How to become a good essay writer: November 2019

Tuesday, November 26, 2019

buy custom Anton ChekhovÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s The Bet essay

buy custom Anton ChekhovÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s The Bet essay I. Thesis Statement A. The lawyer, in Anton Chekovs The Bet, experienced a drastic mental, physical and spiritual transformation as a result of the voracious reading he engaged in while carrying out a bet that mandated fifteen years of self-isolation. II. Body: Main Idea A. Careful examination of Anton Chekhovs The Bet reveals that the lawyer experienced six definitive stages, as his choice in books changed throughout the fifteen years of his self-isolation. 1. Stage 1: The lawyers first stage occurred during his initial year of self-isolation, where he read books that were light in character, such as romance novels and fantastical stories (Chekhov 2). The lawyer primarily changed mentally during this period. Through examination of his writings, observers inferred that he was severely lonely and depressed (Chekhov 2). During this stage, the lawyer deprived himself of wine and cigarettes. It is quite possible that his loneliness and depression were exacerbated by his reading of romantic and fantastical books, which typically depict intense and passionate human interactions. Indeed, it is quite possible that reading about love and fantasy could have caused the recently isolated lawyer to yearn for the social interactions he had enjoyed during his previous twenty-five years of life. During this stage, the lawyer did not play the piano. While the story did not explicitly state the reason for the silent nature of thi stage, it can be assumed that reading such deep and philosophical books caused the lawyer to prefer silence as he pondered his thoughts. Perhaps Chekhov included this stage in the lawyers metamorphosis to comment on the mental decay that may occur when an individual does not read! In stark contrast to the third stage, the lawyer was depicted as being happy and a connected to the entire world, past and present. The lawyer seemed to enjoy this stage immensely because of his acquisition of new languages, which allowed him to find commonalities that great men throughout history shared (Chekhov 3). During this most impactful stage, it appears that the lawyer became truly able to transcend his physical isolation from people and re-connect with the outside world in a way that he had never done before. The banker, who viewed the Gospel as simplistic, viewed the lawyers engrossment in it to be strange, considering that the lawyer was capable of reading more complicated books (Chekhov 3). Becoming eclectic in his literary tastes leads one to assume that the lawyers transformation was complete. Through extensive reading, the lawyer had transformed from a worldly man into a man that renounced superficialities. Evidence for this statement can be extracted from the lawyers letter that the banker read at the end of the story (Chekhov 4). In the letter, the lawyer ecstatically claimed that he acquired great wisdom during his fifteen years of isolation (Chekhov 4-5)). 2. Stage 2: The lawyers second stage occurred during his second year of isolation, where he read classic literature from ancient Greek and Latin societies (Chekhov 2). 3. Stage 3: The third stage of the lawyers transformation began in the fifth year of his self-isolation and lasted for one and a half years. During this time period, he did not read (Chekhov 2). a. This stage was marked by sloth-like behavior, where he simply laid around, drank, ate, talked angrily to himself and cried (Chekhov 2). 4. Stage 4: The lawyers fourth stage was the longest of the six. This stage lasted from year 6.5 to 10 (Chekhov 3). It was during this time period in which he immersed himself in languages, philosophy and history and read over 600 books. 5. Stage 5: The lawyers fifth stage ranged from years ten to thirteen and was a time of religious curiosity. The lawyer was depicted as constantly reading the Gospel in a stoic and pensive manner (Chekhov 3). 6. Stage 6: During the last of his six evolutionary stages the lawyer spent his final two years reading anything and everything he could (Chekhov 3). III. Conclusion A. The lawyer in Anton Chekhovs The Bet gained wisdom and freedom for solitude during his fifteen year isolation because of his ever-evolving reading tastes. Chekhovs story prophetically demonstrates that a voracious reader is never alone in his mind, even when he is by himself! Buy custom Anton ChekhovÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s The Bet essay

Friday, November 22, 2019

How to Improve Your ACT Reading Score 8 Expert Tips

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

How to Improve Your ACT Reading Score 8 Expert Tips

Thursday, November 21, 2019

BPA in composites and plastic bottles Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

