to a 26. For example, if you're scoring a 20, you'll need to answer about eight more questions correctly on ACT Reading in order to get a 26. Once again, if your goal is a 20, the same analysis applies. Just find your target raw score using the chart above. OK- so far we've covered why scoring a higher ACT Reading score is important, why you're fully capable of improving your score, and the raw score you'll need to get in order to hit your target score of 26. I hope a lot of this was useful and changed how you thought about ACTprep. Now, we'll get into the real, working strategies you should use in your ACT Reading prep. 8 Strategies to Improve Your Low ACT Reading Score In this section, we introduce our eight best strategies that are guaranteed to raise your low ACT Reading score. Strategy 1: Save Time on Reading Passages by Switching Your Reading Strategy From the thousands of students I've worked with, by far the most common problem students have with ACTReading passages is that they keep running out of time before they can get through all the questions. This is a problem because, unlike ACT Math, the passage questions aren't arranged in order of difficulty. Therefore, by not completing all the questions in time, you could miss easy questions at the end that you would have gotten right if you'd only had enough time. What's the cause of this? The most common one I see is that students are reading the passages in far more detail than they actually need to be.Once again, this is a consequence of what you learn in English class. In English, you've probably gotten (stupid) tests that quiz you about what Madame Bovarysaid in a particular scene, or what color Tom's T-shirt was. So of course you've learned to pay attention to every single detail. The ACTis different. For a passage that's 90 lines long, there will be only 10 questions. Many of these don't even refer to specific lines- they talk about the point of the passage as a whole,or the tone of the author. The number of questions that focus on small, line-by-line details is low. Therefore, it's a waste of time to read a passage line by line, afraid that you'll miss a detail they'll ask you about. The best way to read a passage: skimming it on the first read-through. This is why I recommend thatall students try this ACT Reading passage strategy: Skim the passage on the first read-through. Don't try to understand every single lineor write notes predicting what the questions will be. Just get a general understanding of the passage. You want to finish reading the passage within three minutes, if possible. Next, go to the questions. If the question refers to a line number, go back to that line and try to make sense of the text around it. If you can't answer a question within 30 seconds, skip it. (More on this strategy later.) These steps are important because Reading questions ask about far fewer lines than the passage actually contains. For example, lines 5-20 of a 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 you could've spent elsewhere. Some students take this strategy to the extreme by reading the questionsbefore the passage. If a question refers to any specific line or lines, they mark those in the passage. This then gives them a guide to focus on important lines when they actually start to read the passage. Different strategies work for different students. You need to try out different ones so you can see which one gives you the best results. But by and large, I'm confident that you're spending way too much time reading the passage. Strategy 2:Learn to Eliminate the 3 Wrong Answers I talked above about how the ACT always has one unambiguously correct answer. This has a huge implication for the strategy you should use to find the right ACT 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? 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 have to learn how to eliminate three answer choices for every single Reading question. "Great, Allen. But this doesn't tell me anything about how to eliminate wrong answer choices." Thanks for asking. There are a few classic wrong answer choices the ACTloves to use. Here's an example: Imagine you just read a passage focusing on how human evolution shaped the environment. It offers a few examples. First, it talks about how the transition from earlier species such asHomo habilus to neanderthals led to more tool usage like fire, which caused wildfires and thus shaped the ecology. It then talks about Homo sapiens 40,000 years ago and their overhunting of certain species, such as the woolly mammoth, to extinction. Sounds like a plausible passage, right? It fits into that weird style of ACT Reading passages that's oddly specific about a topic you've likely never thought deeply about before. We then run into a question asking, "Which of the following best describes the main subject of the passage?" Here are our possible 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 (Note that we're using five answer choices for illustration even though the ACT only has four.) As you're reading these answer choices, a few of them probably started sounding really plausible to you. Surprise! Each of the answers from A-D has something seriously wrong with it. Each one is a classic example of a wrong answer type given by the ACT. Let's look at how we can tell these are incorrect. Wrong Answer 1 (A): 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 was 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? In this case, you’ll find that A is just way too specific to convey the point of the overall passage. Wrong Answer 2 (B): Too Broad B: The study of evolution This type of wrong answer has the opposite problem than the one above- it’s way too broad. Yes, theoretically the passage is about the study of evolution, but only