Modern Practices Of Hobbes And Rousseau Core Humanities...

ï ¿ ¼University of Nevada, Reno Modern Practices of Hobbes and Rousseau Core Humanities Paper No. 1 Kimberly Martin CH 202 Joe Taglieber September 22, 2015 Martin !1 ï ¿ ¼Thomas Hobbes and Jean-Jacques Rousseau were philosophers from the 16th and 17th centuries. Hobbes and Rousseau developed theories that explained the development of human nature and how men govern themselves given the circumstances around them. Thomas Hobbes and Jean-Jacques Rousseau both have become the most influential philosophers of our time, setting up current and future stand points in our society. Not only did they affect our governing process but they have pressed an impact on political systems all over the world. Hobbes and Rousseau both created theories about human†¦show more content†¦Hobbes also had a more negative view of human nature, he saw that no morality existed, men lived in a state of war and the strong and weak were created equal. In order to fix society, â€Å"the passions that incline men to peace are fear of death, desire of such things as are necessary to commodious living, and a hope by their Martin !2 ï ¿ ¼industry to obtain them,† (Hobbes, 38). This means that in order to gain the peace and life man wants, he must work for it and rise above their current state of nature. According to Hobbes, the state of man after leaving his natural state is happier since there is actual order to society especially after being bonded to a social contract with the government. Rousseau stated in his Discourse on the Origin and Foundation of Inequality Among Men, that he believes that that men are created equal but has a more positive outlook compared to Hobbes. Jean-Jacques Rousseau views the relationship between man and nature as free and equal just as Hobbes did. Unlike Hobbes, Rousseau thought that man was happier when he was in his natural state, â€Å"it will be understood how much less difference from man to man must be in the state of nature than in society,

Ciscos Organizational Change Free Essays

Cisco Background Cisco is an IT enterprise that was founded in 1984 by Leonard Bosack and Sandy Lerner. Bosack and Lerner eventually got married and were the first to develop a multi- protocol router. McJunkin and Reynders (2000) describes the multi-protocol router as â€Å"a specialized microcomputer that sat between two or more networks and allowed them to talk to each other by deciphering, translating, and funneling data between them† (Mcjunkin Reynders, 2000). We will write a custom essay sample on Ciscos Organizational Change or any similar topic only for you Order Now The organization was responsible for opening and linking all the computer networks around the world together. This linking of all the computer networks was much like the way telephone networks are linked around the world. The local-area network (LAN) was the first market Cisco competed in and offered quality routers which became the â€Å"traffic cops of cyberspace† (Mcjunkin Reynders, 2000). Cisco eventually became the leaders in this market with their data networking equipment and by 1997, McJunkin and Reynders (2000) states â€Å"80% of the large scale routers that powered the Internet were made by Cisco† (Mcjunkin Reynders, 2000). As the global Internet grew Cisco began to expand its product line, which included a wide range of networking solutions. Website management tools, dial-up and other remote access solutions, Internet appliances, and network management software were all apart of this expansion. In 1990 Cisco market value was an astonishing $222 million and the organization continued to grow into a multinational corporation with over 10,000 employees. Cisco revenues had more than tripled by 1997 and â€Å"revenues had increased over ninety-fold since the IPO, from $69. 