Media Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Media - Essay Example comedy depended a great deal on the ability of the audience to ‘get’ the joke as laughter from the audience was always a sign during stage performances that the play was being well received. This element of external interaction was incorporated into the sit-com, but with the added benefit of being able to record the show first and then air it later. Thus, unexpected reactions from the audience could be cut out, errors in performance could be tried again and prompts for audience reaction weren’t as obvious. By combining these two approaches, the sit-com still maintains the illusion of being a live event in spite of the great degree of editing and production involved. This ability to edit and change has also introduced more meaning into the shows produced. Just as the comedies of stage and radio were reflections of their society, so have the sit-coms of the past several decades reflected the society that produce them but with the greater realization of preservation of performance and significance to audiences. In many ways, the sit-com of today has not changed a great deal in its structural format even as its reflection of society has altered and the level of meaning presented has deepened with greater understanding of the principles at work. Before one can look at individual sit-coms to see if they hold up to a common definition, it is helpful to have a definition and idea of development in place. Generally sit-coms, or situation comedies, are defined as a form of comedy that presents episodes of recurring characters as they interact within a common environment, facing some sort of complication and resolving it at the end with some form of happy ending. The sit-com has developed from a long history of stage performances intended to entertain the masses by featuring stories they were able to relate with while also poking gentle fun at the lifestyles of the wealthy. According to Lewisohn, precursors of the sitcom have existed since the times of

Conan Doyle create Essay Example for Free

Conan Doyle create Essay By what means does Conan Doyle create and maintain an Atmosphere of Suspense and Mystery in The Adventure of the Speckled Band This short tale shows all the formulae that Conan Doyle uses to create suspense. It adheres to Conan Doyles previous successes by using his familiar way of building and prolonging suspense. The ways in which he achieves this are numerous. In this account he uses the description of buildings and objects to create suspense. For example, there is a description of the Roylott Mansion, Stoke Moran. Both Miss Stoner and Watson tell us of a large house, grey, two curved wings like a crab, in disrepair, blue smoke curling out of the chimney, and boarded over windows (to promote a sense of secrecy maybe). This description of the house forms suspense solely by creating an image of an eerie house, one that epitomises the stereotypical haunted house. Therefore one is thinking that something thrilling and exciting, but also sinister, is going to happen in this house. More suspense is built after Watson and Holmes enter the house, when they look at a few of the objects in the murdered womans bedroom, more specifically; the bell-pull, the ventilation and the bed. The bell-pull is odd because it is not attached to a bell, but is attached to a hook instead, by the ventilation therefore doing nothing, as voiced here; No, its not even attached to a wire. This fastened to a hook just above where the little opening for the ventilator is. The ventilation is weird because it does not lead to any fresh air but instead to another part of the house; what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another room he might have communicated with the outside air! Finally the bed is odd because it is bolted to the floor meaning that it cant be moved away from where it already is by the ventilation and the bell-pull which are of no use; Holmes picks up on this later on; The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same relative position to the ventilator and to the rope These references build suspense because even after Holmes has done a long examination of them and asked himself a few questions, these questions are left unanswered: Whoever designed the room in this way must have calculated a need for it to be so, but who would have done so, and why. It makes you question, it makes you think, it makes you feel uneasy it creates suspense. The most obvious thing that one notices is the way that Conan Doyle describes and uses characters to produce and sustain the suspense. There are many examples of this, such as; the gypsies being used as a red herring to the investigation. As a reader one thinks that the title Speckled Band could refer either to the gypsy band or to the curious marks found on the dead woman of a speckled band. The description by Watson of Grimesby Roylott bursting into the room, a man so broad and burly that he nearly fills the doorway, wearing big leather boots and carrying a crop, tanned, deep-set staring eyes, and a long thin nose. This description makes one think of a menace of a man, maybe a killer, as weve already been told of his violent nature but the idea that he is the killer is immediately dismissed because one is thinking that Conan Doyle wouldnt make finding the murderer that obvious and easy, it seems too stereotypical, at least to the reader. He is still a suspect because his room is connected to the deceased by a ventilation shaft. Therefore one still wonders whom the murderer is, prolonging the suspense. Ironically in the end it turns out to be Roylott; Conan Doyle has double-bluffed us through his writing. Another aspect one has to mention is that of the opening scene when Watson mentions that this was the most incomprehensible of all Holmes 70-plus cases. Watson describes it as fantastic, unusual, and non-commonplace; we are immediately intrigued, creating a perfect opener for the habitual Holmes reader or any mystery reader as a matter of fact. It makes one want to read on and find out exactly why this could be one of Holmes and Watsons most strange and memorable cases; again the reader is held in suspense. The opening is rather abrupt, which quickly and easily draws one in because nowhere in this opening is there a lapse of interest, the reader cannot relax. Then just as one thinks that one has reached a climax, as we think we are going to be told short and quick who the killer was and what exactly it did, Conan Doyle changes the subject to another curiosity; from Watsons intriguing build-up to Helen Stoner demanding that they come to meet her step-father immediately. There are widespread rumours as to the death of Dr Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even more terrible than the truth, then it seems a young lady has arrived in a considerable state of excitement, who insists on seeing me. Why does a lady want to see him? Why is she in that considerable state of excitement? Even more curious a question, What could be more terrible than the truth? Conan Doyle has created urgency, he has created unease, and thereby he has created suspense.

Should Adopted Children Be Allowed To Locate Their Biological Parents? :: essays research papers

Should Adopted Children Be Allowed To Locate Their Biological Parents?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  A touchy topic these days is whether or not the option should be open for adopted children to be able to locate their biological parents. There are some many circumstances for each different case that it is hard to know where exactly I stand on this topic. Over all, I do not think that you should locate your biological parents.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There are many reasons for this. For one thing, learning information on the person who gave you up is a long drawn out process. It can be very emotionally painful, as well. For whatever reason you were given up for adoption; death, financial problems, to young, etc it ¹s private information and should remain that way. The decision was made a long time ago because it was the best one at that time.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Think about the birth parents involved. What happens after you spend a few months or more of your life trying to locate these people only to have a door shut in your face? How would you feel if that were to happen? The chances of this happening are pretty good. Yes, there are happy reunions on talk shows that turn out for the better, but that is not always the reality. These people gave up their birth rights many years ago and should not go back on that. They have moved on with their lives and might not want to be reminded what could have been. So many hurt feelings and feelings of guilt could come flying back and then put more of a burden on both of your lives.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There is another factor to think about in this situation. How is your family suppose to react to this and how are they supposed to feel? This is the loving family that took you in as there own for all these years, are they

Cost Accounting Terminologies Essay

Cost accounting, as a tool of management, provides management with detailed records of the costs relating to products, operations or functions. Cost accounting refers to the process of determining and accumulating the cost of some particular product or activity. It also covers classification, analysis and interpretation of costs. The cost so determined and accumulated may be the estimated future costs for planning purposes, or actual (historical) costs for evaluating performance. The Institute of Cost and Management Accountant (ICMA), London, defined cost accounting as â€Å"the process of accounting for cost from the point at which expenditure incurred or committed to the establishment of its ultimate relationship with cost centers and cost units. In its widest usage it embraces the preparation of statistical data, the application of cost control methods and the ascertainment of profitability of activities carried out or planned.† Costing Cost accounting and costing have distinctly different meanings. The Institute of Cost and Management Accountant (ICMA), London, defined costing as the ascertainment of costs. Costing includes the â€Å"techniques† and â€Å"processes† of ascertaining costs. The technique refers to the principles or rules which are applied for ascertaining costs of products manufactured and services rendered. There are mainly two methods of costing job costing and process costing. The process includes the day to day routine of determining costs within the methods of costing adopted by the business enterprise. Within such a process, there could be historical costing, marginal costing, absorption costing and standard costing etc. Objectives of Cost Accounting There is a direct relationship among information needs of management and cost accounting objectives and techniques and tools used for analyses in cost accounting. Cost accounting has the following three important objectives: 1. To determine the product cost.  2. To facilitate planning and control of regular business activities. 3. To supply information for short and long-run decision. Product Costing The objective of determining the cost of products is the prime importance of cost accounting. The total product costs and cost per unit of product are important in making inventory valuation, deciding price of the product and managerial decision making. Planning and Control Another important objective of cost accounting is the creation of useful cost data and information for the purposes of planning and control by management. The different alternative plans are evaluated in terms of respective costs and associated benefits. The management control over business operations aims to establish balance between actual and budgeted performance. A properly designed cost accounting system includes the following steps in the control process: 1. Comparing actual performance with budgets and standard 2. Analyzing the variances between budget and standards and actual by causes, and management responsibility so that corrective actions may take place. 3. Providing managers with data and reports about their individual performances and performances of subordinates. Information for decision Another important objective of cost accounting system is to provide data and special analyses for short and long-run decisions of a non-recurring nature. Appropriate cost information must be accumulated to make a wide variety of short and long run decision. According to Henke and Spoede, the following are the cost information developed in cost accounting: 1. As a basis for valuing manufactured inventories and cost of goods sold in externally presented financial reports. 2. In controlling operations through the evaluation of operating results and the placement of responsibilities for the uses of organizational resources on the shoulders of specifically identifiable persons within the organization. 3. In planning operations through the establishment of cost and budgetary goals. 4. In making day- to- day operating decisions. The cost information is used for two purposes in most organizations: 1) the cost accounting systems provide information to evaluate the performance of an organizational unit or his manager, and 2) also provide the means for estimating the unit cost of products or services that the organization can manufacture or provide to others. a) Performance measurement: This measurement can be done by comparing current costs with those who were expected – or standard costs budgeted cost – to the degree of knowing which of them have been controlled. Deviations of expected with the current – variances – can be identified, evaluated and discussed by managers. b) Cost of goods and services: In manufacturing companies, the costs of goods must be measured to determine the cost of items transferred from work in process inventory to finished products. To meet the demands for information, a cost system should measure all the costs of manufacturing process and allocate a portion of those costs to each unit of output. The cost to obtain, maintain and manage the manufacturing plant or building should be added to the cost of material and productive work that requires each unit. The first are called indirect costs and the two last are called direct costs. c) Profit analysis. Information in costs is essential to analyze the profits obtained from a product or product line. The information on the cost of a product enables managers to assess the contribution margin – the difference between the price and variable costs – and the gross margin – the difference between the price and the total cost of the product. d) Product mix. For the companies that offer more than one product or service the cost information is key to handle the mix of products or services offered to customers. With information on cost-profit, a manager can lead the effort in sales and advertising for products that generate greater value. The products that do not create any profit can be removed, have a price reassignation, or tied up with products that have greater utility. e) Price assignation. Regardless of where prices are determined by the forces of market demand, product differentiation and advertising offer to many managers some sort of idea to assign prices to products or services. The costs of products and trends commonly offer signals to managers that prices should be changed. An example could be the change in the cost of a material or critical component which can give a signal to reassess the price of a product or service. f) Cost of service. Many products require the seller to provide additional services to customers. In such cases, the information about the cost of service is so important for managers as the cost of production. The same for companies that offer services only, unless the cost of service is measured, there is no way to know whether providing the service is profitable or not, or whether changes in prices or advertising are needed. Looked from another angle, the uses that the administration of a company can give to the costs can be grouped into 4 categories, specified below Method of costing As state earlier, the term costing refers to the techniques and processes of determining cost of a product manufactured or a service rendered. Different methods are applied in business enterprises to ascertain cost depending upon the nature of the product, production method and specific business conditions. For example, in a textile or steel company, raw material passes through different stages and production is done continuously. In some other industries, production is done at different customers specific orders and each job is different from the other job.