one aspect of it (human evolution) and particularly as it relates to its impact on the environment. To give another crazy example- let's say you talked to your friend about losing your cell phone. He saysthe main point of your conversation was the universe. Well, while you were talking about the universe in some form (you're part of the universe just like everyone else is!), this was actually only a tiny, tiny fraction of your conversation. Just the same, answer choice Bis far too general. Wrong Answer 3 (C): 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.The passage is about how humans affected the environment- not the reverse. Students who read too quickly make careless mistakes much like these because all the words sound right at a glance! Wrong Answer 4 (D): 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 in your personal life, this might be a trigger answer since any discussion of evolution becomes a chance to argue about its plausibility. Of course, althoughthis concept appears nowhere in the passage,some students just won’t be able to resist choosing answer choice D. Do you see the point? On the surface, each of the answer choices sounds possibly correct. But possibly isn't good enough. The right answer needs to be 100%, totally right. Wrong answers might be off by even one word- and you need to eliminate those. Carry this thought into every ACT Reading passage question you do. Next strategy: find your weak links and fix them. Strategy 3:Find Your Reading Skill Weaknesses and Drill Them ACT Reading passage questions might look similar, but they actually test very different skills. At PrepScholar, we've categorized the major passage skills as follows: Big Picture/Main Point Little Picture/Detail Vocabulary in Context Inferences Author Function That's a good number ofskills! More than is obvious when you're reading a passage on the test. Each of these question types uses different skills in regard to how you read and analyze the passage.They each require a different method of prep and focused practice. If you're like most students, you're better at some areas in Reading than you are at others. You might be better at getting the big picture of a passage compared to an inference. Or you might be really strong at understanding the author's tone but not so strong at figuring out the meaning of a phrase in context. 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 have extracurriculars (for example, maybe you're an athlete or a member in your school band), and you have friends to hang out with. This means that for every hour you study for the ACT, 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 ACTisn'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 this: they wasted their time on subjects they already knew and didn't spend enough time on their weaknesses. Studying effectively for the ACT is like plugging up holes in a leaky boat. You need to find the biggest hole and fill it. You then need to find the next biggest hole and fix that, too. Soon you'll see that your boat isn't sinking at all. How does this relate to ACT Reading? You need to find the sub-skills you're weakest in and then drill those until you're no longer weak in them. Fixing up the biggest holes. With ACT Reading, you need to figure out whether you have patterns in your mistakes. Are you consistently running out of time on reading passages? Having trouble with Inference questions? Really struggling with interpreting details? For every question you miss, you must identify what type of question it is. Once you notice patterns in the questions you miss, you need to practice this sub-skill extra hard. Say you miss a lot of inference questions (this is typically the hardest type of question for students to get). Your goal is to find a way to get focused practice questions for this skill so you can drill your mistakes and improve. Bonus: If all of this is making sense to you, you'd love our ACTprep 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 - in Reading, English, Math, and Science. 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. 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: Only Use High-Quality ACT Reading Sources ACT Reading passages are very specific in how they work. ACT Reading questions, too, are very specifically phrased and constructed to have bait answers. If you want to improve your Reading score, you have to use realistic ACT Reading sources.If you don't, you'll develop bad habits and end up training the wrong skills. Think about it like this: let's say you're trying out for a baseball team. Instead of practicing with real baseballs, you decide to practice with Wiffle balls instead.It's a lot cheaper and easier, and hitting the ball makes you feel good. So you train and train and train with a Wiffle ball. You understand how the Wiffle ball curves when it's thrown, how to hit it, and how to throw it. Finally, you try out for the baseball team. A pitch comes, but it's way faster than you've ever practiced with before. It doesn't curve like a Wiffle ball does. Swing, and a miss. You've trained with the wrong thing, and now you're totally unprepared for baseball. This is not real baseball. ACT Reading works in the exact same way. Train on badly written tests, and you'll develop poor habits and unhelpful strategies. The very best sources for ACTReading passages areofficial ACT practice tests.This is why we include official practice testsin our ACT prep program- we can gauge your progress and train you on the real thing. Unfortunately, there's a limited number of official practice tests: five free PDFs online, and five in the old third edition of theofficial ACT prep guide(the newest edition includes three practice tests, but these overlap significantly with the free ones online). Thus, to