Knowledge And Power In Doctor Faustus - 1116 Words

Knowledge and Power in The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus and The Bloody Chamber Throughout literature, television and film you could name countless examples of different wordings of the aphorism ‘Knowledge is power’. This idea is popularly attributed to Francis Bacon’s Meditationes Sacrae, in which the phrase ipsa scientia potestas est, or â€Å"knowledge itself is power† appears. However, five years before this was first written, this concept was a belief of the titular character in Christopher Marlowe’s The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, with knowledge and power serving as key themes. Another text which shares these themes is Angela Carter’s collection of subversive fairy tales, The†¦show more content†¦Faustus has gained an almost unlimited knowledge of magic, and therefore the ability to do almost anything he could imagine. However, he quickly ends up performing cheap tricks for his livelihood. As Stapleton and Scott aptly summarise: â€Å"In the opening scene, the hero aims for nothing less than power over life and death. But by Act 4 he winds up fetching grapes for a pregnant woman, whose big belly shows that she has more power to create life than he does. He calls for knowledge of God’s secrets that â€Å"stretcheth as far as doth the mind of man,† but in the end he accepts a career of staging entertainment for mere popes, emperors and dukes.† (M.L. Stapleton , and Sarah K. Scott) Faustus has the knowledge to control life and death, but when asked to raise Alexander the Great and his paramour he admits that he cannot raise â€Å"the true substantial bodies of those two deceased princes, which long since are consumed to dust†, only â€Å"such spirits as can lively resemble Alexander and his paramour†. As Faustus cannot raise true-to-life people as the pregnant woman can, he must be therefore less powerful than her, even though Faustus is far more knowledgeable in necromancy than any other person. Rutter goes onto further criticise Faustus’s lack of power: â€Å"Furthermore, who is to say whether the spirits who appear genuinely look like Alexander and his paramour? Neither Faustus norShow MoreRelatedDoctor Faustus978 Words   |  4 PagesPoor Faustus believes it is he who has called upon the demon Mephistopheles and it is his tongue that orders the servant of hell, yet he could not be any more mistaken. In reality, Faustus is the one with strings attached to him and it is Lucifer, Mephistopheles, and the Evil Angel playing the role of the puppeteer. Nevertheless, Faustus remains a student to the ideology of Christianity throughout his adventures, even amongst the bleakest of hours. God never leaves the side of John Faustus, as HeRead MoreEssay on The Five Knowledges of Dr. Faustus792 Words   |  4 PagesChristopher Marlowes Doctor Faustus is a play that questions both renaissance and medieval ideas. The character of Doctor Faustus is introduced as a renaissance man with degrees in various subjects and an abundance of knowledge fr om his high education. Unfortunately for him, this knowledge is not sufficient and his cravings for higher knowledge and power soon corrupt his mind and lead him to his ill-fated end. The opening soliloquy introduces Doctor Faustuss areas of knowledge as debate, healthRead MoreThe Tragedy Of Christopher Marlowe s Doctor Faustus1416 Words   |  6 Pagessex or power), or some other kind of motivational force? 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In the age of social, scientific and cultural rebirth, Marlowe examined the possibilities and consequences of reaching out the most from knowledge, powerRead MoreEssay about Marlowes Doctor Faustus1011 Words   |  5 PagesMarlowes Doctor Faustus Marlowes representation of Doctor Faustus changes direction through the play. We follow the change in ambition and greed of a human being who seeks pleasure so much that he sells his soul to the devil for a number of years. Does the power that Faustus obtains corrupt him or is he merely dissatisfied with the power he has and is greedy for more. At the start of the play, Marlowe uses powerful language when referring to Faustus search for knowledge. 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Faustus is torn throughout the play on whether to repent and turn towards God or to sell his soul and indulge in earthly pleasures. Just like today, people can useRead MoreLiterature Is The Expression Of The Thoughts Of Society941 Words   |  4 Pagesrealization of literature. By understanding the qualities of a society, the reader is able to better comprehend the themes and importance in literature. For example, there was a huge conflict over the power of knowledge between Medieval and Renaissance times, at this time Christopher Marlowe concocted Doctor Faustus. Subsequently Moliere wrote The Misanthrope. The play satirizes the hypocrisies of French aristocratic society. Lastly, Osca r Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest shows the satire and significanceRead MoreMacbeth, By William Shakespeare1246 Words   |  5 Pagesis an abomination to the Lord; be assured, he will not go unpunished† (Proverbs 16:5). Consequently, Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus and Shakespeare’s Macbeth are two stories that clearly depict the hubristic behavior that is condemned by the Christian church since both focus on human pride and thirst for power. Macbeth portrays more hubristic behavior than Doctor Faustus, although Doctor Faustus initially seems to be more hubristic than Macbeth. Shakespeare’s Macbeth begins by showing Macbeth as a heroicRead MoreEssay about The Deeper Meaning of Christopher Marlowes Doctor Faustus1168 Words   |  5 PagesThe Deeper Meaning of Christopher Marlowes Doctor Faustus  Ã‚   I do not agree with the frequently repeated comment that Doctor Faustus is an anti-intellectualist play that preaches that curiosity is dangerous. It is all too easy to see Faustus as the scholar, seeking knowledge, and his desire for knowledge that leads to his downfall. To confine the play to something so narrow is to ignore the deeper meaning behind the play. I believe that this deeper meaning is more important than the superficial

Determining Based Outcome Measure For Selecting The Gas...

What type of research did you use to determine what evidence-based outcome measure to select? In an effort to better serve clients in the counseling field, accountability in the form of evidence-based outcome measures has become an important component within the profession. Erford (2014) states that counselors must offer research based interventions that are empirically sound and has the ability to produce desired outcomes in their clients. In an effort to determine an appropriate evidence-based outcome measure, I went to Capella’s library and entered â€Å"mental health counseling† and â€Å"outcome measure† as search terms. After reviewing the abstracts of a few peer-reviewed journal articles, I selected Making Change Visible: The Possibilities in†¦show more content†¦The scale ranges from -2 (much worse than expected) to +2 (much better than expected). Zero on the scale is assessed as meeting the client’s and counselor’s expectations. When the goals are established, the GAS instrument is completed by the counselor and client to e stablish the client’s baseline level of expectation before treatment. A minimum number of counseling sessions will be established and counseling proceeds. Upon completion of counseling, the counselor and client complete the GAS instrument separately. How will you go about implementing a program evaluation model to determine client gains? In order to implement a program evaluation to determine client gains, there will be a team consisting of myself as the lead consultant, 3-4 program evaluation support staff members who will assist in the evaluation process and one staff member from the center being included to provide relevant center information. Key staff from the center will be asked to form an advisory group where all evaluation measures, outcomes and processes will be discussed, approved and presented. The program evaluation model will be implemented in various stages. The stages include evaluation planning, data collection, analysis/interpretation, and reporting/dissemination. The setting is a college campus’s counseling unit of their wellness center. The assessment will also focus on students that only utilize one-on-one, face-to-face counseling services.