The Contributions of Abigail Adams

Though quiet, sickly, and shy, Abigail Adams, the wife of second president John Adams, helped plant the seeds that eventually led to the concept of women ¹s rights and women ¹s equality with men. For a country which had been founded on the idea of independence for all, these concepts were still considered radical and even ridiculous. Abigail believed that a good education was just as necessary for girls as for boys. This was a departure from the prevailing feeling of teaching girls only the skills necessary for keeping a household running smoothly. She had a passion for reading history, theology, and political theory which she passed on to her children. For Abigail to have taken such a strong interest in her education was a brave stance for her time. Education was often viewed as a corrupting influence on a woman. She requested her husband John, who was a delegate to Congress and later a U.S. president, to draft into law a commitment to supporting education for women. John was in full agreement with Abigail ¹s views on this subject. Abigail made her strongest appeal for women ¹s rights in 1776, when John was in Philadelphia serving in Congress. As members drafted laws to guarantee the independence for which the colonist were fighting, Abigail wrote to John begging him to remember that women also needed to be given the right of independence. She sensed the struggles that were to come and understood the unfairness of making one group subject to the will of another. She supported her husband through every phase of his rise to power and fame. His dependency and reliance on her as his partner was apparent. He considered her advice and assistance as critical to his success as a president. Ultimately, Abigail brought about no immediate changes in the way women were treated. However, it would not be long before others followed her lead.

6 Tips for Negotiating the Salary You Want

6 Tips for Negotiating the Salary You Want You’ve got a job offer. Mini-wave in celebration of you! Except don’t write your â€Å"I quit† email to your current boss just yet. There’s still another step before your new job is official: the salary negotiation. In your offer letter (or email, or phone call), there was likely a salary amount in there somewhere. Remember what we usually tell you about the interview process? That you should hold off on discussing money and benefits until later in the process? Well, my friend, that time is now. Here are some tips you can use to maximize that process, and try to improve upon an initial offer.1. Be realistic.Know the market rate for your position. If you didn’t do this before your interview, do it now (thanks, Google!). You can check sites like Payscale.com and Salary.com to see what information is out there for people in your new position, at your new company, and/or at other companies. This will help you form a baseline of what you can reasonably e xpect. You can try for higher, but if you do that, make sure it’s on the same scale. Sure, you can reach for the stars, but if you demand $500K and a signing bonus Ferrari for a job that averages $60K and may offer an Uber discount, well†¦you will be laughed at (at best), or have your offer rescinded (at worst).2. It’s okay to haggle†¦These days, employers expect there to be a bit of negotiation. Sure, some people are so thankful for the job offer that they sign on the dotted line, no questions asked. However, it’s also common for employees to try for a higher salary. It’s not personal; the employer understands that you’re merely trying to get the best possible outcome for yourself. Once you receive the initial offer, respond graciously with a thank you, and make sure you’re clear that you’d like some time to consider your pay and benefits.3†¦but be nice.This is a dialogue with your new employer, not an adversary. You w ant the tone to be as pleasant and mutually beneficial as possible because soon you will have a personnel file with them. Be polite in all of your communication with them- and don’t let them forget how high a priority you put on being a good fit with their team.4. Don’t forget benefits.Salary may be the most important part of a new job offer/acceptance, but it’s not the only important thing. Take a good look at the benefits package that comes along with the salary. It can be an important fallback negotiation if they really won’t wiggle much on the salary itself. Can you get additional vacation/personal days? Can you add flexible work-from-home time? The negotiation should be considered a package negotiation, with less tangible benefits included in the bottom line as well.5. Have your talking points ready to go.Salary negotiation may follow quickly after the job offer. Once it starts, you don’t want to drag your feet too much. You should have all of your information ready to go so that you can keep the back-and-forth going over the next few days.Chances are, you’re like the rest of us and not an elite athlete whose contract saga can play out for months at a time with the team’s front office. It’s in your interest- and the company’s- to resolve this as quickly as possible to get you started in your new role. To help keep things moving, make sure you have your selling points (Experience! Market rates for this position! Millions of dollars in sales for your last company!) all lined up in your head (or even better, in your notebook) so that you can respond quickly and effectively.6. Know when to fold ‘em.There may be a point in the negotiation where the offered salary just won’t work for you, and the company is no longer willing to go higher. You should know ahead of time what your â€Å"no go† point is, and decide whether you still want to move forward with the job at that less-than -ideal offer. If you don’t, then it’s okay to walk away from the offer and go back into the job search process. If you decide to go ahead and accept, at least you know that you’ve done everything you can do to scoop up any money left on the table.Throughout the process, even if you’re not getting the ideal salary you have in your head, don’t get discouraged. You’ll have opportunities later to negotiate for raises. In the meantime, go out there, be confident, and grab those bucks!

The Love and Devotion of Lady Macbeth Essay Example

The Love and Devotion of Lady Macbeth Essay Example The Love and Devotion of Lady Macbeth Paper The Love and Devotion of Lady Macbeth Paper Power, and the pursuit of it, can make the strongest person weak. An ironic twist because power is supposed to be the opposite of weakness, but they can be one and the same. The primal thirst for power can lead to people committing atrocities whether in real life or those who are portrayed in fiction. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Macbeth is susceptible to be corrupted by the yearning for power and Lady Macbeth does horrible deeds out of love for her husband. Although she appears evil, she loves her husband so much that she is willing to be unsexed, give her sanity and plot treason for her husband’s ambitions. Lady Macbeth is a woman, and as a woman she is automatically and unjustly associated with being a soft and warm-hearted person. As she vehemently pleads here, â€Å"†¦Come you spirits/ That tend on mortal thoughts! Unsex me here/†¦ come to my woman’s breasts/ And take my milk for gall†, (Shakespeare, Act I, Scene V, L 40-47) she desires to lose these qualities to do what is necessary of her. This is one of the most powerful things that can be done for another. The mere fact that Lady Macbeth is willing to call on evil spirits for this unwieldy process shows that she has the utmost love and devotion for her husband. One cannot overlook the irony of Lady Macbeth calling on the very same evil spirits that predicted her husband to be to king, to help herself have the power to make Macbeth the leader of Scotland. Also that is she had truly gotten her wish, then she would have lost one of woman’s greatest gifts, the ability to have children or an heir to the throne. Later in the play, as a result of Lady Macbeth’s hardened actions, she is beginning to lose her sanity. In all states of consciousness, Macbeth’s well-being still plagues her mind. As she is sleep walking, she is trying to assure Macbeth and sooth him into relaxing sleep, portrayed here, â€Å"†¦I tell you yet again, Banquo’s buried; / He cannot come out on’s grave†. Act I, Scene V, L 60-61) As one can see here, one of her innermost desires is for Macbeth to be happy, but they suffer from the same illness, their conscience, which constantly reminds them of the mayhem they have created. This leads her to lose her most treasured possession, her mind, because of her actions out of love for Macbeth. Eventually it drives her to complete madness and leads her to take her life, a martyr for M acbeth’s path to kingship. The binding guilt that tormented Lady Macbeth’s mind was not unfounded. Although her hands did not commit the murder of King Duncan, she is directly responsible. She was the driving force behind Macbeth and pushed him into the murder, even when he had his doubts about the worth of becoming king. Lady Macbeth’s sheer devotion and love for Macbeth did what was necessary, not what was nice, for Macbeth’s aspirations. As one can see, â€Å"†¦ look like the innocent flower/ But be the serpent under’t†¦ you shall put/ This night’s great business into my dispatch;† (Act I, Scene V, 64-67), Lady Macbeth set out a foolproof plan to ease the burden of stress that is weighing on Macbeth. The plot and acts of treason and regicide are tokens of Lady Macbeth’s devotion because royalty in medieval times were said to be chosen by the divine. In order for lady Macbeth to hazard her life and potentially her afterlife for Macbeth’s temporal desires is just another of the many signs of love and devotion. As one can now see, Lady Macbeth is not an evil character but an extremely realistic one who gave all of her strength for her husband’s weakness. She is somebody who out of love and devotion is willing to give her femininity, her sanity and plot treason for her husband. Lady Macbeth gives everything she possibly can for the happiness of another, the true definition of love. All of this is done because of Macbeth’s weakness when he saw the potential for power. One can only wonder how far he would have gotten if he did not have the love and devotion of Lady Macbeth to aid him on his journey. Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990.

