Critical Evaluation of African Socialism, with Regards to...

In 1960s when African states gain independence, many leaders felt that they can not celebrate their victory if they continue using the economic-political system that has been established by colonizers such as capitalism. They perceived capitalism as the bearer of social inequalities, and ignorance that exists within societies. They wanted a unique economic and political system with no resemblance of outside influence. African Socialism was then a unique political ideology and identity of Africa. Julius Nyerere was one of the leading proponents of African socialism â€Å"African traditional way of life† (Hyden, 1980: 200). African socialism as an ideology has its own successes and also its own criticism. Therefore, this essay will critically†¦show more content†¦Ujamaa is based on Arusha declaration of 1967 the first political effort to fight the accumulation of capital resources in hands of elites which ends in class divisions and struggles. Nyerere proposed three imp ortant assumptions beneath traditional Ujamaa living: the recognition and respect of one another, common ownership and the elimination of class divisions (Cameron 2007: 130-132). African socialism failed to deliver its promises and saved people from the aftermaths of colonialism. Many African leaders failed to put in practice policies that they preached during the African socialism adoption, they also lacked proper planning. Therefore, African socialism seemed as the mislaid philosophy idealism, worthless development with broken political promises which contained so many contradictions that then hindered its successfulness. Ujamaa policies shared the same basis and fallacy of development that has propelled and inhibited successive development initiative in Africa. This is objectification of African peasants and rural settlers as the hopeless sufferers of colonial era who were supposed to be lifted to higher levels of social and material well being. Thus, Ujamaa’s dedication to modernization paradigm ended in a condition where improving well being of peasants perceived as alienating them from their cultural and social realities to the reinvented colonia l practices (Cameron, 2007: 116). The main problem of African socialism was the