have enough questions to practice on, you'll need to find other sources of questions. The first suggestion is to use prep resources customized for the ACT.Be careful, though- most companies release poor quality passages and questions (most books you see on ACT Reading are pretty terrible, frankly). This is especially harmful for ACT Reading because the style of passages and what questions ask are complex, as opposed to ACT Math which is more straightforward. To write realistic questions, you need to understand the test inside and out. That's why at PrepScholar, we've created what I believe are the highest quality Reading questions available anywhere. This is what we've done: We've deconstructed every available official ACT practice test, question by question, answer choice by answer choice. We've statistically studied every question type on the test, and we understand exactly how questions are phrased and how wrong answer choices are constructed. As head of product, I'm responsible for content quality. I hire only the most qualified content writers to craft our test content. This means people who got perfect scores on the ACT, who have hundreds of hours of ACT teaching experience, and who graduated from Ivy League schools. This results in the most realistic, highest quality ACT Reading questions. Even if you don't use PrepScholar, you should be confident that whatever resource you do use undergoes the same scrutiny as we use.If you're not sure, or you see reviews saying otherwise, it's best to avoid it. For more tips on what ACT resources to use,learn what my favorite ACT Reading books are. Strategy 5:Don't Focus On Vocab Vocab 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- you feel as though you're learning something and it's worth your money. But the truth is, learning vocab doesn't really help you. Fortunately, vocab doesn't play more than a minor role in your ACT Reading score. This has always been less of a problem for the ACT than the SAT, which used to feature vocab-heavy Sentence Completion questions. Thankfully, the SAT removed these questions in 2016. But still, a lot of students look for ACT vocab lists to study with, and it's just not a good use of time. The only real questions you'll need to use vocab skills for are the Vocab in Context questions. Here's an example of one from an official ACT practice test: As it is used in line 13, the word popular most nearly means:A)well likedB)commonly knownC)scientifically acceptedD)most admired Wait- "popular"? They're asking a question about the word "popular"? Yes, it's a common word, but the key to this question is understanding how it's used in context.Popular can mean all the things listed in the answer choices, but only one of them is actually correct in this case. Here's the source sentence: It includes the area known in popular legend as the Bermuda Triangle. In this case, popular is used to describe a legend that's well known, so answer choice B is the best choice. Here are examples of words you'll need to understand in context on the ACT: adopted concentrated humor nostalgia read something These are all reasonable words you've probably heard before. The trick to these questions is to actually understand how the word is used in the passage- not to focus on what you think it means. So don't waste too much of your time studying vocab, and think twice before you're convinced by someone that it's a good use of your ACT prep time. Don't spend a lot of time studying vocab- most likely, it's not the best use of your time. This time is far better spent learning how to deal with Reading passages better.There are so many more questions about passages that it's a better use of your time to learn passage strategies and how to answer Reading questions. Strategy 6:Skip the Most Difficult, Time-Consuming Questions Here's an easy strategy most students don't do enough. Remember what I said above about raw scores? To score a 26, you only need a raw score of about 29 (that's 29 correct answers out of a total of 40 Reading questions). This varies from test to test, but it's pretty consistent in general. What does this mean?You can completely guess on 15 questions, get four of them right by chance, and still score a 26 on Reading. Once again, you can completely guess on almost 40% of all questions and still hit your goal! Skip questions carefree like this woman. Why is this such a powerful strategy? It gives you way more time on easy and medium difficulty questions- the questions you have a good chance of getting right. If you're usually pressed for time on the ACT Reading section, this will be a huge help. Here's an example: on the Reading section, you get 35 minutes to answer 40 questions. This is usually pretty hard for most students to get through- it's just 52 seconds to answer each question, including the time it takes to read each passage. The average student will try to push through all the questions. "I've got to get through them all since I've got a shot at getting each question right," they think. Along the way, they'll probably rush and make careless mistakes on questions they should have gotten right. And then they spend five minutes on really hard questions, making no progress and wasting time. Wrong approach. Here's what I suggest instead. Tryeach question but skip it if you're not getting anywhere after 30 seconds.Unlike math, the Reading passage questions aren't ordered in difficulty, so you can't tell right away which questions are harder or easier. You need to try each one but then skip it if it's costing you too much time. By doing this, you can raise your time per easy/medium question to 100 seconds per question or more. This is huge! It's a 100% boost to the time you get per question.As a result, this significantly raises your chances