BPA in composites and plastic bottles - Article Example To systematically compile and critically evaluate the literature charac-terizing BPA content of dental materials; to assess BPA exposures from dental materials and potential health risks; and to develop evidence-based guidance for reducing BPA exposures while promoting oral health. The extant toxicological literature and material safety data sheets were used as data sources. BPA is released from dental resins through salivary enzymatic hydrolysis of BPA derivatives, and BPA is detectable in saliva for up to 3 hours after resin placement. The quantity and duration of systemic BPA absorption is not clear from the available data. Dental products containing bisphenol A derivative glycidyl dimethacrylate (bis-GMA) are less likely to be hydrolyzed to BPA and have less estrogenicity than those containing bisphenol A dimethacrylate (bis-DMA). Most other BPA derivatives used in dental materials have not been evaluated for estrogenicity. BPA exposure can be reduced by cleaning and rinsing surf aces of sealants and composites immediately after placement. On the basis of the proven benefits of resin-based dental materials and the brevity of BPA exposure, we recommend continued use with strict adherence to precautionary application techniques. Use of these materials should be minimized during pregnancy whenever possible. Manufacturers should be required to report complete information on the chemical composition of dental products and encouraged to develop materials with less estrogenic potential. Title: Doctors Warn Women Against Hot Drinks with Plastic Covers Proponents: China Post Writers Source: China Post 13 Feb. 2011. Health Reference Center Academic. Web. 24th March 2011. Abstract: The China Post news staff -- Doctors have warned people, women in particular, against sipping hot beverages through the small holes in plastic cup covers which, when heated, may release the harmful compound bisphenol A (BPA), a report said yesterday. Chien Chi-cheng from Taiwan's association of gynecologists and obstetricians, said BPA can be found in many plastic products and long-term intake of the toxic chemical may seriously harm one's health, the United Evening News reported. BPA can accumulate in the body and cause harm to women's hormone systems, menstruation, and pregnancy, he said. Like other environmental hormones, BPA can pass onto pregnant women's babies. Chien noted that examinations of babies' umbilical cord blood over the past few years have returned unexpected results. Their blood contains a few hundred chemicals, including many environmental hormones such as BPA. The association pointed out that of the recyclable plastic products, categories No. 3 and No. 6 will release BPA under high temperatures X 70 degrees Celsius and above. It noted that many major chain stores use No. 6 plastic covers for their hot coffee. Chien was cited by the paper as saying he is worried every time he sees a woman sipping hot coffee directly through the small hole in such pla stic covers. Although one cup of coffee may only produce a very small amount of environmental hormones, long-term exposure will accumulate to a frightening level, Chien reportedly said. Meanwhile, another doctor noted that environmental hormones found in automobile exhaust may cause male infertility. Chen Si-yuan, a professor from the gynecology

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

Managment of business system Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Managment of business system - Assignment Example Hence, it is no point in keeping such an extensive product line when most of our revenues are from a short number of products only Process Types: With the large number of product variety, the process takes the form of batch process. Such a process type requires quite a narrow but specialized skills. Getting skilled manpower from is the highest factor resulting in high costs. Moreover such a process type requires changeovers at each stage of production thereby increasing the complexity and the costs of the production process. Process Layout: With a reasonably large variety and volume, the appropriate process layout is a combination of functional layout with elements of cellular layout. Such a combination is difficult to manage as the manager has to keep track of a large number of processes going on simultaneously. This type of layout requires free flow of product pieces and resources in the organization. The most important characteristic of such a layout is the flexibility of path, product design and lot size (Shim and Siegel, 1999). Hence, it calls for an extensive coordination amongst the workers. Since more than one item might be vying for a same resource, the time in production of the item increases, some of the products might have to wait to get the appropriate resource. This results in a decrease in productivity. Skills required: With the large number of product types, it becomes necessary to have a wide range of skills that are differentiated. These specialized skills increase the overall cost of the products. Managing different skills becomes another challenge as the manager has to keep track of the various resources that will be required for various products. Design issues: With the large types of products being produced in the organization, the employees are not in better position to contribute towards the betterment of product design. As a result, the organization fails in launching new design products that enhance the customer