Mothers in Jane Austens Sense and Sensibility Essay

Mothers in Jane Austens Sense and Sensibility I can no more forget it, than a mother can forget her suckling child. Jane Austen wrote these words about her novel, Sense and Sensibility, in a letter to her sister Cassandra in 1811. Such a maternal feeling in Austen is interesting to note, particularly because any reader of hers is well aware of a lack of mothers in her novels. Frequently we encounter heroines and other major characters whom, if not motherless, have mothers who are deficient in maturity, showing affection, and/or common sense. Specifically, I would like to look at Sense and Sensibility, which, according to Ros Ballasters introduction to the novel, is full of, indeed over-crowded with, mothers (vii). By†¦show more content†¦Like Marianne, Mrs. Dashwood is romantic and whimsical, more prone to act on feelings than reason. Also similar to her youngest daughter, she often misjudges both the characters and situations of individuals. When Elinor tells Marianne of the difficulties Mrs. Ferrars presents in marryi ng Edward, Marianne was astonished to find how much the imagination of her mother and herself had outstripped the truth (18). Furthermore, Mrs. Dashwoods reaction to Willoughby is just as naà ¯ve as Mariannes. In Mrs. Dashwoods opinion, he was as faultless as in Mariannes (43). It is only Elinor, acting with the maternal caution her mother does not possess, who has reservations about Mariannes suitor. Thus, Mrs. Dashwood clearly fails as an authority figure for her children. She does not discourage them from acting recklessly (such as Mariannes trip to Miss Smiths home with Willoughby without a chaperone), nor does she provide the sort of structure or discipline that would prevent such situations from arising in the first place. She does, however, possess the nurturing and affectionate disposition that allows us to see her as, if not always a good mother, at least a loving and well-intentioned one. When Marianne becomes ill, it is only her mothers presence that can put her at ease: Mariannes ideas were still, at intervals, fixed incoherently on her mother (264). Mrs. Jennings, like Mrs. Dashwood, is a good-natured and kind woman,Show MoreRelatedSense And Sensibility By Jane Austen1123 Words   |  5 PagesSense and Sensibility was written by Jane Austen in 1811, the novel describes the life of three young sisters after the death of their father. The sisters; Elinor, Margaret, and Marianne Dashwood each are forced to leave their homes with their mother, Mrs. Dashwood, when their father passes and their home is inherited by Mr. Dashwood’s son, from his first marriage, John Dashwood. The young women and their mother vacate the home filled with the atrocious presence of Mr. Dashwood’s first wife, FannyRead MoreSense and Sensibility by Jane Austen1151 Words   |  5 Pagescan really love† (Austen 11). This quote in Jane Austen’s novel Sense and Sensibility highlights the main conflict in the novel. Also, it describes how Elinor Dashwood, the main character of the novel feels about love. In this novel social class is i mportant because most of the characters belong to upper-class families. Since there are conflicts with love and social class is of importance in the novel, two of the many themes from Sense and Sensibility include love and wealth. The conflicts the charactersRead MoreJane Austen s Sense And Sensibility983 Words   |  4 PagesJane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility takes a critical look at the limitations women possessed at the turn of the eighteenth century. Consequently, the success of a woman was entirely dependent on a man. In the novel, the main protagonists represent these two persuasions of thought. Elenor Dashwood, the eldest daughter in the Dashwood household, portrays sense. In contrast, her younger sister, Marianne Dashwood represents sensibility. The dichotomy of the title carries historical significance in aRead More The Social/Economic Upper-Class in England in Mrs. Dalloway, Sense and Sensibility, and The Picture of Dorian Gray1383 Words   |  6 PagesWoolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, and Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray are depicted through the characters’ lifestyles, wealth, and behaviors. Woolf, Austen, and Wilde give insig htful portrayals of the characters by emphasizing their social roles in the England society. Their portrayals of the characters suggest that they are critical of the upper-class’ factitious lifestyles. Members of England’s social/economic upper-class in Woolf’s, Austen’s, and Wilde’s literaryRead More Aspects of Romanticism Essay1407 Words   |  6 PagesNature, imagery, and the freedom of thought and expression are key elements of Romanticism as characterized in Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, William Wordsworth â€Å"We are Seven,† and Percy Shelley’s â€Å"Mutability.† These literary works of Jane Austen, Percy Shelley, and William Wordsworth focus on emphasizing their feelings and emotions by using their imagination and their love of nature as key tools for helping readers to comprehend their personal experiences. Each of their works reflects situationsRead MoreSocial Confinement in Austen’s Sense and Sensibility1059 Words   |  4 Pagesof Jane Austen’s novels ‘I should hardly like to live with their ladies and gentlemen, in their elegant but confined houses’ she was referring to the phy sical confinement of an interior versus an exterior setting. This confinement of the setting mirrors the social confinement of a woman versus a man in the societal structure at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century. While Austen studies the societal position of women in most of her novels, her early work Sense and Sensibility, isRead MoreA Brief Biography of Jane Austen930 Words   |  4 PagesJane Austen was truly a woman of her time. Not only did her level of education soar over most women of her time, she truly cared about the people around her. Austen’s passion for her family was just as strong as her passion for reading and writing. Austen strived to learn more everyday. She was one of the â€Å"most widely read writers in English Literature.†(Biography of Jane Austen 1) Jane Austen was born December 16, 1775 in Steventon, Village in Hampshire. â€Å"Austen received a better education thenRead MoreJane Austens Novel Sense and Sensibility: An Analysis1492 Words   |  6 PagesJane Austens groundbreaking novel Sense and Sensibility is a relationship-driven account of female protagonists. Sense and Sensibility shares much in common with other novels by and about women. Themes like autonomy versus independence and the role of women in a patriarchal society are explored in Sense and Sensibility. Using two sisters to symbolize the different directions the female spirit can be pulled, Austen shows the variable ways women respond to political, social, and economic oppressionRead More Class, Money, Pride and Happiness in Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen1721 Words   |  7 Pagesa good woman if she had five thousand pounds† and she â€Å"could dawdle about in the nursery and count the apricots on the wall† (VF 414). Marianne Dashwood of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility says that she â€Å"cannot be happy with a man whose taste did not in every point coincide with my own† (SS 15). Most importantly, Elizabeth Bennet of Austen’s Pride and Prejudice states that she would be happy with someone who â€Å"has no improper pride† and â€Å"is perfectly amiable† (PP 364). While all of these novelsRead MoreEssay on An Introduction to Sense and Sensibility1320 Words   |  6 PagesJane Austen’s novel Sense and Sensibility follows the lives of two sisters, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood, as they face the perils of finding love. In the novel, Elinor seems to be the embodiment of sense with her rationality and thoughtfulness, while her sister, Marianne, seems to symbolize sensibility. Marianne is incredibly emotional and wildly romantic. Although the novel seems to closely attach the sisters to these personifications, it is shown at the beginning of the novel that Elinor and Marianne