Crater Lake Essay Example For Students

Crater Lake Essay Crater LakeCrater Lake is located at southwestern off Highway 62 in Oregon. It is Oregon?s only national park. It is the deepest lake in the United States and is the seventh deepest in the world. Crater Lake has an average diameter of 5.3 miles in length and is approximately 1,932 feet deep. Crater Lake is a result of a volcanic explosion that happened about 7,000 years ago. A long time ago, the pacific oceanic plate was gradually moving under the pacific continental plate in the process of plate tectonics. The pressure shaped the land to move upward and create a line of mountains that are currently located on the Cascade Range. These lavas piled and cooled on top of each other resulting in mountains like Mazama and Hood. Mount Mazama was built by successive flows of both andesite and dacite lavas. Mount Mazama was a stratovolcano, which was about 12,000 feet high after series of ash, cinders, and pumice explosions built it upward. During it?s final eruption the magma chamber was emptying and the underlying support for the mountain was lost and the walls of the volcano began to collapse. In just a matter of days the top of the mountain was destroyed and left a caldera. A caldera is a word used by geologists to describe large basin-shaped volcanic depressions. The destruc tion Mount Mazama was what marked the beginning of the formation of Crater Lake. The caldera was about 3,000 feet deep and over time, snow and rain fell into it and would eventually be filled. The lake would stop filling and the water gradually cleared to form one of the worlds purest and deepest lakes. The water in Crater Lake is very clean and clear because it contains few dissolved minerals and particles, and no streams run into or out of the lake. Precipitation entering the lake was offset by evaporation and seepage. The current variation of the lake?s surface level is only about three feet every year. As seen in person and in pictures, Crater Lake appears to have a very blue appearance. Crater Lakes depth and extreme clarity allow sunlight to penetrate many tens of feet into the water. Sunlight is made up of all colors, and as it passes through the water red light is the first to be absorbed. Orange, yellow and green are absorbed next, leaving only blue light to be scattered back to the surface. The color of the lake changes as the sun and clouds shift, and the appearance of the lakes surface is also altered by wind and wave patterns. One of the most popular features of the lake are it?s 3 islands and the probably the most popular one is Wizard Island because it is the only one of the 3 that is above water. Wizard Island is called Wizard Island because of its resemblance to a sorcerers pointed hat and because it is a cinder cone that resulted from blocky lava flows that came from its base. A cinder cone forms like a giant anthill from the fallback of hot lava fragments hurled from its crater. Since Wizard Island grew inside the caldera, after its collapse we know it is less than 7,700 years old. The oldest trees on the island are about 800 years old, so the Wizards age is somewhere between 800 and 7,700 years old. The elevation of Wizard Island is about 6940 feet and the island?s height above water is about 764 feet. An underwater map of Crater Lake shows a steep increase in the slope of Wizard Island at a depth of about 250 feet, which probably meant that the volcanic island formed when the surface of Crater Lake was that much lower. .u65d9ba90f36c286ed96e097a0e1f7532 , .u65d9ba90f36c286ed96e097a0e1f7532 .postImageUrl , .u65d9ba90f36c286ed96e097a0e1f7532 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u65d9ba90f36c286ed96e097a0e1f7532 , .u65d9ba90f36c286ed96e097a0e1f7532:hover , .u65d9ba90f36c286ed96e097a0e1f7532:visited , .u65d9ba90f36c286ed96e097a0e1f7532:active { border:0!important; } .u65d9ba90f36c286ed96e097a0e1f7532 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u65d9ba90f36c286ed96e097a0e1f7532 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u65d9ba90f36c286ed96e097a0e1f7532:active , .u65d9ba90f36c286ed96e097a0e1f7532:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u65d9ba90f36c286ed96e097a0e1f7532 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u65d9ba90f36c286ed96e097a0e1f7532 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u65d9ba90f36c286ed96e097a0e1f7532 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u65d9ba90f36c286ed96e097a0e1f7532 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u65d9ba90f36c286ed96e097a0e1f7532:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u65d9ba90f36c286ed96e097a0e1f7532 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u65d9ba90f36c286ed96e097a0e1f7532 .u65d9ba90f36c286ed96e097a0e1f7532-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u65d9ba90f36c286ed96e097a0e1f7532:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Superoutbreak of 1974 EssayThere are a lot of activities that go on in the winter and summer at Crater Lake. Winter backcountry ski camping, snowshoe camping, and snowmobiling are popular in the winter. In most of the rest of the seasons people go backpacking, hiking, bicycling, and fishing. However, private boats are not allowed in the lake as well as other activities such as rock climbing and hunting. I personally have been to Crater Lake once, about ten years ago, and the hike getting to and from the lake was horrible but touring the lake and seeing the great views make it worthwhile. Today there are many species of plant and wildlife living in Crater Lake Park. Crater lake?s water contained no fish until humans introduced them in 1888 to 1941. Today, rainbow trout and kokanee salmon are swimming in Crater Lake. Wildflowers bloom late and disappear early here, thriving in wet, open areas. Birds and other animals that are often seen are ravens, jays, nutcrackers, deer, ground squirrels and chipmunks. Other animals that of seen, but not as often are seen are elk, black bears, foxes, porcupines, pine martens, chickaree squirrels and pikas. On a side not, during my last and only visit to the lake I was told more than once to never to feed the animals because they would become dependant on human would and then when we would leave they would stave to death. The only animals I saw were brown squirrels and bluebirds. The parks black bears are not aggressive and are almost never seen. According to park forest services the bears do visit the Mazama Campground most nights in search of food and cooler chests that have been left out by careless campers. Mount Mazama or Crater Lake is still said to be volcanic because of the production of the 3 islands from the bottom of the lake. If the volcano were to erupt again it would seem impossible to predict when and would probably wouldn?t be in this century or millennium. The young age of this volcano shows many people to believe that we are yet to see a lot of activity at Crater Lake. Words/ Pages : 1,006 / 24

