Wednesday, December 25, 2019

Islam And The United States Essay - 2287 Words

There is not much information on when Muslims first arrived in America, but there has been evidence that some of the slaves were Muslim, but didn’t have the ability to practice their religion freely, they also tried to accommodate their faith with Christianity, but others were converted. It was about twenty percent of the slaves in the US were Muslim. One of the first known Muslims in the United States, was a slave from Morocco, named Estevanico, who was shipwrecked with Spanish Explorers near the where the city Galveston, Texas is. After that there weren’t many Muslims coming into the United States until the twentieth century. This is shown by the evidence that one of the first mosques was built in North Dakota in 1929, and while the mosque was demolished a Muslim cemetery still stands near the spot of that mosque. Islam started in the 7th century with a prophet named Muhammad. It is an Abrahamic religion, like Judaism and Christianity, but Muslims believe that Islam is a step further than the other two religions. According to a Gallup Poll from 2008, out of the 319751 respondents only 946 identified as Muslim, which is around .29 percent of the respondents. In the Gallup report, they also mention that 35% of Muslim-Americans are African American, 18% are Asian, it is not broken down into whether it is South Asian or East Asian, and 18% is other. Pew states that in 2014 28% are Black, 28% Asian, and 3% Other, out of a sample size of 232. Also in the GallupShow MoreRelated islam in the united states Essay3208 Words   |  13 Pages The biased and discrimination in United States have always been done with the minority. Muslims have always been a minority in this country throughout time. They have faced discrimination in society and especially from the government and media. I believe that people running this country are Anti Islamic due to there view on things. Also this is a Zionist country, which is another reason that makes the media discriminate against the Muslim’s, due to the conflict with Palestine and other MuslimRead MoreUnited States Aggression Against Islam1344 Words   |  6 PagesUnited States aggression against Islam: As noted above, the main goal of al Qaeda propaganda is to convince the Muslim world (ummah) that the West is waging a war on (or conducting a â€Å"crusade† against) Islam. All of the detainees at Guantanamo are Muslim, many were jailed without any involvement with al Qaeda, the Taliban, or militant behavior at all, (Fox News) and some abused. (Center for Constitutional Rights) These facts, manipulated correctly and placed into a certain context, could be usedRead MoreIslam s Impact On The United States1297 Words   |  6 PagesWithin the past twelve years, Islam has grown to be the second largest religion practiced around the world. Growing up, there weren’t many Muslim people that practiced Islam as there are now. Ten years ago, I would only see about one or two Muslims as I walked down the street, but now I see many more. In Philadelphia, there are more than 200,000 people who are Muslim, and 85% of those people are African-American. In this city when people see Af rican-American Muslims who are garbed up they don’t discriminateRead More Massive Anti-Islam Sentiment in the United States Essay3208 Words   |  13 PagesIslam is a monotheistic religion, centered around the teachings of the Qu’ran and serving Allah (meaning God in Arabic). However, this Abrahamic religion has been harshly discriminated against in the United States for years. Most prominently throughout the last twelve years, post September 11th, 2001. Unfortunately, issues such as socialization through the media, power distribution, religious ignorance, stereotyping and visible differences have contributed to the ill attitudes towards Muslims. Read MoreThe Millennial Generation Must End Islam Phobia1259 Words   |  6 PagesConstitution states, â€Å"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, an d to petition the government for a redress of grievances† (US Cons. amend. I. Print). This right has been taken away from Muslims, Millennials need to work together to reach solidarity for the Muslim community. The Millennial Generation must end Islam phobia in theRead MoreThe Autobiography of Malcolm X Essay1301 Words   |  6 Pageschange despite the situation. His struggle for equality for the black nation landed him in prison. While in prison, Malcolm was able to study, and earned a college degree. However, most importantly while in prison, Malcolm X was introduced to the Islam faith by one of the prisoners. He received teachings from the Muslim faith, which made him realize that, his people were being oppressed and abused by the whites. While out of prison, he went to visit honorable Elijah Muhammad and later on went aroundRead MoreThe Islamic Faith : Born On The Arabian Peninsula1377 Words   |  6 Pages(Al-Qazwini, 2010). There is no Islamic state, Muslims are sprea d throughout the world. This can be problematic because there is no official place for Muslims to go. There are more than fifty-seven Muslim states around the world (Al-Qazwini, 2010). Islam is the third most common religion in the United States, following Christianity and Judaism (Al-Qazwini, 2010). The majority of American Muslims are immigrants, most immigrants arrived after the United States enacted the 1965 Immigration and NationalitiesRead MoreRhetorical Analysis Of Donald Trump s Speech1187 Words   |  5 Pageshistory against the United States from entering the country from areas that are high until the government creates a solution to help stop Islamic terrorism inside U.S borders. He discusses many recent terrorist attacks like the Orlando Pulse gay nightclub shooting, the San Bernardino attack and even the Paris theater attack in November, 2015. He believes that all these attacks are from terrorist of Radical Islam. Trump believes that,† Many of the principles of Radical Islam are incompatible withRead More The Media Portrayal of Islam Essay954 Words   |  4 PagesThe Media Portrayal of Islam Islam is portrayed and is commonly accepted as the most violent and largest direct threat to the West. This is a generalization made by most of the West, but it is not particularly the West or the Islamic people’s fault. There is constant turmoil in Islamic countries in the Middle East and these conflicts are what make the news in the West. The only representation in the media that the Islamic nation gets is that of war. Though most Islamic people are notRead MoreIslamic Organizations Post World War II923 Words   |  4 Pagesget farther into the book, I become more intrigued into the events that took place in America in regards to Islam. I never actually knew the broader history behind the enlargement of Islam in the United States. The formation of different Islamic organizations post World War II was very interesting, because it created a society where Muslim immigrants can unite; such as the Nation of Islam and the FIA. I found that the sociological, and politic al aspects of these religion-based communities and organizations

Tuesday, December 17, 2019

Target - 1245 Words

Assignment 1 is worth 20% of your total mark for this course; it should be submitted after you have completed the readings and learning activities for Lessons 1 through 6. Your assignment submission should be no more than 10 pages in length. A page is defined as double spaced, with standard margins, and using a standard 12-point font. The cover page, which should include your name and student number, does not count as a page. A deduction of 10% will apply if your assignment is more than 10 pages long. For additional advice on how to complete this assignment, refer to the Preparing Assignments page (a link is also provided in the Evaluation block on the course homepage). Read the case â€Å"Target: From ‘Expect More’ to ‘Pay Less’†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦show more content†¦At the time Target was promoting fashionable brands with reasonable pricing, Where as Walmart was focusing on having low prices all the time. This is a major actor for Target because this triggered the top management of Target to re think their strategy and come up with a lower prices strategy to capture those lost customers back from Walmart. The third major actor in the micro environment is internal publics within Target. With the Loss of market share and profits, the major investor in Target William Ackamn accused targets board of directors of being inexperienced and unable to deal with the abrupt economic downturn, after losing 85% of his $2 Billion investment, he asked for control of 5 of the board of directors chairs. This caused Steinhafel to only intensify his Pay Less emphasis. He took out numerous newspaper Ad’s and created a new set of television spots with a slogan of â€Å"This is a brand new day. And its getting better every single day†. Thus the mounting internal pressure from a major investor played a big role in pushing Targets management to get results and preform. The fourth and final actor is the Companies Operations. Target made two significant operational changes, the first is converting parts of its stores to mini grocery stores that would carry 90 percent of the food categories found in full size grocery stores, this led to customer convenience and proving to customers that they are a one stop shop for all their needs.Show MoreRelatedTarget Strategy For Target Corporation1438 Words   |  6 PagesTarget has been a successful retail company coming in 2nd place behind Wal-Mart. Although these successes come in many forms, there are factors that deter Target from ever reaching first place. Target Corporation has run into a few weaknesses in the recent years. These weaknesses that Target are facing can impact their future goals. They include lawsuits that Target is facing with the recent events and not having an international presence. Even though Target is ranked currently 36 inRead MoreTarget Objectives Of Target Marketing848 Words   |  4 PagesTarget is one of the best retail Corporations that sell general merchandise beside the foods and drugs products. Target success built on the organized effort and the reputation they built many years ago. Target goal is to sell goods and services to satisfy the society’s needs and increase the profit. Target mission is â€Å"Outstanding value, continuous innovation and exceptional guest experience by consistently fulfilling our Expect More. Pay Less.  ® brand promise† (Retrieved retailindustry.aboutRead MoreTarget Case Study1120 Words   |  5 PagesIt is not that a lot of need at Target. The general population of Target comprehended it after the Point of Sale (POS) assault is a major issue at target which must be sorted out instantly and making the condition secured. Around 6 pm at night, the objective condition is in sheltered and secure and it is ended the malware at the passageway point with the sure the clients can come to shop at Target with the no dangers. A colossal number frameworks were exchanged off and change the malware infectionRead MoreTarget Marketing Plan For Target Corporation1662 Words   |  7 Pagesis â€Å"Expect More-Pay Less†. Target Corporation operates more than 1,800 Target stores across the country, an online business at Target.com, Su per Target stores that provide a full line of groceries to consumers, Target Express and a Target Pharmacy. In addition, they offer the Target REDcard, the Target Visa and the Target Debit Card that is only valid in Target stores. The company is increasing its grocery business and actively extending stores for the future. The Target Corporation takes pride inRead MoreTarget Chain Of Target Supply Chain1124 Words   |  5 Pagespapers purpose is to give an example of the benefits and how the supply chain works by taking a look at the Target Corporation’s supply chain. Target is one of the largest retail chains in the US; they first opened in 1962 in the state of Minnesota. It started out as a family- run (The Dayton Family) department store. After company growth the family started looking for ways to expand. Today Target total sales ad diluted earnings per share reached new highs of $72.0 billion and $4.52, respectively. TheyRead MoreWhat Should Target And Target Wallet2996 Words   |  12 PagesWhat should Target do?( Jack ) Target has built a well-known reputation for one stop shopping. However, it’s home goods section accounts for the smallest percentage of the Target’s sales, 17%, in 2013 (2013 Annual Report). This shows that Target has an established customer base in this section, but it can definitely expand its reach. CIA Consulting proposes the Target Wallet as a way to improve Target’s sale throughout all sections, especially in home goods. This chart showsRead MoreTarget Diversity : Target s Diversity Initiative754 Words   |  4 PagesTarget s Diversity Initiative Diversity is becoming a more increasing and ever changing dynamic to the business environment. Organizations can either embrace and grow with diversity or be left behind and die out. One of the organizations that is growing with diversity is Target. This paper will look at Target in depth on what they are doing right and wrong, what makes them a leader in diversity, and what leadership is doing to encourage diversity. Background Founded in 1902, Target has beenRead MoreTarget Brand And Position Target Corporation827 Words   |  4 Pages Overview The Target Corporation staff will develop and implement a comprehensive public relations plan and timeline that fits the budget, targets the desired markets and promotes the company. The objectives of our promotional efforts will be to increase awareness of the Target brand and position Target Corporation as a positive, vital force in the community. As well as to increase positive recognition, enthusiasm and support for Target Corporation as a leader in the delivery of quality goods. ThisRead MoreTarget Corporation635 Words   |  3 PagesMacro Environment: Target Corporation Economic: Target’s position in the Discount Department Store Industry has been to offer inexpensive and fashionable clothing, home furnishings and decorations. Their motto has been Expect More Pay Less. They have been very successful with this strategy until the downturn of the economy when sales began to seriously decline. Target’s latest strategy has been to open SuperTargets and remodeled many of their existing stores that have a larger focus on foodRead MoreTarget Essay1695 Words   |  7 Pagesparents of newborn babies, all companies try to appeal to people in order to sell their products. Target is a department store that has been around since 1962 and they have grown and prospered ever since the beginning. Target is a branch off of the Dayton Dry Goods Company started in 1902 by George Draper Dayton. Throughout the years the store evolved and adapted until they eventually created the Target we know today in 1962. The first store opened May 1, 1962, in the city of Roseville Minnesota and

