Vaccination and Baccalaureate

Vaccination and Baccalaureate Vaccination and Baccalaureate Vaccination and Baccalaureate By Maeve Maddox I wanted to call this post Cows and College Graduates, but blog titles must be plain and to the point. Warning: This is something of a shaggy dog story, so if youre the impatient type, you may want to skip this post. Vaccination The Latin word for cow is vacca. When Edward Jenner was looking for a way to prevent smallpox (variola), he worked with the less deadly disease cowpox (variolae vaccinae). Variola is from Latin varius, spotted, or varus, pimple. Vaccinae is from Latin vaccinus, from cows. Jenner coined the word vaccination for his technique of scratching cowpox virus into the skin. Survivors of cowpox were immune to smallpox. Baccalaureate The word baccalaureate comes from Medieval Latin baccalaureus, student with a first degree. Baccalaureate is related to the English word bachelor. Indeed, we refer to a B.A. (Artium Baccalaureus) as a bachelors degree. At the end of the 13th century, a bachelor was a young man in training for knighthood. Although one conjecture is that bachelor derives from Latin baculum, stick, because squires practiced with staves instead of swords, the more likely source is Medieval baccalarius, vassal farmer. Baccalarius derived from baccalia, a herd of cows. Bacca was a Low Latin variant of vacca, cow. A baccalaria was originally a grazing farm and a baccalarius a cowherd or cowboy. In the 14th century the meaning of bachelor evolved from knight in training to junior member of a guild or university. In time, because young men still pursuing their educations couldnt affordin terms of time or moneyto marry, bachelor took on the meaning of unmarried man. The -larius of baccalarius became the -laureus of baccalaureus by way of folk etymology. Before schools adopted the practice of awarding cheesy plastic trophies, academic achievement was honored by the bestowal of a crown of laurel leaves. Laurel berries in Latin is bacca lauri. Ergo, rustic baccalarius became classy baccalaureus and the cow connection was no more. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Among vs. AmongstCharles's Pen and Jesus' Name

Toxic Chemicals from Peeing in the Pool

Toxic Chemicals from Peeing in the Pool Lets face it. Its not just babies who pee in the pool! Is that guy on the other side of the pool trying to look cool or is he concentrating on a little public urination? You dont know, because there isnt a chemical you can put in the pool as a urine indicator that wouldnt be toxic or respond to a whole host of other fluids. The Water Quality and Health Council conducted a survey that revealed one in five Americans admit to urinating in the pool. So, unless that pool was filled an hour ago, youre swimming in pee. But, urine doesnt just sit there in the water or harmlessly disperse. It reacts with chemical treatments in the water. For the same reason you dont want to rinse out a really nasty kitty litter box with bleach, you might not want to inhale too deeply in a pool full of people. The chemical reactions form two particularly nasty compounds: cyanogen chloride (CNCl) and trichloramine (NCl3). In high concentrations, these are chemical warfare agents. In the minute quantities produced in a pool, you wont die, but youre not doing your lungs any favors, not to mention your nervous and circulatory systems. Chlorine treatments, in particular, react with uric acid from urine to form toxic chemicals. The pool treatments themselves often aggravate respiratory and other health problems, since chlorine is (you guessed it) a toxic chemical agent. Its really not something to worry about, as researchers have found levels of the chemicals are lower than the World Health Organization (WHO) limits for public drinking water. However, if it bothers you, you have a few options. Swim in an outdoor pool rather than an indoor one, so vapors become diluted in the air rather than trapped in an enclosed space. Switch to a different pool disinfection method. Or, you can build your very own private pool and resist the urge to pee in it. Reference:  Volatile Disinfection Byproducts Resulting from Chlorination of Uric Acid: Implications for Swimming Pools,  Lushi Lian, Yue E, Jing Li, and Ernest R. Blatchley , III,  Environ. Sci. Technol.,  2014,  48  (6), pp 3210–3217.

Business Environment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words - 1

Business Environment - Essay Example (Tesco, 2011). 1. Mission, Objectives and Responsibilities of an Organization (a) The Core Mission of Tesco deals with creation of value for its customers through the rendering of quality products and services. Through the rendering of quality products and services the company aims at enhancing the loyalty parameter of the customers. Further the company also sets a mission of caring for its people in both the external and internal sphere. The internal groups of people consist of the employees of the company who by dint of their hard work makes the company succeed in a competitive business environment. External group of people are the customers and other stakeholders like suppliers and government who render due support in making the company succeed in its operations. The company believes that helping the customers in getting the right products caters to the event of repeat purchases by them. Similarly the company also works to motivate its internal people to work in a devoted manner t o fulfill customer delights. Moreover the customers and the staff are regularly contacted by the management team of Tesco to get fruitful suggestions in developing its service and product qualities. (Tesco, n.d.). The above mission of Tesco helps the company in fulfilling its stated objectives which can be underlined as follows. Tesco fulfills the needs of the customers by rendering quality products at reasonable market prices. The customers of Tesco are regularly contacted by the company for getting suggestions which would help in both product and service enhancement. Tesco also satisfies the needs of its stake holders like investors and shareholders by producing high returns on the investments made. The company also helps in quality enhancement of its employees through effective training and management policies. Tesco also maintains a strong supplier environment which aims to deliver to the company quality products at effective price ranges. Finally in total Tesco works tightly in fulfilling the responsibilities of the company to the society in a complete manner by satisfying all legal and environmental obligations. (Corporate Objectives, n.d.). (b) The giant departmental store Tesco has large group of stakeholders starting from customers, supplier groups, investors and shareholders, the different levels of staffs and the union groups to which these people belong to, the community of people who sponsor the company and whom the company sponsors and finally those who render influences on the government of the region and on the business as a whole. Tesco in a bid to cater to the customer groups have helped in creating stores which would remain open for full 24 hours every day. These stores help in catering for the buying community who fail to avail time to conduct shopping during the day owing to their busy schedules. The company also encourages the customers to conduct transactions online through their membership card which helps enhancing customer loyalty. Wh ile maintaining a relation with the supplier groups Tesco acts in a strict manner through administering, monitoring and evaluating their demands. If in turn a supplier group of the company demands an increase upon the agreed amounts and thereby tries to disturb the operations, Tesco does not wait from altering

Keystone kl pipeline Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Keystone kl pipeline - Essay Example s and floods have effects on American labor and jobs, if we throw the spigot open to Canada’s tar sands, it will be considered the world’s dirtiest oil (Smith 01). Building this pipeline and opening Tar Sands will impact local and national economies negatively. When the recoverable tar sands oil burns, it will increase temperature on the earth approximately by a minimum of 2 degrees Celsius which the NYU environmental law center estimates could cut permanently the US GDP by 2.5 % (Smith 02). As it’s seen, this will affect the US counties causing an estimated expensive damage. At the same time, local and state economies are buckling already under effects of our dependence on fossil fuel as a nation (Smith 02) Despite generating much profits of approximately $546 billion between 2005 and 2010, oil companies such as shell, chevron and ExxonMobil reduced their workforce by 4,400 employees. The same year, $220 million paid the executives themselves (Smith 02). From that, we can say it’s time invest the billions going to oil companies in creating employment and protecting the planet at the same time. Approving the Keystone pipeline will lock the nation into a trajectory of job loss that are guaranteed and hence threatens the economy and political state of the US. Why should the job-killing path be taken when the energy path that’s alternative like the solar industry is already out-performing some other sectors of the economy (Smith 02). Accidental contact with transmitting pipeline will create a dangerous situation that may be extreme to result in serious consequences to the contractors, general public and the customers. Some of these consequences may include fire explosion, injury or property damage, disruption of services that are essential, responsibility for cost of repair and personal liability all damages (Smith 03). According to the chief economics of Moody’s analytics, a havoc caused by the Super storm sandy on the job market was estimated to