8 million in fiscal 1990 to $6. billion in fiscal 1997† (Mcjunkin Reynders, 2000). Organizational Problem Cisco is now a large IT enterprise with over 300 locations in 90 countries with a framework that makes its operation more efficient and responsive. The structure of Cisco is comprised of â€Å"46 data centers and server rooms supporting 65,00-plus employees† (â€Å"How Cisco IT†, 2009). The traditional structure of Cisco is one that has staffers doing both implementation and operational work. The traditional structure of Cisco was one that caused staffers to drop operational projects to complete deployment. According to Cisco â€Å"with the traditional organizational arrangement, there was much duplication of effort and lack of focus across the organization† (â€Å"How Cisco IT†, 2009). Cisco’s original organizational model (see exhibit 1) was comprised of regional network teams and regional voice teams. These teams were accountable for all aspects of operating and implementing services and their environment. A change in the organization was needed in order for Cisco to attain the levels of efficiency, additional scalability and agility the IT enterprise needed. The main challenge Cisco faced during this change process was the need for the IT Network and Data Center Service (NDCS) to become more organizationally focused. Within Cisco there is an advanced service called Network Availability Improvement Services (NAIS), which identifies areas within the organization that need change. In order to do this NAIS â€Å"assesses and remediates the people, process, and tools needed to mitigate operational risk and network complexity by running an Operational Risk Management Analysis (ORMA)† (â€Å"How Cisco IT†, 2009). For the issue lack of focus, NAIS began by â€Å"interviewing business and IT leaders and senior engineers, and then gathers technical, process, tools and organizational documents and templates†. An assessment is then developed by NAIS, which outlined an achievable vision and a detailed road map for NDCS to follow (â€Å"How Cisco IT†, 2009). Organizational Change After the ORMA report vice president of NDCS John Manville had to restructure the NDCS department to â€Å"map to its own lifecycle business model† in order to solve the problems the department was facing (â€Å"How Cisco IT†, 2009). The new business lifecycle model the NDCS department had to map to was comprised of six phases; Prepare, Plan, Design, Implement, Operate, and Optimize. Manville’s approach to restructuring the NDCS group to improve efficiency and focus was an Action Research Approach. McShane and Steen (2009) define action research as â€Å"a problem-focused change process that combines action oriented and research orientation† (McShane Steen, 2009). Manville formed a client-consultant relationship with the NAIS department within Cisco, which then determined the readiness for change in NDCS. NAIS then diagnosed the need for change after the department gathered and analyzed sufficient data to show the lack of focus and duplication of effort within NDCS. The NAIS department â€Å"begins the process by interviewing business and IT leaders and senior engineers, and then gathers technical, process, tools and organizational documents and templates† (â€Å"How Cisco IT†, 2009). The introduction of the restructuring intervention is an action that was needed to correct the problem NDCS was facing and to build a better organizational structure. Manville introduced this intervention to the department by testing the lifecycle methodology within it. This intervention involved â€Å"moving some resources from the former engineering and operations teams to the new implementations team† (â€Å"How Cisco IT†, 2009). This change was key to the operations team gaining more focus on task and not being distracted by deployments. The implementation of this change was over two years, which means that Manville’s restructuring was incremental. McShane and Steen (2009) define incremental change as when an â€Å"organization fine-tunes the system and takes small steps toward a desired state† (McShane Steen, 2009). The change to the NDCS department was stabilized and results shows that the change was effective. The maturity of the department improved significantly from 2006 to 2008 (see exhibit 3). The results also showed that before this change was introduced in NDCS there were â€Å"150 client-impacting incidents per quarter† and a â€Å"defective root cause percentage consistently above 40 percent† (â€Å"How Cisco IT†, 2009). After this change was introduced, focus on operation excellence improved with client-impacting incidents reducing to 70 per quarter and defective root cause percentage is consistently below 10 percent (â€Å"How Cisco IT†, 2009). Not only did the maturity of the department improve through this change process but also customer satisfaction (see exhibit 4). Cisco (2009) explains, â€Å"NDCS has achieved customer satisfaction scores of 4. 