The Validity and Utility of Selection Methods in Personnel Essay Example

The Validity and Utility of Selection Methods in Personnel Essay Psychological Bulletin 1998, Vol. 124, No. 2, 262-274 Copyright 1998 by the American Psychological Association, Inc. 0033-2909/98/S3. 00 The Validity and Utility of Selection Methods in Personnel Psychology: Practical and Theoretical Implications of 85 Years of Research Findings Frank L. Schmidt University of Iowa John E. Hunter Michigan State University This article summarizes the practical and theoretical implications of 85 years of research in personnel selection. On the basis of meta-analytic findings, this article presents the validity of 19 selection procedures for predicting job performance and training performance and the validity of paired combinations of general mental ability (GMA) and Ihe 18 other selection procedures. Overall, the 3 combinations with the highest multivariate validity and utility for job performance were GMA plus a work sample test (mean validity of . 63), GMA plus an integrity test (mean validity of . 65), and GMA plus a structured interview (mean validity of . 63). A further advantage of the latter 2 combinations is that they can be used for both entry level selection and selection of experienced employees. The practical utility implications of these summary findings are substantial. The implications of these research findings for the development of theories of job performance are discussed. From the point of view of practical value, the most important property of a personnel assessment method is predictive validity: the ability to predict future job performance, job-related learning (such as amount of learning in training and development programs), and other criteria. We will write a custom essay sample on The Validity and Utility of Selection Methods in Personnel specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on The Validity and Utility of Selection Methods in Personnel specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on The Validity and Utility of Selection Methods in Personnel specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer The predictive validity coefficient is directly proportional to the practical economic value (utility) of the assessment method (Brogden, 1949; Schmidt, Hunter, McKenzie, Muldrow, 1979). Use of hiring methods with increased predictive validity leads to substantial increases in employee performance as measured in percentage increases in output, increased monetary value of output, and increased learning of job-related skills (Hunter, Schmidt, Judiesch, 1990). Today, the validity of different personnel measures can be determined with the aid of 85 years of research. The most wellknown conclusion from this research is that for hiring employees without previous experience in the job the most valid predictor of future performance and learning is general mental ability ([GMA], i. e. , intelligence or general cognitive ability; Hunter Hunter, 1984; Ree Earles, 1992). GMA can be measured using commercially available tests. However, many other measures can also contribute to the overall validity of the selection process. These include, for example, measures of onscientiousness and personal integrity, structured employment interviews, and (for experienced workers) job knowledge and work sample tests. On the basis of meta-analytic findings, this article examines and summarizes what 85 years of research in personnel psychology has revealed about the validity of measures of 19 different selection methods that can be used in making decisions about hiring, training, and developmental assignments. In this sense, this article is an expansion and updating of Hunter and Hunter (1984). In addition, this article examines how well certain combinations of these methods work. These 19 procedures do not all work equally well; the research evidence indicates that some work very well and some work very poorly. Measures of GMA work very well, for example, and graphology does not work at all. The cumulative findings show that the research knowledge now available makes it possible for employers today to substantially increase the productivity, output, and learning ability of their workforces by using procedures that work well and by avoiding those that do not. Finally, we look at the implications of these research findings for the development of theories of job performance. Determinants of Practical Value (Utility) of Selection Methods Frank L. Schmidt, Department of Management and Organization, University of Iowa; John E. Hunter, Department of Psychology, Michigan State University. An earlier version of this article was presented to Korean Human Resource Managers in Seoul, South Korea, June 11, 1996. The presentation was sponsored by long Yang Company We would like to thank President Wang-Ha Cho of Tong Yang for is support and efforts in this connection. We would also like to thank Deniz Ones and Kuh %on for their assistance in preparing Tables 1 and 2 and Gershon Ben-Shakhar for his comments on research on graphology. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Frank L. Schmidt, Department of Management and Organization, College of Business, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52240. Electronic mail may be sent to fra[e mailprotected] edu. The validity of a hiring method is a direct determinant of its practical value, but not the only determinant. Another direct determinant is the variability of job performance. At one extreme, if variability were zero, then all applicants would have exactly the same level of later job performance if hired. In this case, the practical value or utility of all selection procedures would be zero. In such a hypothetical case, it does not matter who is hired, because all workers are the same. At the other extreme, if performance variability is very large, it then becomes important to hire the best performing applicants and the practical utility of valid selection methods is very large. As it happens, this extreme case appears to be the reality for most jobs. 262 VALIDITY AND UTILITY Research over the last 15 years has shown that the variability of performance and output among (incumbent) workers is very large and that it would be even larger if all job applicants were hired or if job applicants were selected randomly from among those that apply (cf. Hunter et al. , 1990; Schmidt Hunter, 1983; Schmidt et al. , 1979). This latter variability is called the applicant pool variability, and in hiring this is the variability that operates to determine practical value. This is because one is selecting new employees from the applicant pool, not from among those already on the job in question. The variability of employee job performance can be measured in a number of ways, but two scales have typically been used: dollar value of output and output as a percentage of mean output. The standard deviation across individuals of the dollar value of output (called SDy) has been found to be at minimum 40% of the mean salary of the job (Schmidt Hunter, 1983; Schmidt et al. , 1979; Schmidt, Mack, Hunter, 1984). The 40% figure is a lower bound value; actual values are typically considerably higher. Thus, if the average salary for a job is $40,000, then SD, is at least $16,000. If performance has a normal distribution, then workers at the 84th percentile produce $16,000 more per year than average workers (i. e. , those at the 50th percentile). And the difference between workers at the 16th percentile ( below average workers) and those at the 84th percentile (superior workers) is twice that: $32,000 per year. Such differences are large enough to be important to the economic health of an organization. Employee output can also be measured as a percentage of mean output; that is, each employees output is divided by the output of workers at the 50th percentile and then multiplied by 100. Research shows that the standard deviation of output as a percentage of average output (called SDf) varies by job level. For unskilled and semi-skilled jobs, the average SDf figure is 19%. For skilled work, it is 32%, and for managerial and professional jobs, it is 48% (Hunter et al. , 1990). These figures are averages based on all available studies that measured or counted the amount of output for different employees. If a superior worker is defined as one whose performance (output) is at the 84th percentile (that is, 1 SD above the mean), then a superior worker in a lower level job produces 19% more output than an average worker, a superior skilled worker produces 32% more output than the average skilled worker, and a superior manager or professional produces output 48% above the average for those jobs. These differences are large and they indicate that the payoff from using valid hiring methods to predict later job performance is quite large. Another determinant of the practical value of selection methods is the selection ratio—the proportion of applicants who are hired. At one extreme, if an organization must hire all who apply for the job, no hiring procedure has any practical value. At the other extreme, if the organization has the luxury of hiring only the top scoring 1%, the practical value of gains from selection per person hired will be extremely large. But few organizations can afford to reject 99% of all job applicants. Actual selection ratios are typically in the . 0 to . 