Developing Yourself as an Effective Human Resources Essay Example for Free

Developing Yourself as an Effective Human Resources Essay The Human Resources Profession Map was created by the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (CIPD) together with Human Resources (HR) practitioners. The aim was to highlight and explain what HR personnel need to know, do and how to deliver the highest standards of knowledge, skills and behaviour required for growth and success within an organisation. The HR Map is a very important tool to help personnel identify areas that need to be developed within their career. The HR Professional Map is created for any type of organisation (small or large) and is based around areas of professional competencies to help those just starting their careers as well as seasoned professionals. The Map is structured around ten professional areas, eight behaviours and four bands of professional competence. It holds two professional core areas, which are insights, strategy and solutions and leading HR. These areas are essential for any worker who needs to develop skills to the best possible level. Firstly, s/he needs to understand the companys values and have a thorough knowledge of what the company does. The basics need to be covered before the employee can proceed within the other training and development parts of the profession map. After learning about insights, strategies and solutions, the HR practitioners should be aware of any arising problems that could effect their work place. The knowledge that comes from the gained behavioural skills should be good enough for HR practitioners to be able to come up with solutions and adapt it to new situations, helping an employee gain confidence and become a better leader. Another eight professional areas that professionals need to know are; service delivery and information; organisation design; organisation development;  resourcing and talent planning; learning and talent development; performance and reward; employee engagement and employee relations. The eight behaviours show what kind of attributes HR practitioners should implement, which are; being curious; a decisive thinker; skilled influencer; personally credible; collaborative; driven to deliver; having the courage to challenge and being a role model. All of those areas and behaviours are covered by four bands of competence. Band one would be for beginners who start their career and have a basic understanding of the HR role and band four would be for senior professionals who have the most experience within a company. The key area for me to focus on within my company would be employee engagement at band one of professional competency. For the last six years I have been working at the cinema where I have learnt everything about the companys values and goals, through starting as a staff-member to becoming a duty-manager. Employee engagement is a very important level of commitment to any company; an engaged employee should always have pride in what s/he does and work hard to achieve success. In order to have motivated and positive staff who deliver outstanding results, I need to know how to communicate, listen, train/coach my team members, setting aspirational targets through meetings, appraisals and one-to-one sessions. I am sent for various training sessions which provides me with the ability to provide the best support and training for my personnel. After observing and listening to my staff I have noticed that people learn in various ways and I need to adopt different methods in training sessions to get the best out of them and to make them feel valued and motivated. ACTIVITY 2 Understanding Customer Needs. It happens very often in my professional role that certain customers come to me asking for some data, advice or requiring assistance. Not so long ago I had three customers simultaneously come to me with individual problems. They were: Staff Member Emma, who wanted to find out how many hours of holiday she earned so far and when would be the best time to book her holidays. Operational Assistant Ben, who wanted me to add the new starters which would  be starting from the beginning of next week to the system and send a new starter form to the Head Office HR Manager. General Manager Paul, who asked me to check our monthly payroll which just got sent through and needed to be replied to by the end of the working day. It is essential that I always try to prioritise my tasks according to the customer needs and the impact it would have on the company. At the beginning I told Emma that I was unable to focus on her query at that specific moment, but would make sure that tomorrow I would have more time to talk through her holiday requests. My priority was checking the monthly payroll. The task was set by my General Manager and I had only till the end of the day to check it. I need to have enough time to thoroughly check the payroll as if there are any mistakes I need to create a report with all the faults found and send it to the HR manager to investigate. Adding new staff to the system was my second priority. The staffs data did not go live until the week after and therefore was lacking any real pressure in terms of time, and the system we use is simple and straight-forward. Nevertheless, it took priority over Emma in case there were mistakes that would later delay this important and timely process. As stated, Emma was my last priority because her query was not as pressing as the previous two. However, I still made her feel important and valued by informing her that I would have everything ready for the meeting the next day. Effective Communication Effective communication is important in every work place. It is essential for employees to build the appropriate level of trust and understanding, to help create strong working relationships and therefore solve any arising problems with more ease. The three most common ways to communicate in my company are: Face to face. The most efficient and common within my role, it is used when I want to delegate jobs to staff members, within team meetings etc. This type of communication cannot be ignored and is particularly successful in motivating staff to do their jobs effectively. Although sometimes face-to-face can be difficult and cause problems; when dealing with a difficult situation it is sometimes hard to stay calm or always see eye-to-eye. Emotions can become visible which may cloud communication and further exasperate an event. E-mails. These are used on a regular basis. Most contact with external customers is through e-mail and so we need to make sure they are always answered swiftly. They are easy, effectively free and a very fast form of communication. For my internal customers I use an e-mail service for sending out rotas and other staff requests, therefore it is important to check it daily. Unfortunately, sometimes e-mails may be misread and people could feel offended by its content due to miscommunication. Also, some messages may be misplaced and sent to a customers spam folder and therefore treated as unsent and ignored, causing negative experiences. Feedback Forms. A very popular method that is used for one-to-one meetings, probation reviews and appraisals. These forms provide to customers a clear and concise outline of their positive/negative behaviour, and acknowledge, with their line manager, what kind of changes need to be made, creating a clear plan that could help with their development. Feedback can also help staff feel appreciated and increase their self-esteem. A disadvantage of feedback forms may be the subjective nature of feedback (as anyone within the management team can choose to provide a form without first going through any procedures or checks) leaving open the possibility of personal opinions clashing with a customers work ethic. Effective Service Delivery To be able to meet all customer needs the company should have an effective service delivery. Good working relationships and team work should be key to creating a good service delivery for our customers. Everyday I have to deliver satisfactory service on time. Whether it is with our external customers by replying to their e-mails or phone calls on a daily basis or for my internal customers when writing rotas and meeting deadlines set by Management or Head Office. It is essential for a HR practitioner to be able to deliver a service within a timely manner because that will help build trust with customers. Delivering a service on budget is essential in my work place as I have to deal with it on a daily basis. I am mostly responsible for payroll and, within my company, payroll is the biggest controlling cost. Every week we have to schedule staff according to expected business levels. On top of this, everyday we have to control our forecast and act accordingly to set hours, which may incl ude sending staff home when it is quiet or  calling more people in when it is busy. Dealing with difficult customers and handling complaints is not easy, especially external ones. Whenever I have to deal with one I am always focused, listen to the persons complaint, apologise for the problem and try to explain why certain situation have happened. Im always trying to put myself in their position and empathise with them. Sometimes just explaining things may resolve the problem because a customer may not understand something, be confused or simply be agitated and in need of assistance. I asses the situation and decide how best to resolve it (whether with a mere apology or free guest passes etc). If the customer is still not happy with the outcome and would like the complaint to go further, I pass the situation onto head office to be dealt with more formally. When handling and resolving complains it is important to stay calm, communicate and be aware how serious the complaint is. Sometimes is okay to to resolve it in an informal one-to-one meeting but if its something serious like Gross Misconduct, then the complaint must be dealt with formally which could result in dismissal. Looking at the Associate Membership criteria I would need to develop practical and technical HR knowledge and collating, analysing and interpreting data. These two areas stand out the most from the associated membership criteria because I know I could develop these skills better throughout my personal development plan and become a more skilled HR practitioner. Learning more about practical and technical HR knowledge will expand my awareness and make me a more rounded, proficient professional. And learning how to properly collate, analyse and interpret data is something I have yet to really learn and so will give me a crucial grounding for further development. In order to be able to grow within developing practical and technical HR knowledge I would have to gain a lot of experience by shadowing my HR manager and fellow colleagues. In my organisation it is very important to know as much as possible about the human resources department because we do not have many people on site with HR skills. After learning about HR development I could focus on one or two key areas, such as disciplinary procedures or maternity leave, which would add key areas of knowledge to my  current HR capabilities. I believe that developing yourself practically and technically is essential for an individual who wants to become a good HR practitioner within his/her company as this is a core grounding to any career in HR. Collating, analysing and interpreting data is connected to developing practical and technical knowledge within my HR area. By getting support from my line managers I can be trained in creating weekly analyses of all payroll reports such as sickness submissions, lateness tracker and breaks. That skill would teach me how to work on our workforce payroll and I would get to know the rules and disciplinary procedures. With that in mind, I would be able to implement visible data and make staff responsible for their absences. Continuous Professional Development (CPD) is a â€Å"combination of approaches, ideas and techniques that will help you manage your own learning and growth†, focusing â€Å"firmly on results – the benefits that professional development can bring you in the real world† (CIPD website). It can be defined as a life-long learning project that describes the actions of an individual professional who is continuously planning, managing, reviewing and developing his/her skills within their professional or private life. The main aspect of CPD is the Personal Development Plan (PDP) which is structured to help and support individuals to be able to plan and organise their objectives or values in their personal or career development. It identifies what skills and knowledge you need to develop to progress further. I believe that CPD is important to me and my organisation because it gives me and my employer a chance to grow and progress within my career. It sets clear objectives and provides an opportunity to widen any knowledge and skills which are important to succeed within the organisation. By planning my PDP I am able to understand my strengths and weaknesses and learn how to improve them day by day. It keeps me interested therefore I feel motivated and positive. The company can also benefit from having the structure of CPD in place as it helps the company move forward by having motivated and happy personnel, as well as better working relationships due to managers spending more time with staff through one-to-one meetings and appraisals. The two options that I chose from my personal development plan are having practical and technical HR knowledge and completion of my CIPD course. Personally, advantages of having practical and technical HR knowledge would be the ability to implement my new skills on site and be able to use more of my own initiative on day to day basis. By shadowing my HR manager and having support from my head office team I would be able to learn about all procedures very quickly. In having those skills I would know how to run the HR department and by doing so I would be very well prepared for HR audits. The only disadvantage for this area would be time organisation, in making sure I can travel to London (and therefore needing cover) and that my HR manager has time to coach me, although this would only be for a set amount of time. The reason why I chose to study an online CIPD course is because I wanted to get my qualification while I was still working a full-time job. It provides great flexibility and no daily travel saves a lot of time and money. I find studying online is less stressful than face-to-face college as it allows me to work within my on surroundings and at a pace I am comfortable with. All lessons are available via a website and the tutors are always quick in responding to e-mails. A disadvantage to studying online is the lack of visible pressure from tutors to push me to work between my regular weekly shifts at work, although this at least helps improve my self-motivational skills.