856, with 5 being the best possible score† (â€Å"How Cisco IT†, 2009). Conclusion Cisco was able to improve efficiency, focus and results delivered each quarter by the NDCS department through organizational restructuring and change. Shawn Shafai, an IT manager of Network Services at Cisco stated, â€Å"The new organizational structure gave us the opportunity to focus on our core operational work. Our critical metrics quickly displayed the positive results from these changes, and outstanding results started consistently being delivered quarter after quarter† (â€Å"How Cisco IT†, 2009). The unfreezing of the organizational structure by Manville was essential to implement change in NDCS. After the results from restructuring NDCS were effective NAIS and Manville decided to refreeze the changes in order to reinforce and maintain the desired behaviors. Exhibit 1 Cisco’s original Organizational Model Exhibit 2 NDCS Lifecycle Model Exhibit 3 Cisco’s improvement from 2006 to 2008 Exhibit 4 NDCS Customer Satisfaction References McShane, S. L. , Steen, S. L, (2009). Canadian Organizational Behaviour 7th Edition. McGraw-Hill Ryerson. McJunkin J. , and Reynders, T. (2000). Cisco Systems: A Novel Approach To Structuring Entrepreneurial Ventures. Retrieved from gsbapps. stanford. edu/cases/documents/EC%2015. pdf (2009). How Cisco IT implemented Organizational Change and Advanced Sevices for Operational Success. Retrieved from http://www. cisco. com/web/about/ciscoitatwork/downloads/ciscoitatwork/pdf/NDCS_Restructuring_AdvSvcs_Case_study. pdf How to cite Ciscos Organizational Change, Papers

Salem Witch Trials V. The McCarthy Hearings Essay Example For Students

Salem Witch Trials V. The McCarthy Hearings Essay The McCarthy Hearings are referred to as witch-hunts because of their similarity to the Salem witch trials. The McCarthy hearings are trials in which Senator Joe McCarthy accuses government employees of being Communists. He exaggerates and exploits the evidence and ruins many reputations just as the girls do in the Salem witch trials. The accused, in both cases, are used as scapegoats for societys problems and the only way to escape direct punishment is to admit to guilt. Joseph McCarthy and the girls from Salem begin to accuse people of being either Communists or witches to obtain, something they crave, power. No one actually has hard evidence to support these accusations, including the accusers. The more people they accuse the bigger the lies get. The girls in Salem begin to cry out that these witches are sending their spirits on them. The even go to the extent to start shivering, passing out, and mocking the accused as they walk into the room. Abigail Williams also sabotages, Elizabeth Proctor, one of the women she accuses of being a witch. When Abigail witnesses Marry Warren, the Proctors servent and one of the accusers, making a puppet and sticking a needle in its stomach for safe keeping Abigail knew it would be taken to her home at the Proctors. So she decides to claim she was stuck with a pin by Elizabeth Proctor through the technique of voodoo and Elizabeth is arrested that night for witchery. As for McCarthy he accuses anyone he sees. He even began to question the integrity of George C. Marshall and even President Eisenhower. He also, started an investigation on the Army. He never gave any kind of reliable evidence, he just started pointing fingers. Instead of trying to fix the problems in their society they blame the problems on something else so they wont have to deal with them. In 1692 a few girls got sick, they blame it on witch craft instead of thinking that maybe they were faking it or they got some kind of unknown sickness. In 1950 people begin to think differently than one another and have new ideas, people blame it on Communists instead of embracing the new ideas and learning and politely debating them. Now after they accuse these people, instead of dealing with the real issues, they force them to either declare their guilt or be severely punished. Just like John proctor and many others who were sent to death for not confessing. Both trials were completely deceitful and destructive to peoples lives. None of this would have ever happened if people would stop running away from their problems and stop being so power hungry. I just hope that this history will not repeat its self again. .