70 range, a range that still produces substantial practical utility. The actual formula for computing practical gains per person hired per year on the job is a three way product (Brogden, 1949; Schmidt et al. , 1979): A? //hire/year = A. rvSDyZ, (when performance is measured in dollar value) At7/hire/year = ArvSD,,Z, 263 (1) (when performance is measured in percentage of average output). (2) In these equations, rv is the difference betwe en the validity of the new (more valid) selection method and the old selection method. If the old selection method has no validity (that is, selection is random), then Ar^ is the same as the validity of the new procedure; that is, AJV, = rv. Hence, relative to random selection, practical value (utility) is directly proportional to validity. If the old procedure has some validity, men the utility gain is directly proportional to Ar w . Z, is the average score on the employment procedure of those hired (in z-score form), as compared to the general applicant pool. The smaller the selection ratio, the higher this value will be. The first equation expresses selection utility in dollars. For example, a typical final figure for a medium complexity job might be $18,000, meaning that increasing the validity of the hiring methods leads to an average increase in output per hire of $18,000 per year. To get the full value, one must of course multiply by the number of workers hired. If 100 are hired, then the increase would be (100)($18,000) = $1,800,000. Finally, one must consider the number of years these workers remain on the job, because the $18,000 per worker is realized each year that worker remains on the job. Of all these factors that affect the practical value, only validity is a characteristic of the personnel measure itself. The second equation expresses the practical value in percentage of increase in output. For example, a typical figure is 9%, meaning that workers hired with the improved selection method will have on average 9% higher output. A 9% increase in labor productivity would typically be very important economically for the firm, and might make the difference between success and bankruptcy. What we have presented here is not, of course, a comprehensive discussion of selection utility. Readers who would like more detail are referred to the research articles cited above and to Boudreau (1983a, 1983b, 1984), Cascio and Silbey (1979), Cronshaw and Alexander (1985), Hunter, Schmidt, and Coggin (1988), Hunter and Schmidt (1982a, 1982b), Schmidt and Hunter (1983), Schmidt, Hunter, Outerbridge, and Tratmer (1986), Schmidt, Hunter, and Pearlman (1982), and Schmidt et al. (1984). Our purpose here is to make three important points: (a) the economic value of gains from unproved hiring methods are typically quite large, (b) these gains are directly proportional to the size of the increase in validity when moving from the old to the new selection methods, and (c) no other characteristic of a personnel measure is as important as predictive validity. If one looks at the two equations above, one sees that practical value per person hired is a three way product. One of the three elements in that three way product is predictive validity. The other two—SD y or SDP and Z,—are equally important, but they are characteristics of the job or the situation, not of the personnel measure. 264 SCHMIDT AND HUNTER Validity of Personnel Assessment Methods: 85 Years of Research Findings Research studies assessing the ability of personnel assessment methods to predict future job performance and future learning (e. g. , in training programs) have been conducted since the first decade of the 20th century. However, as early as the 1920s it became apparent that different studies conducted on the same assessment procedure did not appear to agree in their results. Validity estimates for the same method and same job were quite different for different studies. During the 1930s and 1940s the belief developed that this state of affairs resulted from subtle differences between jobs that were difficult or impossible for job analysts and job analysis methodology to detect. That is, researchers concluded that the validity of a given procedure really was different in different settings for what appeared to be basically the same job, and that the conflicting findings in validity studies were just reflecting this fact of reality. This belief, called the theory of situational specificity, remained dominant in personnel psychology until the late 1970s when it was discovered that most of the differences across studies were due to statistical and measurement artifacts and not to real differences in the jobs (Schmidt Hunter, 1977; Schmidt, Hunter, Pearlman, Shane, 1979). The largest of these artifacts was simple sampling error variation, caused by the use of small samples in the studies. (The number of employees per study was usually in the 40-70 range. This realization led to the development of quantitative techniques collectively called metaanalysis that could combine validity estimates across studies and correct for the effects of these statistical and measurement artifacts (Hunter Schmidt, 1990; Hunter, Schmidt, Jackson, 1982). Studies based on meta-analysis provided more accurate estimates of the average operational validity and showed that the level of real variability of validities was usually quite sma ll and might in fact be zero (Schmidt, 1992; Schmidt et a]. 1993). In fact, the findings indicated that the variability of validity was not only small or zero across settings for the same type of job, but was also small across different kinds of jobs (Hunter, 1980; Schmidt, Hunter, Pearlman, 1980). These findings made it possible to select the most valid personnel measures for any job. They also made it possible to compare the validity of different personnel measures for jobs in general, as we do in this article. Table 1 summarizes research findings for the prediction of performance on the job. The first column of numbers in Table 1 shows the estimated mean validity of 19 selection methods for predicting performance on the job, as revealed by metaanalyses conducted over the last 20 years. Performance on the job was typically measured using supervisory ratings of job performance, but production records, sales records, and other measures were also used. The sources and other information about these validity figures are given in the notes to Table 1. Many of the selection methods in Table 1 also predict jobrelated learning; that is, the acquisition of job knowledge with experience on the job, and the amount learned in training and development programs. However, the overall amount of research on the prediction of learning is less. For many of the procedures in Table 1, there is little research evidence on their ability to predict future job-related-leaming. Table 2 summarizes available research findings for the prediction of performance in training programs. The first column in Table 2 shows the mean validity of 10 selection methods as revealed by available meta-analyses. In the vast majority of the studies included in these meta-analyses, performance in training was assessed using objective measures of amount learned on the job; trainer ratings of amount learned were used in about 5% of the studies. Unless otherwise noted in Tables 1 and 2, all validity estimates in Tables 1 and 2 are corrected for the downward bias due to measurement error in the measures of job performance and to range restriction on the selection method in incumbent samples relative to applicant populations. Observed validity estimates so corrected estimate operational validities of selection methods when used to hire from applicant pools. Operational validities are also referred to as true validities. In the pantheon of 19 personnel measures in Table 1, GMA (also called general cognitive ability and general intelligence) occupies a special place, for several reasons. First, of all procedures that can be used for all jobs, whether entry level or advanced, it has the highest validity and lowest application cost. Work sample measures are slightly more valid but are much more costly and can be used only with applicants who already know the job or have been trained for the occupation or job. Structured employment interviews are more costly and, in some forms, contain job knowledge components and therefore are not suitable for inexperienced, entry level applicants. The assessment center and job tryout are both much more expensive and have less validity. Second, the research evidence for the validity of OMA measures for predicting job performance is stronger than that for any other method (Hunter, 1986; Hunter Schmidt, 1996; Ree Earles, 1992; Schmidt Hunter, 1981). Literally thousands of studies have been conducted over the last nine decades. By contrast, only 89 validity studies of the structured interview have been conducted (McDaniel, Whetzel, Schmidt, Mauer, 1994). Third, GMA has been shown to be the best available predictor of job-related learning. It is the best predictor of acquisition of job knowledge on the job (Schmidt Hunter, 1992; Schmidt, Hunter, Outerbridge, 1986) and of performance in job training programs (Hunter, 1986; Hunter Hunter, 1984; Ree Earles, 1992). Fourth, the theoretical foundation for GMA is stronger than for any other personnel measure. Theories of ntelligence have been developed and tested by psychologists for over 90 years (Brody, 1992; Carroll, 1993; Jensen, 1998). As a result of this massive related research literature, the meaning of the construct of intelligence is much clearer than, for example, the meaning of what is measured by interviews or assessment centers (Brody, 1992; Hunter, 1986; Jensen, 1998). The value of . 51 in Table 1 for the validity of GMA is from a very large met a-analytic study conducted for the U. S. Department of Labor (Hunter, 1980; Hunter Hunter, 1984). The database for this unique meta-analysis included over 32,000 employees in 515 widely diverse civilian jobs. This meta-analysis examined both performance on the job and performance in job training programs. This meta-analysis found that the validity of GMA for predicting job performance was . 58 for professional-managerial jobs, . 56 for high level complex technical jobs, . 51 for medium complexity jobs, . 40 for semi-skilled jobs, and . 23 for completely unskilled jobs. The validity for the middle complexity level of jobs (. 51) —which includes 62% of all VALIDITY AND UTILITY 265 Table 1 Predictive Validity for Overall Job Performance of General Mental Ability (GMA) Scores Combined With a Second Predictor Using (Standardized) Multiple Regression Standardized regression weights % increase in validity Personnel measures GMA testsWork sample tests* Integrity tests Conscientiousness tests1 Employment interviews (structured)11 Employment interviews (unstructured/ Job knowledge tests8 Job tryout procedure11 Peer ratings1 T E behavioral consistency method1 Reference checksk Job experience (years)1 Biographical data measures111 Assessment centers T E point method Years of education*1 Interests* Graphology Age- Validity (r) Multiple R Gain in validity from adding supplement GMA Supplement .51 . 54 . 41 . 31 . 51 . 38 . 48 . 44 . 49 . 45 .26 .18 . 35 . 37 . 11 . 10 . 10 . 02 -. 01 .63 . 65 . 60 . 63 . 55 . 58 . 58 . 58 . 58 . 57 . 54 . 52 . 53 . 52 . 52 . 52 . 51 . 51 .12 . 14 . 09 . 12 . 04 . 07 . 07 . 07 . 07 . 06 . 03 . 01 . 02 . 01 . 01 . 01 . 00 . 00 24% 27% 18% 24% 8% 14% 14% 14% 14% 12% 6% 2% 4% 2% 2% 2% 0% 0% .36 . 51 . 51 . 39 . 43 . 36 . 40 . 35 . 39 . 51 . 51 . 45 . 43 . 39 . 51 . 51 . 51 . 51 .41 . 41 . 31 . 39 . 22 . 31 . 20 . 31 . 31 . 26 . 18 . 13 . 15 . 29 . 10 . 10 . 02 -. 01 Note. T E = training and experience. The percentage of increase in validity is also the percentage of increase in utility (practical value). All of the validities presented are based on the most current meta-analytic results for the various predictors. See Schmidt, Ones, and Hunter (1992) for an overview. All of the validities in this table are for the criterion of overall job performance. Unless otherwise noted, all validity estimates are corrected for the downward bias due to measurement error in die measure of job performance and range restriction on the predictor in incumbent samples relative to applicant populations. The correlations between GMA and other predictors are corrected for range restriction but not for measurement error in either measure (thus they are smaller than fully corrected mean values in the literature). These correlations represent observed score correlations between selection methods in applicant populations. From Hunter (1980). The value used for the validity of GMA is the average validity of GMA for medium complexity jobs (covering more than 60% of all jobs in die United States). Validities are higher for more complex jobs and lower for less complex jobs, as described in the text. From Hunter and Hunter (1984, Table 10). The correction for range restriction was not possible in these data. The correlation between work sample scores and ability scores is . 