Poverty in Edith Whartons Ethan Frome Essay -- Ethan Frome Essays

Poverty in Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome Poverty is defined as deficiency, or inadequacy. It can be used to represent more than just the lack of money. Poverty is constant throughout the novel, Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton. Poverty is evident in almost every area of Ethan's life. First of all, obviously, Ethan lacked money. His farm squeezed out just enough money to keep him and his household going. On page 133, Ethan is thinking of selling his property, but then he remembers its condition... "Farm and mill were mortgaged to the limit of their value, and even if she found a purchaser- in itself an unlikely chance- it was doubtful if she could clear a thousand dollars on the sale... it was only by incessant labor and personal supervision that he managed to draw a meager living from his land..."  Ã‚   The town in which he lived was also quite poor. It snowed most of the time, so it was a bad area for agriculture. Another type of poverty evident in Ethan's life was that he had little happiness. He was forced to quit his career to aide his sick father. His father th...

Epistemology: Scientific Method and Knowledge Essay

Epistemology can be difficult to understand and maybe even harder to say. The short answer is that epistemology is the theory of knowledge. Perhaps that is too short of an answer, allow me expand. Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that deals with questions concerning the nature, scope, and sources of knowledge. Even these concepts can be foreign to the common public. The nature of knowledge is basically the qualities that constitute knowledge. One would find this answer by asking â€Å"What is knowledge? † The scope of knowledge sets the limits on what is knowledge and is a belief, hypothesis, or guess. A person must prove knowledge. Suppose I generated a completely random number and I asked you what number I was thinking of. If you stated the correct number, does that mean you knew what I was thinking? The source of knowledge covers how we attain our knowledge. Now that we have established a basic understanding of epistemology, we can cover a few of the major schools of thought. When you think about a persons reasoning process, some people divide a persons thoughts into rational and irrational. If you are one of these people, you would use a deductive method of reasoning. You would also be considered a rationalist. As a rationalist, you believe that you can know things for certain even if you have never experienced it yourself. If you wanted to know which object would hit the ground first, when given two objects with different masses, you could take what you know about physics and figure it out without ever having to actually perform the experiment. There is another group that uses deductive reasoning but argue â€Å"all ideas trace ultimately back to experiences, such as perceptions and emotions. â€Å"(IEP, par. 2) These are the empiricists. These individuals claimed that if we didn’t have any experiences, we would have nothing to base our ideas off of. Taking a look back at the example above, you can see that we must know something about gravity. Our ideas on gravity stemmed from the observations of people like Newton. You can now see, through a little bit of deductive reasoning, how they believe everything is inductive. Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher who attempted to combine rationalism and empiricism. It is called the â€Å"form and matter† epistemology. (Quine par 5) The idea is that you need to take into account your experiences and use deductive reasoning. Quine uses a metaphor involving the statue of Abraham Lincoln. Quine says â€Å"A statue can have a form such as Abraham Lincoln and a matter such as marble; you need both a form and a matter to have a statue. So in knowledge you need a form, which are categories of the mind, and matter which are the data of sensations. † What I understand of this is that you cannot experience everything in life so you must use deductive reasoning, but you must experience some things to have a basis for your knowledge. Skepticism is just as it sounds, to doubt. You may be familiar with the statement â€Å"I think, therefore I am† but may not know what it means, who stated it, and why it was ever said, and how it relates to skepticism. Descartes was looking for a way to prove truths by disproving everything else. He used two conjectures, the dream conjecture and the evil demon conjecture. The dream conjecture utilized the fact that the truth could be a figment of the imagination. The evil demon conjecture posed the idea that a malevolent force was distorting reality. Descartes used these two as tools. If a truth could pass these two filters, then indeed it was the truth. What he discovered was that a person could doubt everything except one truth: â€Å"I think, therefore I am† Here’s how it passed the test. A person must exist to be able to think. To doubt something requires thought. So the act of doubting your own existence proves that you exist. This was a great discovery but Descartes was troubled with other questions. Descartes found it difficult to make the mind-body connection. That is, the mind is immaterial and the body is physical, how can something immaterial move something that is material. Parallelism was proposed as a solution. Simply put, the mind does not move the arm, the act of willing the arm to move only appears to make the arm move. Two events happen in parallel, the act of willing the arm to move and the arm actually moving. How does it just so happen that these to events happen at precisely the same time? Occasionalism, a variant of parallelism, was offered. A person wills their arm to move and on that occasion a divine power causes the arm to move. Many theories have been set forth, some a little harder to grasp or understand than the others. From the examples above you may begin to understand what epistemology is. You can grasp parts from the short stories above that help explain the nature, scope, and sources of knowledge. Depending on your  position, all of this information presented could not even be true. You may not really be reading this. You may not even exist, do you doubt it? Works Cited http://pantheon. yale. edu http://www. london-oratory. org/philosophy W. V. O. Quine. Epistemology. 23 Mar 2004 The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Continental Rationalism. 23 Mar 2004 Chapter 6-Philosophy-The Rise of Modern Metaphysics and Epistemology Chapter 7-Philosophy-The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries Epistemology-University of Phoenix Faculty Material.