Tesco Company Essay Sample free essay sample

Background and context of organisation. Tesco is a bringing company based in Eastern Europe. We will write a custom essay sample on Tesco Company Essay Sample or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Besides offering bringing services it besides provides a clear solution to a dearly-won and time-wasting world of modern life because of its efficiency and effectivity – that of the inability of retail merchants to present bulk goods at a suited clip for working families. It saves clip. defeat. and environmental impact. ( Beaumont. P. B. and R. I. D. Harris. ( 1995 ) . The mark group that is our clients and employees are middle-income earners who comprise 80 % of the European population ( Bain. G. . ( 1976 ) . Tesco’s other line of concern involves placing jobs impacting at that place employees by making a sound employee’s relation by offering solution to there jobs where possible. for case meeting the trade brotherhood demand through a good established industrial relation. Service to their client. attention to their employees and paid growing is their major concern. Tesco Delivery Company looks frontward to take advantage on the quickly turning planetary market to the delivery-based service in Eastern Europe. This subdivision has been ignored for long by most concern participants and Tesco extremely believe is will capture the market portion. Tesco Company is owned in private by its laminitis Dr. Meshach wabwire who hold bulk of the portions. There are other four portion proprietors. Neither owns more than 16 % . though they actively take part in decision-making. ( Bain. G. . ( 1976 ) . Trade Unions will be given to be associated with: Findingss This study gives the analysis of the function of trade brotherhoods towards the employee dealingss in the Tesco Delivery Company. which is compared with other houses in Eastern Europe which is done at the degree of the person. ( Bain. G. . ( 1976 ) . The cardinal findings are as follows: Future External Influences Internal state of affairs Indeed. the determination of comparative stability of the disparity through clip seems extremely robust. In measuring the impact of brotherhoods at the macroeconomic degree. it should be kept in head that. even though the brotherhood pay differential appears to hold remained approximately changeless. it applies to a well smaller fraction of the work force ( P. Elias. ( 1985 ) . Recommendations The cardinal findings from the survey carried out in Tesco Company in comparing with the employee relation are as follows: Trade Unions in most other Eastern Europe tend to increase salary by less. ( Beaumont. P. B. and R. I. D. Harris. ( 1995 ) . From the survey there is little cogent evidence that the brotherhood pay premium or pay spread has changed much over the last five old ages have changed drastically in different parts of the universe. The magnitude of the grade of difference appears to be positively correlated with agreements in the unemployment pacing. ( Bain. G. . ( 1976 ) . There is some support that decreases in brotherhood denseness are greatest in states where the brotherhood net incomes disagreement is significant. Trade Unions in Tesco Company should be given to cut down entire hours of work. They should cut down criterion hours and unpaid overtime hours but increase the figure of paid overtime hours. Part-time work is less prevailing in brotherhood scenes than it is in non-union scenes. The size of the trade brotherhood and non-union hour’s disagreement appeared to be lower in t he Tesco Company than it is in most of the other houses examined. ( P. Elias. ( 1985 ) . Decision When unemployment is low the brotherhood pay Prime Minister appears to be low and frailty versa. Despite some grounds of