How to Get 36 on ACT Science 13 Strategies From a Perfect Scorer

How to Get 36 on ACT Science 13 Strategies From a Perfect Scorer SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Are you scoring between 26-34 on ACT Science? Do you want to raise that score as high as possible - to a perfect 36? Getting to a 36 ACT Sciencescore isn't easy. It'll require perfection. But with hard work and my strategies below, you'll be able to do it. I've consistently scored 36 on Scienceon my real ACTs, and I know what it takes. Follow my advice, and you'll get a perfect score - or very close. Brief note: This article is suited for students already scoring a 26 on ACT Scienceor above. If you're below this range, my "How to Improve Your ACT Science Score" articleis more appropriate for you. Follow the advice in that article, then come back to this one when you've reached a 26. Overview For somereason, there aren't very many ACT Science guides out there. There's a lot of material for ACT Math and ACT Reading, but people just seem to shy away from the science section. In contrast, at PrepScholar we've written what we believe are the best guides to ACT Science available anywhere, and we've published them online for free. In this article, I'm going to discuss why scoring a 36 in ACT Science is a good idea, what it takes to score a 36, and then go into the 13 key ACT Sciencestrategies so you know how to get a 36 on ACT Science. Stick with me - as an advanced student, you probably already know that scoring high is good. But it's important to know why a 36 Sciencescore is useful, since this will fuel your motivation to get a high score. Then we'll get into the meat of the article. Finally, in this guide, I talk mainly about getting to a 36. But if your goal is a 32, these strategies still equally apply. Understand the Stakes: Why a 36 ACT Science? Let's make something clear: for most college applications, a 34 composite on an ACT is equivalent to a perfect 36. Almost no college is going to give you more credit for a 36 than a 34. You've already crossed their score threshold, and whether you get in now depends on the rest of your application. So if you're already scoring a 34, don't waste your time studying trying to get a 36 unless you're applying to a STEM program at a top tier school (which we discuss more in a few paragraphs). For most schools, you're already set, and it's time to work on strengthening your extracurriculars, coursework, and overall application. But if you're scoring a 33 or below AND you want to go to a top college, it's worth your time to push your score up to a 34 or above. There's a big difference between a 32 and a 34, largely because it's easy for top students to get a 32but a lot harder to get a 34. A 33 places you right around average at Harvard and Princeton, and being average is bad in terms of admissions, since the admissions rate is typically below 10%. A 36 in ACT Science can also help you compensate for weaknesses in other sections like Reading or English.By and large, schools consider your ACT composite score moreso than your individual section scores. If you can get a 36 in ACT Science, that gives you more flexibility in your English, Math, and Reading scores. It can compensate for a 32 in one other section, for example, to bring your average back up to 34. MIT expects a 36 in ACT Math. There are only two scenarios where a 36 in ACT Scienceis really important beyond just raising your composite score. The first is if you're planning for a science or quantitative major (like biology, physics, statistics, chemistry). The second is if you're applying to a highly selective technical school like MIT or Caltech. Here's the reason: college admissions is all about comparisons between applicants. The school wants to admit the best, and you're competing with other people in the same "bucket" as you. By applying as a math/science major, you're competing against other math/science folks: people for whom ACT Scienceis easy. Really easy. Even though schools don't typically release their ACT scores by section, they do release SAT section scores. As a proxy for ACT Science, we can take a look at SAT Math scores at top schools. (I know ACT Science and SAT Math are different, but I'm going to bet that people who are good at math are also going to score high on ACT Science). Here are a few real examples. For Harvard, Princeton, MIT, Caltech, and even less selective schools like Harvey Mudd, the 75th percentile SAT Math score is an 800 (or equivalent to an ACT 36). That means at least 25% of all students at these schools have an 800 in SAT Math, or a 36 on ACT Math. Even more surprising: the 25th percentile score for SAT Math at MIT and Caltech are 750 and 770, respectively, or a 34 on the ACT!This means if you score a 34 on your ACT Math, you'rewell below average for these schools! That's how competitive these top-tier colleges are. I'm not going to lie. ACT Science was easy for me. I got 36 on pretty much every practice test and official ACT I ever took. This was largely because I was a science nerd in high school, competing in the academic olympiadsand doing a ton of science research as an extracurricular. I also practiced hard and applied the strategies below to achieve perfection. So reading science passages was like reading English to me. You're competing against people like me. And if you apply as a science major with a 34 or below on Science, schools like MIT, Harvard, and Princeton are going to doubt your ability. Because ACT Scienceis supposed to be easyfor you. But if you can work your way to a 36, you show that you're at an equal level (at least on this metric). Even if it takes you a ton of work, all that matters is the score you achieve at the end. Know That You Can Do It This isn't just some fuzzy feel-good message you see on the back of a Starbucks cup. I mean, literally, you and every other reasonably intelligent student can score a 36 on ACT Science. The reason most people don't is they don't try hard enough or they don't study the right way. Even if you don't consider yourself a science geek, or you got a B in Biology, you're capable of this. More than anything else, your ACT score is a reflection ofhow hard you work and how strategically you study. Here's why: the ACT is a weird test. When you take it, don't you get the sense that many questions are nothing like what you've seen in school? It's purposely designed this way. The ACT can't test difficult concepts, because this would be unfair for students who never took AP Physics.The ACT Science sectioncan't ask you to solve cold fusionor build a rocket to get to Mars. The ACT is a national test, which means it needs to be a level playing field for ALL students around the country. So it HAS to test scientific concepts that every high school student will cover: how to interpret data graphs, what the scientific method is, how scientific theories disagree from each other. You've learned all of this already in high school. But if all the questions were easy and straightforward, then everyone would score too high. So the ACT needs to test these concepts in strange ways. This trips up students who don't prepare, but it rewards students whocan predict exactly how the test is going to work. Here's an example graph from a real ACT test: This is one of the most complex graphs I've seen in ACT Science. I can guarantee you've never seen something like this graph before in school. But there's good news - every other high school student in America hasn't seen this graph before either! This means that the ACT expects you to be able to understand this graph using basic science skills. Skills like looking at the twoaxes, understanding how a plot works, and how to get data values from this graph. Just to prove this to you, further down we're going to understand this graph and go through a sample question. On ACT Science, there will alwaysbeweird scenarios you've never seen before, from composition of sediment to dinosaur claw sizes. But more than anything, ACT Science isn't actually about science - it's a lot more about reading comprehension and logic. The key to improving your ACT Science score is to: Master the types of passages the ACT tests Draw on the basic skills you already know to solve the questions Practice on a lot of questions so you learn from your mistakes and know the test inside and out. I'll go into more detail about exactly how to do this. First, let's see how many questions you need to answer correctly to score a 36. What It Takes to Get a 36 in ACT Science If we have a target score in mind, it helps to understand what you need to get that score on the actual test. I compiled the raw score to ACT Science Score conversion tables from four official ACT tests. (If you could use a refresher on how the ACT is scored and how raw scores are calculated, read this.) Raw Score Test 1 Test 2 Test 3 Test 4 40 (miss 0) 36 36 36 36 39 (miss 1) 34 34 35 35 38(miss 2) 32 32 33 34 37(miss 3) 30 30 32 33 36(miss 4) 29 29 30 31 35(miss 5) 28 28 29 30 34(miss 6) 27 27 28 29 Source: ACT On all 4 of these tests, if you get a perfect raw score and miss 0 questions, you get a perfect 36 score. No surprise there. But if you miss just ONE question, you immediately drop down to a 34 or a 35. Miss another, and you drop to a 32, 33, or 34. This goes to show that the stakes are high. The more difficult the test is, the more leeway you have, but the grading scale istough. The safest thing to do is to aim for perfection. On every practice test, you need to aim for a perfect raw score for a 36. Whatever you're scoring now, take note of the difference you need to get to a 36. For example, if you're scoring a 30 now, you need to answer 3-4 more questions right to get to a 36. As a final example, here's a screenshot from my exact score report: 13 Strategies to Get a 36 on ACTScience OK - so we've covered why getting a higher ACT Science score is important, why you specifically are capable of improving your score, and the raw score you need to get to your target. Now we'll actually get into actionable strategies that you should use in your own studying to maximize your score improvement. What's your greatest weakness? Strategy 1: Understand Your High-Level Weakness: Content or Time Management Knowing your weaknesses in ACT prep is SUPERimportant. When you know your weaknesses, you can surgically focus your time on what will improve your score most.When you don't, it'll feel like pounding your head against the wall. Every student has different flaws in ACT Science. Some aren't comfortable with underlying skills, like reading data graphs. Others get bogged down in the minutiae of science passages and can't solve questions in time. (As we'll discuss, the ACT Sciencesection applies pretty heavy time pressure. So you likely do suffer from some time pressure - we're trying to figure out how much) Here's how you can figure out which one applies more to you: Take only the sciencesection of a practice test. We have the complete list of free practice tests here. For that section, use a timer for 35 minutes. Treat it like a real test. If time runs out and you're not done yet, keep working for as long as you need. But starting now, for every new answer or answer that you change, mark it with a special note as "Extra Time." Grade your test using the answer key and score chart, but we want two scores: 1) The Realistic score you got under normal timing conditions, and 2) The Extra Time score. This is why you marked the questions you answered or changed during Extra Time. Seewhat we're doing here? By marking which questions you did under Extra Time, we can figure out what score you'd get if you were given all the time you needed. This will help us figure out where your weaknesses lie. If you didn't take any extra time, then your Extra Time score is the same as your Realistic score. Here's a flowchart to help you figure this out: Was your Extra Time score a 32 or above? If NO (Extra Time score 32), then you have remaining content weaknesses. You might have weaknesses across a range of skills, or a deep weakness in only a few skills. (We'll cover this later). Your first plan of attack should be to develop more comfort with ACT Science question types and passages. If YES (Extra Time score 32), then: Was your Realistic score a 32 or above? If NO (Extra Time score 32, Realistic 32), then that means you have a difference between your Extra Time score and your Realistic score. If this difference is more than two points, then you have some big problems with time management. We need to figure out why this is. Are you getting bogged down reading the science passages? Or did specific types of problems slow you down? If you practice a lot and learn more efficient ways to tackle science passages, you'll be able to reduce your time significantly. More on this later. If YES (both Extra Time and Realistic scores 32), then you have a really good shot at getting a 36. Compare your Extra Time and Realistic score - if they differed by more than one point, then you would benefit from learning how to solve questions more quickly. If not, then you likely can benefit from shoring up on your last content weaknesses and avoiding careless mistakes (more on this strategy later). Hopefully that makes sense. Typically I see that students have both timing and content issues in ACT Science, but you might find that one is much more dominant for you than the other. For example, if you can get a 36 with extra time, but score a 32 in regular time, you know exactly that you need to work on time management to get a 36. This perfect ACT Science guide covers both time management and content issues, so you're in luck. If you learn that time management is a big problem for you, here's one of the most likely problems with the way you approach ACT Science... Strategy 2: Don't Waste Time onthe Passage and Figures ACT Science passages are full of scientific details that don’t actually matter to answering the questions. This is especially true of charts. The ACT does this on purpose to confuse you and to mimic what real scientific research looks like. But you aren’t reading a science journal – you’re answering ACT Science questions. A common mistake people make is to try too hard to understand the passage in its entirety. They want to understand every detail in every chart. This can happen regardless of how strong a scientist you think you are. If you’re a science geek, you’re tempted to understand all the details since you want to flex your science muscles. If you’re not a science geek, it’s harder to distinguish what’s useful or not, since it all looks the same. Trying to understand the entire passage is a HUGE waste of time because most of the passage isn’t going to have a question asked about it. This is true in ACT Reading, and it’s even more true in ACT Science. So what should you do instead? Skim the passage and understand the passage at a very high level. Answer these two questions only: What’s the main point here? What’s the figure showing? That’s it. When I read ACT Science passages, I don’t understand the deep details of what’s happening. I get the gist and I move on to the questions. Let’s try an example from a real ACT Science passage. I’m going to show you how useless most of the passage is and how little you need to understand to answer the questions. My skimming: There is an old lake. The lake sediment tells us about the climate in the past. They mention average temperature for figure 3, so that’s probably what the main point is. There’s a weird oxygen symbol 18O, but all I need to know is that SMALLER values mean COLDER. This is a map showing three sites. We’ll probably be looking at samples from these three sites. This shows us a cutaway section of the lake, with the three sites from Figure 1. The y-axis is elevation. The key shows that each colored section is a different layer. Lake clay, glacial till, bedrock. The layers change as you move across the graph. How they change I’m not going to care about until I get asked about it. I have no idea what the hell â€Å"glacial till† is but I’m not going to worry about that, since I’ll bet the ACT isn’t going to ask me to define it. Oh lord, a bunch of graphs designed to be confusing. OK. Well they all look about the same. We’ll just look at Site 1. The y-axis shows depth, so the further down the deeper we go. The x-axis shows the 18O thing. From left to