Ledership

What is leadership? According to Shockley- Zalabak (2009) Leadership is a process of guiding individuals, groups, and entire organization in establishing goals and sustaining action to support goals. What exactly is meant by leadership? There are literally hundreds of definitions about who a leader is and what is considered as leadership. Each definition may vary from one individual to another and may change from one situation to the other. For example we might call an individual a leader because of the persons’ election to the presidency of an institution.Other times we say he/she is not a leader because he/she does not exhibit leadership behaviors expected of the of a leader. In other words, we expected leadership from the legitimate position of the presidency, but when that president does not exhibit leadership behaviors, we say that the president is not a leader. According to Yukl, (2002). The definition of leadership is arbitrary and very subjective. Some definitions are more useful than others, but there is no â€Å"correct† definition. Leadership theories: Theories are most useful for influencing practice when they suggest new ways in which events and situations can be perceived.Fresh insight may be provided by focusing attention on possible interrelationship that the practice has failed to notice, which can be further explored and tested through empirical research. If the result is a better understanding of practice, the theory –practice gap is significantly reduced for those concerned. (Hughes and Bush, 1991, p. 234). The trait theory This theory first surfaced in the writings of early Greeks and Romans and is prevalent today among those who believe that leadership cannot be developed.This theory assumed that leaders has innate traits that made them effective, great leaders were considered to be born with the ability for leadership, so it is either you have leadership qualities or you don’t . According to Shockley – z alabak (2009) theory of leadership, that leaders possessed innate traits that made them effective; is commonly referred to as the â€Å"great man† theory Leadership traits theory is the idea that people are born with certain character trait or qualities and since traits are associated with proficient leadership, it assumes that if you could identify eople with the correct traits, you will be able to identify leaders and people with leadership potential. It is considered that we are born naturally with traits as part of our personality; this theory in summary believes that leaders are born not made Criticism Researches were done to define traits or personality characteristic that best predict the effective leader. List of about eighty traits or characteristic were gotten but trait approach failed to define clearly a stable set of characteristic associated with effective leadership.Even the concept of what is effective remains open to question. This theory does not prove a comp rehensive explanation to how leaders interact with followers and meet the needs of specific circumstances. While truly others can be born leaders, it is incorrect to generalize by saying that leadership traits are in born and unchangeable. It’s true many of our dispositions and tendencies are influenced by our personalities and the way we are born. However, most people recognized that it is possible for someone to change their character trait for the worse.Someone known for being honest can learn to be deceitful, the whole idea of saying someone was â€Å"corrupted† is based on the fact that people can learn bad traits. If people can learn character traits and become different from the way they were born naturally traits can be learnt as well. A person who is prone to being dishonest can learn to be honest. A person who avoids risks can learn to take risk. It may not be easy, but it can be done. STYLE APPROACHES Leadership style approach focuses its attention on the le aders’ behavior. Leadership style is the combination of traits, skills, and behaviors leaders use as they interact with followers: (Lussier, 2004) Though leadership style is based on leadership skills and leadership traits, leadership behaviors is the important component. This is said to be the third approach to leadership studies, a consistent pattern of behavior is what characterizes a leader. â€Å"In shifting the study of leadership to leaders’ style or behaviors, the style approach expanded the study of leadership to various contexts† (North house, 2004).According to Shockley- Zalabak (2009) style approach or theories attempt to identify and arrange the general approaches leaders use to achieve goals. These approaches are thought to be based or a leader’s assumption about what motivates people to accomplish goals. This theory attempts to identify a range of general approaches leaders use to influence goal achievement. These approaches are theorized t o be based on the leader’s assumption about what motivates people to accomplish goals.Particular approaches also reflect complex relationships among the personal characteristics of the leader. Top among the style theories is the autocratic-to-democratic continuum first proposed by Ralph while and Ronald Lippitt (1960). Autocratic style of leader is a leader who makes decisions with little influence from others Shockley- Zalabak (2009). The leader that exhibits this behavior makes the decisions, gives orders to employees, and is constantly supervising his subordinate. This leader tells others what to do and usually enforces sanctions against those who chose not to comply. He views his followers as essential for goal achievement but usually feels little responsibility for employee needs and relationship Shockley- zalabak (2009). Criticism Research suggests that autocratically led groups produce more in quantity than democratically led groups, but that the quality output is bett er when more democracy is practiced. Generally with autocratic styles the led are not happy so they just do as they are told not because they have the interest of the institution at heart or because they enjoy working.Democratic- Shockley-Zalabak (2009) states that this style of leaders is the one that involves followers in decision making. The leader that exhibits this behavior promotes shared decision, team work, and does not supervise his subordinates closely. He assumes followers are able to participate in decision making, they try to create a climate in which problem solving can take place while preserving interpersonal relationships. It is clear that these leadership styles are opposite’s end of a continuum.As such, it’s easy to think that a leader’s leadership style s follows between those ends. Criticism When a leader is democratic at times his other colleagues in leadership positions can look at him as a weakling and also the subordinates might take adv antage and wants to be disrespectful. Laissez-faire style- Here the leader behaves as non-leader. Individuals and groups are expected to make their own decisions because of a hand-off approach from the leader. The laissez-faire leader is an example of non-leader. This leader expects groups and individuals to make their own decision.He gives information only when ask by group members. Criticism The success of the group depends greatly on the abilities of the group and groups members willingness to work with little or no leadership. If the groups members consist of people that need a push to do things they won’t be able to achieve much. Impoverished management- According to Shockley- Zalabak (2009) this style is characterized by low concern for interpersonal relationships and task accomplishment. This leader makes few attempts to influence people towards task or goals.He dislikes leadership responsibilities and lets others take the responsibility that rightfully belongs to the leader. This leader is usually uncomfortable with leadership and intellectually resists the need for it. Criticism These leaders may be primarily responsible for the failure of the group. Middle- of- the- road management- This is a style of leader who balances task and peoples’ concerns; commonly referred to as compromised leadership or management. The leader negotiates and compromises to achieve workable agreements and directions for action Country club management-This is a style of leaders who emphasizes interpersonal relationship at the expense of goal achievement the leader here wants to be liked and have group followers who feel supported by the leader. He provides an interpersonal relationship bond that is low on task emphasis and high in interpersonal support Criticism He may want a task accomplished but will not take steps to emphasize this element to others, if members are not highly task oriented; he ends up doing their work. Rather than insisting that the employees exhibit high standards of performance. These leaders may not develop the abilities of the people under them.Team leadership: This is the theoretical ideal: team leaders exhibit high concern for both task and interpersonal relationships by emphasizing goal accomplishment while supporting people, it fosters a sense of â€Å"we† with high performance standards. This leadership share decision making and strives for problem solving designed to solve rather than postpone problem, it respects different point of view and value diversity as long as it contributes to the group effort. Criticism Team members who support one another but do not have enough ability or information to work on problems will not be able to produce a high-quality decision.