Sunday, December 8, 2019

Plagiarism Self

Plagiarism: Self-destruction Essay Why do so many people use planetpapers.com simply to plagiarize other peoples writing? Is it even possible that someone cannot write their own essay, or that someone cannot read a book of any length? If you plagiarize, arent you sentencing yourself to failure? And if you cannot gather information, arent you opening yourself to attacks from the System? I know many students who use sites such as planetpapers.com to gather research steal other peoples ideas and papers. Yet it still amazes me that people could be so nave and lazy. Think about it: in high school, you are already expected to know whatever material youve been taught (hopefully). During high school and college, you are more likely to hurt your grade than to get into serious trouble. (However, if your paper sounds too well written, or if a teacher finds that you stole information, you can still be expelled. ) Lets face it: Cliffs Notes arent the Holy Grail of research. If you read Cliffs Notes or Monarch Notes or planetpapers.com essays, you are bound to miss important details. Any decent teacher will check whether you read a book, and to do so, he will ask you details and concepts from the work that you did not read. Cliffs Notes, shortchange you; there are few concepts and almost no details in those. Monarch Notes only have concepts. And most planetpapers.com essays are written by high-schoolers, filled with typos and inaccuracies, and non-scholarly. (That is not to say, however, that there arent some expertly-written papers on planetpapers.com.) For the lazy, Cliffs Notes, Monarch Notes, and planetpapers.com are an easy way to avoid work, practice, and thought. However, for the scholar or anyone who wants to be more successful in school, these resources should be just that resources. They are intended to supplement reading, not to replace it. When students read from these works to better understand what they have already read, they are preparing themselves for the real world. And when they enter it, they will be more successful than cheaters. .

Sunday, December 1, 2019

Two Gentlemen in Verona free essay sample

The Abasement of The Upper Class Most people have a predetermined idea of the levels of a social hierarchy. They presume that the upper class is noble, proper and educated while the lower class is of the opposite; the lower class work for the upper class and thus cannot possibly exceed the caliber of the upper class. Shakespeare upends this predetermined notion by utilizing the characters to convey a strong sense of role reversal throughout The Two Gentlemen of Verona. This role reversal upsets the stereotypical social hierarchy and strongly suggests that the upper class may not be as highly esteemed as they are perceived to be. Loyalty is an underlying theme throughout the play. Symbols of loyalty prompt the reader to not only compare the loyalty of a servant’s relationship with an upperclassman’s relationship but also conclude that this comparison often leads to the degradation of the upper class characters. We will write a custom essay sample on Two Gentlemen in Verona or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Proteus refers to himself as â€Å"spaniel-like† (4. 2. 4) in Act 4; however his actions show that he is the direct opposite of what a spaniel, or a dog, should be like. Judging from his fickle actions of suddenly falling in love with Silvia after swearing to remain faithful to Julia, Proteus is unable to have nearly as much loyalty as a spaniel should have. Thus one can conclude that Proteus is not nearly as loyal as a dog. His condemnable actions lead to an abasement of the upper class and gives way to the idea that the aristocratic aren’t as respectable as they seem to be. The relationship between Lance and Crab can be compared to Proteus and Julia. Lance, the servant has an unusually loyal and selfless relationship with his dog, Crab. It is interesting to note that Lance seems to be more loyal or devoted to Crab, than his dog is to him. In fact, Lance even takes the blame and beating for his dog when Crab his caught â€Å"a pissing† (4. 4. 1) under the table. This loyalty can be compared to Proteus and Julia in that Lance’s selflessly devoted relationship with Crab is a parody of the despicably unfaithful relationship Proteus has with Julia. The â€Å"reversed† relationship between Lance and Crab also gives way to a new and important idea for the rest of the play. Upon closer inspection, one can see that the master, in this case Lance resembles the characteristics of a loyal servant, which should be the role played by Lance’s dog, Crab. The unusual reversal of roles that this master and its dog should have, gives way to a recurring idea – prominent throughout the rest of the play, that the characteristics of the lower class and upper class are interchanged. Speed and Lance are two servants who happen to be servants of two deeply in-love masters. In Act 3 Scene 1, Lance claims that he too, is in love and reveals a list of which he has written down the merits of his lady. Typically, one should assume that this list – coming from an uneducated servant, should not exhibit a great amount of depth or critical thinking; however this list surprises the reader in its logicality and wittiness, and in addition, reinforces the idea of the switching of hierarchal roles. Items on Lance’s list exhibit great practicality such as â€Å"She can sew† (3. . 298) and â€Å"She can wash and scour† (3. 1. 329). Lance also cleverly transforms flaws into virtues when he describes that â€Å"She hath more hair than wit,† or that she is younger than she is intelligent and â€Å"more fault than hairs,† or more flaws than she is young and â€Å"more wealth than faults† (3. 3. 3) which amalgamates to that she is wealt hier than flawed since â€Å"that word (wealth) makes the faults gracious† because Lance understands that in real life, level of wealth is a highly influential, and possibly ultimate deciding factor in marriage or a relationship. The realistic and practical nature of the list shows the maturity and intelligence of Lance, which begs to question the nature of the picturesque but fickle and unsustainable nature of the love affairs of the masters, Valentine and Proteus. This once again reiterates the role reversal of social hierarchy and through the sensibleness of Lance and shows that the upper class may not be as intellectual as they are perceived to be. There are also other smaller remarks in scenes that support the notion that a role reversal suggests the idea that aristocrats may not be as intellectual as them seem to be. For example, in Act 2 Scene 1, when Valentine is reunited with his love, Silvia – Speed provides several asides in which he mockingly says â€Å"a million of manners! † (2. 1. 95) in response to Valentine greeting Silvia with â€Å"a thousand good morrows† (2. 1. 93-4). In this series of asides, the audience can see that the servant is sensibly belittling the absurdity of his master’s love for Silvia. An encounter in Act 3 Scene 1 between the Duke and Valentine also pokes at a role reversal when the Duke, perhaps the character with the highest social class throughout the novel, seeks advice on how to â€Å"court† (3. . 85) his lover, from Valentine: a relatively subordinate character. It is arguable that the Duke only asked Valentine for advice as a part of his scheme to figure out how Valentine has been courting his own daughter, Silvia. However, if one looks at the scene and context secluded from the ulterior intentions, the mere act of a superior asking an inferior for advice heavily suggests that the role reversal of characters in The Two Gentlemen of Verona and ultimately, that the aristocratic, or Duke, is not as almighty and wise as he is assumed to be. Finally, perhaps the most prominent manifestation of role reversal and the abasement of aristocrats lies in the exchange between Valentine and Speed. Throughout the beginning half of the play, Valentine disapproves Proteus’s love for Julia and claims that by staying at home with Julia, Proteus will have â€Å"homely wits† (1. 1. 2) and wear out his â€Å"youth with shapeless idleness† (1. 1. 8). However during Act 2 Scene 1, Valentine is criticized by Speed, for the negative effects that he has brought upon himself as a result of his love for Silvia. Speed not only brings attention to the fact that only recently did Valentine â€Å"chid[e] at Sir Proteus for going ungartered† (2. 1. 70) but also has somewhat become blinded by love. During Speed’s observation of Valentine’s state in Act 2 Scene 1, Speed condemns Valentine who now â€Å"walk[s] alone like one that had the pestilence† (2. 1. 21) as a result of being in love with Silvia, when Valentine used to â€Å"walk like one of the lions† (2. 1. 27). As a result of being â€Å"metamorphosed with a mistress† (2. 1. 29-30), when Speed â€Å"look on you [Valentine], I [Speed] can hardly think you my master† (2. . 30-1). This exchange radiates the idea that Speed sees things that Valentine is unable to as well as the idea that Speed is wiser and more intellectual than his superior, Valentine. The latter part of the scene where Speed claims that Valentine’s lover, Silvia, is actually â€Å"not so fair†(2. 1. 51) accentuat es both Speed’s expert and knowledgeable as well as Valentine’s increasingly dull and inferior characters. When Valentine questions Speed’s observation of Silvia’s beauty, Speed cleverly notes that â€Å"Because Love is blind† (2. 1. 8), Valentine is unable to see the ugliness of Silvia. In this brief exchange, Valentine and Speed play instead, the inferior and superior roles respectively as Speed lectures Valentine on this love-blind issue. Valentine’s aristocratic character is degraded as Speed didactically enlightens Valentine on the effects of love that he is unable to see. It is questionable that because a big portion of Shakespeare’s audience was of middle and lower class, he conveyed a sense of abasement of the upper class in The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Thus it can be argued that he utilized this theme as a way to provide pleasure for the audience of his work. Nonetheless, through the various exchanges between master and servant, and servant to servant, one can see that the stereotypical roles of the characters are not congruent with their actual characteristics. Lance’s relationship with his dog both parodies Proteus and Julia and allows the theme of role reversal to manifest itself in their unusual relationship. Lance’s practical list of merits provides a sense of integrity and high intellectual capability for other members of the lower class. The Duke and Valentine suggests a role reversal and finally, Speed’s didactic observation of Valentine’s chronic â€Å"love blindness† allows the audience to see the dullness of the upper class and quick wit of lower class. All these examples amalgamate to a reinforced idea that the roles of the upper class and lower class may be reversed and that the upper class are not nearly as intelligent and esteemed as they are perceived to be.