cyclicality the dominant feeling from the figure is the comparative stability of the derived function over this long clip period. even though the labour market has. along other dimensions. experienced so much turbulency over same clip period ( Beaumont. P. B. and R. I. D. Harris. ( 1995 ) . An obvious inquiry to inquire is why has brotherhood rank and brotherhood employment been in diminution given the comparative stability of the brotherhood pay premium? As we shall see below. the degree of the disagreement is still really high by international criterions. The Tesco Company decides brotherhood rank through an adversarial electoral procedure at works degree which has evolved into a system where direction has a greater say in unionisation results than it does in other houses. ( Bain. G. . ( 1976 ) . The benefits to employers in taking brotherhoods from the workplace frequently outweigh the costs of making so. The costs to brotherhoods in forming enlisting thrusts are high. Scholars have argued that the loss of economic systems of graduated table in brotherhood organizing is an of import factor in explicating brotherhood diminution. It is much harder for employers in other Companies to acquire rid of brotherhoods than it is in the Tesco Company. Even in other parts of Europe there are merely a really few illustrations of brotherhood de-recognition. Employers are unable to conceal from a brotherhood ; they have no topographic point to travel. ( Beaumont. P. B. and R. I. D. Harris. ( 1995 ) . High premium industries. have shown that by increasing their brotherhood pay Prime Minister and losing employment portions and therefore rank of trade brotherhoods. Union pay Prime Minister in private services. have been argued. that have held stable or fallen. ( Bain. G. . ( 1976 ) . Mentions Bain. G. . ( 1976 ) . Union growing and the concern rhythm. Basil Blackwell. Oxford. Monetary value. T. ( 1983 ) . ‘Union growing in Industrial Relations in Britain. Oxford. Basil Blackwell. Bender. K. ( 1996 ) . ‘The altering determiners of unionism: an analysis utilizing worker-level data’ . Journal of Labor Research. forthcoming. Beaumont. P. B. and R. I. D. Harris. ( 1995 ) . ‘Union de-recognition and worsening brotherhood denseness in Britain. Industrial and Labor Relations Review. 48 ( 3 ) . pp. 389-402. Blackaby. D. H. . P. D. Murphy and P. J. Sloane. ( 1991 ) . ‘Union rank. corporate bargaining coverage and the trade brotherhood mark-up for Britain. Economics Letters. 36 ( 2 ) . June. pp. 203-208. Blanchflower. D. G. . ( 1984 ) . ‘Union comparative pay effects ; a cross-section analysis utilizing constitution informations. ’ British Journal of Industrial Relations. November. pp. 311-332. Blanchflower. D. G. . ( 1991 ) . ‘Fear. unemployment and wage flexibleness. ’ Economic Journal. March. pp. 483-496. Blanchflower. D. G. . and S. Burgess. ( 1996 ) . ‘New engineering and occupations: comparative grounds from a two state survey. New York. National Academy Press Blanchflower. D. G and R. B. Freeman. ( 1994 ) . Institutional developments. Cambridge University Press. Blanchflower. D. G. and A. J. Oswald. ( 1989 ) . ‘International forms of work. ’ in British Social Attitudes: International Comparisons. Edited by R. Jowell and S. Witherspoon. Gower Press. Blanchflower. D. G and Oswald. A. J. . ( 1990 ) . ‘The finding of white collar pay’ . Oxford Economic Papers. 42. pp. 356-378. Blanchflower. D. G and Oswald. A. J. . ( 1994 ) . The pay curve. MIT Press. Cambridge. Massachusetts. Blanchflower. D. G. A. J. Oswald and M. D. Garrett. ( 1990 ) . ‘Insider power in pay determination’ . Economical. 57. pp. 143-170. Bloom. D. and R. B. freewoman. ( 1992 ) . ‘The autumn in private pension coverage in the United States’ . American Economic Review. May. 82. pp. 539-545.