Sunday, November 17, 2019

PASS Lifestyle, Leisure and Recreation Essay Example for Free

PASS Lifestyle, Leisure and Recreation Essay Introduction: The recreation and leisure activities present in our world today are differ from what generations 100 years ago participated in. Our physical environment is changing continuously under the effect of natural, cultural and economic systems which influence peopleÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s lifestyles. As lifestyles change, peoplesÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ way of spending their leisure time, and leisure activity preferences, also change. Urban open public spaces such as parks seem to lose their popularity as shopping malls have become the new leisure centres due to the increasing need Ã¢â‚¬Å"to consumeÃ¢â‚¬ of todayÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s societies. Our age has the accessibility of information and convenience of abundant transport to take us the venues that we can enjoy ourselves, or free ourselves from the issues of our daily life. Information of available activities that we know today, mainly come from sources such as the internet and the television or media. Media has shaped the many lifestyles of today, via their advertising of activities and appliances. By shifting our lifestyle, some of our interests in recreation and leisure have changed over the ages. Activities that existed 100 years ago but not today: Stickball. Stickball was a street game that is immensely related to baseball which adapts to the environment it was played in. The activity only required a rubber ball and a stick of any form. This activity has gradually died out, as people started to earn more money to afford playing other sports that involved swinging at a ball. The media also helped advertise AmericaÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s Major League Baseball, which put peoplesÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ interest into a more popular activity. Some people believe that this activity did not actually die out as it was the origin of all bat-and-ball sports that exist today. Playing Cards and Dominoes Since people living in the early 1900s, mainly middle-aged men, gathered together at bars after their dayÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s work, they took attraction to group activities. Their main activities were card games which involved betting small amounts of money or a glass of beer. In their houses, Dominoes was a common family game which appealed to all age groups. In todayÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s lifestyle, not all people have the luxury of time to participate in these activities or have lost interest due to the introduction of personal technological devices. These devices include the popularised iPod and computers, in which people can Ã¢â‚¬ËœsurfÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ the internet to find out many leisure and recreational activities which suit their lifestyle. Activities that exist now but not 100 years ago: Shopping The availability of shopping centres has increased rapidly in the past 10 years, as the worldÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s economy grew, and the average earning of families increased. The shopping for recreation and leisure of today mainly refers to excessive buying of Ã¢â‚¬ËœwantedÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ materials for interest of the buyer. This modern activity is common among females, usually in groups. It fits into the lifestyles of women who do not work on weekends, and consumes much of the day, thus the inclusion of food courts in shopping centres. 100 years ago, shopping was not popularised as income of an average household was lower, and many women had to stay home to attend to the housework. The availability of shopping centres and transport to shopping centre venues was limited during that time. Most of the time, shopping was a chore rather than a leisure activity because it involved buying needs for the family, such as food and learning materials. Extreme Sports With increased knowledge and equipment to ensure safety, extreme sports are quite popular in modern society. These activities often involve speed, height, a high level of physical exertion, and they can help isolate thoughts of current issues, help set new goals, and improve physical fitness. Some extreme sports which are available near suburban areas are: mountain bike riding, indoor or outdoor rock-climbing, body boarding and canoeing. In the 1900s, people were not aware of these activities due to the inconvenience of less media sources. Among teenagers and young adults, free running is particularly popular in city areas which have a variety of artificial environments. This activity did not exist 100 years ago because it originated from later popular movements like graffiti and internet groups. Dining Out The modern society values the bonding of couples more than the world 100 years ago. A common activity amongst couples is dining out, to create an atmosphere of romanticism. By observing the growing population, the variety of employed jobs is also growing. The food industry is one of the largest in the world, and has led to the creation of restaurants of different cuisines. Since the countries of the world are becoming more multicultural, people want to break away from eating their traditional foods. Dining out provides a solution to changing tastes, and may sometimes aid in saving time as cooking at home may take several hours when attempting to provide fine food. Activities which existed 100 years ago and still exist now: Soccer 100 years ago, soccer teams received growing groups of supporting members and fans that popularise the sport. The soccer associations of today have provided many opportunities for sport betting, employment and sponsorship to advertise brands or companies. In many schools of the 1900s and today, grassed areas were easily converted to soccer fields so that students could play this sport during or after school time. Older age groups can join soccer clinics and clubs where they can play for enjoyment at learning levels to competitive levels. Watching soccer matches is also considered a recreational and leisure activity among fan groups which follow the current soccer. Film Going out to watch movies was a leisure and recreational activity that was present 100 years ago and now. This activity is popular as many films relate to the current world affairs. This activity would not have survived if not for the extremely low pricing of cinema tickets in the 1900s. The price of tickets has inflated in our era, but this is acceptable as our average income has increased. Conclusion: From the research I have accumulated in recreational and leisure activities of 100 years ago and today, I have found out that a major factor of the changing pursuits has been the shifting of daily lifestyles. The trends originating from media has shaped the many lifestyles of our world today, which has in turn changed our interests. Another factor of our leisure and recreational pursuits is the availability of information and transport we have today that lets us do what we want. However, the popularity of early activities has declined as our society has further developed these activities, while the appeal of the activities has been surpassed by our modern trends and movements.