Tuesday, November 26, 2019

Theodore Dwight Weld

Theodore Dwight Weld Theodore Dwight Weld was one of the most effective organizers of the abolitionist movement in the United States, though he was often overshadowed in his own time. And, partly due to his own aversion to publicity, he has often been overlooked by history. For three decades Weld guided many efforts of the abolitionists. And a book he published in 1839, American Slavery As It Is, influenced Harriet Beecher Stowe as she wrote Uncle Toms Cabin. In the early 1830s Weld organized a highly influential series of debates at Lane Seminary in Ohio and trained abolitionist agents who would spread the word throughout the North. He later became involved on Capitol Hill in advising John Quincy Adams and others in promoting anti-slavery agitation in the House of Representatives. Weld married Angelina Grimkà ©, a South Carolina native who had, along with her sister, become a devoted abolitionist. The couple was very well-known in abolitionist circles, yet Weld exhibited an aversion to public notice.  He generally published his writings anonymously and preferred to exert his influence behind the scenes. In the decades after the Civil War Weld avoided discussions of the proper place of the abolitionists in history. He outlived most of his contemporaries, and when he died at the age of 91 in 1895, he was nearly forgotten. Newspapers mentioned his death in passing, noting that he had known and worked with William Lloyd Garrison, John Brown, and other noted abolitionists. Early Life Theodore Dwight Weld was born November 23, 1803, in Hampton, Connecticut. His father was a minister, and the family was descended from a long line of clergymen. During Welds childhood the family moved to western New York State. In the 1820s the traveling evangelist Charles Grandison Finney passed through the countryside, and Weld became a devoted follower of his religious message. Weld entered the Oneida Institute to study to become a minister. He also became very involved in the temperance movement, which at the time was a burgeoning reform movement. A reformist mentor of Weld, Charles Stuart, traveled to England and became involved with the British anti-slavery movement. He wrote back to America, and brought Weld to the anti-slavery cause. Organizing the Abolitionists During this period Weld met Arthur and Lewis Tappan, wealthy New York City merchants who were financing a number of reform movements, including the early abolitionist movement. The Tappans were impressed with Welds intellect and energy, and recruited him to work with them. Weld influenced the Tappan brothers to get involved in the fight against slavery. And in 1831 the philanthropist brothers founded the American Anti-Slavery Society. The Tappan brothers, at Welds urging, also financed the founding a seminary which would train ministers for settlements in the expanding American West. The new institution, Lane Seminary in Cincinnati, Ohio, became the site of a highly influential gathering of anti-slavery activists in February 1834. In two weeks of seminars organized by Weld, activists debated the cause of ending slavery. The meetings would resonate for years, as attendees came away deeply committed to the cause. Weld embarked on a program of training abolitionists who could bring converts to the cause in the style of revivalist preachers. And when a campaign of sending abolitionist pamphlets into the South was thwarted, the Tappan Brothers began to see that Welds idea of educating human agents who would carry the abolitionist message. On Capitol Hill In the early 1840s Weld became involved in the political system, which was not the usual course of action for abolitionists. William Lloyd Garrison, for instance, purposely avoided mainstream politics, as the United States Constitution allowed slavery. The strategy pursued by abolitionists was to use the right to petition in the Constitution to send petitions seeking the end of enslavement to the U.S. Congress. Working with former president John Quincy Adams, who was serving as a congressman from Massachusetts, Weld worked as a critical adviser during the petition campaign.   By the mid-1840s, Weld had essentially withdrawn from an active role in the abolitionist movement, yet he continued to write and advise. He had married Angelina Grimke in 1838, and they had three children. The couple taught at a school they founded in New Jersey. Following the Civil War, when memoirs were written and the rightful place of the abolitionists in history was being debated, Weld chose to remain silent. When he died he was mentioned briefly in newspapers, and was remembered as one of the great abolitionists.