Objectivity and Sympathy in Capotes in Cold Blood Essay Example

Objectivity and Sympathy in Capotes in Cold Blood Essay In Cold Blood by Truman Capote is 1966 nonfiction novel that follows the Clutter killings of 1959; specifically, it is a novel that follows the killers of the Clutter family, Richard  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Dick†Ã‚  Hickock and Perry Edward Smith. In writing In Cold Blood, Capote intended the novel to be both objective and sympathetic. To write a nonfiction novel in an objective and sympathetic manner, especially one concerning a topic such as murder and the death penalty, is no easy task.In Cold Blood was true to Capote’s intent as it was very much a sympathetic novel, but some objectivity was sacrificed in order to make the novel both sympathetic and interesting. Overall, In  Cold  Blood was a very sympathetic novel. Capote manages to capture Perry Edward Smith as a whole person rather than a one sided killer. Though throughout the novel, the reader is completely aware of the fact that Smith is a murderer, Capote intertwines the novel with moments from Smith’s childhood moments that are so terrible they almost justify Smith’s crime as an outlet for emotions built up from his childhood.As a child, Smith had been through his parents’ divorce, and had lived with his mother, who was a heavy alcoholic and eventually sent Smith to a Catholic orphanage, where the nuns were â€Å"always at [him]. Hitting [him]† (132). Smith had two sisters and a brother, but by the time of the Clutter killings, only one sister was still living; his other siblings had taken their own lives. Smith represents everything it means to come from a broken family, and Capote’s recount of Smith’s childhood causes the reader to only feel sympathy for Smith.Capote does not portray Smith as a killer, whose crime has elevated him to an inhuman status, nor as a monster, but portrays Smith as normal human being. As a reader, discovering Smith’s horrible childhood made me feel something I never thought I would feel: sympathy for a killer. Whereas C apote excelled in making In  Cold  Blood completely sympathetic, some of the sympathy present in the novel made it less objective, the lack of objectivity being most apparent in Capote’s clear opposition to the death penalty.His inclusion and deep exploration of Hickock claiming that his and Smith’s lawyers were not dedicated to their case shows his opposition to capital punishment. Capote includes highly detailed segments questioning the prejudices of the jury presiding Smith and Hickock’s trial, and specifically, Capote also includes deep arguments for a change in venue of Smith and Hickock’s trial. Capote’s underlying argument about the death penalty is that capital punishment is a radical punishment that is often unfairly applied due to poor representation or unfair trials.In writing In  Cold  Blood, Capote wrote a nonfiction novel, with a heavy research base. However, even though the novel was very factual, In  Cold  Blood was ulti mately a creative work. It had to be informative and accurate, but overall it was vital that In  Cold  Blood be an entertaining piece of solid literature. Because Capote pursued a more creative rather than journalistic approach to writing In  Cold  Blood, it was not possible to be equally sympathetic and objective. Even though Capote used a factual approach in writing In  Cold  Blood, it is not possible to prove total accuracy in everything he wrote.Capote depicts Smith as the more moral of the duo, and explores Smith’s broken childhood in order to generate sympathy for Smith, but in doing so, Capote is forced to depict Hickock as the more heartless killer. Though it is by all means possible to combine sympathy with objectivity, Capote had to lessen the objectivity in In  Cold  Blood in order to generate more sympathy for Smith and to portray the conflicting levels of morality in Smith and Hickock that created a piece of quality literature in In  Cold  Blo od.

Becwin Printing, Inc.