right, this value gets larger. From the passage we know that the SMALLER 18O is, the COLDER it is. So the LARGER 18O is, the HOTTER it is. What Site 1 shows is as you go UP in depth, you get a LARGER 18O value, which means it’s getting HOTTER. Now look at the other 2 Sites. Site 2 looks about the same, except for a glacial till boundary. Site 3 looks the same as Site 1. And now there’s this formula. I’m not even going to bother with this crap until they ask me a question about it. Notice from my notes that I really understand the passage only at a high level. I’m not getting bogged down in details, and I’m not understanding every detail of every graph. Doing that would be a waste of time. Just to convince you this high level of understanding works, we’re actually going to answer all five questions for thispassage. Lake clay is gray. Where is it thinnest? Winnipeg, F. You actually didn't even have to read the passage to solve this! You could solve it just by looking at the picture. We want to find the SMALLEST 18O value, which means it’s more on the LEFTside of the graph. From the dots we see that’s going to be at the BOTTOM LEFTof the figure. Choice C. Once again, you barely had to read the passage to solve this! It's just figuring out where the dots are. OK, so figure 2. We start from Grand Forks on the right, then move to Site 3. Lake clay, the gray piece, gets THICKER. They say this in the question, and we see it in the figure. The question asked about glacial till, the striped layer under it. It gets THINNER as you go from Grand Forks to Site 3. So thickness DECREASES, choice J. Yet once again, you barely had to know the passage to solve this! OK, we want the elevation of the TOPof GLACIAL TILL at each of three sites. Glacial till is the STRIPED layer. At Site 1, the top is 200. At Site 2, the top is 205ish. At site 3, it’s 180 ish. Answer choice C is the only one that fits these values. YET AGAIN you barely had to know the passage! To rephrase: it rains. Water gets to 3m deep. What is the 18O 3m deep? Look at figure 3 at a depth of 3m. In each figure, it’s around -15. Answer J. Finally, surprise surprise, you didn't have to know the passage at all to answer this question. EASY PEASY. Notice all the crap we didn’t have to care about: In the passage, we didn’t have to care about how old the lake was or how it formed. Against my expectation, we didn’t even have to care about what 18O means about temperature, so I actually over-read the passage and wasted my time! We didn’t use Figure 1 at all. Stupid map. In figure 2, we didn’t care at all about bedrock. Also, we only needed to care about how the layers changed when we were asked about it. In figure 3, we didn’t have to care at all about how Site 2 had a glacial till layer. We sure as hell didn’t have to know what the formula meant. I hope you get the point. So much of each passage is USELESSto getting the questions right. The ACT knows this, and they WANT you to get bogged down. â€Å"Oh gee, I wonder what bedrock is? How might they ask questions about this?† â€Å"Boy this formula looks real tough. What is 18O, and what is 16O? What’s groundwater and what’s standard water? Why multiply by 1,000?† You can waste so many minutes trying to make sense of the entire passage. If you have time management problems, skimming the passage can be a huge time savings for you! Again, when you read the passage focus on only two questions: What is the MAIN POINT of the passage? What is the MAIN POINT of each figure? I’ve started yelling more just because of how angry this test makes me. So let me take a deep breath. Moving on†¦ Disappointed with your ACT scores? Want to improve your ACT score by 4+ points? Download our free guide to the top 5 strategies you need in your prep to improve your ACT score dramatically. Strategy 3: Understand EVERY Type of ACT Science Passage and Question ACT Science stands out as the most structured and predictable section on the ACT. What I mean by that is ACT Science has three passage types, and each passage type has specific question types associated with it. This is unlike ACT English, where all five passages have all sorts of random question types associated with it. The great thing about predictability is that it's really easy to diagnose where your problems are and then get focused practice on your weaknesses. Below are the passage types and question types associated with them.I've linked to our guides for every question type, butfirst I suggest you finish reading this 36 guide to get the high-level picture, then come back to the detailed guides. 3 Data Representation Passages - describes a study, heavy on graphs and charts Read-the-GraphQuestions Interpreting Trends Calculating Values 3 Research Summaries Passages - describes an experiment with multiple parts Experimental Design Hypothetical Experimental Changes Interpreting Experiments 1 Conflicting Viewpoints Passage - two or more scientists disagree Understanding Viewpoints Comparing Viewpoints Here's a helpful writeup of the three types of ACT Science passages and an overview of question types. Understanding the content on ACT Science is critical because you next have to understand precisely where you make your mistakes. Our PrepScholar ACT program does the hard work for you by dividing up the entire test into specific skills you need to master. For every skill in ACT Science and every other section, you'll get a focused lesson and a quiz customized to your skill level. This is how I studied for the ACT and got a perfect score, so that's how I designed our prep program to work. If you could use help breaking down the ACT like this, definitely check out our PrepScholar ACT program. Strategy 4:Do a Ton of Practice, and Understand Every Single Mistake On the path to perfection, you need to make sure every single one of your weak points is covered. Even one mistake on ACT Science will knock you down from a 36. The first step is simply to do a ton of practice. If you're studying from free materials or from books, you have access to a lot of practice questions in bulk. As part of our PrepScholar program, we have over 1,500 ACT questions customized to each skill. The second step - and the more important part - is to be ruthless about understanding your mistakes. Every mistake you make on a test happens for a reason.If you don't understand exactly why you missed that question, you will make that mistake over and over again. I've seen students who have completed ten official ACT practice tests. They've solved over 400 sciencequestions, but they're still nowhere near a 36 on ACT Science. Why? They never truly understood their mistakes. They just pounded their heads against the wall over and over again. Think of yourself as an exterminator, and your mistakes are cockroaches. You need to eliminate every single one - and find the source of each one - or else the infestation is going to continue and your restaurant's going to be shut down. Here'swhat you need to do: On every practice test or question set that you take, mark every question that you're even 20% unsure about. When you grade your test or quiz, review every single question that you marked, and every incorrect answer. This way even if you guessed an answer 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'll do to avoid that mistake in the future. Have separate sections by passage type and skill(like data representation - calculations, or conflicting viewpoint). It's not enough to just think about it and move on. It's not enough to just read the answer explanation. It's not even enough to understand how to get the right answer. You have to think HARDabout why you SPECIFICALLYfailed on this question. By taking this structured approach to your mistakes,you'll now have a running log of every question you missed, and your reflection on why. No excuses when it comes to your mistakes. Always Go Deeper - WHY Did You Miss a ScienceQuestion? Now, what are some common reasons that you missed a question? Don't just say, "I didn't get this question right." That's a cop out. Always take it one step further - what specifically did you miss, and what do you have to improve in the future? Here are some examples of common reasons you miss an ACT Science question, and how you take the analysis one step further: Content:I didn't have the science knowledge to understand what was being described in the passage. Example: "I forgot how forces work in physics." One step further:What specific content do I learn, and how will I learn this? How could I have done better, even without understanding the passage? Incorrect Approach:I understood the passage, but I didn't know how to solve this question. Example: "I didn't know how to extrapolate the line in the graph." One step further:How do I solve the question? Where have I seen other questions like this? How will I similarquestions in the future? Careless Error:I misread what the question was asking for or solved for the wrong thing. Example: "I confused Scientist 2's perspective with Scientist 1's." One step further:WHYdid I misread the question? What should I do in the future to avoid this? Get the idea? You're really digging into understanding why you're making every single mistake. Yes, this is hard, and it's draining, and it takes work. That's why most students who study ineffectively don't improve. But you're different. Just by reading this guide, you're already proving that you care more than other students. And if you apply these principles and analyze your mistakes, you'll improve more than other students too. Bonus: If all of this is making sense to you, you'd love our ACT prep program, PrepScholar. We designed our program around the concepts in this article, because they actually work.When you start with PrepScholar, you’ll take a diagnostic that will determine your weaknesses in over forty ACT skills, including the ACT Science skills above. PrepScholar then creates a study program specifically customized for you. To improve each skill, you’ll take focused lessons dedicated to each skill, with over 20 practice questions per skill. This will train you for your specific area weaknesses, so your time is always spent most effectively to raise your score. We also force you to focus on understanding your mistakes and learning from them. If you make the same mistake over and over again, we'll call you out on it. We also explain the ways every question tries to trick you so you won't get fooled again. 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 5:If You Miss a Question, Re-Solve It When you're doing ACT Science practice questions, the first thing you probably do when reviewing is read the answer explanation and think about it a little. This is too easy. I consider thispassive learning - you're not actively engaging with the mistake you made. Instead, try something different - find the correct answer choice (A-D or F-J), but don't look at the explanation. Instead, try to resolve the question and get the correct answer. This will often be hard. You couldn't solve it the first time, so why could you solve it the second time around? But this time, with less time pressure, you might spot a new strategy, or something else will pop up. Something will just "click" for you. When this happens, what you learned will stick with you for 20 times longer than if you just read an answer explanation. I know this from personal experience. Because you've struggled with it and reached a breakthrough, you retain that information FARbetter than if you just passively absorbed the information. It's too easy to just read an answer explanation and have it go in one ear and out the other. You won't actually learn from your mistake, and you'll make that mistake over and over again. Treat each wrong question like a puzzle. Struggle with each wrong answer for up to ten minutes. Only then if you don't get it should you read the answer explanation. Then, log your mistakes in your notebook, like I recommended in Strategy 3. Strategy 6: If You Miss a Question, Generate New Questions Missed questions are such important learning opportunities that I have yet another strategy for them. After you fully review the question and understand exactly why you missed it, create two more questions yourself in the very same style. Then solve them. These questions are meant to be close replicas of the original question, so they test the same skill with the same passage but use slightly different scenarios. If it's a graph-related question, change the numbers so you're looking at a different part of the graph. If it's about conflicting viewpoints, changewhich scientist you're talking about. This is perfect for ACT Science because the questions are so stylistically formulaic, it's a lot easier to generate realistic questions. (Contrast this to ACT Reading, where it's tougher to come up with your own questions because of how passage-dependent the reading questions are.) What do you gain from doing this? First, you have a few more chances to practice the very question you just missed. This gives you instant reinforcement of your weakness. Think about it this way - if you're learning how to throw footballs with Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, and he gives you some advice, do you drop your football right at that moment and refuse to throw another one? No! You instantly use his advice to correct your next few throws! The same is true of the ACT, and especially ACT Science. If you instantly practice right after noticing a weakness, you'll get rid of your weakness far more quickly. The other thing you get out of doing this is you put yourself in the mind of the question maker - the ACT - which helps you understand how the test is constructed. Here are a few examples: 1) Change the question so instead you look at the LARGEST 18O value in lake clay. 2) Change the question so you look at the smallest 18O value inGLACIAL TILL. 1) Change the question so it's about 15 m below the surface. 2) Change the question so it's about 30 m below the surface. If youmake a mistake on a question and you review it well, you'll be able to answer your two variants 100%. When I was taking tests for high school and college, I used this strategy all the time. It gave me a lot more practice in areas I already knew I was weak in. Strategy 7:Get Used to Weird ACT Science Graphs On every single test, there will be a weird way to present data that you’ve never seen before. Like this graph of rock types at different temperatures and pressures: or this graph of sediment types and their characteristics: or this masterpiece on hearing: This last one is the craziestfigure I’ve ever seen on an ACT science test. Don’t be alarmed by these complex graphs. Remember what I said in the beginning? To make the test difficult, the ACT has to test SIMPLE concepts in COMPLICATED ways. In this case, that means using the same simple graph reading skills, you can understand EVERY graph the ACT throws at you. Don’t panic – just remember the same basic rules: What does each axis represent? What does the graph show? We're going to tackle, step by step, the last graph about hearing. So scroll up, skim the passage and graph (remember Strategy 2), and then work on this question: ... Ready? Did you give it a good try? It's really easy to get tripped up by a problem like this without knowing where to start. There are all these squiggly lines and even a curve that loops back on itself. But remember the fundamental principles that apply to every single graph. First, let's start by understanding what the graph is even showing. As the text says, "the figure below displays, for sounds in water and in air, the human thresholds of hearing and of pain." And in the paragraph above, it says that "the human threshold of hearing is the minimum intensity at each sound frequency required for a sound to be heard by humans." The critical first step for every graph is to look at the two axes - what's being shown here? On the x-axis is the intensity of the sound (in decibels, or db). As we move left, we lower the intensity. As we move right, we raise the intensity. On the y-axis is the frequency of the sound (in hertz, or Hz). As we move up, we increase the frequency. As we move down, we decrease the frequency. Both axes, intensity and frequency,relate to the definition of "human threshold of hearing" above. Next, on the graph we locate the curved line called "threshold of hearing." Again, this