Friday, November 22, 2019

ACT FAQ Expert Answers to Frequently Asked Questions

ACT FAQ Expert Answers to Frequently Asked Questions SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Here at PrepScholar, we get a lot of questions about every aspect of the ACT. To help, we've compiled this ACT FAQ to addressall of your questions about the test– whether you haven’t even cracked open a prep book to study for it yet or if you’ve taken it four times and are wondering which scores to send to colleges. Read on to get the answers to all of your burning ACT-related questions and links to the best articles on our site to help you prepare for the ACT. ACT FAQ Table of Contents Preparing for the ACT Evaluating Your ACT Score The ACT Essay Scholarships and College Sending Scores Preparing for the ACT Should I even be taking the ACT? Don’t colleges really prefer the SAT? Colleges do not have a preference between the SAT and the ACT. They are seen as completely equal options to fulfill the standardized testing requirement. You can choose which test to take based completely on your personal preference. So why does everyone still seem to think that the SAT is seen as more prestigious? Since the SAT has been around for longer, it used to the only standardized test accepted for college applications at many institutions. But since its creation in the late 1950s, the ACT began to be widely accepted as an equally acceptable alternative to the SAT. It was adopted first in Midwestern and Western states, but eventually became common on the East Coast as well. Back in 2007, the last SAT-only holdout, Harvey Mudd, began accepting the ACT. True, if you look at the admissions data from many east-coast schools, the majority of applicants still send the SAT as opposed to the ACT. But that isn’t because those colleges prefer the SAT. It’s because students in East Coast states take the SAT more commonly than the ACT, and the majority of applicants to those schools come from the east coast. So when deciding between the ACT and the SAT, the choice comes down to your ability and your personal preferences. Choose the test that's best for you! Further Reading: What Do Ivy League Schools Think of the ACT, Do You Need to Take Both the SAT and the ACT, New SAT vs ACT: Comparison Charts When should I take the ACT for the first time? PrepScholar recommends you take the ACT for the first time junior fall. This way, you can retake the test if needed junior spring, and then be ready to focus exclusively on college applications your senior fall. This timing is also optimal given where you are in your high school career – you should have learned all the content tested on the ACT by the beginning of junior year, and you won’t be so far away from your first algebra class that you’re hazy on concepts like solving a system of equations. If you try and take the ACT earlier, as a sophomore or freshman, you may struggle with it because you lack certain content knowledge, especially in math. Of course, if you’re reading this as a junior or even a senior, don’t panic. As long as you take the test by senior fall, you’ll be able to apply to colleges. But earlier is better to avoid a last-minute time crunch or taking the last test before apps are due. Even if you have to use an accelerated study timeline, we strongly recommend working to have the ACT over and done with before senior year starts. It will save you lots of stress, we promise! Further Reading: When Should I Take the ACT for the First Time? I took the ACT at school for free, but it didn’t include the essay (also known as the ACT Plus Writing). Do I have to retake the ACT? There are two cases in which you would want to retake the ACT if you have already taken it as part of state testing, but without the optional Writing/Essay section. Case 1: You are applying to schools that require the ACT Plus Writing. Unfortunately, even if you have an ACT score from state testing, you need to take the entire ACT Plus Writing to be able to apply to certain colleges. The plus side to this is that you’ve already had a (free!) practice run at the ACT, so if you study before your first official ACT Plus Writing, you’ll be very well-prepared for the test and will likely beat your first score. Case 2: You didn’t score as high as you wanted on the ACT and/or you’re applying to schools with higher ACT score averages than you earned. The ACT is an important part of your college application, so you want to give yourself the best shot possible at your dream schools by earning a high enough score. (You can read more about finding your target ACT score below!) If you’re not applying to any schools that require ACT Plus Writing and your score is high enough for all of the schools you want to apply to, you do not have to retake the ACT. Lucky you! Further Reading: Should You Take the ACT With or Without Writing?, Which States Require the ACT? Full List and Advice, Which Colleges Require ACT Writing? 633 schools How long should I study for the ACT? There is no "one size fits all" answer to how long you should study for the ACT. How much time you spend on ACT prep varies based on the score you want and how much time you have to study. To get started, these are PrepScholar's estimates for how long you should study for the ACT, based on how many points you need to improve by. Of course, these are just estimates, and will vary based on your personal strengths and weaknesses. Don't stop studying until you're sure you can achieve your target score on the real test! 0-1 ACT Composite Point Improvement: 10 hours1-2 ACT Point Improvement: 20 hours2-4 ACT Point Improvement: 40 hours4-6 ACT Point Improvement: 80 hours6-9 ACT Point Improvement: 150 hours+ You can calculate your weekly ACT prep time by following these three steps: Find your starting score (which you can learn by taking a practice test) Find your score goal (see "How do I come up with a target ACT score" below) Decide much time you can spend on ACT studying each week Let’s take an example. Say Student A’s ACT score goal is a 28, but they scored a 24 on an ACT practice test. That means Student A has to improve by 4 points. Based on our estimates of point increases to study hours, Student A needs to put in around 40 hours of study time. Here are three potential study plans for Student A: Light: 4 hours a week for 10 weeks Moderate: 8 hours a week for 5 weeks Heavy: 20 hours a week for 2 weeks Each of these plans comes out to the required 40 hours. Student A can choose the right plan for them based on their schedule. If Student A has a lot of extracurricular commitments but does have plenty of time before they take their first ACT, Study Plan 1 may be best, since they can squeeze in a couple of 2-hour study sessions each week in between homework and club meetings. If Student A is taking the ACT in 3 weeks and needs to improve, fast, than they might take on the more cram-like schedule of Study Plan 3. Obviously, this plan would involve toning down other commitments, and perhaps would be most feasible over a school break or summer vacation. So your next steps are as follows: Find your target score Find your starting score (take a practice exam) Using our hours-to-points estimate, figure out how long you need to study, and then create your own schedule Further Reading: Exactly How Long Should I Study for the ACT, How to Beat Procrastination in Your ACT Prep How do I come up with a target ACT score? Your target ACT score is a score above the 75th percentile for admitted students at all of the schools you hope to apply to. Above the 75th percentile? What we mean is, you want a score above a school's "middle 50 percent range," which is the range of admitted student ACT scores between the 25th and 75th percentile. In other words, you want a score that is higher than 75% of last year's admitted applicants. Why? Because having such a high score gives you an excellent chance of admission. As an example, here are some examples of ACT middle 50 ranges at a few Massachusetts colleges: Harvard College: 32-35 Tufts University: 30-33 University of Massachusetts Amherst: 24-29 You need to look up the score ranges for all colleges you are seriously interested in applying to, and then set your target score based on the most competitive school you’re applying to. For example, a student whose most competitive school is Harvard should set their ACT target score at 36. A student whose most competitive school is University of Massachuetts Amherst should set their target score at 30. This way, even if you miss your score goal by a point or two, you will likely have a really strong ACT score for the other schools on your list! Further Reading: What's a Good ACT Score for Your College, What's a Good ACT Score? A Bad Score? An Excellent Score?, Average ACT Scores: What They Mean for You, ACT Score Percentiles How should I study for the ACT? If you haven’t already, start your ACT studying by taking a complete practice exam, timing yourself strictly. This will give you the best information about your strengths and weaknesses on the test and be the baseline for your study plan. For example, even if you're great at math, you might realize that ACT Math is really hard for you because you ran out of time while taking your first practice test. This is crucial information to know as you begin studying! Once you've taken that first practice test, grade, score, and evaluate it carefully. Calculate your starting composite score. Then, note your strengths and your weaknesses. (We recommend using a notebook to start logging and tracking your weaknesses.) Look for patterns in wrong answers. This could be in terms of content or test strategy. For example, when you evaluate the Math section, you might notice that missed most of the trigonometry questions. That's a big clue that you need to review some key trigonometry concepts and spent plenty of time practicing math questions. Or, you might notice that you tend to get most questions right at the beginning of a test section, but rush towards the end and get a lot of wrong answers. That's a clue that you need to work on timing. Next, research your target ACT score, using the method in the above question ("How do I come up with a target ACT score?"). Find the difference between your starting score and your target score.Based on the difference between your starting score and target score, estimate the amount of hours you'll need to study and how long you'll study each week. (See "How long should I study for the ACT?" above for more on this process.) Here are two quick examples: Starting Score: 24 Target Score: 28 Points to Improve: 4 Approximate Hours Needed: 40 Study Plan: 8 hours per week for 5 weeks Starting Score: 29 Target Score: 35 Points to Improve: 6 Approximate Hours Needed: 80 Study Plan: 10 hours a week for 8 weeks Now you're finally ready to hit the books! Focus your studying around your weak areas – whether that’s a particular subject area or a problem you keep hitting (like running out of time on the ACT Math or Reading sections). Some students might spend the majority of their study time on one subject area that they struggle with. Others might need to study for all four sections equally. Check out the links before for resources to get started. Further Reading: Free ACT Practice Tests, How to Get the Most Out of ACT Practice Tests, How to Get the Most Realistic ACT Practice Test Experience The Ultimate Study Guides to ACT English, ACT Math, ACT Reading, and ACT Science The Best ACT Prep Books, The Best ACT Prep Websites, 15 Tips and Tricks to Improve Your ACT Score, 26 Great Alternatives to ACT Practice Tests What should I know about the ACT before I take it? Studying for the content on the ACT is important, but it’s also helpful to be familiar with the logistics of the ACT before test day: how long the test is, what the exact rules are, and what to do to be prepared on test day. Check out the links below to get a full briefing on ACT logistics so that when you sit down at your desk on test day, you're ready to focus 100% on the test itself. Further Reading: How Long is the ACT, ACT Instructions: Complete Guide, Rules and Regulations on the ACT, What to Do the Night Before the ACT, Where Should You Take the ACT Evaluating YourACT Score Is my ACT score bad/good/amazing? In terms of the national ACT percentile rankings, these are the important score benchmarks: 20: 50th percentile (average!) 24: 75th percentile 28: 90th percentile 33+: 99th percentile So in terms of the national rankings, anything above a 20 is above average, any score above 24 is really good, and anything above a 28 is amazing! But don't let that score go to your head just yet. The real measure of your ACT score's quality is how it stacks up to the score averages at colleges you want to apply to. (See "How do I come up with my target ACT score?" for more on finding a college's ACT score ranges.) One thing that's interesting about this is that an ACT score that's amazing for one student could actually be low for another. Let's take an example. Student A got a 30 on the ACT. This is an amazing score for them since they are applying to a few colleges and universities in state. Not only is this score more than enough to get them admitted, it even is high enough to qualify for many scholarships! Student B also got a 30. This is a low score for them since they are set on getting into either Stanford or MIT, and need at least a 33, but ideally higher, to be a competitive applicant. The bottom line? You'll have to research the ACT score ranges at your dream schools to decide once and for all if your ACT score is bad, great, or amazing. Further Reading: What's a Good ACT Score for Your College, ACT Percentiles, Average ACT Scores: What They Mean for You, What's a Bad ACT Score, Scholarships for ACT Scores, ACT Scores for the Ivy League My ACT score is low. Am I doomed? Many students get really stressed after they get their ACT scores back, especially if they did worse than they wanted to. But, first of all, remember that your ACT score is not a measure of your intelligence! Just because you got a score that's low (either in terms of national rankings or the college you want to go to) does not mean that you, as a student and a person, do not have promise. The ACT, at the end of the day, is just a multiple-choice test. So if you didn't do as well as you wanted, you can study more and retake it. (This is why we recommend taking the test for the first time junior fall, so you have plenty of time for retakes!) If you didn't do as well as you wanted the first time, you likely had some test-taking strategy issues or maybe there was content you simply didn't understand. Either way, those are both things that can be fixed with hard work, study, and practice. (Check out our links to study and practice resources below to get started!) And if you're ashamed or embarrassed about your first score, don't stress. If you score higher on a retake, you can actually delete your first ACT score! It never has to see the light of day. Finally, if you get a low ACT score and you don't have time to retake it before a college's deadline, you can still apply to other schools that aren't as hard to get into. Even if you don't get into your dream school, as long as you get into college and get great grades an an undergraduate, you will be able to meet your graduate school and career goals. Don't let this one little test slow you down! Further Reading: Easiest Colleges to Get Into, Schools with Guaranteed Admission, What is a Safety School? How To Find Yours,Did You Know You Can Delete ACT Scores Free ACT Practice Tests, How to Get the Most Out of ACT Practice Tests, How to Get the Most Realistic ACT Practice Test Experience The Ultimate Study Guides to ACT English, ACT Math, ACT Reading, and ACT Science The Best ACT Prep Books, The Best ACT Prep Websites, 15 Tips and Tricks to Improve Your ACT Score, 26 Great Alternatives to ACT Practice Tests I got [x] score on my first ACT. Should I retake the test? This answer to this question depends completely on what your goals for colleges and scholarships are! So the first thing to figure out if you haven’t already is this: what is your ACT target score? (See "How do I come up with a target score?" above.) Obviously, if you scored lower than your target score, you should probably consider retaking the exam. However, you also need to consider how many points you need to improve by to hit your target, and whether you have the time to devote to making that happen. Improving 2 or 3 composite points is very doable, but trying to improve by 10 points is a very difficult task. (We will explore just how possible it is to make big point increases in the next question!) If you scored lower than your target score and you have sufficient time to restudy, then you should retake the ACT. But if you do not have sufficient time to study, do not just wing an ACT retake and hope for the best! If you retake the ACT without addressing your test-taking weaknesses or content struggles, it's likely you will either get the same composite score, or even a slightly lower score. Further Reading: What's a Good ACT Score for Your College, Should You Retake the ACT, Already Have a High ACT Score? How to Improve Even More, How to Get a Perfect 36 on the ACT, by a Perfect Scorer, ACT Score Decrease? How Much it Can Drop and Why Is it possible to go from [x] ACT score to [y] ACT score in [z] amount of time? First, in terms of ACT composite score increases, these are the basic possibilities, which of course will vary based on personal factors: 1-2 points: Very doable. Your main obstacle is likely test-taking strategy and a few small content issues. 3-5 points: Doable, but you will have to devote more study hours to accomplish this increase. 6-8 points: Possible, but it will take some very serious studying and commitment. You likely will have to address some content deficits in addition to practicing. 