Battle of the Saintes in the American Revolution

Battle of the Saintes in the American Revolution Battle of the Saintes - Conflict Dates: The Battle of the Saintes was fought April 9-12, 1782, during the American Revolution (1775-1783). Fleets Commanders British Admiral Sir George RodneyRear Admiral Samuel Hood36 ships of the line French Comte de Grasse33 ships of the line Battle of the Saintes - Background: Having won a strategic victory at the Battle of the Chesapeake in September 1781, Comte de Grasse took his French fleet south to the Caribbean where it aided in the capture of St. Eustatius, Demerary, St. Kitts, and Montserrat. As the spring of 1782 progressed, he made plans to unite with a Spanish force before sailing to capture British Jamaica. Grasse was opposed in these operations by a smaller British fleet led by Rear Admiral Samuel Hood. Aware of the danger posed by the French, the Admiralty dispatched Admiral Sir George Rodney with reinforcements in January 1782. Arriving at St. Lucia in mid-February, he was immediately concerned about the scope of British losses in the area. Uniting with Hood on the 25th, he was equally disturbed by condition and supply situation of his compatriots vessels. Shifting stores to compensate for these deficiencies, Rodney deployed his forces to intercept French reinforcements and box de Grasse into Martinique. Despite these efforts, some additional French ships reached de Grasses fleet at Fort Royal. On April 5, the French admiral sailed with 36 ships of the line and steered for Guadeloupe where he intended to board additional troops. Battle of the Saintes - Opening Moves: Pursuing with 37 ships of the line, Rodney caught up to the French on April 9, but fitful winds prevented a general engagement. Instead a minor battle was fought between Hoods van division and the rearmost French ships. In the fight, Royal Oak (74 guns), Montagu (74), and Alfred (74) were damaged, while the French Caton (64) took a heavy battering and steered away for Guadeloupe. Using a freshening wind, the French fleet drew away and both sides took April 10 to rest and repair. Early on April 11, with a strong wind blowing, Rodney signaled general chase and resumed his pursuit. Spotting the French the next day, the British bore down on a French straggler forcing de Grasse to turn to defend it. As the sun set, Rodney expressed confidence that the battle would be renewed the next day. With dawn breaking on April 12, the French were sighted a short distance away as the two fleets maneuvered between the northern end of Dominica and Les Saintes. Ordering line ahead, Rodney turned the fleet to head north-northeast. As Hoods van division had been battered three days earlier, he directed his rear division, under Rear Admiral Francis S. Drake, to take the lead. Battle of the Saintes - The Fleets Engage: Leading the British line, HMS Marlborough (74), Captain Taylor Penny, opened the battle around 8:00 AM when he approached the center of the French line. Easing north to remain parallel with the enemy, the ships of Drakes division passed the remaining length of de Grasses line as the two sides exchanged broadsides. Around 9:00 AM, Drakes rearmost ship, HMS Russell (74), cleared the end of the French fleet and hauled wind. While Drakes ships had taken some damage, they had inflicted a severe battering on the French. As the battle progressed, the strong winds of the previous day and night began to temper and became more variable. This had a dramatic effect on the next stage of the fight. Opening fire around 8:08 AM, Rodneys flagship, HMS Formidable (98), engaged the French center. Deliberately slowing, it engaged de Grasses flagship, Ville de Paris (104), in a protracted fight. As the winds lightened, a smoky haze descended on the battle impeding visibility. This, along with the wind shifting to the south, caused the French line to separate and bear to the west as it could not hold its course into the wind. The first to be affected by this shift, Glorieux (74) quickly was pounded and dismasted by British fire. In quick succession, four French ships fell afoul of each other. Sensing an opportunity, Formidable turned to starboard and brought its port guns to bear on these ships. Piercing the French line, the British flagship was followed by five of its comrades. Slicing through the French in two places, they hammered de Grasses ships. To the south, Commodore Edmund Affleck also grasped the opportunity and led the rearmost British ships through the French line inflicting significant damage. Battle of the Saintes - Pursuit: With their formation shattered and their ships damaged, the French fell away to the southwest in small groups. Collecting his ships, Rodney attempted to redeploy and make repairs before pursuing the enemy. Around midday, the wind freshened and the British pressed south. Quickly capturing Glorieux, the British caught up to the French rear around 3:00 PM. In succession, Rodneys ships captured CÃ ©sar (74), which later exploded, and then Hector (74) and Ardent (64). The final capture of the day saw the isolated Ville de Paris overwhelmed and taken along with de Grasse. Battle of the Saintes - Mona Passage: Breaking off the pursuit, Rodney remained off Guadeloupe until April 18 making repairs and consolidating his fleet. Late that day, he dispatched Hood west to attempt to head off those French ships which had escaped the battle. Spotting five French ships near the Mona Passage on April 19, Hood captured Ceres (18), Aimable (30), Caton, and Jason (64). Battle of the Saintes - Aftermath: Between the engagements of April 12 and 19, Rodneys forces captured seven French ships of the line as well as a frigate and sloop. British losses in the two fights totaled 253 killed and 830 wounded. French losses numbered around 2,000 killed and wounded and 6,300 captured. Coming on the heels of the defeats at Chesapeake and the Battle of Yorktown as well as the territorial losses in the Caribbean, the victory at the Saintes helped to restore British morale and reputation. More immediately, it eliminated the threat to Jamaica and provided a springboard for reversing the losses in the region. The Battle of the Saintes is generally remembered for the innovative breaking of the French line. Since the battle, there has been great debate as to whether Rodney ordered this maneuver or his fleet captain, Sir Charles Douglas. In the wake of the engagement, both Hood and Affleck were highly critical of Rodneys pursuit of the French on April 12. Both felt that a more vigorous and protracted effort could have led to the capture of 20 French ships of the line.