is a weird line, but remember the threshold is the MINIMUM intensity at a specific frequency to be heard by humans. Below that intensity, humans can't hear the sound. Above that intensity, we can. For example, let's pick a frequency: 1 x 102 (or 100) Hz. The threshold of hearing line is an intensity of roughly 40 db. Above 40db, humans can hear a sound at 100 Hz. Below 40db, humans can't hear a sound at 100 Hz. But the threshold of hearing intensity isn't the same at other frequencies! Let's pick103(or 1000) Hz. The line is much lower in intensity - around 0db. So at this frequency, the threshold of hearing is lower than at 100 Hz. As you follow the "threshold of hearing" line up and down, you'll see the intensity increase and decrease. At each frequency, there is a minimum intensity required to be heard by humans. Great - so now we understand the graph. We don't really care WHY this is actually true in real life. For this test, we just need to be able to read the graph. Now, the question - "which of the following is closest to the lowest frequency that can be heard by a human being?" We know that the "threshold of hearing" line defines what can be heard by humans. "Lowest frequency" suggests that we need to look downward on the y-axis. Here's the graph again: Look at the threshold of hearing line and follow it downward in frequency until....wait. It disappears. What does this mean? It must mean that humans can't hear the sound, no matter what the intensity is! Now, the question asks, at what frequency does this happen? To figure this out, you need to look at the y-axis. I draw a line from the point where the line disappears to the left: So we see the frequency is 2 x 101 Hz, or 20 Hz. That's answer G, which is correct. Whew - that was a handful, and one of the most difficult graphs I've seen on ACT Science. You're going to see crazy graphs like this, and possibly even more complicated graphs, on your ACT Science test. DON'T BE INTIMIDATED. Remember Strategy 2? You're not going to need most of the figure anyway! Break every figure down: What does each axis represent? What does the graph show? I guarantee that if you can answer these questions for each graph, you'll be able to answer every question relating to the graph. Strategy 8: Eliminate Careless Mistakes In your quest to get a perfect ACT Science score, you need absolute perfection. Probably the most frustrating type of mistake is a careless mistake. You understand the question, you know the answer, but you get excited and slip up. Oops - they were asking about Scientist 2, but you answered for Scientist 1 instead.There goes your 36. These types of errors are the most costly and frustrating. You've already put in a ton of work to master the underlying material, and here a question has tricked you into losing a point. ACT Science has a few especially tricky question types that are purpose built to trick you. If you understand this beforehand and know how to defeat them, you’ll be in a much more secure position. The first type is the Interpreting Experiments Question. The answer choices for these are almost always in this form: No, because A No, because B Yes, because A Yes, because B Here's a real example question: (The answer to this question is A.) The tricky part to these questions is that you can focus on getting one half right (especially the A/B part which has more words), and then miss the other half. For example, you might focus so much on verifying whether the solution was blue or yellow that you pick answer choice C, which has the same second half as A, but is Yes instead of No. To combat this, answer each half independently. â€Å"Do the results of Experiment 2 support this claim?† No – because the pH is higher at 1.8 mL.â€Å"If no, why not?† Because the solution was yellowat 0.2 and blue at 1.8mL.OK - then it's answer A. This way, you're less likely to make a careless mistake by misinterpreting the question. Make sure BOTH parts of the answer are correct! The other type of question that breeds careless mistakes is the Understanding Viewpoints questions. The passages will give you the perspectives of two or three scientists, and the questions will ask you about how each one behaves. Here's an example: So here you're tasked with finding the perspective of Student 2. But notice how they bury "Student 2" in the mess of the rest of the question. No doubt the ACT wants you to get distracted and forget which Student you should be thinking about. The correct answer is G. But if you had accidentally identified Student 1, you would have incorrectly answered J! One way to solve this is to circle the "Student 2" in the question text. Then, when you answer the question, think explicitly in your head, "Student 2 believes that..." Avoid considering the wrong perspective at all costs! Strategy 9: Drill Your Weaknesses Until They Disappear When your dentist inspects your mouth and finds a cavity, does she just ignore it and move on to looking at your other teeth? No! She cleans out the entire cavity with a drill so that the rotting doesn't continue. Then she fills in the hole with a filling. This completely solves the problem and preventsfuture cavities in the same location. You should treat every mistake you make like a cavity. Every question you miss on ACT Science points to an infection - a weakness that you have with ACT Science. To clear out the infection, you need to practice on the same type of question repeatedly until you COMPLETELYget rid of your weakness. Again, to get a perfect 36, you can't afford to make any mistakes. Fill in the potholes of your understanding. Remember the listingof every passage and question type in Strategy 3? When you grade your practice test, you MUST keep track of how many questions you are missing in which categories. Be scientific about this - you put in a lot of hard work in the practice test, now get the most out of it! Then, find a LOT of practice questions to keep drilling that specific weakness. Do you keep getting thrown offby complicated figures and charts? Find those charts and practice with them! Do you keep making careless mistakes on Viewpoints questions? Then keep practicing them until you don't anymore! In our ACT prep program PrepScholar, we do that work for you by splitting up our 1,500+ practice questions by skill and difficulty. If you're weak in graph reading, we're going to give you a ton of questions on graphs of all kinds. If you don't know how to interpret experiments, you'll get 20+ questions in a quiz dealing specifically with that skill. This repetitive practice fills up your content gap far better than any other method I know. Want to learn more about ACT Science? Check out our new ACT Science prep book. If you liked this lesson, you'll love our book. It includes everything you need to know to ace ACT Science, including deep analysis of the logic behind ACT Science questions, a full breakdown of the different passage and question types, and tons of expert test-taking and study tips. Download our full-length prep book now: Strategy 10: Be Fluent WithBasicScientific Concepts By and large, ACT Science is far more a reading and logic test than it is a science test. You can get a good score without understanding much science at all. But if you want a PERFECT score, you will have to understand the most important scientific concepts. The ACT DOESexpect you to know these by heart, even if the information isn't included in the passage. Here's a notable example: (there's more to this passage, but this is all that's relevant for the next two questions) This question asks about the function of organelles. This info isn't provided in the passage! You have to know that photosynthesis occurs in chloroplasts. Another question: Once again, you have to know that C6H12O6 represents glucose in the photosynthesis equation. It's not in the passage - otherwise this would be trivial to answer. Luckily, we've gathered every scientific concept you have to know in our guide, "The Only Actual Science You Have to Know for ACT Science. We scoured dozens of official ACT tests to collect the scientific concepts you need that won't show up in the passage text. This includes concepts like: pH, acids and bases how charges attract and repel the scientific method natural selection and more. To get a perfect 36, you HAVE to know some science - here's what you need. Strategy : Pace Your TimeSection by Section, Question by Question In my experience, ACT Science has the second-most intense time pressure on the ACT (first is ACT Math). For ACT Science, you have to answer 40 questions across seven passages in 35 minutes. And if you want a perfect 36, you'll need to finish the section with time to spare so you can go back and check your work. This is why I recommend aiming to finish the entire ACT science section in 25 minutes. This gives you 10 minutes to spare to go back to questions you weren't sure about and make sure you're not making any careless mistakes. What this also means is that you should try to finish each passage and all associated questions within four minutes. Some passages are easier than others, but this should be your average. This is hard. Even though I'm pretty good at science, I still need 25 minutes or so to finish the section, because some passages really are pretty tricky. But this is what you should aim for. If you can accomplish this regularly, not only do you have extra time to perfect your answers, you've also reached a level of mastery that puts you on the path to a 36 score. It's important to pace yourself section by section and question by question because you do NOT want to obsess over a passage and waste time. The trouble with trying to get a perfect 36 is that you KNOW you have to miss zero questions, so you're more likely to fret about a single hard question. Before you know it, you've sunk three minutes on a single question. So if you spend over 30 seconds on a question, just skip it. You can always come back to it later, and right now it's most important to rack up as many points as possible. Quick Tip: Bubbling Answers Here's a bubbling tip that will save you five minutes, automatically. If you've read my other ACT 36 guides, then you'll already know this. When I first started test taking in high school, I did what many students do: after I finished one question, I went to the bubble sheet and filled it in. Then I solved the next question. Finish question 1, bubble in answer 1. Finish question 2, bubble in answer 2. And so forth. This actually wastes a lot of time. You're distracting yourself between two distinct tasks - solving questions, and bubbling in answers. This costs you time in both mental switching costs and in physically moving your hand and eyes to different areas of the test. Here's a better method: solve all your questions first in the book, then bubble all of them in at once. This has several huge advantages: you focus on each task one at a time, rather than switching between two different tasks. You also eliminate careless entry errors, like if you skip question 7 and bubble in question 8's answer into question 7's slot. By saving just five seconds per question, you get back 200 seconds on the 40 questions. This is huge. Note: Be careful that you don't run out of time before bubbling in answer choices! If the instructor calls time and you haven't bubbled anything, you're screwed. Strategy 12: DON'T Study With Actual Science Journals If you actually like science, you may be tempted to pick up an academic journal like Science or Natureto study for ACT Science. "If the testis about science research, then why wouldn't reading science research help?" Don't do it. ACT Science is superficially about science research, but it is VERY simplified for high schoolers. Remember that the ACT needs to be appropriate for high school students around the country, not for leadingscientists with PhDs. The time you spend trying to understand what in the world is going on in a study like thisis far better spent actually doing ACT Science questions. Furthermore, ACT Science asks questions in a very specific way about their passages. You don't do this when you read research journals, so you don't get to practice the actual skills you need to perfect. Now, if you get a kick out of science research, then by all means do read science journals - for fun. Since I did a lot of science research in high school, I tried to read some academic literature too. Just don't expect it to improve your ACT Science score. Strategy13: Keep a Calm Mind During the Test, No Matter What Now you know what it takes to achieve perfection on ACT Science. You know that to get a 36, you have to aim for ZERO missed questions. Otherwise, you might get a 35. This makes a lot of high-achieving students nervousduring the test. "I don't get this passage...I can't solve this question...my 36 is gone...I'm getting more nervous and I have to skip the next question too...oh dear...I don't think I know how to read anymore..." You can see how quickly you can fall into a vicious cycle because you have really high goals. Before you know it, your anxiety leads to a worse score than you would have ever expected. You need to learn to be mentally strong, like an athlete on game day. You have to roll with the punches. Yes, you might have to skip a question on the first pass through. Maybe even two in a row. But you've practiced hard up to this point. You know this stuff, and you'll come back to those questions and get it later (especially if you've been using the time-saving strategies above). You need to keep up a positive mindset during the test, or you'll crumble. And in the worst case, maybe you won't get a 36. But if you've consistently been getting 36's on the practice tests, you likely won't go much lower than 34 - and that's still an awesome score, even for the best colleges in the United States. In Overview Those are the main strategies I have for you to improve your ACT Sciencescore to a 36. If you're scoring above a 26 right now, with hard work and smart studying, you can raise it to a perfect ACT Sciencescore. Notice how much I talked about reviewing your mistakes, understanding your weaknesses, and drilling them with good practice. I don't tell you that there's a magic solution to getting a 36 that works for everyone. That's because one-size-fits-all, guaranteed strategies don't really exist. (And anyone who tells you this is deceiving you.) Every student is different. Instead, you need to understand where you're falling short, and drill those weaknesses continuously. You also need to be thoughtful about your mistakes and leave no mistake ignored. If you want to go back and review any of the strategies above, here's a list of all the strategies: Strategy 1: Understand Your High Level Weakness: Content or Time Management Strategy 2: Don't Waste Time In the Passage and Figures Strategy 3: Understand EVERY Type of ACT Science Passage and Question Strategy 4: Do a Ton of Practice, and Understand Every Single Mistake Strategy 5: If You Miss a Question, Re-Solve It Strategy 6: If You Miss a Question, Generate New Questions Strategy 7: Get Used to Weird ACT Science Graphs Strategy 8: Eliminate Careless Mistakes Strategy 9: Drill Your Weaknesses Until They Disappear Strategy 10: Be Fluent with Basic Scientific Concepts Strategy : Pace Your Time Section by Section, Question by Question Strategy 12: Don't Study with Actual Science Journals Strategy 13: Keep a Calm Mind During the Test, No Matter What Keep reading for more resources on how to boost your ACT score. What's Next? We have a lot more useful guides to raise your ACT score. Read our complete guide to a perfect 36, written by me, a perfect scorer. Also check out our 36 Math, 36 Reading, and 36 English guides. Learn how to write a perfect-scoring 12 ACT essay, step by step. Want to improve your ACT score by 4 points? Check out our best-in-class online ACT prep classes. We guarantee your money back if you don't improve your ACT score by 4 points or more. Our classes are entirely online, and they're taught by ACT experts. If you liked this article, you'll love our classes. Along with expert-led classes, you'll get personalized homework with thousands of practice problems organized by individual skills so you learn most effectively. We'll also give you a step-by-step, custom program to follow so you'll never be confused about what to study next. Try it risk-free today:

Christopher Columbus- The Discovery (1992) Movie Review

Christopher Columbus- The Discovery (1992) - Movie Review Example Christopher Columbus proposed to the then king of Portugal John the Second in 1485 that he financially supports him in his voyage to the Atlantic in order for him to discover new lands. Christopher Columbus had been searching for financial support from various nations but in vain. The main reason why he lacked support was due to the fact that the Roman Catholic Church was against his voyages. This was a hardship for Christopher Columbus since the Roman Catholic had a lot of influence hence them being against him meant financial support from rulers would be difficult. The king John the second’s advisors rejected Columbus’ proposal. However, the Roman Catholic gave Columbus 12,000 Maravedis as an annual allowance in their effort to ensure that if Columbus made any discoveries then there was a possibility of the church claiming their rights on the lands. It was not until 1492 that Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand agreed to sponsor Christopher Columbus in his voyage though they did this partly together with Italian investors (Brigham 24). In the agreement, Columbus was to be named Admiral of the ocean, and in all the lands that he discovered he was to be named the governor and viceroy of all these lands. Plot and Theme The film is about Christopher Columbus who is a navigator from Genoa with a dream to make sure he finds another route to West Indies since the route that is being used is particularly long hence very costly. The route in which he desires to discover is believed to be short involving sailing towards the west rather than east through the ocean. Christopher Columbus tries to get backing from the Portuguese king who rejects his proposal. He then turns to the king and queen of Spain Isabella and Ferdinand. Christopher Columbus faces a hard time convincing the man who is King Ferdinand’s lead advisor. However, Christopher Columbus is able to convince the king to fund him in his expedition after seducing the queen who helps in convinci ng her husband. Christopher Columbus is given command of three ships with a crew composed of mainly thieves and murderers who are the only people who can agree to undertake such a journey since it was dimmed to be dangerous and impossible. Christopher Columbus also faces a lot of opposition from the church especially from the priest who accuses him of going against God’s wishes because he advises Columbus not to go hence that is God’s Wish. In the film, Christopher Columbus faces a lot of challenges the church being the major problem. This is because, the church has a lot of influence hence what it directs is followed by everyone. Christopher Columbus decision to continue in his quest of finding an alternative route to the West Indies attracts a lot of hostility from both the church and other government officials hence his problem in getting the necessary finance needed to undertake the journey. Christopher Columbus also faces problems in his navigation of waters which are new to him. His ships are almost sunk by storms, and he even loses members of his crew. Christopher also faces a lot of hardship in controlling and maintaining discipline among his crew members who are mostly thieves and murderers. For instance, while at sea a mutiny takes place as a result of some men feeling that they are lost and Christopher Columbus will only lead them to their destruction. Columbus is also being spied on by Portugal which sends a spy to pose as one of

The Difference in Nonverbal Behaviors and How It Changes In Different Article

The Difference in Nonverbal Behaviors and How It Changes In Different Stages of A Relationship - Article Example Through the research, it was found that both language and nonverbal communication are equally important for romantic relationships. However, the nature of nonverbal relationships changes with the passage of time for both genders. Women tend to be more inclined towards nonverbal cues in relationships as compared to men. The researchers studied the responses of 145 participants and found women to be more relationship-oriented than their male counterparts. The study also helped in knowing that nonverbal communication is on high end in case of more involved romantic partners. Casual daters have been found less inclined towards nonverbal cues as compared to married and long term relationship couples. Although this study is very useful, interesting, and informative, yet is has some limitations, such as, lack of involvement of people of higher age groups and inaccuracy or invalidity of the filled questionnaires as the researchers did not go in direct contact with the research participants. However, apart from these few limitations, the study seems to be very useful for people in romantic relationships as they can know where their relationship lies and how should they progress with their relationships in different stages of the romantic relationship. There were three main research questions used by the researchers. One of them was aimed towards knowing the differences between women and men and the way they respond to the nonverbal questionnaire. The second research question was aimed towards knowing the variations between the responses of research participants in five differences stages of the romantic relationship. The third question was aimed towards knowing the differences in affectionate communication in the five stages of the relationship. The research questions created by the researchers for the study were able to retrieve a good level of detail about the

Strategic change programmes Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Strategic change programmes - Essay Example This shows the failure of the ministry’s procurement department and the unprofessionalism being displayed by the institution which trickles down to the services being offered to Namibian citizens and the rise in maternal-mortality rate. To curb this embarrassing problem, the tender board has allowed the ministry to buy fabric in bulk and train people to manufacture the required uniforms and patient attires. This measure would ensure the ministry has the capability and capacity of providing the necessary uniforms and attire to its staff and patients respectively. By so doing, patients and in particular expecting mothers, would have proper attire and bedding as well as maintain high standards of hygiene in the process thus reducing the risk of maternal-mortality. The uniforms of the staff will also be clearly branded with ministry and government labels so as to make them easily recognizable. This will ensure that the manufacture of these uniforms is not prone to any abuse by ill-minded persons. Therefore, this brings about the element of readiness, in that the programme pre-empts a problem and puts safeguards to solve the problem. The new procurement measures by the ministry will also cater for curtains and linens in addition to staff uniforms and patient attires. This shows the diversity of the programme since it addresses multiple issues all at once. In conclusion, the efforts by the Namibian Ministry of Health and Social Services to stem the country’s rising maternal-mortality rate can be seen in the implementation of the new procurement

Aravind eye care system Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Aravind eye care system - Case Study Example For the rest, affordable eye care is provided. Surgeries on cataracts form approximately 70 percent of all operations. The Aravind Eye care Hospital exists as an ophthalmological hospital which currently has various locations and branches in India. Through creativity and innovation, Dr. Govindappa Venkatawamy founded this hospital in 1976. Since that time, it has grown and expanded into a network of several eye hospitals. This has seen a total of approximately 32 million patients in record 36 years and has also performed approximately 4 million eye surgeries, majority of these being very cheap or even free. Many people all over the world have congratulated the model and the services offered by the Aravind Eye Care hospitals and it has become a point of reference for various case studies (Center for Health Market Innovations). Innovation generally means creating more efficient and effective products, services, ideas and processes which increases the possibility of business or a venture succeeding. Ventures that are innovative create more effective work processes and experience better performance and productivity. Innovation could mean executing new ideas, creation of dynamic products and services or just improving on the existing goods and services. Innovation has been attributed as a catalyst for the fast growth and success of Aravind Eye care Hospital and has helped it to grow in the marketplace (Salge & Vera 2009, 67). Being innovative does not necessarily mean inventing new things; innovation could mean changing the business model and adapting to new changes in the environment so as to deliver better and improved products, services and ideas. Successful innovation ought to be an in-built part of the business strategy, where culture of innovation is developed, experience innovative thinking and the development of

Organisational behaviour and development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Organisational behaviour and development - Essay Example This leads to new beliefs, assumptions and behaviors. In the last two decades companies have been subject to change in the external environment in which technology plays an important role. This paper will discuss how technology influences the use of language in organizations for the right communication. Language is an important influence on the way social reality is constructed. Language is the external expression of the internal mindsets that define an organization (Butcher & Atkinson, 2001). Language is also strongly associated with power. Language lies at the heart of managerial action. Thus language plays a role in organizational management and organizational change. Schein (n.d.) states that to manage internal integration and internal relationships, common language is a major issue. To function cohesively as a group it is important to understand a common language. Language can comprise of gestures, actions and words which are understood by all. Conflict arises when two parties assume about each without proper communication. Today organizations use different technologies in improving internal integration and communication. These include radio, television, email, chat messages and SMS. Technology definitely influences the language use but does not change everything. Technology influences language even in ways which may not be very obvious. A metaphor â€Å"all guns blazing† is often used in organizations which implies that an action has been performed with energy or aggression (Moore, 2002). Here the technology of weapons has been used to communicate. Both natural languages and technologies are important in performing any type of human activity. Aero planes fly people and cargo around the world and people strive to improve upon this technology for common good. Here again language and technology are used for mutual benefit. The technology of radio communication is used to support the language to transmit

Modern Art Movement in Russia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Modern Art Movement in Russia - Essay Example The essay "Modern Art Movement in Russia" investigates Russian modern art movement. Modernism thus, broadly defined all the significant social changes pertaining to arts, culture, literary writings, architecture, and religious beliefs that rebelled against the theory of realism and all other conservative traditions, which took place at the turn of the nineteenth century. The proponents of this theory felt that all traditional forms of art, architecture, religious and social norms were losing relevance in the modern industrial age, and thus must be changed. Modernism to some extent rejected the philosophy of Enlightenment, and completely denied the existence of the powerful creator, God. It questioned all the theories of the past era, and believed in the theory of self consciousness. It is this belief that led to various experiments in the field of art and led to the formation of what is known as ‘abstract art’. In Russia, this wave of modernism in the world of art, is al so known as avant-garde, and it broke away from all traditional and old forms, creating a new style that was more connected to the daily lives of the common people, encouraging works on folk art and icon painting. Till the 1910s, the Russian avant-garde movement focussed itself primarily on village life, religion, urban life; but later on as social movement became more oriented towards bringing about reforms for the industrial workers, the Russian avant-garde artists moved towards the factory settings and the frantic pace of the urban lives.

Organisational behaviour and development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Organisational behaviour and development - Essay Example This leads to new beliefs, assumptions and behaviors. In the last two decades companies have been subject to change in the external environment in which technology plays an important role. This paper will discuss how technology influences the use of language in organizations for the right communication. Language is an important influence on the way social reality is constructed. Language is the external expression of the internal mindsets that define an organization (Butcher & Atkinson, 2001). Language is also strongly associated with power. Language lies at the heart of managerial action. Thus language plays a role in organizational management and organizational change. Schein (n.d.) states that to manage internal integration and internal relationships, common language is a major issue. To function cohesively as a group it is important to understand a common language. Language can comprise of gestures, actions and words which are understood by all. Conflict arises when two parties assume about each without proper communication. Today organizations use different technologies in improving internal integration and communication. These include radio, television, email, chat messages and SMS. Technology definitely influences the language use but does not change everything. Technology influences language even in ways which may not be very obvious. A metaphor â€Å"all guns blazing† is often used in organizations which implies that an action has been performed with energy or aggression (Moore, 2002). Here the technology of weapons has been used to communicate. Both natural languages and technologies are important in performing any type of human activity. Aero planes fly people and cargo around the world and people strive to improve upon this technology for common good. Here again language and technology are used for mutual benefit. The technology of radio communication is used to support the language to transmit

Working With Groups of Children Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Working With Groups of Children - Essay Example The deductions from the study revealed that children develop excellent communication skills from the group interactions with regard to the level of development of the children (Wilson, 2008, 87). These children have an easy time in conceptualizing ideas of their colleagues hence this makes the learning of various communication skills through interaction with their fellow colleagues smooth. This is because they have already grasped communication styles and techniques necessary for communication. This shows that the children can gain more from an objective and resourceful interaction from mature persons and their fellow colleagues too (Grossman, 2005, 39). However, the children peg their friendship on the physique and the closeness of their friends. The environment in which the children are operating, and the people the child interacts with are vital in gauging the progress in the development of communication skills through small group interactions. For instance if a child is subjected to harsh people and bad environmental conditions while learning, the child will retreat hence no learning will occur. On the other hand, when a child interacts with a charismatic and friendly pe ople, he or she is likely to open up and will learn ideas presented to him or her. It was found that the environment also a determining factor in the development of a child’s communication skills (Machado, 2012, 97). Another aspect of interaction among children is that same sex children are more likely to learn from each other more easily than children of the opposite sex. This improves their social life because they socialize with less difficulty and losing such attachment slows a child’s social development and communication skill development. Moreover, this may lead to self-centeredness in a child .At this age, children learn from each other through imitation and they agitate to show their psychosocial, emotional and cognitive skills.