Becwin Printing, Inc. Becwin Printing is a successful local business printing company that has managed to gain a large market share. The company’s history highlights several managerial challenges and strategies of business success. Albert Becwin started the company in 1981, at the time when he was a student and working as a salesman for his brother-in-law’s printing business. Advertising We will write a custom assessment sample on Becwin Printing, Inc. specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More After extensive research in business management, particularly printing, Becwin established his company with $20,000 capital, which was mostly borrowed, and another $13,000 from his friends in the printing business. The initial strategy of Becwin Printing was to go after customers with printing needs and ability to pay. Thus, the focus was on banks since it proved profitable for Becwin. In 1982, Becwin hired Allan White as a partner and the business manager. Whit e purchased 20% of the company because he had been working as a bank executive and was among Becwin’s customer. The business was successful because the sales reached $7.3 million and an operating profit of $657,000 in 1994. Between 1995 and 2004, Becwin registered a profitable growth of about $20 million is sales. Despite the business growth, Becwin faced many challenges as a leader. Managing the expanding business required feasible leadership strategies, and thus Becwin opted to contact Beth Schubert from a management-consulting firm on how to run the business. Schubert proposed that the company’s top management should delegate duties to other operational managers. The business was restructured in 1999 to ensure customer satisfaction and competitive advantage. Becwin replaced the sales manager, the production manager, the head of the stripping department, and hired new managers to take the positions. Therefore, there was delegation of duties which elicited new polici es, systems, procedures and controls to maintain Becwin’s market share. In addition, buying out White was a challenge after his retirement in 1999. The options available for Becwin was going public, selling out, using Employee Stock Ownership Program (ESOP), and re-capitalization. He however assimilated the ESOP option whereby over a seven-year period, 65 percent of the company’s ownership would be relocated to the Employee Stock Ownership Trust (ESOT). Advertising Looking for assessment on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The strategy was successful because a bank loan financed ESOT, and White received $800, 000 in cash. ESOT affected the company’s funding strategy because everything had to be reported together, including the financial position of the company. Nevertheless, Becwin saw this as a challenge because it gave people a false sense of security. Another challenge was the pressure to adopt the changing information technology. Many printing business emerged in 2000s, which forced Bercwin to gather necessary information from customers about their needs. He was successful in customer orientation because the profits were positive with a growth rate of 17.6% in 2010 as compared to 8.7% in 2005. In essence, the major factors that facilitated Bercwin’s success include in-house design, sales force, and expansion of value chain, business description, cost control, and operating practices. The business focuses on customer’s requirements because it conducts surveys to develop ideas. This implies that the company is more market driven than product driven. Similarly, the re-engineering of production systems has enabled the organization to embrace digital production in its value chain. In managing the sales force, the company trains its own sales people through continuous professional development programs, thus creating loyal workforce. Moreov er, the company utilizes its equipments because the press lines are specialized to reduce unnecessary cost and waste, thus encouraging lean initiatives in the production process. Therefore, Becwin believes that the company will still grow in future despite the intellectual and leadership challenges.

Free ACT Practice Tests Massive Collection of Online Sources

Free ACT Practice Tests Massive Collection of Online Sources SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips When you’re trying to prepare for the ACT, the last thing you want to worry about is finding ACT practice tests. To help make the process a little less stressful for you, we’ve compiled this huge list of sources for free ACT practice tests and questions. Not all practice tests are created equal, though. For each test source, I’ll talk about how you can best use the practice material to best prepare for the ACT. Why Do You Need ACT Practice Tests? You, of course, understand that in order to prep for the ACT, you need practice material. Ultimately, though, you may need more practice tests (and more supplementary materials) than you’d expect. Let’s talk about the three key reasons why you’ll need an arsenal of tests and questions to go into the ACT 100% prepared. Real Practice One of the most stressful parts of taking any standardized test is sitting through potentially uncomfortable testing conditions. You have to stay focused and alert for several hours with few breaks, and you have to jump from section to section without breaking your stride. Taking officialACT practice tests under realistic testing conditions helps prepare you for test day. This means sitting through an entire test in one go while carefully timing how long you spend on each section For this type of preparation, you