8+: This will really depend on your situation and time available for studying. You will likely have to address some serious content deficits before you focus on improving your test-taking strategy. Those possibilities aside, whether you can actually achieve your desired increase depends simply on this: how many hours can you devote to studying? Even if you're just aiming for a small 2-point increase, you have to devote time to studying to actually meet your goal. There are no shortcuts! With that in mind, this is an estimate of the amount of hours you will need to accomplish ACT composite point increases: 0-1 ACT Composite Point Improvement: 10 hours1-2 ACT Point Improvement: 20 hours2-4 ACT Point Improvement: 40 hours4-6 ACT Point Improvement: 80 hours6-9 ACT Point Improvement: 150 hours+ Again, these are just estimates, and the time you need will vary based on your own personal strengths and weaknesses. To get an idea of what these points-to-hours estimates look like in action, and how feasible it is to make certain point increases, let's look at two students who each have 2 months before their next ACT. Student A First ACT Score: 26 ACT Score Goal: 28 Points to Increase: 2 Based on our estimates, Student A has to devote about 20 hours to ACT prep to meet their goal of going from a 26 to a 28. Since they have two months to study, they can easily fit this study time into their schedule. Two months is about 8 weeks. If Student A devotes 3 hours each week to ACT prep, they will log 24 study hours, more than their total goal, by the time they sit down for their ACT retake. Student A can fit those 3 hours into their schedule however they need to: with a single 3-hour study session one day a week, or 1 hour for three days a week, or with 30 minutes six days a week. All of those study plans could fit into even a very busy student's schedule. So you can see why a 2-point ACT composite increase is very doable! Student B First ACT Score: 26 ACT Score Goal: 34 Points to Increase: 8 Student B has their work cut out for them! To go from a 26 to a 34 will require some serious study time: at least 150 hours, so let's go with 160 as our estimate. To fit 160 study hours into 8 weeks, Student B has to study, on average, for 20 hours each week: basically, the ACT will become Student B's part-time job! They could study 4 hours on each school night to fit in 20 hours, or maybe 6 hours on each weekend day, plus 2 hours a night Monday through Thursday. Either way, ACT prep will become a big part of their life, and Student B will likely have to cut back on extracurricular commitments. So while going from a 26 to a 34 in 8 weeks is certainly possible, you can see why it would take a huge time commitment and likely be quite stressful. If possible, Student B should aim for a later ACT retake date. For example, if they wait 4 months to retake the ACT, they could reduce their needed study time to much-more-manageable 10 hours per week. Further reading: How Long Should I Study for the ACT, 25 to 32: 10-Day Fast ACT Study Plan, How to Cram for the ACT The ACT Essay Can you tell me about the new ACT essay? The old ACT Writing sectionwas fairly straightforward – it gave you a prompt that you basically had to take a â€Å"yes† or â€Å"no† opinion on. You could use evidence from your own life, from any books you had read, or recent articles. It was shorter, as well: just 30 minutes. Those were the days! The new essay, which was first offered in September 2015, is a bit more complicated. It’s 40 minutes long, and instead of just having you offer your opinion on a topic, you have to read through two to three opinions other people have already written on the topic. Then, your essay has to evaluate those different opinions and weave them into your own opinion about the topic. You can check out our guide with example prompts and analysis. When you take the writing test, you'll receive a writing test scoreon a scale of 1-36, and four writing domain scores (Ideas and Analysis, Development and Support, Organization, and Language Use and Conventions), each scored on a scale of 2-12. (Those domain scores do not add up to your final writing score. Confusing, we know!)Your writing test score will not affect your overall ACT composite score. A picture of your essay will be available to the colleges you send ACT Plus Writing scores to. So it's important to give it your strongest effort, even though the essay score willnot affect your ACT Composite score. Check out the links below for more in-depth guides to the new ACT Writing test, including tips for how to approach the essay. Further Reading: Complete Guide to the New ACT Writing Test, ACT Essay Scoring: Completely Explained I got [a lowish score] on the new ACT essay even though my composite is [high]. Does this look bad to schools? When colleges evaluate the ACT, by far the most important factor is your overall composite score. Your subject area scores (English, Math, Reading, and Science) are also looked at for more context. Your essay score will be noticed, but colleges understand it’s a first draft written under timed conditions – they don’t expect it to be your best writing! They also realize the essay changed in 2015 and will expect some score fluctuations as students get used to the new essay. Part of the reason some colleges require the ACT Plus Writing is because it means they will have a sample of your actual writing – so if your personal statement sounds like it was produced by a completely different writer (say, a paid professional), they’ll know. But your ACT Essay is not meant to be the most important evaluator of your writing skills. Read more: All Colleges That Require the ACT Plus Writing So unless your score is terrible compared to your composite (say you have a 33 composite but only got 12/36 on your essay), it’s not worth retaking the ACT just to improve your essay. Especially if you have a high composite and then it drops on your essay-improving retake, that could actually hurt your chances at some selective schools. That said, if your essay score is way lower than you think it should be, be sure to read up on the recent controversy over ACT essay scoring! Scholarships and College What scholarships can I get withmy ACT score? Many students wonder if their ACT score is high enough to get them a scholarship. Before we explain how likely your score is to earn you some serious scholarship cash, it’s important to understand the two broad types of scholarships available. Merit-Based Scholarships: these are awards based on student achievement. Need-Based Scholarships/Financial Aid: these are awards based on student need. As a rough rule of thumb, the more selective the college, the less likely it is to have merit-based scholarships. Why? Well, let’s take a school like Stanford. Stanford’s admit rate last year was just about 5% so only one in twenty applicants got in. Since that means everyone who gets into Stanford is pretty exceptional, it would be hard for Stanford to pick and choose among their admits to decide who gets merit-based funding. So instead, Stanford, along with many of the Ivy Leagues and other top schools, only has need-based scholarships available, to make sure money goes to students with greater financial need. That said, plenty of selective colleges also have merit-based scholarships. I will be focusing on merit-based scholarships in this answer, since your ACT score could help you get one. But check out the links below to learn more about need-based financial aid and how to apply for it. Many colleges and universities have merit scholarships, but how they choose the winners varies widely – some scholarships are a simple combination of GPA and ACT score, while others, especially many full-rides, are a mini-application in themselves (you may have to submit your transcript, ACT score, essay or essays, a list of your extracurriculars, and letters of recommendation for some of the most prestigious scholarships!). In addition to scholarships offered by colleges, there are private scholarships (funded by companies, individuals, and foundations) that, again, have their own selection criteria (but generally, the higher the scholarship, the longer the application). You can search for these scholarships on websites like FastWeb and College Board’s Big Future. The bottom line: you have to do research. Keep in mind the higher your ACT score, the more likely it is it will earn (or help you earn) a scholarship. Based on ACT percentiles and information from college websites, these are our rough guidelines for how likely an ACT composite is to net you a scholarship (assuming you also have a strong GPA). 33-36: Very high likelihood 30-32: High likelihood 27-30: Decent likelihood 24-26 Possible Any ACT score lower than a 24 is not likely to be as competitive for scholarships on its own. Merit scholarships are given for exceptional performance, which is why a 24 and up (the 75th percentile and up) could earn a scholarship. A lower score is less likely to help you earn a merit scholarship since you don't stand out as much among other high school students. Further Reading: Guaranteed Scholarships for ACT Scores, How to Do College Research Right, 79 Colleges with Full-Ride Scholarships, What Is Financial Aid?, How to Apply for Financial Aid, 27 Colleges With the Best Financial Aid, Every College That Offers 100% Financial Aid My ACT score is [x]. Where should I apply to college? â€Å"Where should I apply to college?† is an incredibly broad question, but one that we get a lot here at PrepScholar! Since there are literally hundreds of colleges and universities in the US alone, if we drew up a list of all of the colleges and universities that your ACT score could feasibly make you competitive for, it would be way too long a list to be useful! Instead, work backwards a bit. Start researching colleges based on factors that are important to you: location, size, cost, what you want to study, special programs, athletic programs, fine arts, etc. Once you have a list of between 15 to 20 colleges, then you can learn more about their admissions data and whether your ACT score would make you competitive there or not. As you refine your list, aim to include some schools that are reaches for you (your ACT score is at or below their score averages), targets (your ACT score is at or just above their averages) and safeties (your ACT score is way above). If you apply to only reach schools, you risk being rejected everywhere (it’s not like the lottery – the more tickets you buy doesn’t increase your chance of â€Å"winning!†). But if you apply to only safety schools, you could miss out on a really great college opportunity. Check out the articles below to learn more about college research and drawing up an application list. Further Reading: How to Do College Research Right, What is a Safety School?, What is a Target School?, What is a Reach School?, How to Get Merit Scholarships and Honors at State Schools, Colleges with Guaranteed Admission for ACT Scores My ACT score is [x], my GPA is [y]. Will I get into [z] college? PrepScholar has put together pages for hundreds of colleges and universities that allow you to plug in your GPA and SAT/ACT score and get an estimate of your admissions chances based on the most current admissions data. These pages are where to go if you just want to know your odds of admission given your ACT score and current GPA. Here are the pages for some of the most asked-about colleges and universities: Top Schools: Stanford, MIT, UChicago, Duke, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, Caltech, Johns Hopkins The Ivy League: Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Columbia, Brown, Dartmouth, Penn, Cornell To look up this page for any college or university, just search "[Name of College/University] ACT GPA Prepscholar" in any search engine. But moving beyond the numbers, you need to put together the strongest application possible for your chances to pan out, especially if your odds of admission are low and/or you're applying to a highly selective school. Learn more about writing the personal statement, getting stellar letters of recommendation, and which extracurriculars you should do. We also highly recommend reading our guide to getting into Harvard by PrepScholar founder Allen Cheng. Even if you're not aiming for Harvard, this post breaks down a lot of the common misconceptions about college admissions and can help you leverage your personal strengths to become the best possible applicant. Finally, it's important to make sure to apply to a mix of schools, including reaches, targets, and safeties. Read more about what a reach school is, what a target school is, and what a safety school is. When you're putting together your application list, try to include reaches, targets, and safeties to maximize your choices come senior spring. Sending Scores I have multiple ACT scores. Which ones should I send to schools? If you're applying to any schools that require all of your ACT scores, send all of your ACT scores. End of story! Read more: Colleges that Require All ACT Scores If you're applying to schools that do not require all ACT scores, you only have to send your highest composite score – after all, you need just one ACT score to apply to college. However, if the school â€Å"superscores† – combines different subject areas from different tests for a final higher composite score – consider sending the scores that would create the highest superscore. If a school does not superscore but does consider all scores they receive, it’s up to you if you want to send multiple sets of scores. In general, it’s worth sending along a test with a much higher score on a certain section, but also keep in mind the ACT charges per test date to send scores, so it is expensive to send multiple scores to multiple schools. The most important single number on your score report is your composite score, so keep that in mind as you make your decision. Further Reading: ACT Superscore Calculator, Do Colleges Average Your ACT Score?, Read This Before Sending ACT Scores to Colleges, Should You Send the Four Free ACT Score Reports?, Colleges that Superscore the ACT: Complete List I took the SAT and the ACT. I also took SAT Subject tests. Do I have to send all of these scores to colleges? First, let’s talk about the SAT and ACT (and ignore the SAT Subject Tests for now). For the vast majority of colleges, you have to send either the SAT or the ACT. You do not have to send both. Note that there are two exceptions to the SAT or ACT rule: 1. Schools like Stanford that require your entire testing history across both tests. These are rare cases – even schools that require all scores from one exam usually do not require you to send all ACT and all SAT scores, you just pick one exam and send all of the scores you have for that exam. Read more: Colleges that Require All SAT Scores, Colleges that Require All ACT Scores 2. Schools with test-flexible policies that will allow you to send AP Test Scores, IB Test Scores, SAT Subject Tests, and others in lieu of the SAT or ACT. Read more: Schools with Test-Flexible Policies But for the vast majority of American colleges, you will have to send either the SAT or the ACT. So between your SAT and the ACT scores, choose the test with the highest score (or scores!) to send. Read more: How to Convert and Compare SAT and ACT Scores You may want to consider sending both scores only if, according to the SAT/ACT conversion tables, they are in very similar ranges. For example, perhaps your composite scores on each test are about equal, but you have a higher Math score on the ACT and a higher Reading score on the SAT. In that case, it could be worth sending both scores for colleges to see your different strengths. Note that it is more expensive to send scores from both tests, and again, you are only required to send one set of scores to apply. Next, let’s talk about SAT Subject Tests. These are a separate category of tests, and treated differently by many schools. Some schools require (or â€Å"strongly encourage†) two SAT Subject tests to apply (especially many of the Ivy Leagues). Some schools only require them if you choose to take the SAT rather than the ACT. But at most schools, they are optional. Read More: Colleges that Require SAT Subject Tests: Complete List So unless you’re applying to a school that absolutely requires SAT Subject Tests to apply (in which case, send them, end of discussion!), it’s up to you whether to send those scores. You have to ask yourself if your subject scores make your application look better or worse. Often, Subject Tests can show strong ability in specific subjects, like Chemistry or United States History, which is good. But do not go out of your way to send a mediocre SAT Subject Test score! Further Reading: Complete Comparison Charts: ACT versus SAT, Are You Better at the SAT or ACT? Find Out For Sure, What is a Good SAT Subject Test Score, SAT Subject Test Scores for the Ivy League I’m a senior and have one ACT score but it’s not great. I’m taking the ACT again in December but I won’t know the score until after I’ve submitted my applications. Should I submit my not-so-great score or wait for my December score before I decide? To send your December ACT score so it’s received on time to be considered for most schools, your score needs to be sent to your schools as soon as it’s available. That means when you register to take the December ACT, you have to put down those schools on your registration, well before you’ve taken the exam and seen your score. This also means that you are sending your December ACT score blind: you will not have the chance to see your score before you send it. (In the vast majority of cases, you will not have enough time to take the December test, view your score three weeks later, and then send your score to colleges – the score will arrive too far after the deadline to be considered.) Because of this, I highly recommend sending the ACT score you do have, and then also sending along your December ACT as soon as it’s available. Since you need an ACT score in your file for it to be considered at all, it’s not worth risking the December score arriving too late to be considered and your whole file being thrown out. Plus, there is no way to know your December ACT score will be higher than your current one. If your December ACT ended up being lower, not only will your application look worse, you were risking not completing it on time for nothing. If your December ACT score ends up being higher, it will help out your application, since colleges will receive and note the higher score. But in the meantime, it’s safest to make sure there is a score in your file by the time the application is due. If you’re reading this as a younger student, this is why we highly recommend taking the ACT the first time in your junior fall, so you have plenty of time to retake the exam if needed and so you won’t run into stressful application deadlines. Further Reading: The Last ACT Dates for Early Decision Deadlines, The Last ACT Dates for Regular Decision Deadlines, Did You Know You Can Delete ACT Scores? Have a Question That Isn't Answered Here? Post it in the comments or check out ExpertHub, where experienced tutors and counselors answer student questions. 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:

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Leading and Managing in Organisations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Leading and Managing in Organisations - Essay Example Moreover, they also point out that interpersonal relationships are formed and reinforced on the basis of trust, openness and support. Communication is regarded as effective when the intended information is delivered in the right manner to the right person/people and in the right time. This process involves various elements such as the people involved in communication, i.e., communicator and the recipient, context/situation, method, and skills. More often, these elements vary with the situation/context. Skills required for communication include speaking, listening, writing, reading, and expressing (Adair, 2011). Effective communication ensures that information being shared is accurate, which is a very important requirement in building strong interpersonal relationship. ... scribes interpersonal communication as everyday encounters, and that interpersonal communication has a significant role in creating, maintaining and/or affecting personal, social and professional relationships. Since communication is the medium of expressing oneself and to know others besides transferring information, its impact penetrates or intersects all activities concerned with human behaviour. Keeping in mind such a significant impact of communication, Whetten and Cameron’s (2011) assertion of supportive communication with honesty and accuracy stands true and also seems important in difficult situations. The need for supportive communication is felt greater when the information to be delivered might not be in favour of the recipients but the intention of communication would be to improve the relationship, status, and/or situation; this process of communication would require specific approach and skills in order to achieve the purpose of communication. Examples of situati ons that necessitate supportive communication include providing negative feedback, handle conflicting views and resistance, problem-solving etc. The ultimate goal of supportive communication is to reinforce interpersonal relationship among two or more people by building trust and understanding while solving the issue/challenge through approaches that would not offend any person involved in the communication process. 2. There are eight principles to supportive communication. Four of the eight principles are: Congruence not Incongruence, Descriptive not Evaluative, Problem not Person Oriented and Specific not Global. Explain the meaning of the concepts and using ideas from your own experience give examples of their meaning. Whetten and Cameron (2011, p.265) have identified eight attributes of