DBQ Andrew Jackson Essay Example for Free

DBQ Andrew Jackson Essay Andrew Jackson was a man of the people because he was once a part of the people. Before he was elected into office, he was a man who had lived a tough childhood but learned to manage and move forward to become a successful prosecutor and eventually a well known general. A man who has lived through a life filled with challenges knows what is best for his people and knows what they want. He wanted the people to be a part of the government. He wanted them to have a voice, which is why he believed in democracy but the way that he acted throughout his political career was not democratic at all. Andrew Jackson accomplished to changed many things in the government without the people’s vote. He had a part in the spoils system and he made decisions for groups of people that were completely unfair. Andrew Jackson was not a big fan of how the government was previously ranned. There was always something that he wanted to change. One of the things he changed were the rotation of the government officials in office. Of course he kept in mind that the people should be able to control all offices in congress so he proposed a constitutional amendment. He was changing the time period elected officials should remain in office. Not only did he change it for everyone else but he also wanted to changed it for himself. (Document D).

Product Life Cycle (PLC): Strength and weakness

Product Life Cycle (PLC): Strength and weakness Introduction: Marketing is a process which is based on communication and whereby individuals obtain what they need through others creating or exchanging products and value with them. For companies to sell their products, marketing is the most important factor to reach out to customers as Kotler Armstrong, (2008) define. This essay presents the product life cycle and focuses on its strength and weakness points. The concept of Product Life Cycle (PLC): Product life cycle (PLC): is an idea from cradle to grave and considered sales record of a product time. PLC has four hypotheses: 1. a limitation life of products, 2. each phase has its own different features such as: methods of sales, 3. profits variation throughout the life cycle, 4. strategic methods used at each stage differ (Bennett, 1995 Thetimes100, 2009). The Stages of PLC: PLC has five stages 1. Development (pre-Launch), 2. Launch (Introduction), 3.Growth, 4.Maturity (Saturation), 5.Decline (Thetimes100, 2009). The development phase: In this stage, a firm has an idea and tries to make improvements to it, which is done by employing the researching skills for that purpose. This usually costs a lot of money in designing, production, advance promotion and if there were no sales, there would be no profit (Mark, 1998). The introduction phase: If the product agreed on, which a firm has decided to launch was its own innovative, unique one, normally, in this case, chances are less that any difficulty get in the way, especially and mainly from competitors. It remains at the beginning of this stage from the 4 Ps mentioned previously: promotion and place. A firm needs to create awareness, encourage sales, advertisement, public relations, and most importantly develop an image (Mark, 1998 Netmba, 2009). The growth phase: When a product achieves success, competitors will have reaction that entering market as quickly as possible. As a result promotional cost would increase in this stage for the sake of persuading consumers that the product of ours is better than other competitors (Mark, 1998 Netmba, 2009). The maturity phase: Competitors are rising sharply in the market and there is no space in for new copartners. Firm at this stage will exert all promotion options to preserve its brand loyalty within its own customers. However, at this stage sales and price begin fall down in the same time there are a large several of versions of product. By using different approaches competitors will detach part of market from the firm (Blythe, 2009). The decline phase: This is the stage leading towards the end. In other words, it is the stage where the death of the product begins to take place. There are a small number of balance sheet promotion sections which could manage it with. As much as the firm can keep its product on the life, it will still be able to earn some money. However, in this stage, varieties of versions are not available and the price might need to be raised (Blythe, 2009). â€Å"In fact, most decision to eliminate products is made on the basis of intuition and judgment rather than any formal analysis† (Blythe, 2009.pp:81-82). Strengths of the PLC. When used alongside analysis of sales figures and forecasts, PLC can be a powerful tool in providing guidance and marketing tactics that are appropriate at a particular stage (suite101, 2009). What are the keys of succeeding? Clearly, to allow a product to succeed and penetrate the market, it has to fulfill the needs of a sizable number of customers. With new products, this usually occurs automatically when the product possesses some new features which cannot be found in other existing products. Improvement in operation and technology is another cause of success (Dibb et al., 2006). Weakness of PLC. Even with using the PLC diagrams, there is no way to predict the length of each phase that the product is going to stagnate at. Furthermore, neither can it be used in forecasting accurately. These are the main failures and weakness points of the PLC model (Know this, 2004 mind tools, 2009). What is the fatal mistake which marketers do? Why do some products fail? The critical major mistake that marketers may neglect is when the product they introduce to the market does not meet the needs of the customer. This occurs for any of the following reasons: 1. the product does not offer value and therefore fails to progress in the marketplace. 2. The branding is ineffective or not well known. 3. Sometimes, the mistakecan be within the design. 4. In some other cases, technical problems appear. Moreover, Distribution and overestimation of the market size problems are considered a huge mistake which marketers can possibly commit (Dibb et al., 2006). What are the internal and external factors have effects on PLC? There are many features which effect PLC and the vital of them Product decisions and Consumer behavior. Product decisions (Internal factor): Product decisions include those intended to have an effect upon the firm primarily, then product, its sales, and, hence, its lifecycle and not related directly to the consumers. This is so clear in the example of Coca-Cola case below. Consumer behaviour (External factor): Decision making process elements are considered many three issues: First: Personal characteristics: personality, lifestyle, motivation, beliefs, attitudes, and perception. Second: Circumstances of the buyer: gender, age, family, life-cycle, income, and education level. Third: Social environment: culture, reference groups, and social class (Hill OSullivan, 1999). These are out-of-control factors that a firm has no hand on. They affect the life cycle of a product and given the name, external factors. In fact, this is not precisely the case. Because this is mainly more related to the customer buying that very product, a fair look at psychology can be devoted here to face any of the problems caused by any of the above factors. If looked more closely at the nature of this situation, one finds that it is concerned with decision-making process area of psychology. As soon as a consumer makes the decision to buy that product, which is what marketers look forward to, the business will begin a nd the product introduced will continue going through the stages to live its cycle. The external factor effect should be clear in the Kelloggs example later (Hill, OSullivan, 1999). Coca-Cola case study In this case study, it will be shown clearly that some of the products dont even reach the growth or the maturity stages but straightforward towards the declining stage. This was when Coca-Cola thought to launch its own bottles of water in 1993. â€Å"Dasani†, was the marketing name of the product. In the UK, what happened was that the factory had contaminated the bottles with what a cancer-causing chemical called â€Å"bromated†. This is different from the chemical substance â€Å"bromide†. The factory was using the tap water which comes normally from the Thames River. Then, this is being purified using the reverse Osmosis method of purification. After, this purified water is added to a batch of â€Å"Calcium Chloride (CaCl2)† and â€Å"bromide†. When Ozone gas is pumped into that batch, the bromide will be oxidized to â€Å"bromated†. This was mainly the reason for Coca-Cola to divest this kind of a product. Apparently, for this reason, the water of Thames River is being monitored to check the existence, or the concentration for that matter, is below the 10 micrograms per litre. This clearly shows how the internal factor effect here led to the end of the product (Dibb et al., 2006). Kelloggs Nutri-Grain Case study: In 1997, Kelloggs has achieved successes for approximately fifty per cent, which was part of the growing a puffed rice of market Perform in short time less than three years. Until 2002, sales continued growing and increasing within new improvements of flavour and ingredient to the original product. Nutri-Grain, as an example, grew gradually to be identified and recognised by the customers themselves. Nutri-Grain has changed customers understanding from missing breakfast to become a health daily snack. All Bran bars and Alpen bars are the main competitors of Nutri-Grain yet the interesting issue about the two is that both are from Kelloggs itself. However, there are others producing similar products to Nutri-Grain which slightly caused cutting of total profits. Each product of Kelloggs itself has a life cycle, some of which spend months within one stage and others, such as: Nutri-Grain spent years in only the growth stage. In the middle of 2004, Kelloggs noticed that Nutri-Grain sales started falling and losing its position. Meanwhile, the rate of market reached 15% of growing. It is obvious that Kelloggs should choose one of two decisions, either to withdraw Nutri-Grain or add some improvements to it to return it back to life (Thetimes100, 2009). Evaluation Simply, an analogy to the PLC is the life of a being. The living being starts developing from the moment it is born. Next step comes the stage of growth when it becomes a youth through towards maturity when it becomes adult. Finally, it dies which is similar to the withdrawal of a product from the market but before that it gets old; its sales show a decline. Having stated that, it shall be clear as to why be it that not all the products come through the lifecycle phases in the same pattern! As figure number 1 shows: The above plot shows the general typical life cycle that virtually every product should go through if no obstacles were on the way but the pattern differs. As expected in the research and development stage, the sales are zero since the product is not introduced to the market yet. Then, once it is introduced, the sales will begin and this is shown on the graph as sudden rise forming a curvature upwards shape. The rise continues until the stage of decline is reached and this is represented as a downward curvature shape indicated that the sales have fallen. In the development stage, small firms and big firms are not equal in terms of the precautions and the initiatives they take and so for the new and old companies. New Companies are more vulnerable to suffer from the consequences that the old ones and the reason for that is that the old have far more experience than the new firms. Big companies have a strong finical base which allows them to fight in the market with no fear. As have been stated above, in the introduction phase section, that the awareness and sales encouragement and more importantly the advertising is done actively at this stage. Doing the same kind of comparison between small and big firms, the latter have a variety of products in its production line which, in turn, adds a huge space for marketing activities such as, making ads about two or more products of their own, in other words, promotional effect dominates more than in the small firms. After passing the first two stages and the product reaches the growth stage safely, competitors reaction did not exist, both of the small and big firms are equal. However, if their reaction was catalyzed and competition was prevalent, they are not similar in the sense that the potential of each differs. As result, the course of action of each will be different and each will reap the harvest of competitors reaction differently, in accordance to their potential. Some products, although reach their decline stage, do not believe in what is called the decline phase and getting old. As a result, they overcome this problem and regain their position and popularity after taking the necessary strategies. This normally occurs when a little innovative tweak, be it a promotion, or an additional feature that is applied to the existing product. To reinforce the point of weakness mentioned earlier about the model that it fails to predict the exact time a product will spend at a certain stage, a set of examples are presented and exposed to evaluation. One of the examples is clothing. Cloths cannot be handled, to some extent, somehow to extend its life cycle as it is down to the fashion of the year. So, normally this kind of product lasts for no longer than a couple of months up to a year. (Know this, 2004) On the contrary, products like cars or bells live longer and can be trusted for at least five years or even more than that. These products life cycle, unlike the cloths, can be extended Products in between are prone to societies. A typical example is mobile phones. In some communities, people consider the mobile phone as fashionable item that is changeable each time a better, newer one is launched to the market. Others are fulfilled with it as being merely a mean of communication and that it is hard to do its job. Internal and external factors are equally as important. It has been seen in the example above how exceeded legal limit of bromate of a bottle of water has led Coca-Colas product towards death directly from the introduction phase; internal phase. Similarly with Nutri-Grain, Realistic snackers interest in healthy food, and it being the only healthy product have forced Kellogs to revitalize Nutri-Grain, external factor. Conclusion: PLC is a brief description or representation of a life cycle of a product in terms of graph. It is one of the powerful analysis tools in business generally and in marketing specifically. PLC mode can imply the possible strategies to be pursued in order to extend the life cycle of the product having known the stage at which the product is at standing. It can be concluded that in order to overcome this external factor, a marketer needs to play with the elements of decision-making process. By the death of the product, a