should really only use official ACT tests. Content Practice This component of ACT prep is about building your knowledge of all the content that’s actually tested on the exam. If you’re working on specific subject prep, you’ll need materials that test (and teach) understanding of subject-specific content. Official ACT practice questions are the ideal for this sort of practice, but they’re limited in number and should really be saved for â€Å"realistic† practice and/or strategy prep. Unofficial or supplementary materials can prepare you well when it comes to brushing up on content, even if they’re not in strict, official ACT format. Strategy Prep ACT questions follow a very particular set of rules when it comes to style and logic. Although unofficial practice tests try to recreate this with their practice questions, it’s rare to find an unofficial source that does a good job. Official practice tests are important when it comes to familiarizing yourself with strategy required to do well on the â€Å"real† ACT. The more comfortable you are with the various types of ACT questions, the more efficient and the more confident you’ll be on the actual test. Where to Find Official ACT Tests Now that you know why (and how) ACT practice materials are important, let’s talk about where you can find the gold standard of ACT prep material: official ACT tests. In this section, you’ll find both recent and older ACT tests. You should focus on the most current ACT recent for your practice although older tests will definitely be helpful if you need extra material. The good news is that the format of the ACT hasn’t changed that much over the past few decades, so older exams will still give you a good idea of what to expect on test day. I'm not kidding when I say that official practice materials are the gold standard in ACT prep. Free Official Tests These free ACT practice tests are great for officialpractice - those study sessions where you sit down under realistic testing conditions and finish an entire exam. I’d recommend using one as a diagnostic test towards the beginning of your study plan. Be careful not to use these up all at once - these are the only free official tests available. The newest official ACT(2015-2016) is the only one that reflects the test's most recent changes: paired reading passages and a new essay. Other than these updates, however, the ACT's overall content and format has remained pretty consistent. ACT Practice Test and Answers (2015-2016) – form number 72C ACT Practice Test and Answers (2014-2015) – form number 67C ACT Practice Test and Answers (20-2012) – form number 64E ACT Practice Test and Answers (2008-2009) – form number 61C ACT Practice Test and Answers (2005-2006) – form number 59F Free Official Practice Questions The ACT also publishes official practice questions (separate from the official practice tests) on its website. These questions are great for working on strategy and content prep. 75 ACT English questions 60 ACT Math questions 48 ACT Reading questions 40 ACT Science questions 1 ACT Writing prompt ACT Question of the Day Other Official Practice Materials There are other official ACT materials available for purchase: The Real ACT Prep Guidecontains five full official practice tests, which amounts to about 20 hours of study material. This book is awesome for strategy prep and officialpractice, but it will not be much help at all if you need to review test content. It costs about$15 on Amazon. The ACT Online Programcontains two full practice tests or about eight hours of study material. The â€Å"prep† that comes with the program isn’t particularly useful, though, so we advise you to skip that and just use the full tests. It costs about $40 on the ACT website. Where to Find (and How to Use) Unofficial ACTs As you may have noticed, there aren’t unlimited official ACT tests available for practice. If you’re planning on studying for 50+ hours, you’ll need to find supplementary sources. There are so many unofficial sources for ACT tests and practice questions, but these really vary in quality - you don’t want to use just any practice questions you find online without vetting them first. To help you find reliable sources for supplementary materials, I’ve compiled a list of resources here. There may be many other good sources out there, but this should get you off on the right track. Free Online Practice ACTs From Test Prep Companies You should be especially careful with using free prep from test companies since the quality of the material is often questionable. That being said, some companies offer practice tests or questions that may prove to be really helpful as supplementary materials. Just be especially mindful (if you choose to work with these materials) about not treating these practice questions as you would official prep - that means not relying too much on them for strategy or real test practice. Sophia.org Sophia.org offers 2-3practicetests each for ACT math, science, reading, English, and writing. Each practice test has about 60 questions and comes with an answer key and scoring guide. You need to make an account in order to access the (free) tests, and you need to opt in to making your profile private. The site encourages you to treat the practice tests like official practice, but (as you know by now) it's best to use these materials for content review. An example of a Sophia.org practice question Prepfactory.com You can access freematerials with this siteif you make an account. There's a social media-esque functionalitywhere you can test your skills against those of other students. I'd avoid this, however, and