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

Compare and contrast traditional Marxist approaches to international Essay

Compare and contrast traditional Marxist approaches to international relations with EITHER Neo-Gramscian OR Frankfurt School vie - Essay Example The essay will be structured as follows. In the first section, the basic assumption and specific views of orthodox Marxist theorists of the IR will be examined. It will be argued that orthodox Marxism proceeds from the notion of primacy of international economic relations over political processes in the world system of states, neglecting ideological dimensions of international system. The second section will be devoted to analysis of neo-Gramscian approach to the IR. The questions of neo-Gramscian view on interrelation between economic and social factors of the IR will be given due attention. Finally, in the third section which will represent a conclusion to the essay, the direct comparison between orthodox Marxism and neo-Gramscianism will be presented, with a view to proving the difference between these two schools of international political thought. 1. Orthodox Marxism as a Theory of International Relations Basic Assumptions of Orthodox Marxism The crux of orthodox Marxist approac h to the study of the IR lies in its assumption of primacy of economic and technological development over purely political processes, and of predominance of the struggle between different social classes over conflicts between political states (Linklater, 2005, p. 110). Unlike idealist and realist perspectives that centre on assumption of basically unchanging process of competition between self-interested individuals/political entities, a Marxian political analysis rests on the idea of historical specificity of social processes and of organic nature of social relations (Rupert, 2007b, p. 150). The Marxist theory implies the interconnection between productive forces as material bases for social production, and relations of production, which refer to the social relations between individuals, usually organized into classes, over the issues of production and distribution of social product. A Marxist perspective on the social processes proceeds from the idea of dialectic of â€Å"relatio ns in process† (Rupert, 2007b, p. 151), where the social subjects, or agents, are both dependent on social structures that set the framework for their actions and effect their maintenance and further development. In that way, social structures simultaneously determine the actions of social agents and are continuously altered by them (Rupert, 2007a, p. 36). In class society the nature of social agents is determined by their class nature, with capitalist social relations being preconditioned by the struggle between two socio-economic classes: the bourgeoisie (capitalist entrepreneurs) and the proletariat (propertyless wage workers). The View of International Relations in Orthodox Marxism Just as Marx and Engels viewed economic structure of specific societies as the factor defining the whole variety of its political, juridical and ideological forms (the former was regarded as â€Å"basis† of society, the latter as its â€Å"superstructure†), so they regarded the pro blems of the IR as the result of interactions of different economies controlled by national dominant classes, whose interests are represented politically by their state. According to Marx and Engels, as the existence of bourgeoisie as a class in capitalist society was predicated on

Sunday, November 17, 2019

Culturally diverse entity Essay Example for Free

Culturally diverse entity Essay Listing down the sources of my cultural programming sure opened up my eyes to the realities that I am facing. As a person who is growing up and trying to come to terms with my identity as it interacts with the world, it is amazing to know that there are a lot of sources of my cultural programming. Although I consider my family as one of the main sources of my understanding of my own world, I realize that I am also bringing in cultural diversity to my family. As a part of the new generation of people in the world, we are different from our parents and much more from our grandparents. As such, through the technology I use and the ideas that I come across with, I am becoming more diverse in terms of culture. There are times that several sources of my cultural programming come into conflict. I can think of several ones. The church and the morality and faith it is teaching sometimes come into conflict with the kinds of movies and TV shows I watch. Quite honestly, there are times that I feel that church stuff is boring but when I also realize the wars, the way that people tend to forget courtesy and the sense of right and wrong, I feel that the church still has something to offer. Another source of conflict is perhaps the way that my family expects me to behave in a certain way and the way in which my friends treat each other and the way that media such as television shows and movies portray the life of a teenager. There are times that I get confused with the expectations of my parents and the way that I want to live. But I know that I have to respect them and listen to them. Culture is very broad and I think that as young people of today, we are exposed to more shapers of culture than did our parents and grandparents. That is why there are conflicts in these cultures as they are developed in me.

Thursday, November 14, 2019

Acid Rain :: essays research papers fc

There is a considerable problem today in our world, and its effects are astronomical. This problem is acid rain. Acid rain is any precipitation; rain, snow, or fog that contains acids such as sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide. These chemicals are byproducts of industrial processes and or burning of fossil fuels. The United States pumped a disgusting 16.8 tons of SO2 into the atmosphere in 1995 (Alm 349.) Nitrogen oxide emissions come mainly from the combustion engines, that operate our vehicles, furnaces, industrial and electrical utility boilers and engines. It is hard to believe that in the United States, also in 1995, the NOx emissions were an estimated 21.7 tons in weight ( Alm 349.) If these pollutants are present in the atmosphere, they can travel, via wind currents, long distances, and return to the earth dissolved in one or more types of precipitation contaminated by said chemical waste. Regular old rain, not contaminated by acid, is slightly acidic, with a pH of 5.6. This slight acidity is caused by carbon dioxide, that is naturally found in the atmosphere.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Acid rain effects every single aspect of every ecosystem. Acid rain is devastating to aquatic life, crops and forests, and not to mention human life. One would tend to think that acid rain would greatly affect trees and plants, this based on the tree’s direct contact with the acid rain. An estimated sixty five percent of trees are effected by acid rain. The leaves of the trees are scarred by the rain, the seeds sterilized, and the immune system of entire forests are damaged, exposing them to disease infestation. The growth of forestlands can also be greatly slowed by the effects of acid rain. Lakes are also greatly affected by contaminated precipitation. It has been discovered that some twenty thousand lakes have been turned acidic through groundwater contamination by acid rain. Fish start to die at around a pH of below 5.6. There are natural buffers such as calcium and lime in lakes to help neutralize these acids. If there aren’t enough buffer mater ials, or they are completely neutralized by the acids, the pH will not get better, and the lake will become sterile (Public 22.)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  What can we do to help control the problem of acid rain? Well, the obvious comes to mind. The emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides that are released into the air must be controlled.

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Love: Fascination and Biology Essay

Love.   People have been fascinated by it for centuries, and never more so than in the past hundred years or so, when people began to enter into relationships and marry for love, rather than political or social reasons.   We have also begun to research love further, and have come up with many different types and definitions for love, romantic love being only one type.   The psychology of love is a new area that looks at all these different definitions of love and what they mean to people today. When many people think about love, they are still mystified.   It seems difficult, if not impossible, to describe love.   It is a deep, true emotion that has captivated people for centuries.   Today, we write movies and books about it, feature it in our tabloids, and center our entire lives around it.   Yet, because it is such a large part of our lives, there must be some way to actually define it and understand it.   Psychologists have taken up the study of love for exactly this reason. An article in Psychology Today talks about love in today’s society: what it means, where our modern definitions came from, and how to achieve it.   First of all, love comes from bonding, no matter what people are involved in the situation – parents and children, husbands and wives, or friends.   Bonding leads to attachment, which is a form of love.   In this way, love becomes not a mysterious, other worldly, unexplainable phenomenon.   It becomes an easily understandable part of human life, and a necessary one at that (Johnson and Marano). Read more:  Persuasive Essay About Love Attachment is a part of survival.   If young children do not attach to an older caregiver (usually their mother), they will die.   They need the security that an older person will feed them, soothe them, and keep them warm.   Even once a child outgrows the need for another person to handle all of his or her needs, he still needs a person to help him meet his own needs. That is, to help him find food, make sure that he has clothes to put on himself, and to continue to soothe him.   Even adults need this kind of security, because most people do take care of themselves alone; they rely on others at least for comfort and emotional security, even if they can provide for their own physical needs.   However, families exist because sometimes providing even for physical needs can be such a daunting task that it is shared.   That’s why in a â€Å"traditional† society, one person works, and one person cares for the home (Johnson and Marano). This idea has been thoroughly studied.   Babies learn to attach to their parents when they are young, although depending on the parent’s style, some do not attach.   Babies whose parents respond to them in a consistent and loving manner tend to attach securely – when their parents leave, they cry and seek them; when their parents return, upon making sure the parent is there, they go to explore their world, confident in their parent’s love and availability.   Other babies are insecurely attached. That is, they are very fearful when their parents are gone, and tend to reject them or cling to them (or vacillate between extremes) when their parents return, usually because parents respond inconsistently to them: sometimes they are loving, and other times they are distracted and off-putting.   A third style is when babies are not attached.   They simply ignore their parents, whether they are present or not, and this is usually because the parents resist attempts at physical bonding (Johnson and Marano). If all of this is true even in small children, imagine the ramifications it can have throughout life.   Another psychologist has studied this in her book, The Psychology of Love.   Again, biological reasons are forefront: people need attachment and security to survive, at all ages.   But beyond simple attachment and mutual bonding, there are forms of love in which one person provides more than another does. The author presents situations in which one person feels and expresses love much more strongly than another.   For example, a woman who is depressed may rely much more heavily on her friends than they can rely on her.   A child certainly relies on its mother more than she relies on it.   And in some interesting cases, there is â€Å"unrequited† love, where a person may feel romantic love for another that isn’t reciprocated.   Love, as the author points out, isn’t always equal (Weis). Altruism is an interesting part of love.   A person who loves someone, especially a family member, is likely to behave altruistically towards that person, should a situation arise.   For example, if a family member were sick and unable to take care of himself or anything else, a person may take off work, care for the sick person, and pick up any of that person’s responsibilities as a matter of course.   This is not seen in relationships where there is not love, either because the people are strangers, or because they don’t like each other (Weis). This likely occurs because altruism is not truly action solely for another’s gain.   In fact, by caring for a family member, one is ensuring that the person will survive, and also ensuring that someday, that person will be able to, and more importantly, want to care for them in return.   This behavior protects the connection and attachment that is between two people.   This is why it is not seen in people who have no relationship: there is no need to ensure a stranger’s survival, because they will likely never be able to return the favor (Weis). Love is primarily studied in terms of this bonding and attachment now, because previously, psychologists considered it too lofty a subject.   But, with the real biological and mental basis, love is a phenomenon that is not only well-studied, but a subject that is involved in nearly every part of humankind. Romantic love has a biological basis, too.   Romantic love is the type that is most frequently thought of when a person says ‘love.’   First of all, ‘loving’ someone implies fidelity: that the people involved will be faithful to one another.   It allows constant sexual access, and therefore the possibility for procreation.   It allows a joint effort to survive, both as two individuals and as a family, once children enter the picture (Weis). Romantic love, according to Weis, is comprised of three areas: attachment, attraction, and sex drive.   All of these are biologically based, but there is also more to it than that.   Hormones help a person to feel attracted towards another, and they also signal the sex drive and sexual response cycle.   But if this biology were all there was to it, then our society would be a much simpler place. However, we are obsessed with romantic love.   In today’s world, people are constantly reading magazines and books to learn more about romantic love.   â€Å"Why does he never talk to me?†Ã‚   â€Å"Why does she talk constantly?†Ã‚   â€Å"Why is he such a commitment-phobe?†Ã‚   â€Å"Why is she planning the wedding after the first date?†Ã‚   There are literally dozens of books and magazines on the subject, with more coming out all the time.   Men want to understand women (although they claim they never will) and women want to understand men (although they’re pretty sure they already do, at least most of the time). These books and magazines exist because the world is far more complex today.   We have a myriad of reasons for choosing and staying with our partners.   Temptations and jealousies are everywhere.   We have social rules for behavior that say that it isn’t always possible to come out with your feelings as soon as you’re sure of them.   While the underlying principles are still the same –   hormones govern whether or not you’re attracted to a person, and play a significant role in helping to bond two people together and keep them together – the social rules of communication in love are also highly studied. In Marano’s article, â€Å"Relationship Rules,† this idea is studied.   This article is only one example out of many on this widely studied subject.   Her suggestions: Choose carefully, know your partner’s beliefs, don’t confuse sex and love, know your needs and speak up, view yourselves as a team, know and respect differences, solve problems immediately, learn to negotiate, listen, work hard at closeness, and more.   All in all, there are 25 â€Å"Relationship Rules† in this article (Marano). It has been widely studied that people who do not understand or speak up for their own needs in relationships are often unhappy.   Counselors and psychologists encourage people to always be willing to share their needs.   However, they also encourage recognizing that the other person had needs too, and that negotiation is good thing: being able to respect and work with both peoples’ needs (Marano). As Marano warns, though, too much dependency is not a good thing.   While it is true on many levels, from social to biological, that two people need each other to survive emotionally and physically, it is also possible to have too much of a good thing.   Two people must learn to meet their own needs sometimes, or to seek out another person or source to meet their needs.   Too much dependency causes a lack of focus on the relationship, and a loss of individual identity. For a final warning, Marano states that â€Å"love is not an absolute, not a limited commodity that in of or out of†¦.   It’s a feeling that ebbs and flows†¦.†Ã‚   Because hormones and many other life situations affect perception of love, two people may not always feel love towards one another.   However, if they accept that this is part of the natural way of things, they can still behave in a loving manner towards one another.   Love is about much more than just feeling amazing about another person all the time.   It is about caring for another person, putting him first, and accepting that he is not perfect. There are many ideas and perceptions about love in today’s society.   The original basis for love was biological, and to this day biology continues to be an important part of the process and feelings of love.   It keeps people together by producing incredibly powerful feelings of attachment and security.   But love is also about the tricky ins and outs of relationships.   Both of these areas have been heavily studied by psychologists, and continue to be studied today. As time goes on, we will learn even more about the psychology and biology of love.   We will learn more about how people attach to one another and why they do it.   But even if we never learned another thing about love, the entire world would remain fascinated by it, always falling in and out, and forming attachments to more new people.   Movies will be made, books will be written, and people will watch, read, and listen.   Love is everything. Bibliography Johnson, Susan, and Marano, Hara Estroff.   â€Å"In the Name of Love.†Ã‚   Psychology Today, November 17, 2006. Marano, Hara Estroff.   â€Å"Relationship Rules.†Ã‚   Psychology Today, February 10, 2006. Weis, Karin.   The New Psychology of Love.   Yale University Press, New Haven, CT: 2006.