Whats a Good PSAT Score for 2018

What's a Good PSAT Score for 2018 SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips The 2018 PSAT is coming up in mid-to-late October,and scores should come out by mid-December. When you get your score report, you'll see a bunch of different kinds of scores, including your total score (out of 1520), your section scores (out of 760), and your Selection Index (out of 228). Sorting through all of this data to figure out what's a good PSAT score can be tricky, so we've written this guide to understanding your PSAT score report. We'll begin with a quick run-through of the different types of PSAT scores, then get into how you can figure out how your score compares to that of other students. Breakdown of PSAT Score Types When you first look at it, your PSAT score report might seem a bit intimidating. All the information in it is intended to help you, but it can be hard to figure out what it means and how well you did if you don't understand what each score type actually shows. PSAT score reports have six main kinds of data: scaled total scores, section scores, raw scores, subscores, Selection Index, and percentiles. Here’s a quick rundown of what all of these terms mean and what their ranges are: Scaled total score: Your total score on the PSAT, ranging between 320 and 1520. Half of your total score comes from Math and the other half comes from Evidence-based Reading and Writing (which is a combination of the Reading and Writing and Language sections). Scaled section scores: Two scores, one for Math and one for Evidence-based Reading and Writing. Both of these scores fall between 160 and 760. Section (test) scores: Three scores: one for Math, one for Reading, and one for Writing and Language. All section scores fall between 8 and 38. Subscores: Seven scores, each on a scale of 1 to 15. Subscores tell you how you did on certain types of questions, some of which appear across two or more sections of the PSAT. You’ll get a subscore for questions that fallinto these seven categories: Command of Evidence, Words in Context, Expression of Ideas, Standard English Conventions, Heart of Algebra, Problem Solving and Data Analysis, and Passport to Advanced Math. Raw scores: Three scores, one for each PSAT section, representing the number of questions you got right. The ranges for raw scores vary by section. You can get a maximum raw score of 48 for Math, 47 for Reading, and 44 for Writing and Language. Selection Index: One score that ranges from 48 to 228. Your selection index is the sum of your three section scores between 8 and 38 multiplied by 2: (Math section score + Reading section score + Writing section score) x 2 = Selection Index The National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) uses the Selection Index to determine whether test takers qualify as Commended Students or Semifinalists. Percentiles: Ranking of your performance compared to that of other test-takers. Percentiles tell you what percentage of other students you scored the same as or better than. If you score in the 80th percentile, then you scored the same as or better than 80% of other test-takers. There it is- all of the categories of data on your PSAT score report, explained. The next step is understanding what information in your score report matters the most for you. Out of all six kinds of data, which are the most important? Which PSAT Scores Are Most Important? All of the data on your PSAT score report is useful in one way or another, but the most important numbers are your scaled total score and scaled section scores. As you saw above, the highest you can score on the PSAT is 1520 overall or 760 on Math and 760 on Evidence-Based Reading and Writing. While as you take the test there are separately timed sections for Reading and Writing and Language, your scores on these sections are combined into one scaled section score (Evidence-Based Reading and Writing). As a result, your total PSAT score is 50% Math and 50% Evidence-Based Reading and Writing. Another piece of information that's important for students competing for a National Merit Scholarship is your Selection Index. To make sure students from across the country are represented in the National Merit Scholarship contest, the NMSC sets different cutoffs in each state to determine which students become Commended Scholars and which become Semifinalists. The top 1% of scorers in each state are named Semifinalists, who then apply to become Finalists and win scholarship money. As for the other score data on your score report? We recommend using your non-scaled section scores, raw scores, and subscores to get detailed insight into how you did on each section and question type on the PSAT. Understanding what kinds of PSAT questions you got wrong is especially helpfulwhen you go on to study for the SAT, as this understanding of your strengths and weaknesses as a test-taker can point you towards where you need to focus your studying. For example, having a higher Math score and a lower Evidence-Based Reading and Writing score indicates that you need to focus more on the Reading and Writing sections. This is fine, but still kind of broadthat's 2/3 of the test! However, if you go deeper into your score report by checking your raw scores and subscores, you might discover that what you really need to work on is a specific type of question in the Writing and Language section (e.g. Command of Evidence questions). Now that you have the tools to sort through your PSAT score report, let’s go back to our original, million-dollar question: what makes a good score on the PSAT? Read on to find out. What's a Good Score on the PSAT? What Does That Mean? Before we can answer thequestion of what a good score on the PSAT is, we need to define what we mean by a "good score."Since everyone has different goals for the PSAT, a good score for one student may be a disappointing score for another. To figure out what a good PSAT score is, let's consider a couple of different ways a score could be "good." First, we could define â€Å"good† as meaning that you scored better than 50% or more of other test-takers. Based on this definition, we can use percentiles to figure out what makes an above-average PSAT score. Second, we can define â€Å"good† PSAT scores as scores thatqualifyfor National Merit. Actually, qualifying for National Merit means that you got excellent, amazing, near-perfect PSAT scores. What the exact scores you should aim for to qualify for National Merit is something we'll talk about in a little bit. Finally, because the PSAT is very similar to the SAT, we can use the PSAT to determine whether or not you're on track to get the SAT scores you need for the colleges you want to apply to. Figuring this out means understanding what kinds of SAT scores colleges are looking for. Let’s start by considering PSAT percentiles. How do PSAT scores correspond to percentiles? Full Chart of PSAT Score Percentiles PSAT percentiles tell you how well you did in comparison to others who took the test. For instance, if your score is in the 81st percentile, you did as well as or better than 81% of test takers (and worse than 19% of test takers). The top percentile on the PSAT is the 99th percentile. However, you don’t need a perfect PSAT score to get into the 99th percentile. We don’t have percentile data yet for the October 2018 PSAT, but we can get an idea of what to expect by looking at percentiles from the 2017 PSAT. Here’s the full chart that shows how PSAT scaled section scores compare, usingpercentiles: PSAT Section Score Evidence-Based Reading and Writing Percentile Math Percentile 760 99+ 99+ 750 99+ 99 740 99 98 730 99 97 720 98 97 710 97 96 700 96 95 690 95 95 680 94 94 670 93 93 660 91 92 650 90 91 640 88 90 630 86 89 620 84 87 610 82 85 600 79 84 590 77 81 580 74 79 570 71 75 560 67 72 550 64 68 540 60 65 530 57 61 520 53 58 510 50 55 500 46 52 490 43 47 480 40 43 470 36 39 460 33 35 450 30 32 440 28 28 430 25 25 420 22 23 410 19 19 400 17 16 390 15 13 380 12 10 370 10 8 360 8 7 350 6 4 340 5 4 330 3 3 320 2 2 310 2 2 300 1 1 290 1 1 280 1 1 270 1- 1 260 1- 1- 250 1- 1- 240 1- 1- 230 1- 1- 220 1- 1- 210 1- 1- 200 1- 1- 190 1- 1- 180 1- 1- 170 1- 1- 160 1- 1- Via CollegeBoard.org As the chart above shows, percentiles are distributed slightly differently for Math and Evidence-based Reading and Writing, with Math being a little more competitive at most score levels. For example, an Evidence-Based Reading and Writing score of 730 ranks in the 99th percentile, whereas you’d need a 750 to get into the 99th percentile for Math. This difference shows that more students get higher scores in Math than they do in Evidence-Based Reading and Writing (indicating that EBRW is in fact harder to do well on for most students). Using the PSAT percentile chart as a reference, we'll next discuss what you have to score in each section to get a "good" PSAT score (aka a score in a higher-than-average percentile). What Is a Good 2018 PSAT Score, Based on Percentiles? If we define a good PSAT score as a score that fewer than half of students get, we can use percentiles to figure out what exact score you'd need to rank higher than the majority of other test-takers. For the PSAT, to rank in the 50th percentile, you’d need at least a 510 in Reading and Writing and a 500 in Math. What if you want to rank in the 70th, 80th, 90th, or even 99th percentile? Here are the section scores you’d need to score as well as or higher than other students at those levels. Percentile Reading and Writing Score Math Score Composite Score 70% 570 560 1120 80% 610 590 1180 90% 650 640 1280 99% 730 750 1450 Oddly enough, you have to score slightly higher in Evidence-Based Reading and Writing than in Math to make it into the 70th, 80th, and 90th percentiles. To make it into the 99th percentile, though, you’d have to score 20 points higher in Math than in Evidence-Based Reading and Writing. If you’re a strong test-taker aiming for National Merit, then a good PSAT score for you will be one that qualifies you for Commended Student or Semifinalist. Read on to learn what is a good PSAT score for National Merit distinction. What’s a Good 2018 PSAT Score for National Merit? The National Merit Scholarship Corporation awards students who get top scores on the PSAT a couple of different titles. Students who score in the top third to fourth percentile of all PSAT test takers are named Commended Students, while students whose PSAT scores are in the top 1%ile are named Semifinalists. However, rather than relying on PSAT percentiles, NMSC uses students' Selection Index to determine which students qualify for which honor. Each state has its own Selection Index cutoff that students need to make to qualify for National