just focus on improving your own weak skill areas - it won't be helpful to compare yourself to others while you're studying. You can access practice questions through quizzes for different themed modules. The modules' content study material is a bit disjointed and cursory, so I would skip it and just focus on working through the practice questions. An example of a Prepfactory.com practice question Ivy Global Ivy Global offers both sample ACT questions and a full (unofficial) ACT practice test on its website. You can download their full ACT practice test without making an account or providing any personal information (a big plus). Ivy Global did make a real effort to put together a test that's very similar to the official ACT. I still wouldn't encourage you Ivyglobalfor official practice, but it might come in handy if you run through all of the free official ACT materials listed earlier in this article. An example of an Ivyglobal practice question Varsity Tutors Varsity Tutors has a ton of free material - it seems like there are thousands of practice questions available - but this company isn’t particularly careful about creating questions in the style of the ACT.You should be careful about not putting too much stock in the types of questions you use from this site. Another con - you really can't work through the questions until you register for an account, and you're pressured pretty hard to pay for their tutoring services. That being said, you might find Varsity Tutors helpful if you need access to a ton of material (i.e. if you plan on studying for 50+ hours), and/or if you're a high scorer and want toanalyze official ACT vs. non ACT questions. An example of a Varsity Tutors practice question Union Test Prep Union Test Prep offers one free practice test which is administered online. Each question is presented (and graded), which is very different from what you'll encounter on the actual ACT - the format of the exam reminds me more of the GRE than any college entrance exam, to be honest. You don't have to register with Union Test Prep to access these questions. An example of a Union Test Prep practice question Albert.io Albert.iooffers hundreds of practice questions for ACT Math, ACT Science and ACT Reading. You must create an account to answer questions, but you get 100 free credits, which you can use to answer up to 100 questions. The questions are all clearly tagged, so this can be a great resource for targetingspecific skills. An example of an Albertpractice question Kaplan If you register with Kaplan, you can sign up for a free ACT practice test. They have them scheduled in advance, so this will only work if one of their ACT test times fits within your schedule. I expect these practice tests to be similar to their prep book (which I'll get to shortly) - good for an introduction to the test, especially for low scorers, but not so helpful for students who are already familiar with the exam or are already getting relatively high marks. Princeton Review Princeton Review has a system that's pretty similar to Kaplan's - you can take a free ACT online demo and test if you register with the site. Princeton Review has a reputation for writing questions that are(conceptually) easier than what you'd see on the test, so this might not be the best option for high-scoring students who are looking to push up their scores. ACT Prep Books Unofficial ACT prep books can be helpful when it comes to content review and practice. The ACT is pretty transparent about what concepts they actually test on the exam - if you have weak areas, instructional books and practice questions (even if they’re not similar to ACT questions) can help you develop a better grasp of the material. One of the downsides to ACT prep books is that they aren’t free. You may be able to find these books at your public or school library if you’d rather not purchase the materials. If you’re looking for a more exhaustive list of the most helpful ACT books, especially for books by subject, check out our guide to the best ACT prep books. Best Non-Official ACT Book:The ACT Black Book A great book for strategy, the Black Book teaches you to think about the ACT as a predictable, standardized test. It offers alternative strategies for students who may not understand all concepts in the same way. If there's a downside to this prep book, it's that you have to be pretty self-motivated and self-driven in order to useit effectively. It costs about$17 on Amazon. Best Book for High Scorers:Barron's Barron’s books are very thorough and cover a lot of content. They’re good options if your score is already high, but you’re aiming for perfect (or close to perfect). Some of the questions can be unrealistically (and unhelpfully) difficult. It costs about$12 on Amazon. Best Book for Low Scorers:Kaplan This is an all-in-one book that covers all ACT sections. It includes practice tests and answer explanations in addition to basic ACT strategies. This book is not helpful if you’re pretty motivated to study and are serious about improving your score - this is really a bare-bones book It costs about$20 on Amazon. Making a Plan: How to Study for the ACT If you want to make the most of all these ACT materials, you’ll want to make a plan for using them strategically. The major steps you’ll need to take to make a plan are below, although you can get more detailed info if you check out our guide on how long you need to study for the ACT. These materials will be most helpful if you come up with a road map for using them before diving in. Get a Baseline: Start With a Diagnostic ACT Test Take one of the