of getting easy/medium questions right. And the questions you skipped? They're so hard you're honestly better off not even trying them. These questions are meant for 30-36scorers. If you get to 26, then you have the right to try these questions- but not before you get to 26. How do you tell which questions are going to take you the most time?This varies from person to person, but here are a few common question types: Questions without a line number that make you hunt for a detail: You'll spend a lot of time rereading the passage looking for a certain detail if you can't remember where it was originally mentioned. "EXCEPT" questions: These are specifically designed to waste your time. They'll ask something like, "The author mentions all of these details EXCEPT: ... " and your job is to find which three are mentioned and which one isn't. Inference questions that ask you what the author most likely meant: These are usually quite difficult because they take multiple steps to solve: (1) What did the author explicitlysay in the passage? and (2) What does the author most likely mean? But don't just take my word for it. You need to figure out your own weaknesses after doing a lot of practice. They might not be the same question types as the ones above. Approach your Reading prep with this in mind. If you notice yourself getting stuck on a question, pay attention to what type of question it is and see whether there's a pattern. For example, do you always get stuck on that particular question type? Strategy 7: Understand All Your Reading Mistakes Every mistake you make on a test happens for a reason. If you don't understand exactly why you missed a question, you'll make that mistake over and over again. Think about it like learning how to cook. The first time you learn to chop vegetables, you might cut your finger accidentally. Ouch- that hurts. But you quickly learn from your mistakes- you start to keep your fingers away from the knife and hold the knife differently. After all, if you don't learn from your mistake, you'll keep cutting your finger over and over again. Why would you treat ACT prep any differently? Too many students scoring at the 18-24 level refuse to study their mistakes. It's not fun.I get it. It sucks to stare your mistakes in the face. It's draining to learn skills you're not good at. So the average student will skip reviewing their mistakes and instead focus on areas they're already comfortable with. It's like cozying up with a warm blanket. Their thinking goes like this: "So I'm good at Big Picture questions? I should do more Big Picture problems! They make me feel good about myself." The result? No score improvement. You don't want to be like these students. So here'swhat you need to do instead: On every practice test or question set you take, mark every question that you're even just 20% unsure about. When you grade your test or quiz, review every question 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 the gist of the question, why you missed it, and what you can do to avoid making this mistake in the future. Have separate sections by subject and sub-topic (e.g., Big Picture, Little Picture, Inference, etc.). It's not enough to just think about it and move on, or to just read the answer explanation. You have to think hard about why you specifically failed on this question. For Reading Passage questions, you must find a way to eliminate every incorrect answer. If you were stuck between two answer choices, review your work to figure out why you couldn't eliminate the wrong answer choice. If you don't do this, I guarantee you will not make progress. But if you do take this structured approach to your mistakes,you'll now have a running log of every question you missed, and your reflections on why you might've missed them. No excuses when it comes to your mistakes. Strategy 8: Guess on EveryQuestion You Don't Know You probably already know this one but if you don't, you're about to earn some serious points. The ACT has no guessing penalty. This means you have no reason not to guess and fill up every blank on your answer sheet. So before you finish the Reading section,make sure every blank question has an answer filled in.When you look at your answer sheet, you shouldn't see any blank questions. For every question you're unsure about, make sure you guess as best you can.If you can eliminate even just one answer choice, this gives you a much better shot at getting it right- from 25% to 33%. If you have no idea, just guess! You still have a 25% chance of getting it right, after all. Most people know this strategy already, so if you don't do this, you're at a serious disadvantage. Here's a bubbling tip that will save you a few minutes per section. When I first started taking tests 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. This was my pattern: finish question 1, bubble in answer 1. Finish question 2, bubble in answer 2. And so forth. This approach 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, and then bubble all of them in at once at the end. This has a couple of huge advantages: You focus on each task one at a time, rather than switching between two different tasks. You 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 five seconds per question, you get back three minutes and 20 seconds on the Reading section. This is huge! These extra secondscan buy you time to solve three more questions, which will dramatically improve your score. Be very careful, though, as you do not want to run out of time before you've bubbled in all your answers. Definitely make sure you bubble in your answers to that point with at least 10 minutes remaining. If the proctor calls time and you haven't bubbled in any answers yet, you're going to get a 1 on Reading! Overview: How to Raise Your Low ACT Reading Score These are the eight main strategies I have for you to improve your ACT Reading score. If you're scoring 12, you can improve it to 18.If you're scoring 20, you can boost it to 26.I guarantee you'll get a score increase, as long as you put in the right amount of work and study using the tips I've given you above. The main point is this: you need to understand where you're falling short and constantly drill those weaknesses. You also need to be thoughtful about your mistakes- in other words, don't ignore any of them. 