Merit. Before we go through the cutoffs for each state, though, let's quickly review how to calculate your PSAT Selection Index. How Is the Selection Index Calculated? Once you know your 8-38 scale Math, Reading, and Writing and Language scores, you can easily calculate your Selection Index score. Simply add your section scores for Reading, Writing and Language, and Math together, and then multiply the entire sum by 2 to get your Selection Index Score. Let’s say you got a 37 in Reading, a 38 in Writing and Language, and a 31 in Math. Here’s how you would figure out your Selection Index. Section Score Sum x 2 Selection Index Score Reading 37 (37 + 38 + 31) x 2 = 212 Writing and Language 38 Math 31 By adding together and doubling your section scores, you get a Selection Index of 212. Does this score qualify you to be a National Merit Semifinalist? It depends on where in the U.S. you live. Keep reading for the full chart that shows the qualifying cutoff scores for National Merit in each state. Qualifying PSAT Scores for National Merit, State by State We've created a chart that shows the Selection Index score you need to qualify for Semifinalist in everystate. While NMSC doesn't release a full list of cutoffs, they will tell you what the score cutoff is for your state (if you took the PSAT as a junior that year). Because of this, the data in the chart below is crowdsourced from individuals across the country. If any of the cutoffs are wrong, let us know in the comments! You can also confirm your own state's Selection Index cutoff by calling NMSC at (847) 866-5100. Here’s the full list of state cutoffs to qualify for National Merit Semifinalist. State PSAT Cutoff for National Merit Semifinalist Alabama 216 Alaska 215 Arizona 220 Arkansas 214 California 223 Colorado 221 Connecticut 222 Delaware 222 DC 223 Florida 219 Georgia 220 Hawaii 220 Idaho 214 Illinois 221 Indiana 219 Iowa 216 Kansas 218 Kentucky 218 Louisiana 217 Maine 217 Maryland 223 Massachusetts 223 Michigan 219 Minnesota 220 Mississippi 215 Missouri 217 Montana 214 Nebraska 216 Nevada 218 New Hampshire 219 New Jersey 223 New Mexico 215 New York 221 North Carolina 220 North Dakota 212 Ohio 219 Oklahoma 215 Oregon 221 Pennsylvania 220 Rhode Island 220 South Carolina 216 South Dakota 215 Tennessee 219 Texas 221 Utah 215 Vermont 216 Virginia 222 Washington 222 West Virginia 212 Wisconsin 216 Wyoming 212 Average Score 218 On average, students need a Selection Index score of 218 to become National Merit Semifinalists. If you live in California, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, or Washington, DC, then you need to meet the highest cutoff of 223 to qualify for National Merit. The highest possible Selection Index is 228, so getting a 223 or above requires getting at least a 37 (out of 38!) on all three PSAT sections. If you haven't taken the PSAT yet and are aiming for National Merit, I'd recommend aiming for a PSAT score that's at least two to five points higher than your state's cutoff on this list. The cutoffs can fluctuate a bit from year to year, depending on how students around the country do on the PSAT/NMSQT. Once you know what the Selection Index cutoff is for your state, how can you figure out what scores you need to qualify for National Merit? Your cutoff score for National Merit depends on what state you live in. How to Calculate Your Target Scores for National Merit If you haven't taken the PSAT yet and are aiming for National Merit, this section is for you. Earlier, you learned how to convert your PSAT section scores into the Selection Index. If you know what Selection Index you’re aiming for, all you need to do now is work backwardto figure out your target section scores. Remember how you needed to add your section scores together and then double that sum to get your Selection Index? Working backward just means dividing your Selection Index by two and then further splitting that quotient into three. Let’s say you live in North Dakota. To qualify for National Merit, students who took the PSAT in 2017 needed a Selection Index score of 212. To be on the safe side, you'll want to aim for at least a 216 as your target score (just in case the cutoff fluctuates). Our first step, then, is to divide 216 by 2. 216 / 2 = 108. Now you know that your section scores in Reading, Writing and Language, and Math need to add up to 108. You can also figure out what section score you need for each section (Math, Reading, and Writing and Language) by dividing 108 by three. 108 / 3 = 36 However, not everyone is equally strong at math and reading and writing. You might be able to aim a little higher in Math and a little lower in Reading and Writing and Language, or vice versa. As long as your section scores still add up to 108, you’ll still get a Selection Index of 216 and potentially qualify for National Merit. Once you understand what total section scores you need, you can adjust your target scores among the three PSAT sections however you want. Set realistic goals for yourself based on your own math, reading, and writing skills. Of course, only a small fraction of students who take the PSAT do so with the intent of becoming National Merit Semifinalists. And only 16,000 of the 1.6 million who take the PSAT will receive this distinction. Disappointed with your PSAT performance? Want to improve your PSAT score by 150 points? We have the industry's leading PSAT prep program. Built by Harvard grads and SAT full scorers, the program learns your strengths and weaknesses through advanced statistics, then customizes your prep program to you so you get the most effective prep possible. Check out our 5-day free trial today: We've already discussed how a good PSAT score could be one that is better than what most students get or one that qualifies you to become a National Merit Semifinalist. We'll now go into the third and final way of defining a good PSAT score, which is a score that shows you’re on track to achieving your SAT goals and getting into college. What Is a Good PSAT Score for College? Since the PSAT is extremely similar to the SAT, your performance on the PSAT can help predict your SAT score. Almost everyone's score goes up if they take these kinds of standardized tests more than once, sothe PSAT is a useful trial run. As a result, if you take the PSAT first you'll likely score higher on the SAT than you would if you hadn't taken the PSAT. You can use your PSAT score report to see your current scoring level and findout what skills you need to improve to hit your target SAT scores. To figure out your target SAT scores, you'll need to do some college research. Find schools that you’re interested in and look up the average SAT scores of accepted students. You can then use this information to set your own SAT score goals. Once you know what scores you need to get into your colleges of interest, you can use your PSAT score report to design a study plan. Use the data provided by section scores and subscores to pinpoint your strengths and weaknesses, then type yourself up a personalized SAT study plan that targets your weak areas. Depending on how much you want to improve, you can roughly predict how much time you'll need to set aside to prep. Here’s an estimate of how many hours you need to study to improve different increments on the SAT. 0-50 SAT composite (out of 1600) point improvement: 10 hours 50-100 point improvement: 20 hours 100-200 point improvement: 40 hours 200-300 point improvement: 80 hours 300-500 point improvement: 150 hours+ If you’re already scoring close to your target SAT scores on the PSAT, then you can feel satisfied with your PSAT scores. But if you fell short by a hundred points, then you need to kick your test prep into gear and devote several hours a week to getting ready for the SAT. Fortunately, if you have months to prepare and use that time effectively, you can definitely see a big improvement in both your skills as a test-taker and your SAT score. Your PSAT score report offers a useful starting point for your SAT prep. Whether or not you think you did well on the PSAT, you can still achieve a good score on the SAT with enough commitment. In closing, we'll go over the key points you need to remember about what a good score for the 2018 PSAT is. What SAT score do you need to be a good candidate for your dream school? Your PSAT scores can help you achieve your dream. 2018 PSAT Scores: Key Takeaways If you take the PSAT in 2018, you'll get your scores back mid-December. The score report you get might be confusing at first, but you now know what PSAT scaled scores, section scores, and subscores mean (and you can always use this article as a refresher if you forget!). Students aiming for National Merit should also check Selection Index score to see if it's above past years' qualifying scores for their state. Everyone has their own definition for what is aâ€Å"good† PSAT score. For example, what you might think a good score could simply be one that's higher than most other students' scores. In that case, you can use percentiles to figure out what makes a good score on the PSAT. If you’re a high-achieving student who has spent time prepping for the PSAT, then a good score for you might mean receiving National Merit distinction. National Merit is extremely competitive and only top scorers across the country get named Commended Scholars and Semifinalists. Before taking the PSAT, you should use the Selection Index cutoff for your state to set your PSAT score goals. Finally, scoring well on the PSAT can inform how you prep for the SAT. You can set a PSAT score goal based on the SAT score you'll need for your eventual college applications. If you make it, then great; if not, you'll then know you need to put in more time prepping for the SAT to get into the sweet spot for the colleges you want to apply to. Taking the PSAT can tell you about your strong and weak areas (which you can use for the PSAT prep) as well as qualifying you as a National Merit Semifinalist. In the end, you should decide what a good PSAT score for you is based on your personal goals and plans. What’s Next? Once you're named a National Merit Semifinalist, what's the next step? Find out how to move on in the competition and win scholarship money with our complete guide on how to become a National Merit Finalist. How does the PSAT differ from the SAT? Should you prep for both at once or one at a time? Learn more about the similarities and differences between the PSAT and SAT here. How much time do you need to set aside to get a killer SAT score? We advise you how much ahead of time to start prepping and how long you need to study for the SAT. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points?We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:

Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Analysis - Essay Example Therefore, his attitude towards death and afterlife was perceived as rather odd and unusual, but the line of development arranged by Socrates for his arguments supporting the idea of death seems rather plausible and – together with the metaphysical theory of forms elaborated by Plato – underlies many ideas of Christianity formed later. Juxtaposition of Socratic and Christian doctrines is possible at least due to the concept of the immortal soul and fleeting nature of earthly life inside the material body. At the end of the dialogue, just before he died, Socrates asked his friend Crito to make an offering – a cock - to Asclepius, and this last request has been interpreted in many ways; yet, the most common understanding on this expression is that death is perceived as a relief and cure for all miseries and maladies of life. As a thesis, I would state that his view of life and death (death being a state free of all earthly concerns) is rather reasonable to certain extent, as Socrates manages to support it with the insight to the ideas of objective reality, reason and immortality of the soul. As the search for truth in the course of dispute and discussion is a hallmark of Socrates’ philosophy, no wonder that he prefers to lead his companions to understanding of the truth giving them points for consideration and constantly asking questions (as if he wasn’t sure and wanted his point of view to be confirmed and approved by his friends). In this dialogue, we see the philosopher gradually unfolding his ideas of death and afterlife in front of his companions and supporting his statements with examples. As the fear of death becomes the main issue of concern, Socrates states that a person should perceive his/her death gladly and have no fear of it. Whereas at the first sight, this idea seems rather puzzling, it makes sense as soon as the concept of immortal soul is applied. Providing a fellow philosopher as an example, Socrates proves that a thinker

Regular Vacuum Cleaner Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Regular Vacuum Cleaner - Essay Example One of the most recognized tools used in large scale both commercially and in residential areas is regular vacuum cleaner and an understanding of the competency of the gadget in relation to consumer needs is imperative for the comprehension of its revolutionary aspect. In the analysis of the regular vacuum cleaner in relation to technology and changes in the contemporary world, my company will involve the Strength, Weaknesses, opportunities and threats characteristics (SWOT) to obtain an in-depth analysis of the machine in all aspects to determine the best way forward with the gadget (Pahl, 2009). Focusing on the strengths of the commodity, the design of the cleaner comes in first. The manner in which the commodity is designed in that it is easy to roll provided the small efficient wheels it bears, the fact that it has a motor inside that is sure to revolve all the incoming dust makes it rather reputable. Moreover, the filter on the upper side of the cleaner ensures that the gadget i s efficient enough as to only let out clean air if it does let out any. This will be a very important point to be taken by the technology department of the company and specifically the technical department and for maximum efficiency credible qualifications are required. Another strength noticed in the commodity is the maintenance. The maintenance of the vacuum cleaner is very cheap because it does not require any outside catering for its processing whenever the dust chamber is full. The manual with which the commodity is bought with provides detailed and direct steps of how to go around the management of the cleaner. The manufacturers of various cleaners have made it easier for customers to determine which cleaner to purchase. As a company, we will indulge in ensuring that we offer after sale services that include regular check-ups through phone calls in case of any problems. The wide range of cleaners produced makes it easier for the customer to choose from depending on the volume of dirt absorbed (Daniels, 2011). This is subsequently influenced by the usage, either commercial or residential. There are also many weaknesses involved with the gadget after studying its market and physical characteristics critically. For one, the market prices of the commodity make it rather difficult for everyone to purchase. Despite the fact that there may exist cheap vacuum cleaners, their working ability is in no manner equivalent to all the rest. The cheaper the commodity, the less efficient it works. This is from the fact that the manufacturers of the commodities make the cleaners with very small alterations that lead to very large price differences. This is unethical given that almost every home in the contemporary world utilizes the commodity. A mere external physical alteration in the design and a change in the size of the dust bag size may even make prices differ. The company will ensure that the buyers of the commodity get what is worth of their money and this will be done by incorporating market and technical experts to determine how to provide high quality commodities at affordable prices thus upgrading the company’s image (Seymour, 2008). Another weakness in the commodity is the repair costs. Despite the fact that many companies that sell these cleaners offer guarantees, the warranty is at many times useless. This is because the gadgets may operate well for a couple of years and then