38 (Schmidt, Hunter; Outerbridge, 1986). Cid From Ones, Viswesvaran, and Schmidt (1993, Table 8). The figure of . 41 is from predictive validity studies conducted on job applicants. The validity of . 31 for conscientiousn ess measures is from Mount and Barrick (1995, Table 2). The correlation between integrity and ability is zero, as is the correlation between conscientiousness and ability (Ones, 1993; Ones et al. , 1993). -f from McDaniel, Whetzel, Schmidt, and Mauer (1994, Table 4). folues used are those from studies in which the job performance ratings were for research purposes only (not administrative ratings). The correlations between interview scores and ability scores are from Huffcutt, Roth, and McDaniel (1996, Table 3). The correlation for structured interviews is . 30 and for unstructured interviews, . 38. From Hunter and Hunter (1984, Table 11). The correction for range restriction was not possible in these data. The correlation between job knowledge scores and GMA scores is . 48 (Schmidt, Hunter, Outerbridge, 1986). From Hunter and Hunter (1984, Table 9). No correction for range restriction (if any) could be made. (Range restriction is unlikely with this selection method. ) The correlat ion between job tryout ratings and ability scores is estimated at . 38 (Schmidt, Hunter, Outerbridge, 1986); that is, it was taken to be the same as that between job sample tests and ability. Use of the mean correlation between supervisory performance ratings and ability scores yields a similar value (. 35, unconnected for measurement error). From Hunter and Hunter (1984, Table 10). No correction for range restriction (if any) could be made. The average fully corrected correlation between ability and peer ratings of job performance is approximately . 55. If peer ratings are based on an average rating from 10 peers, the familiar Spearman-Brown formula indicates that the interrater reliability of peer ratings is approximately . 91 (Viswesvaran, Ones, Schmidt, 1996). Assuming a reliability of . 90 for the ability measure, the correlation between ability scores and peer ratings is . 55v^91(-90) = . 50. From McDaniel, Schmidt, and Hunter (1988a). These calculations are based on an estimate of the correlation between T E behavioral consistency and ability of . 0. This estimate reflects the fact that the achievements measured by this procedure depend on not only personality and other noncognitive characteristics, but also on mental ability. k From Hunter and Hunter (1984, Table 9). No correction for range restriction (if any) was possible. In the absence of any data, the correlation between reference checks and ability was t aken as . 00. Assuming a larger correlation would lead to lower estimated incremental validity. From Hunter (1980), McDaniel, Schmidt, and Hunter (1988b), and Hunter and Hunter (1984). In the only relevant meta-analysis, Schmidt, Hunter, and Outerbridge (1986, Table 5) found the correlation between job experience and ability to be . 00. This value was used here. m The correlation between biodata scores and ability scores is . 50 (Schmidt, 1988). Both the validity of . 35 used here and the intercorrelation of . 50 are based on the Supervisory Profile Record Biodata Scale (Rothstein, Schmidt, Erwin, Owens, and Sparks, 1990). (The validity for the Managerial Profile Record Biodata Scale in predicting managerial promotion and advancement is higher [. 52; Carlson, Scullen, Schmidt, Rothstein, Erwin, 1998]. However, rate of promotion is a measure different from overall performance on ones current job and managers are less representative of the general working population than are first line supervisors). From Gaugler, Rosenthal, Thornton, and Benson (1987, Table 8). The correlation between assessment center ratings and ability is estimated at . 50 (Collins, 1998). It should be noted that most assessment centers use ability tests as part of the evaluation process; Gaugler et al. (1987) found that 74% of the 106 assessment centers they examined used a written test of intelligence (see their Table 4). From McDaniel, Schmidt, and Hunter (I988a, Table 3). The calculations here are based on a zero correlation between the T E point method and ability; the assumption of a positive correlation would at most lower the estimate of incremental validity from . 01 to . 00. p From Hunter and Hunter (1984, Table 9). For purposes of these calculations, we assumed a zero correlation between years of educ ation and ability. The reader should remember that this is the correlation within the applicant pool of individuals who apply to get a particular job. In the general population, the correlation between education and ability is about . 55. Even within applicant pools there is probably at least a small positive correlation; thus, our figure of . 01 probably overestimates the incremental validity of years of education over general mental ability. Assuming even a small positive value for the correlation between education and ability would drive the validity increment of . 01 toward . 00. q From Hunter and Hunter (1984, Table 9). The general finding is that interests and ability are uncorrelated (Holland, 1986), and that was assumed to be the case here. From Neter and Ben-Shakhar (1989), BenShakhar (1989), Ben-Shakhar, Bar-Hillel, Bilu, Ben-Abba, and Flug (1986), and Bar-Hillel and Ben-Shakhar (1986). Graphology scores were assumed to be uncorrelated with mental ability. B From Hunter and Hunter (1984, Table 9). Age was assumed to be unrelated to ability within applicant pools. 266 Table 2 SCHMIDT AND HUNTER Predictive Validity for Over all Performance in Job Training Programs of General Mental Ability (GMA) Scores Combined With a Second Predictor Using (Standardized) Multiple Regression Standardized regression weights % increase in validity Personnel measures GMA TestsIntegrity tests Conscientiousness tests6 Employment interviews (structured and unstructured)11 Peer ratings Reference checks1 Job experience (years)8 Biographical data measures1 Years of education Interest^ Validity (r) Multiple K Gain in validity from adding supplement GMA Supplement .56 .38 . 30 . 35 . 36 . 23 . 01 . 30 . 20 . 18 . 67 . 65 . 59 . 57 . 61 . 56 . 56 . 60 . 59 . 11 . 09 . 03 . 01 . 05 . 00 . 00 . 04 . 03 20% 16% 5% 1. 4% .56 . 56 . 59 . 51 . 56 . 56 . 55 . 56 . 56 .38 . 30 . 19 . 11 . 23 . 01 . 03 . 20 . 18 9% 0% 0% 7% 5% Note. The percentage of increase in validity is also the percentage of increase in utility (practical value). All of the validities presented are based on the most current mela-analytic results reported for the various predictors. All of the validities in this table are for the criterion of overall performance in job training programs. Unless otherwise noted, all validity estimates are corrected for the downward bias due to measurement error in the measure of job performance and range restriction on the predictor in incumbent samples relative to applicant populations. All correlations between GMA and other predictors are corrected for range restriction but not for measurement error. These correlations represent observed score correlations between selection methods in applicant populations. The validity of GMA is from Hunter and Hunter (1984, Table 2). It can also be found in Hunter (1980). *lt; The validity of . 38 for integrity tests is from Schmidt, Ones, and Viswesvaran (1994). Integrity tests and conscientiousness tests have been found to correlate zero with GMA (Ones, 1993; Ones, Viswesvaran Schmidt, 1993). The validity of . 30 for conscientiousness measures is from the meta-analysis presented by Mount and Barrick (1995, Table 2). d The validity of interviews is from McDaniel, Whetzel, Schmidt, and Mauer (1994, Table 5). McDaniel et al. reported values of . 34 and . 36 for structured and unstructured interviews, respectively. However, this small difference of . 02 appears to be a result of second order sampling error (Hunter Schmidt, 1990, Ch. 9). We therefore used the average value of . 35 as the validity estimate for structured and unstructured interviews. The correlation between interviews and ability scores (. 32) is the overall figure from Huffcutt, Roth, and McDaniel (1996, Table 3) across all levels of interview structure. * The validity for peer ratings is from Hunter and Hunter (1984, Table 8). These calculations are based on an estimate of the correlation between ability and peer ratings of . 50. (See note i to Table 1). No correction for range restriction (if any) was possible in the data. The validity of reference checks is from Hunter and Hunter (1984, Table 8). The correlation between reference checks and ability was taken as . 0. Assumption of a larger correlation will reduce the estimate of incremental validity. No correction for range restriction was possible. The validity of job experience is from Hunter and Hunter (1984, Table 6). These calculations are based on an estimate of the correlation between job experience and ability of zero. (See note 1 to Table 1). * The validity of biographical data measures is from Hunte r and Hunter (1984, Table 8). This validity estimate is not adjusted for range restriction (if any). The correlation between biographical data measures and ability is estimated at . 0 (Schmidt, 1988). The validity of education is from Hunter and Hunter (1984, Table 6). The correlation between education and ability within applicant pools was taken as zero. (See note p to Table 1). The validity of interests is from Hunter and Hunter (1984, Table 8). The correlation between interests and ability was taken as zero (Holland, 1986). the jobs in the U. S. economy—is the value entered in Table 1. This category includes skilled blue collar jobs and mid-level white collar jobs, such as upper level clerical and lower level administrative jobs. Hence, the conclusions in this article apply mainly to the middle 62% of jobs in the U. S. economy in terms of complexity. The validity of . 51 is representative of findings for GMA measures in other meta-analyses (e. g. , Pearlman et al. , 1980) and it is a value that produces high practical utility. As noted above, GMA is also an excellent predictor of jobrelated learning. It has been found to have high and essentially equal predictive validity for performance (amount learned) in job training programs for jobs at all job levels studied. In