Thursday, November 14, 2019

Destruction of the Ibo Tribe in Chinua Achebes Things Fall Apart Essay

The Assisted Suicide of the Ibo Tribe Nothing on this planet is indestructible, everything must go at some point in being. However, if an object is left untouched, it will not disappear. Something has to assist its end. The same concept applies for the tribe of Umofia. The Umofian culture cannot prosper forever, something had to aid in its downfall and in Chinua AchebeÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s Things Fall Apart, the British were to blame for the downward spiral the Umofian people saw. The novel Things Fall Apart is set in Africa and focuses on Okonkwo, the main character. Okonkwo leads an ambitious life until he mistakenly shoots a member of the tribe during a festival. His reprimand for this act was seven years in exile in which he served reluctantly. Upon his arrival to his home tribe, he observed that his clanÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s folk had become Ã¢â‚¬Å"women-like.Ã¢â‚¬ He quickly noticed the reason of this sudden change and held the British responsible. At this point, the tribe runs down a dark tunnel, one that Okonkwo does not want to see so he performs suicide. OkonkwoÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s death symbolizes the Ibo tribeÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s downfall and the group that assisted both deaths was the British. The ways that the British aid in the falling apart of the Ibo tribe is by taking away the Ibo culture, belittling their gods, and converting Ibo clanÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s folk. When a society gets its traditions taken away, they can assume they have taken the first step towards assimilation, for without their culture, they have nothing proving who they are. The same concept can be applied to the situation in Umofia. When the British came and started to change Umofian culture, things started to fall apart. The first action the British did was change the Umofian Judicial system. Instead of meeting in front of the Egwugwu, as cu... ...nsidered a being to fear, however, Mr. Brown implies that Chukwu is a Ã¢â‚¬Å"Loving fatherÃ¢â‚¬ and Ã¢â‚¬Å"Not feared by those who do his willÃ¢â‚¬ (Achebe 181). By saying this, Mr. Brown alters the way the Umofian people believe in God which may make them confused for never hearing of another religion before. In the novel, things started to fall apart because the British came and took away the Umofia peopleÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s culture which includes their right of jurisdiction, belief in their own God and, converting the clans folk. This shows that nothing, however big, or small can flourish forever. Even if the British had not of come, something would have caused the Umofian downfall. Everything must come to an end, in this case it was the Umofian clan. However Okonkwo sums it all up the best Ã¢â‚¬Å"The [British] has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apartÃ¢â‚¬ (Achebe 176).

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Developmental Psychology Paper Essay