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. If you want to go back and review any of the strategies, here's a quick listing: Strategy 1: Save Time on Reading Passages by Switching Your Reading Strategy Strategy 2:Learn to Eliminate the 3 Wrong Answers Strategy 3:Find Your Reading Skill Weaknesses and Drill Them Strategy 4: Only Use High-Quality ACT Reading Sources Strategy 5:Don't Focus On Vocab Strategy 6:Skip the Most Difficult, Time-Consuming Questions Strategy 7:Understand All Your Reading Mistakes Strategy 8: Guess on EveryQuestion You Don't Know What's Next? We have a lot more useful guides you can use to raise your ACT score. For ACT Reading, learn the#1 fundamental, most important strategy.It's an expansion of one of the strategies in this guide and certain to raise your score. Curious how to prep to get a perfect ACT Reading score? Read our in-depth guide to getting a perfect 36 on the Reading sectionfor our best tips. What's a good ACT score for you? Figure out your ACT target score todayusing our step-by-step guide. Want to improve your ACT score by 4 points? Check out our best-in-class online ACT prep classes. We guarantee your money back if you don't improve your ACT score by 4 points or more. Our classes are entirely online, and they're taught by ACT experts. If you liked this article, you'll love our classes. Along with expert-led classes, you'll get personalized homework with thousands of practice problems organized by individual skills so you learn most effectively. We'll also give you a step-by-step, custom program to follow so you'll never be confused about what to study next. Try it risk-free today:

Research Paper on Native Son by Richard wright Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

On Native Son by Richard wright - Research Paper Example Many middle aged adults are content with how they have lived their lives, and others want to change theirs (Shepard, 2013). Middle adulthood presents the reality to folks that there is little time to transform their life configuration. These are times in a person’s life that they can really look back on the aspirations and goals they laid down when they were growing. Growing into middle adulthood can go either way of being pleased and satisfied or being full of uncertainty and distress. The middle age phase serves as a time for reevaluation, a chance to put new choices into consideration. Many individuals feel they need to take their livelihood in a new path or do something they’ve wanted to do their whole life. After such reflection, a person either concludes that he or she is contented with the life structure choices made or quickly plans to made changes while they are still possible (Balswick, 2005) Brian knows that his physiological functioning is weary, and his bio logical clock tells him he is reaching middle adulthood. Since many athletes participate sports over a long period (from adolescence straight to middle adulthood), a lot of wear and tear happens. To most athletes like Brian, their social clocks commence before middle adulthood. At the time, Brian was enjoying playing football; he missed his teenage years and early adulthood. Now that, he is approaching middle adulthood he looks back on what he has missed out on in the last twenty years of his life and most importantly his achievements. Attaining middle adulthood is worthwhile because he now gets to do things he longed to do with his family. This according to Zgourides fulfils the primary psychosocial task of middle adulthood, which is to, develop generativity, or the desire to expand one’s influence and commitment to family, society, and future generations (Zgourides, 2001). Women sometimes sacrifice their ambitions and career plans for their families. Their desire is to be t he best mothers to their kids and good wives to their partners. For women, middle adulthood may bring the feeling of loneliness since those who have children are worried that their children are going to leave them. One woman realized that her children were growing older and were to go away to college. She developed a sense of incompletion inside of her and knew she had to go back to college to further her career. She gave her marriage and raising children her best, unfortunately, her marriage succumbed in divorce, and her children went away to college. The woman managed to earn her degree and went ahead with her life (Miller, 2010). Perhaps middle adulthood is best known for its infamous midlife crisis: a time of reevaluation that leads to questioning long-held beliefs and values (Zgourides, 2001). Many people may feel that they did not live the life they planned for themselves when they were younger, and their lives tend restart when they reach middle adulthood. There are a lot of aspects in a person’s life that may either take a good or bad twist. By the time, adults reach middle adulthood age many of them differ in the opinion on how they have lived their life so far. This is a time when a person reflects on where they came from as opposed to where they are going from the middle of their life. Sometimes during this stage, choices are made to either continue the path already taken or establish somewhat different path of live (Whitbourne, 2005). Many adults