complete description of the whole life of the product will be provided by the PLC model that can be used later on in the research and development stage of a new product. Business Culture Differences: USA and France Business Culture Differences: USA and France Globalisation has prompted many researchers to conduct intercultural studies. This report analyses the case of Southern Candles Tour De France and identifies several cultural differences. The ideas of Halls cultural model and Shannon-Weavers communication process will be presented with cultural issues. INTRODUCTION The purpose of report is to recognise the differences of business culture between U.S. and France and how they influence the cooperation of Southern and Belles companies. This report will be divided into three four dimensions. The first section presents a sequenced identification of cultural issues in the case. Theories of Halls and Shannon-Weaver models will be defined in the second section with clear tables and figure. The third section contains of some viewpoints about how the cultural issues relate to the chose models. Various perspectives of suggestions will be included in the last section. MEETING STRUCTURE Based on the research (1), the French prefer to have a flexible meeting and often change the plan easily, whereas, the Americans prefer to have a formal meeting and often adhere religiously to the plan (2). The conflict of meeting structure can be described as a cultural distinction. Conversely, this conflict can also significantly affect the positive impression of companies. For instance, the Americans may think that the French do not respect the meeting, and the French may think that the Americans are not creative. LUNCH TIME Another cultural issue between U.S. and France can be observed while Durand and his team members spent twenty minutes into meeting but used two hours break time to have a hot lunch. According to the research1, the Americans can just eat a small sandwich as their lunch and turn back to work, but a hot lunch is essential for the French to fulfill their energy. REACTION At the end of meeting, the reactions between Picard and Durand can also be considered as a cultural issue. U.S. people often present their reactions on surface (3); for instance, Picard gave a quick okay sign to his team members after finishing a well-presented meeting but the U.S. okay sign actually means zero or useless in France (4). Contrarily, the French frequently reserve their reaction and then release their decision after a series of discussion3. For example, Mr. Durand had decided not to corporate with Mr. Picard after two weeks consideration. DRESS APPEARANCE In Frenchs culture, formal dress look is very important at all times particularly in the meeting with high management level5. However, Picard made a mistake of this different cultural issue as only he took off the coat during the business meeting after an uncomfortable hot lunch. NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION In France, eye contact, handshake, and double kiss are three main skills of non-verbal communication to show their friendly manner (6). In the case, Dubois extended a warm greeting in French to Durand. Nevertheless, the Americans usually avoid physical contact with people and this cultural issue creates an arrogant impression for the French1. WORK AND LIFE SEPARABILITY The problem of work and life separablity can be simply discovered when Picard kept mentioned several times the business meeting earlier in the day, but conversation always drifted back to social amenities. For the view of Durand, he has strong tendency to build lifetime relationship with Picard during the party dinner. However, Picard is accustomed to a short-term business relationship (2). LANGUAGE BARRIER The serious barrier between two central leaders is that they do not have same language to do deeper communication and this problem may have impact on building a trust business relationship. Although Picard has hired Dubois as his representative, the problem of different languages still significantly influences the interaction with Belles. For illustrate, Durand and his team members are repeatedly staring at Dubois because they think that she is the only person to give response so they put more concern on her reaction. LITERATURE REVIEW EDWARD TWICTHELL HALLS CULTURAL MODEL 1981 Hall is an anthropologist and cross-cultural researcher and he developed a cultural model that emphasised the importance of nonverbal signals and modes of awareness over explicit messages7. There are three fundamental dimensions: CONTEXT HIGH CONTEXT AND LOW CONTEXT Hall adds that high context communication or message is one in which most of the information is already in the person, while very little is in the coded, explicit, transmitted part of message. A low-context communication is just the opposite, that is, the mass of the information is vested in the explicit code7. The following table shows the characteristics of Halls high context culture and low context culture3: HIGH CONTEXT CULTURE LOW CONTEXT CULTURE Much convert and implicit message Much overt and explicit message Reserved actions Reactions on surface Distinct in groups and out groups Flexible in groups and out groups High commitment Low commitment Open and flexible time High organised time TIME -MONOCHRONIC AND POLYCHRONIC Hall explained that monochronic cultures value schedules and can evolve efficient bureaucracies. Polychronic cultures regard events as embedded in more of a simultaneous matrix of occurrences5. The following table gives the characteristics of two different time concepts (2): MONOCHRONIC POLYCHRONIC Do one work at a time Do multiple works at a time Concentrate on job Are highly distractible and subject to interruptions Are committed to the job Are committed to people and human relationships Work is clearly separate from personal time Work is clearly not separate from personal time SPACE (PROXEMICS) INTERPERSONAL DISTANCE Proxemics is the study of the human use of space within the context of culture. People handle space differently the way they do largely determined by the culture in which they are immersed9. Related to the case, only the theory of intimate and social distance will be provided. Intimate distance ranges from body contact to approximately 45 cm. At intimate distance, the presence of the other person is unmistakable (9). Social distance is the casual interaction-distance between acquaintances and strangers and ranges from 120 to 360 cm. Its close phase, 120 to 210 cm, is the characteristic of informal interaction9. The following figure shows that distance of Proxemics concept (10): SHANNON AND WEAVERS COMMUNICATION MODEL 1961 Shannons model of the communication process is a general model of the communication process that could be treated as the common ground of such diverse disciplines as journalism, rhetoric, linguistics, and speech and hearing sciences11. The following figure shows the communication process of Shannon-Weaver model (12): This model consists of 7 elements which are (13): Information source chooses desired message among a set of possible messages which can be mixture of any form of written or spoken, image or sound. Transmitter changes the message into the signal, also known as encoder. Message is the thing which is sent and received and all communication is about. Channel is the path that message passes through from the transmitter to the receiver. Receiver is the reverse transmitter which changes the signal back into the message, also known as decoder. Destination is the target place of the transmitted message. Noise is any unwanted additions to the transmitted signal which cause distortion or error in transmission. CASE ANALYSIS EDWARD TWITCHELL HALLS CULTURAL MODEL LES BELLES CHOSES Meeting Structure In the mind of the French, the meeting structure of U.S. represents low creativity and boring. In the mind of the Americans, Frances meeting structure is not organized and disciplined. Reaction Information is more likely transmitted in indirect way so the reaction is normally reserved. Reaction is normally appeared in a very direct way and also comes up with different signals. Interpersonal Relationship People always have strong boundaries and hard to adapt an outsider as part of their group. People are more flexible to accept outsider or a new culture. POLYCHRONIC MONOCHRONIC Schedule Schedule can be arranged independently if the better achievement can be established. Also, they do not mind to do multiple things simultaneously and always have a great involvement with human relationships since they are more concerned with family and friends. Time is very important as they often complete one project at a time or before the deadlines. Therefore, the Americans may think that time was dispersed with two hours lunch break and the French are not focused on the corporation. Work-life separability The issue of work-life separability also has direct impact on the corporation. Durand tended to create a close relationship with Picard but it was disturbed by irrelevantly conversation. The Americans typically follow the rules, show great respect for private property and less to build long-term relationship. So, Picard kept mentioned the works during personal time is eliminating the potential of cooperation. INTIMATE DISTANCE SOCIAL DISTANCE Interpersonal distance and Non-verbal communication People can accept the intimate distance mean that they often have body involvement with people or strangers. In the case, Durand and Dubois have an extended greeting in French. However, Mr. Picard did not have this action with Durand. People in the category of social distance mean that they have less body involvement with people and always in a common distance to do interaction with strangers. This kind of people usually avoids physical contact with people. Picard who from U.S. is a typical example. SHANNON-WEAVERS COMMUNICATION MODEL Destination Meeting Party dinner Decoder Durand receives the message and decodes the meaning Channel Dubois is the interpreter Encoder Picard sends the message and encodes the meaning Information sources Business proposal Ideas Opinions Noises Error messages, mistakes in translation, Wrong meaning created by interpreter Information source includes business proposal (written message), ideas, and argumentative opinion (spoken message) that were identified during meeting and party dinner. Transmitter is also called as encoder. In the case, Picard is the sender who is encoding the meaning. Message refers to the every information that was sent and received in the communication process. Channel will be the interpreter. For example, Dubois is responsible for translating the meaning for Picard and Durand. Receiver is also known as decoder. In this case, Durand may change the received messages and signals back into his preferred language or meanings. Destination refers to the meeting or the target place to do presentation in the case. Noises may include the error messages and meanings due to Picard and Durand are using different languages. RECOMMENDATIONS MEETING ALERT In France, people will never skip lunch and they are allowed to have lunch at least forty-five minutes at the company cafeteria and ninety minutes at a restaurant 14. Picard should have awareness of the Frenchs office hours and lunch hours and schedule the best time to have meeting. BUSINESS DRESS CODE If dealing with senior management level in France, a formal suit and well business dress code are highly needed15. Social gathering requires tastefully coordinated clothes even the invitation card with states that informal dress15. During the meeting, Picard should sustain his formal dress appearance. CONVERSATION Language barrier between Picard and Durand creates a resistance in their conversation. The best way to remove the barrier is to learn the same language; however, it could not be reached in a short period. There are some tips for Picard to increase the potential of success16: Practice effective communication as much as possible Convey ideas in a positive, clear and convincing manner PROSPEROUS ENTERTAINING Actually, a business meeting is not supposed to be conducted during lunch or dinner. However, sharing a meal is intended to help establish a personal acquaintance17. In France, business lunches are the most common form of entertaining business contacts18. For that reason, Picard can use a business lunch to present his sincerity of cooperation and his respect to the Frenchs culture. PUBLIC BEHAVIOUR In Frenchs culture, some non-verbal communication actions are expected to be performed19. To gain more familiarity with French, Picard should learn some greeting behaviour and avoid some objectionable public behaviors. GIFT-GIVING In France, gifts are expected for social events, especially as thank you after a dinner party20. When Picard was invited to the party dinner after meeting, he should awake that gifts-giving for the host is important to show an honor manner in the Frenchs culture. CONCLUSION After looking the ideas of Hall and Shannon-Weaver, it is easier to understand why problems occur from different cultural backgrounds. These ideas especially help in workplace and international cooperation. The recommendations proposed will provide a guideline on how to cooperate and avoid some unpleasant problems. References 1. http://www.understandfrance.org/France/Intercultural3.html 2. http://hackvan.com/pub/stig/etext/monochronic-vs-polychronic-time.txt 3. http://www.siu.edu/~ekachai/dimensions.html 4. http://www.executiveplanet.com/index.php?title=France:_Public_Behaviour 5. http://www.worldbusinessculture.com/Meals-and-Entertaining-in-France.html 6. http://www.culture-at-work.com/highlow.html 7. Hall, E.T. (1998). Basic concepts of intercultural communication: The Power of Hidden Differences. Maine: Intercultural Press Inc. 8. Hall, E. T. (1983). The dance of life: The other dimension of time. New York: Random House. 9. Hall Edward T.: The hidden dimension, 1966, Doubleday Company, Inc. 10. Tool for Proxemic research: Edward T. Half, A System for the Notation of Proxemic Research, American Anthropologist, Vol. 65, 1963, pp. 1003-1026. 11.http://www.shkaminski.com/Classes/Handouts/Communication%20Models.htm#TheShannonWeaverMathematicalModel1949 12. http://faculty.mdc.edu/jmcnair/Communication%20Theory%20A%20First%20Look.htm 13. http://www.zainbooks.com/books/mass-communication/introduction-to-mass-communication_4_elements-of-communication-and-early-communication-models.html 14. http://www.executiveplanet.com/index.php?title=France:_Appointment_Alert! 15. http://www.executiveplanet.com/index.php?title=France:_Business_Dress 16. http://plushtext.com/6-ways-to-communicate-more-effectively-in-the-workplace 17. http://www.worldbusinessculture.com/Meals-and-Entertaining-in-France.html 18. http://www.executiveplanet.com/index.php?title=France:_Prosperous_Entertaining 19. http://www.executiveplanet.com/index.php?title=France:_Public_Behaviour 20. http://www.executiveplanet.com/index.php?title=France:_Gift_Giving