Harun Al-Rashid Abbasid Caliph Profile

Harun Al-Rashid Abbasid Caliph Profile Harun Al-Rashid Was Also Known As Haroun ar-Rashid, Harun al-Raschid or Haroon al Rasheed Harun Al-Rashid Was Known For Creating a fabulous court at Baghdad that would be immortalized in The Thousand and One Nights. Harun al-Rashid was the fifth Abbasid caliph. Occupations Caliph Places of Residence and Influence Asia: Arabia Important Dates Became caliph: Sept. 14, 786 Died: March 24, 809 About Harun al-Rashid Born to the caliph al-Mahdi and the former slave-girl al-Khayzuran, Harun was raised at court and received the bulk of his education from Yahya the Barmakid, who was a loyal supporter of Haruns mother. Before he was out of his teens, Harun was made the nominal leader of several expeditions against the Eastern Roman Empire; his success (or, more accurately, the success of his generals) resulted in his earning the title al-Rashid, which means the one following the right path or upright or just. He was also appointed governor of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Syria and Tunisia, which Yahya administered for him, and named second in line to the throne (after his older brother, al-Hadi). Al-Mahdi died in 785 and al-Hadi died mysteriously in 786 (it was rumored that al-Khayzuran arranged his death), and Harun became caliph in September of that year. He appointed as his vizier Yahya, who installed a cadre of Barmakids as administrators. Al-Khayzuran had considerable influence over her son until her death in 803, and the Barmakids effectively ran the empire for Harun. Regional dynasties were given semi-autonomous status in return for considerable annual payments, which enriched Harun financially but weakened the power of the caliphs. He also divided his empire between his sons al-Amin and al-Mamun, who would go to war after Haruns death. Harun was a great patron of art and learning, and is best known for the unsurpassed splendor of his court and lifestyle. Some of the stories, perhaps the earliest, of The Thousand and One Nights were inspired by the glittering Baghdad court, and King Shahryar (whose wife, Scheherazade, tells the tales) may have been based on Harun himself. More Harun al-Rashid Resources Iraq: Historical Setting Encyclopedia article on Abbasids Harun al-Rashid on the Web Harun al-RashidInformative collection of data at NNDB. Harun al-Rashid (786-809)Brief overview of Haruns life at the Jewish Virtual Library. Harun ar-RashidConcise bio at Infoplease. Harun al-Rashid in Print The links below will take you to a site where you can compare prices at booksellers across the web. More in-depth info about the book may be found by clicking on to the books page at one of the online merchants. Harun Al-Rashid and the World of a Thousand and One Nightsby Andre Clot Reinterpreting Islamic Historiography: Harun al-Rashid and the Narrative of the Abbasid Caliphate(Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization)by Tayeb El-Hibri

The Bookstore v. Amazon

The Bookstore v. Amazon There are readers who like bookstores and readers who prefer Amazon. Pitting them against each other is like telling people they ought to like Coca Cola over Pepsi. They have their reasons, and you wont change them. Most of the time. â€Å"If the bookshops are good enough, if the relationship with your customers is truly there, if your booksellers are enjoying themselves and you’ve trained them and you’ve respected them and you’ve allowed them to develop their skills†¦ then our customers truly will remain loyal to us.† ~James Daunt, managing director of Waterstones, at the 2017 Australian Booksellers Association’s annual conference in Melbourne But sometimes bookstore employees forget. Sometimes they let their personal feelings float to the surface, and therein lies a key reason people go to Amazon versus a bookstore . . . to purchase a book of choice in a nonjudgmental atmosphere. They want to  feel the store is benign, much like a doctor who treats anyone, regardless of who they are or what disease they have. Take away that safe feeling , and both a bookstore and a doctor loses credibility . . . and business. I love the blog, The Passive Voice. Recently, PG (the blogger) wrote about a bookstore worker who struggled with store visitors when they asked about or purchased books that the worker did not believe in. PG mentioned in the end that readers prefer a judgment-free zone like Amazon over a meatspace retail with a side of attitude.  thepassivevoice.com/2017/07/a-booksellers-elegy/ I would like to take bookstore consideration one step further. How does a bookstore treat an author? Whether a fledgling indie author or a New York Times best selling author ten times over, the human is still there. And any writer is a rabid reader, with word-of-mouth power. And a small-time local author will tout that small-town indie bookstore much louder than that big-town author who flew in and out. Without a doubt, bookstores prefer best-selling authors for sales. But there are ways of delivering the message when a bookstore can only purchase so many books or house so many signings, and a smart bookstore owner would benefit A lot of this attitude concerning bookstores explains a lot. At a bookstore, we find atmosphere and personality . . . but is it the personality you want? At Amazon, we find the widest selection of books and a market that doesnt judge. Bookstore ownerlove  everyone who comes in the door and respect  their choices. Let them know they are cherished individuals, and youll do anything to make them happy. Theyll love you back, I promise.

Leading Edge Supply Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Leading Edge Supply - Essay Example The importance of logistic edge supply is to trail down the circulation of the company stock and performance analysis. Initiating the aspect of logistic edge supply, intelligent platform comes into play since this provides key management data that in turn enables one to analyze critically the strengths and weaknesses attached across the supply chain. Other key management information includes optimization of planning route, understanding fraudulent activities that comes within the supply chain and enhance the workflow that usually is driven by data caused by intelligence platform (Ballou, 2003). Many companies ensure that implementation and utilization of leading edge supply is taken into consideration within the logistic systems of any organization. For the articulations be fully met, an organization is required to operate within the pre-requisite objectives that influence achievement of organization goals. When there is a presence of effective logistic in a management system of an organization, success comes at hand. However, this comes because of an organization chipping in to make sure that they employ qualified personnel, and tap into labor market using and adopting new technology that in turn boots operation within the management of an

Roles of International Financial Institutions Essay

Roles of International Financial Institutions - Essay Example International financial institutions operate under international laws and this regulation applies to their roles. The institutions also operate and dispense their duties with a global focus according to the international laws and policies. The international financial institutions therefore implement international laws and policies. This paper will therefore analyze the roles of international financial institutions and their importance in the management of global risks. The World Bank is the largest and the most common international financial institution. The World Bank offers financial assistance to countries especially the developing countries as its main duty. The institutions mainly targets and finance development projects in the concerned countries with the aim of reducing poverty or assisting the countries to achieve global development goals. The international monetary fund the IMF has roles similar to the roles of the World Bank although the institution specializes in monitorin g global economy. International financial institutions (IFI) deals with global financial matters however, their duties are influenced by global politics. International financial institutions implements global policies and this link them with the global politics. The main duty of the IFI is maintaining economic and financial stability in different countries. Maintaining stable economies is an important part of international development. To play this role the institutions provides deposit and loans facilities to the concerned countries. This effort enables the institutions to actively control and monitor the flow of finances in these countries. These institutions work together with other international organizations such as the UN to carry out their duties. Although these multinational organizations have full control over the international financial institutions, the institutions have their own duties and agenda. Poverty eradication and economic stability of developing countries cannot be achieved without peace and stability in the involved countries and therefore the IFI have maintaining peace and stability in these countries as their secondary objective. The institutions influence the government of the concerned countries by altering their financial capabilities. This is achieved through offering of loan and financial sanctions to the concerned governments. This enables the IFI to control the monetary flow of the involved countries or their financial capabilities. The institutions also target the governments of the involved countries in order to maintain political stability. This enables the institutions to enhance global and regional stability through stable economies. Maintaining stability is an indirect role of the IFI aimed at enhancing global economic stability and development. The maintaining global and regional stability is a method of implementing international humanitarian law that is one of the duties of the institutions. Global financing operations a re financial procedures and analysis. Global financial operations include financial operation procedures such as accounting, strategic planning investment, financial analysis, and compliance (Hirschey, 2009). These procedures are carried out on a global scale and hence global financial operation reference. Global financial institutions have global duties and responsibilities. The institutions are therefore responsible for carrying out the global financial