recent, official ACT tests to get a baseline score. Unofficial diagnostic tests won’t help you understand where you’d need to improve on the actual ACT. Checking out target schools (and their correlating target ACT scores) will give you a goal score range to aim for. Practice Strategy and Review Content With Supplementary Materials If you’re weak in strategy skills or content knowledge, you should primarily use unofficial supplementary materials to study and improve in those areas. You can use these practice questions to drill skills or test knowledge without worrying about wasting official prep material. Once you’ve spent some time learning new skills and content, you may want to really test your performance with the official ACT practice questions (not the full tests). Use Official ACTs As Full-Length Practice Tests You can always find more unofficial prep material, but there’s a limited number of official ACT practice tests. Use these official resources as full-length practice tests under real testing conditions. You shouldn’t stop there, though. Get everything you can out of those tests by carefully analyzing your answers and mistakes, so you know which skills and content areas you should focus on next. Remember to save one or two official tests for the end of your study program so you can familiarize yourself with a full-length exam before you take the actual ACT. What's Next? Now that you have a ton of material to work with, you might want to start thinking about putting together a (more detailed) study plan and ACT strategy. First, figure out how long you should plan on studying for the ACT. Next, determine what your own ACT score goal should be - what's a good score? A bad score? An excellentscore? If you don't have too much time to study but still want to prepare as best you can, download those official ACT tests and check out our guide to a 20 hour prep program. Want to improve your ACT score by 4+ points? Download our free guide to the top 5 strategies you need in your prep to improve your ACT score dramatically.

Progress Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4500 words

Progress Report - Essay Example She also shows some anticipation for the next step in activities with familiar routine and is beginning to show ability to communicate a desire for activities to continue. Record of Progress Communication and Language Activities experience by the pupil this year Communication underpins every activity that Cristina undertakes at school. She has participated in a range of activities over this year to provide opportunities for her to develop her communication skills. These activities included greetings, end of the day sessions, massage, sensory story, interactive music, and one-to-one interaction sessions with familiar members of the staff. Responding Pupil’s progress Cristina has been working towards developing anticipation of the next step in well-established routines and responds appropriately or consistently to a range of different sensory stimuli. As the year progresses, Cristina has become more consistent in showing anticipation for regular daily activities such as greeting s and her favourite weekly sensory story session titled ‘We going on the bear hunt’. A good example is her excellent progress in anticipating for greeting or interactive sessions during Autumn term. She would look at a bottle of essential oil when presented to her by an adult and stay still for a few seconds to smell the oil of the day. She initially smiled broadly when asked whether she wants more of a smell particularly if given plenty of time to respond. During Spring term, she showed ability to recognize the sequence of steps within same activity. She has also begun exploring the drum positioned under her hands by making small finger movement especially if encouraged verbally by adults to perform a task. Over the time, she has learnt to prolong the activity by trying hard to continue her small hand movement in exploring this musical instrument especially with prolonged one-to-one interaction she gets from an adult at such times. She has also begun to get less startl ed if adult leading the activity use a countdown such as ‘one, two, three’ when introducing noisy objects, such as drum. Recently, she began to vocalise when asking for a tune to say hello, although she is not yet consistent and will need more time to consolidate this skill. During the sensory story sessions, she has shown ability to anticipate certain familiar routines, especially if an adult used the phrase ‘ready, steady†¦go’. She would for example anticipate for water spray by turning head and looking at an adult shaking a thunder maker for brief moment of 2-3 seconds. She would also smile when activities were accompanied by ‘ready, steady†¦go’. On some occasion, she would actively turn her head towards rainmaker and tracked torch light on the black material other than just smiling or stilling in response. Interacting Pupil’s progress Cristina has been working towards developing her interaction skills with familiar and less familiar adults and shows ability to distinguish between them. Cristina remained interested when adults interacted with her and continued to smile or became animated when the adult talked to her. She responded best during one-to-one intensive sessions when familiar members of staff interacted with her. She showed a clear awareness of the presence of others and would at times smile when chatting to a class staff member. She has also responded with various facial expressions and random vocalizations. She has learnt to accept physical contact from familiar and