Piaget, Erikson, and Kohlberg. I decided to conduct personal interviews and relate my findings to these three theories. PiagetÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s theory explained the four stages of cognitive development. Erikson divided psychosocial development into eight stages, describing how the people and the environment affects how we gain our personality. KohlbergÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s theory of moral development was to understand the reasoning to why we make the decisions we do. Below are how my finding relate to these various developmental psychological theories. PiagetÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s four stages of cognitive development start with the sensorimotor stage. This stage is from birth to around two years of age when the infant creates their first understanding of the world around them by taste and touch. At two years of age to six or seven years, the child transitions into the pre-operational stage. In this stage the childÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s thinking is still egocentric. Even though this age group has stable concepts and mental reasoning, they lack the logic for mental operations and can only think in their point-of-view. Then the concrete operational stage begins at about seven years old and lasts until the child is, approximate, eleven years old. During this stage, the child can understand and form simple mathematical operations. Egocentrism will be eliminated and they will no longer be able to see life from one perspective (their own point of view). Not only in mathematical operations, the child can perceive multiple aspects when solving a problem. At this stage, they begin to form a sense of responsibility for their pets and/or personal belongings. Formal operational, PiagetÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s final stage, begins around age twelve and continues through adulthood. Formal operational phase is when the chid develops into an adult and is capable of abstract thought and moral reasoning influences decision making. The trial-and-error method begins here, along with the start of considering future outcomes and consequences from decisions. EriksonÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s eight stages of psychosocial development begin with birth to the first year of life. During this time an infant is completely helpless and relies off their caretaker for everything. For this first year it is crucial for the caretaker of the infant to form a relationship for socialization development. The second stage extends from the first year of the child to age three, when there is a conflict between doubt or shame and autonomy. The genital, or third stage lasts from age four to age five. The conflict here is between imitative and a feeling of guilt. The fourth stage, the latency stage, lasts from six to eleven years old. This is when a child learns to reason, create, and earn. The conflict is be tween industry and inferiority. These first four stages are more dependent on others and the individual is easily influenced by their environment. The last four stages of EriksonÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s developmental theory occurs when the individual begins to search for their mature self and a sense of direction. The fifth stage begins with adolescence, that lasts from age twelve to age eighteen. Here, the conflict is between identity and role confusion. The adolescent transitions into the young adulthood stage, lasting from age eighteen to twenty-five. This is a time when developing a sense of identity and career success. This is when the individual is on the path to maturity and independence. Adulthood lasts approximately from thirty-five, to fifty five years old. During this phase the adult starts to pass on their knowledge to another. The conflict is between generality or self absorption. The final stage of development is maturity. This stage lasts until death, when the individual struggles to look back on life with a sense of satisfaction and evaluate our life. KohlbergÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s theory of moral development provides us with a clearer understanding of why we make choices. This theory was divided into three stages of moral reasoning. The most basic stage, is pre-convention. During this stage the idea that we make our decisions due to fear of punishment or desire for reward occurs. A child is most likely to made decisions with this stage, due to a fear or obedience to authority. Next, conventional morality is less of a fear to an authority figure, more the individual wanting to do the right thing. This is society conforming us to play nice to maintain social order. Post-conventional may be the opposite of conventional. Post-conventional does not mean we do something wrong to beat conformity, but an individual will follow what they believe to be good even if it conflicts with the laws or mores of society. According to PiagetÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s second stage, the pre-operational stage, the childÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s thoughts and actions are egocentric and lack logic for mental operations. The child I interviewed had a self-centered outlook on life, lacking realistic goals and a chievements. At this time in the childÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s life, they are also at EriksonÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s latency stage, when they learn to reason, create, and earn, thus explaining why one of this childÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s biggest accomplishments was mixing two sodas to create one. In conclusion, PiagetÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s and EriksonÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s theories can accurately predict a childÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s thoughts and behaviors. Teenagers are more complicated, for they have moved past the latency stage into the adolescence stage. Identity development and role confusion are the larger conflicts. Also at this point, they transition into the formal operational stage, when they can think abstractly and make their own decisions. When asked if she had gained or lost self-confidence over the years, the girl I interviewed, Ashley, responded: Ã¢â‚¬Å"So I lost it throughout middle school, but gradually started gaining it through high school.Ã¢â‚¬ This is due to Ashley struggling and beginning to find her identity. She had already goals that she wanted to achieve and was able to predict what she wanted to do in five years. As a teenager, Ashley can make decisions for other reasons than fear of punishment or desire. A step away from adulthood, at adolescence Ashely is almost able to act and think like an adult. Adulthood is similar to adolescence in a way. Due to the fact that both adolescences and adults are able to make decisions using any of the previously mentioned moral reasoning strategies and both are in the formal operational stage. Whereas, adulthood continues to branch away from adolescence is only evident using EriksonÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s developmental stages. The young adult I interviewed, Dustin, is on the fence of two stages: young adulthood and adulthood. By now, Dustin should have a sense of self and independence. Ã¢â‚¬Å"Back then I had no ambition, I just wanted to lay video games. I mean I still want to play video games, but I also want money and to be successful,Ã¢â‚¬ said Dustin when I asked him how different he was from when he started high school. Over the years his desires and goals changed as he matured with his career. Yet, at forty-seven with four kids and a career, the woman I interviewed had no problems understanding her identity ulike a teenager or young adult might have. Her conflicts are generality, feeling worthless or without purpose in life. According to Erikson, at this stage middle-aged adults have the desire to pass on their knowledge and skills to the next generation. When asked what she wanted to achieve in the next five years, she responded: Ã¢â‚¬Å"I want to get all four my kids financially independent and start saving money for retirement.Ã¢â‚¬ She also shared her hopes about her children getting married and having kids: Ã¢â‚¬Å"IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ll be able to play with them but not have to worry about all the responsibilities.Ã¢â‚¬ Towards the end of our lives when we reach elderly adulthood, various experiences can be fulfilling or disappointing. The final stage of EriksonÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s theory, maturation, when the individual struggles to look back on what they have done with a sense of satisfaction. When I asked my grandma what she wanted to achieve in the next five years, there was a pause in her voice and I could tell the answer she blurted out was not genuine. Perhaps my grandma had been through so much, she no longer wanted to challenger herself with more life hurdles. Ã¢â‚¬Å"I think kids had more fun and didnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t worry about material things,Ã¢â‚¬ she said after I asked how things were different now compared to when she was a teenager. My grandma looked back on her past fondly, and offered me advice how I should act in the future. She had more advice and knowledge to pass on than plans ahead of her. Over the course of the implementing these theories into my personal interviews, I have learned that the development of the brain works in stages, and the three scientific studies could accurately predict the behaviors of the various age groups I questioned. In conclusion, the studies were very effective in explaining how our behaviors and development increase over time, and in which order they do.