Administrative Ethics Paper Grading Criteria Essay Example for Free

Administrative Ethics Paper Grading Criteria Essay Resource: Administrative Ethics Paper Grading Criteria on your student website Find a current administrative issue in a newspaper, magazine, or journal article relating to topics such as patient privacy, confidentiality, or HIPAA. Write a 1,050- to 1,400-word paper that includes the following: †¢ Describe the issue and its impact on the population it affects most. †¢ What arguments or facts are used in the article to support the proposed solution? †¢ What are the ethical and legal issues reported for your administrative issue? †¢ Explain the managerial responsibilities related to administrative ethical issues. If none were stated, what should have been done? †¢ Identify any proposed solutions. See more: Strategic Management Process Essay Include at least three sources in your paper. Resource: Administrative Ethics Paper Grading Criteria on your student website Find a current administrative issue in a newspaper, magazine, or journal article relating to topics such as patient privacy, confidentiality, or HIPAA. Write a 1,050- to 1,400-word paper that includes the following: †¢ Describe the issue and its impact on the population it affects most. †¢ What arguments or facts are used in the article to support the proposed solution? †¢ What are the ethical and legal issues reported for your administrative issue? †¢ Explain the managerial responsibilities related to administrative ethical issues. If none were stated, what should have been done? †¢ Identify any proposed solutions.

The Airline Industry :: essays research papers

The topic in which I chose to do a scrapbook on was â€Å"How the government affects the airline industry in Canada†. Specifically I chose articles that related to the aftermaths of the September 11th tragedy. This event affected airlines in an enormous manner. Many airlines were facing economical problems and in turned asked the government for assistance. As a result, Canada 3000, which was Canada’s second largest airline carrier filed for bankruptcy protection on October 11th. Air Canada was also faced with many hard to make decisions. They turned to the Canadian government and asked for financial assistance. The Problem Solving Method will be examined to determine how the government came to the decision of actually granting Air Canada some assistance. Problem Solving Method 1. Decide on the "Issue" (Define it carefully to avoid arguments later.) The issue that is being discussed in whether or not the government should help Air Canada out financially. As can be seen in the articles presented in the scrapbook, it is known that the government controls many of the operations at Air Canada. 2. Examine various points of view and the opinions they have.  · Your own In my opinion, I think that the Canadian government should help Air Canada with financial assistance. I believe that if the government wants to have control over their fare prices, whether or not they can open a discount airline, and the amount of workers they are able to hire, that they have an obligation to the airline to help them out in these types of situations.  · Those of key groups or individuals (stakeholders) a) Air Canada Union Representatives – This group feels that the government should be active in financial aid relief. During the events after September 11th, the union stated in many national papers, that they felt that they deserved the same amount of support and relief that the US government was giving their airlines. b) The Canadian Government – The government had essentially three choices: i) They could help the airline. ii) They could do nothing and let the airline claim bankruptcy. iii) They could buy back into Air Canada. With the first choice, the government has to allocate some of their resources to the airline. The second option was not feasible for the government to partake in because of the fact that Canadian citizens would be loosing the biggest airline carrier. The third option, which the government did consider, involved two options. The government could either buy a minority of the shares or they could buy the entire operation and that would result in Air Canada becoming a crown corporation.

Disastrous Date Essay

I remember my first date. Not only because it was my first romantic experience with who I considered during that time â€Å"the boy of my dreams†, but also because it was one of the most embarrasing experiences of my life. I was 17 years old back then, but I remember it like if it was yesterday. We took a long road trip from Carolina to the Old San Juan. Along the way we were sharing experiences and funny anecdotes, we were telling each other the kind of stories you tell in highschool, about pranks, teachers, odd classmates and issues that only a highschool student can understand. We arrived to the restaurant and everything in it looked fancy. The sights were all bright because of the illumination of the place; everything was sorrounded with colorful lamps with different shapes, there were autographed pictures of what appeared to be various local celebrities who had visited the restaurant, such as Josà © Feliciano and Ednita Nazario, the tables were decorated with red and yellow roses, Dean Martin’s lovable music was comming out of the restaurant’s speakers and the smell of garlic frying in olive oil in the air gave me that sensation that only good Italian restaurants can give to a woman with a great taste like myself. As we walked in the host politely saluted us and asked my date if he had a reservation, to which he replied â€Å"yes†, after checking my date’s name and last name in a thick, old, black binder with Italy’s flag and the restaurant’s logo on its cover the host walked us to our table. The service was great, I can tell because only a few minutes after taking our seats the waiter was with our menus and offering us drinks. My date comfortably asked for the wine of the house, because apparently he already knew the place and he was eighteen years old, the legal drinking age in Puerto Rico, when the waiter turned to me and I got nervous, because at that time I never had a drink of alcohol in my life, not even a drop, so I pointed out the brownish looking drink of the lady in the next table and mumbled â€Å"iced tea for me please†¦Ã¢â‚¬ . I was nervous because I had this idea back then that alcohol plays an  important role in a teenager’s social live. When I was in highschool, all my friends under eighteen were drinking in parties, concerts or other social events, they even brought to school alcohol hidden in gatorade bottles and such, and, as every person who have experienced the highschool drama knows, all the â€Å"cool kids† were doing it. I felt inmature because my date was about to have some kind of fancy wine while I asked for iced tea like some fifth grader girl. I will not ever forget the face he made when he heard me ask for iced tea, he had this mixture of doubt and mock in his expression, like frowning and smiling simultaneously. â€Å"Come on†¦Ã¢â‚¬  he said sarcastically while winking his eye â€Å"†¦ I won’t tell your parents you had a glass of wine or two†, I stood strong to my principles by answering â€Å"no thank you, ice tea is fine†, I don’t know if I did it because I was being brave against the peer pressure or afraid that at some point of the night someone from the restaurant’s personnel would approach me asking for an ID. The waiter came back to take our order with a tray on his hands which contained a garlic bread basket, my date’s glass, a bottle of wine and a huge glass of what appeared to be my iced tea. I remember we asked that night for a pizza with eggplants, green peppers, tomato slices, onions and extra cheese with basil sauce on top, the pizza dough was dipped in olive oil and served in a hot pan. As we waited for the food to arrive I took a sip from my drink, I noticed it tasted weird, it was sour, a little bit bitter and it was also effervescent like soda, it didn’t tasted like any iced tea I had before, but since we were in a fancy place and I didn’t wanted to look unrefined, I assumed that’s how elegant people drink their iced tea, I thought to myself that if I drank fast the taste wouldn’t bother me. With the passage my drinking speed increased, a sip turned into a swig, a swig into a gulp and a gulp into three glasses. Little did I know the contents o f my drink. As the glasses were draining one by one I started feeling woozy, like if I just came out from a long rollercoaster ride. My face felt warm, my respiration got colder, my tongue got tangled when I spoke, I found almost impossible to control the volume of my voice, my eyelids were struggling to remain open, and my arms and legs became droopy. Suddenly, I found myself in  a good mood, laughing at each joke he told, even when they were not funny, and also I became very sincere, telling him almost every really deep and personal anecdotes and cofessing every single reason why I found him attractive in every way, I even told him, like I mentioned before, why he was the â€Å"boy of my dreams†, without knowing it, I was drunk for the first time in my life. He was not a fool whatsoever, he knew I was drunk, but he couldn’t explain himself why, since the only thing I had that night were three huge glasses of â€Å"iced tea†, he asked the waiter in an angry tone of voice how come I was drunk with three glasse of iced tea, the waiter replied that was because there were five differet types of liqueur in a Long Island Iced Tea, vodka, tequila, rum, gin and triple sec. Apparently our waiter got confused, because when he took our order the drink I pointed out from the lady on the table next to us was actually a Long Island Iced Tea. Needless to say we left the restaurant that momment with shame in our faces, to top it all off, on our way to the car we came across with my english school teacher, the one who talked like Edward James Olmos in that movie where he was a math teacher, he recognized me and greeted me and I greeted him back, until this day I think because of the distance I was from him he didn’t noticed how drunk I was but, who knows. I cannot say that our date was a total waste of time. Even tough I was drunk he behaved like a gentleman the whole time. He never took advantage of my state and I respect and admire that in a man. He carried me in his shoulders like a wounded soldier, he also made several stops in different business locations without complaining when I needed to go to the bathroom, he held my hair for it to avoid getting dirty when I puked, he even didn’t got mad because I did it in his new shoes. After sitting for a while in the park, having two water bottles and an energy drink I regained some sobriety, he gave me some mint bubblegum for the nausea and drove me back home, I puked once on the way but he was nice enough to pull over and open the door. I finally arrived home around 2:00 AM, I puked once more before going to bed and fall sleep, it is still a mistery for me how could I puke so much in one night. I woke up the next day with the sound of my cellphone ringing, I was dizzy, had a headache and it felt like the phone was ringing inside my skull, I answered and I heard the sound of his voice asking me if I was ok  and also if I remembered something about the night before, I answered him by apologizing several times, describing how I felt that morning and that I partially rememberd what happened during our date, he explained to me almost laughing that weird pehnomena I was experiencing was called a â€Å"hangover†. He called me again when I fully recovered, surprisingly enough to ask me out again, I told him that I would go out with him if we avoid going to the Old San Juan for a long while, because after what happened in our first date I could never show my face again around that area.