Saturday, November 9, 2019

Training Plan

TEACHING/FACILITATION PLAN (Please remember to maintain anonymity of the area of work and the persons involved). Date on which the teaching occurred: | |Learning environment: | | | |Number/s and learning style/s of learner/s ( if known) : | | | |Learner’s previous knowledge, skills and attitude : | | | |Title of Session /Aim : | | | | | | | |Learning outcomes: | | | |Time frame: |Content: |Teaching methods used :(e. g. |Resources used: | | | |explanation, | | | | |Lecture, demonstration, | | | | |practice, questioning). | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |Do not evaluate within in this plan, evaluate the assessment within your 1000 word reflection include: | |What would you do if you were to undertake this again? Would you alter anything with reference to your learning environment, timing, aim, learning | |outcomes, resources used etc? | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Essay 1 1. Discuss in detail the effectiveness of your teaching plan ie y ou may include discussion regarding the learning environment and the teaching methods used. 2. How did you establish the aim and learning outcomes discuss and reflect upon why these are important and useful in practice? The aim of the teaching plan was decided upon following a discussion with the student, when it was highlighted by the student that she felt under confident with taking manual blood pressure readings. The learning outcomes were formulated during a one to one session using Nicklin and Kenworthy (2003) who state that learning outcomes should be: SMART Specific †¢ Measureable †¢ Achievable †¢ Realistic †¢ Time framed Mager (1997) conjectures that without objectives you won’t be able to decide which content and procedures will get you to your aim. The formulation of learning outcomes communicates the assessor’s intent and are not open to interpretation. They give the student a clear understanding of what is expected of them. Clinical plac ements can be daunting for the student and having clear learning aims can help students focus on one aspect at a time thus helping to increase confidence. 3. Discuss learning styles and how knowledge of these may have influenced your choice of teaching methodsIt is generally acknowledged that learning styles indicate an individual’s preferred way of learning or how the individual acquires information (Fedder and Brent, 2005). Learning styles also influence the way in which learners master the goals and objectives of an educational programme (Rassool and Rawaf, 2008). (Word count for essay 1 =†¦.. words (NB: Please do not   include your words from the teaching plan) ASSESSMENT PLAN (Please remember to maintain the anonymity of the area of work and the persons involved). |Date on which the assessment occurred: | |Learning environment: | | | | | | |Number/s and learning style(s) of learner(s) being assessed: ( if known) | | | | | | | | | |Learner’s previous k nowledge, skills and attitude : | | | |Title of assessment /Aim: | | | | | |Learning outcomes: | | | | | |Preparation of the learner/s for the assessment :(please include the context of assessment e. g. ormative/summative): | | | | | | | | | | | | | |Consider any Issues to be considered by the Assessor with the learner/s: (such as maintaining dignity, confidentiality, maintenance of safety. please | |include the standard/level to be achieved, and relate to knowledge/skills/attitudes/safety). | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |Assessment Criteria to be used for this assessment? Trust policy/Standard etc. |Do not evaluate in this plan, evaluate the assessment within your 1000 word reflection include: | |What would you alter if you were to undertake this again? Would you alter anything with reference to your learning environment, timing, aim, learning | |outcomes, resources used etc? | |What methods would you use to collate information regarding the assessment for e. g. utilise observation? Patient narrative or questioning techniques? Would| |you prepare the learner more satisfactorily for the assessment? Would you alter the aim/ learning outcomes? Did you assess knowledge, skills and attitude? | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Essay 2 1. Explore in detail why it is necessary to assess your learner The NMC sets out standards of education of pre-registration students. These set out what nursing students must demonstrate to be fit for practice at the point of registration with the NMC. All nurses are required to share their knowledge, skills and expertise and must assist students in the development of competence (Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) 2008a).Recent changes highlighted in the Standards to Support Learning and Assessment in Practice (NMC 2008b) have raised the profile of mentoring in practice. These standards provide a clear framework to enhance the quality, principles and accountability of mentorship. Practical knowledge and per sonal experience are cornerstones for integrating theoretical knowledge and developing nursing skills and are a major reason for clinical placements during nurse education (Midgley,2006) A context of learning is created when learning is acknowledged as a legitimate aspect of the nursing situation e. g. when an experienced nurse accompanies the student either to observe or teach in the situation. The role of the mentor in clinical practice settings is an important aspect of nurse education.Through mentorship, qualified nurses get the opportunity to pass on professional values, knowledge and skills to the trainee nurse. 2. What were your aim and learning outcomes? Where did the assessment criteria come from? Was the assessment valid and reliable? The aim of the assessment session was that the student would demonstrate the ability to perform a manual blood pressure recording. That she would have an understanding of the relevance of the readings and that the recordings would be document ed accurately. The assessment criteria were compiled from policies and guidelines set out by the NMC, Royal Marsden Manual of Clinical Procedures and employers policies. Thus ensuring that the procedure adheres to NMC and local guidelines.The assessment was both valid and reliable as the learning outcomes were specific to policy and procedure. 3. Discuss the importance of constructive feedback and how it was given to your learner Feedback is an important part of the process in improving skills, knowledge and confidence. Students in all professions require feedback in order to stay motivated in their learning. The importance of thoughtfully and appropriately delivering feedback becomes clear when the deleterious consequences of poorly given or misunderstood feedback are considered. For example when learners view feedback purely negatively, they can become anxious or resentful and less receptive to further learning and evaluation (King, 1999).The feedback given to my student following the assessment was undertaken in a quiet private area, where time was taken to discuss together how we both felt the assessment had gone. I gave positive feedback on the assessment, pausing to allow the student to comment, the student herself highlighted the area of the assessment she felt under confident about. We had a further discussion on this and together compiled an action plan and scheduled regular one to one session to facilitate practice sessions. The session ended on a very positive note with the student thanking me for my guidance. 4. Reflect on your strengths and weaknesses of the assessment sessionOn reflecting my own strengths and weaknesses during the assessment session it has become apparent to me that I should have given the student the opportunity to postpone the assessment due to the unexpected noisy environment . I felt the student’s concentration was compromised. This indeed could be identified as a weakness, not enabling the student to have an ideal lea rning environment. My strength during the assessment would have been my delivery of feedback following the session. I was able to use my positive mentor student relationship in order to allow the student to self-reflect and become aware of the area of the assessment in which she was weak. By allowing the student to 5. (Word count for essay 2 =†¦.. words ( NB: Please do not   include your words from the assessment plan) References