Culture and Formation of Culture Essay

The word culture can be referred to the behavior of the human beings specifically with the objects, things and commodities around them and these objects are used as an essential part of this behavior. In this sense it is only the ability of the mankind to create a culture. And culture itself will include all the norms and behaviors of human beings like language, customs, beliefs, religions, tool, techniques, arts, rituals, ceremonies and common practice of every day life. There are numerous definitions of culture and every anthropologist has a different view about it. Some has defined culture as â€Å"learned behavior† or â€Å"ideas in mind† or â€Å"a logical construct†, but the most favored definition is that culture is â€Å"the abstraction from behavior† (Culture). Certeau (xi) states that Culture is the combination of every day practices of the societies. But instead of making the unit force an individual he has taken a more economist perspective and regarded them as â€Å"consumers† (Certeau, xi). While John Fiske produced a two economic theory and regards culture as a parallel economy against the financial economy and has named it as â€Å"cultural economy† (Fiske, 538). As every economy has a capital the cultural economy’s capital consists of pleasure and meanings (Fiske, 541). Frederick Engels while speaking in the context of history defines culture as â€Å"traditions, which haunt human minds† (Engels, 10). Speaking conclusively culture is not only behavior neither an action, but it is the combination of abstraction and behavior or a behavior explicating a concept. Formation of Culture: According the theory of evolution, the advancement of the human behavior from natural to learned and freely variable behavior, the particulars of which have the tendency to be transferred to the next generation and has the ability to evolve into a system of things. Thus culture is a man made environment brought into existence by the human ability to symbol. When a culture is established then it has a life of its own. It is a range of things and events in a cause and effect relationship (Culture). Different theorists have argued about the formation of culture in their own specific way and style. According to Bourdieu â€Å"cultural needs are the product of upbringing and education† (Bourdieu, 42). He initially states that the production of cultural goods as well as the description of different ways of appropriating these goods as work of arts as well as providing social conditions, which are considered legitimate (Bourdieu, 42). He further emphasis that all social practices, which are the core of any culture, are traced back to education or social origin (Bourdieu, 42). On the other hand Fiske says that culture is the opposite force developed in response to the producers of consumer goods. He states that culture is the parellel economic system, which runs in response to the financial economic system. According to him it’s capital is meanings and pleasure (Fiske, 538). This is a more economic perspective of rather than the anthropological perspective. Theodor Adorno while discussing the evolution of popular music culture states that the popular music culture and its hold on the masses is because of the urge to distract the individuals from the current realities to the world of fantasy, and popular music has the ability to distract the listener from it (Adorno, 80,81). Thus according to him a culture evolves as a reaction of the current cultural norms. That is the main reason that the popular culture did not evolved before the industrial revolution. Social Relations: Social relations are the behaviors of different social groups related to and in response of each other. Thus speaking about the ruling class, which is also regarded as the elite class or aristocracy is the social group, which has the means of production at its disposal Thus the ruling ideas and concepts are the expressions of dominant material relationships (Marx & Engels, 8). According to Marx and Engels the historically speaking the relationship of the individual and the ruling class are reflected by the dominance of ideas and concepts during the dominance of that ruling class. For instance during the dominion of the aristocracy the concepts of loyalty and honor were dominant, while during the dominion of the bourgeoisie the concepts of equality and freedom were dominant (Marx and Engels, 8). The relation between the ruling class and the lower class has two ways. Either it leads or it dominates. The first relation is with its allies while the second is with its enemies (Gramsci, 12) Thus the social relations between the aristocracy has two conditions. If the aristocracy has friendly terms with the lower class, the lower class will follow accordingly under its leadership. But if the lower class does not consent the way the ruling class leads it will refuse to follow. As a result the ruling class will try to dominate the lower class in order to maintain its status. Marx has regarded the aristocracy as the material forces of production, which sometimes come into conflict with the property relations that is the lower class and results in the social revolution (Marx, 9). Engels says that the economic political and traditional i. e cultural factors are interrelated and they in combination play the determined role in the formation of history. Thus history is the product of the combine efforts of the economical, political and demographical factors. Thus one can very easily find the social relation between the economy, politics and cultural norms. Works Cited Adorno, Theodor W. â€Å"On Popular Music† Studies in Philosophy and Social Sciences. 1941. Bourdieu, Pierre. â€Å"Distinction and The Aristocracy of Culture†. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste. 1984, Routledge, London. Certeau, Michel de. â€Å"The Practice of Every Day Life† 1984, Berkley University California Press. â€Å"Culture. † Encyclop? dia Britannica. 2007. Encyclop? dia Britannica 2006 Ultimate Reference Suite DVD 8 May, 2007. Fiske, John. â€Å"The Popular Economy† Television Culture. 1987, Routledge, London. Gramsci, Antonio. â€Å"Hegomony, Intellectuals and the State† Princeton Notebooks, Lawrence & Wishart, London. Marx, Karl. â€Å"Base & Superstructure† A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy. 1976, Foreign Languages Press, Peking. Marx, Karl & Engels, Federick. â€Å"Ruling Class and Ruling Ideas† The German Ideology. 1970, Lawrence & Wishart, London. Marx, Karl & Engels. â€Å"A Letter to Joseph Bloch† Selected Letters. 1977, Foreign Languages Press, Peking.

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. 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