Strategies free essay sample

This is a statement that can be validated and justified by any historian. The institution of slavery was established to provide a cheap, sure, steady and reliable source of labor. It was consequently established to enable the planters to gain maximum profit. Near the ending of the eighteenth century Britain had undergone a period of industrialization and it became more evident that slave labor posed to be more of a burden than beneficial.The era of inventions and machines allowed for greater allocation of investments in Europe resulting in the lack of interest for sugar and slavery in the Caribbean. This brought about the rise Of abolitionists who led a gradual process that began in 1 772 and ended with their success in 1838. One such strategy used by abolitionists was the formation of societies. One such Society was The Committee for the abolition of the Slave Trade, created in 1787. This society involved active members such as William Willpower, Thomas Clarion and Granville Sharp among others. We will write a custom essay sample on Strategies or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Another society that was plopped was The Quakers, otherwise known as The Society of Friends. This society involved the first and most outspoken critics of slavery. Further societies included, the Clamp Sect and The New Tories, which were industrialists who believed that slavery was a wasteful crude, inefficient system of labor which did not fit with the modernization Of cheap mechanical production such as steam engines.The effectiveness of these societies become evident as it can be argued that they represented a unified and collected means of advocating for the abolition of slavery rather than a solitary and possibly, not so effective teeth of resistance to the system of slavery. To further comprehend the effectiveness of these societies, one may strike a comparison between the British employments of large, organized societies as opposed to the individual French advocates for the abolition of slavery.Though it can be argued that the famous French humanitarian, Victor Schoolteacher, contributed immensely to the abolition of slavery in the French colonies, it is argued by most, that his actions becomes less effective than the unified means of campaign employed by British societies. Another strategy came in the form of media. Abolitionists created a swapper, The Anti-Slavery Reporter in 1825. The newspaper was used to campaign vigorously for the abolition Of slavery.Information in the form Of articles was circulated to portray the inhumane treatment of the slaves on the sugar plantation and middle passage, placing pressure on the government. Additionally they made use of leaflets, pamphlets, poetry and illustrations to further depict the condition of slaves. This allowed for abolitionists to achieve both an awareness, and sympathy from the public on the matter of Slavery. After gaining public sympathy they were able to persuade the masses not to arches sugar coming from the islands. This was seen as a way to sabotage the sugar industry.In addition the effectiveness of such technique is seen in the fact that campaigning for the abolition of slavery through newspapers, pamphlets, etc. , succeeded in the public putting pressure on the government by overtly shouting their complaints and desire for the end of slavery. They lobbied together their voices demanding a change for new circumstances: the end the slavery. Atoms C. Holt, in The Problem of Freedom, elaborates: In 1788, about a hundred petition bearing over Sixty thousand names emended abolition of the slave trade; by 1 833 the abolitionists had flooded parliament with five thousand petitions endorsed by almost 1. Million people demanding the abolition of slavery. (peg. 27) Members of the abolitionist societies were noted for engaging in official protests, debates and campaigns in the parliaments, the House of Commons and public meetings. One notable debate advocating the end of the system of slavery was an economic one which argued that with the introduction and expansion of beet sugar in Europe sugar and slavery was no longer a stickiest. Beet sugar proved to be more profitable. In addition there was a lower cost of transportation.They, in addition, lobbied that paid labor proved to be more efficient than slave labor, as it involved a high mortality rate and thus proved to be unprofitable. Abolitionists participated in petitions collecting and spreading information of the planters cruel treatment of the slaves both on the plantations and the middle passage. They received their information by obtaining firsthand accounts from sailors and former slaves at British ports through interviews. One such abolitionist who did this was the researcher Thomas Clarion.Thomas Clarion devoted his entire life to the abolition of slavery. He was instrumental in evoking public sympathy, traveling around, promoting the cause and gathering evidences of the horrors of slavery. He was able to obtain equipments used on slave ships, such as iron handcuffs, leg-shackles, thumbscrews, branding irons and instruments used to force open the jaws of the slave. These equipments were displayed at public meetings and engraved in pamphlets. Prime Minister William Pit the Younger, and as previously stated, WilliamWillpower, were also two abolitionists of importance. Willpower had done his share of duties in advocating for the abolition of slavery but when he grew ill suddenly, Pit was responsible for proposing the resolution to the end of slavery on his behalf. Therefore although some critics, for example, Biographer William Hogue, considers Pit to not have been that effective in contributing to the abolition process, others see his importance in the fact that he was a large supporter to William Wildernesss advocating for the abolition slavery.Pit had suggested that Willpower become the reliantly leader of the abolition movement and both men worked in collaboration on campaigning for the abolition of slavery. As previously stated, the process was a gradual one. As such there was seen to be a series of different laws passed which eventually led to the end of slavery. The first step was seen in the abolition of the slave trade, in 1807. Following this was, Registry Bill, which was passed in 181 6 dictating that colonial legislatures register all slaves, as it was suspected that some colonies were importing slaves illegally. The next step was seen with the implementation of the Amelioration Proposal, 1823. An assessment of this proposal could be seen as a positive indicator Of the progress that abolition was near so that even West India interest became involved in the gradual process. The latter hoped to delay the process while the Abolitionists hoped that it would lead to an improvement in the inhumane, impoverished and ultimately difficult lives of the enslaved. In 1834, the apprenticeship system was employed to provide a smooth transition into emancipation for the slaves, which finally took place in the year 1838.

Effects of Electricity essays

Effects of Electricity essays In this lab, the effects of electricity were studied. This was done by observing the effect on a strip of metal foil when a charged rod was brought closer to it and by completing other similar experiments. These other experiments included examining the charge on common scotch tape and the various ways to give a rod charges. In the first experiment, a piece of tape was peeled off of the table and held close to some bits of tape, which it attracted. This showed that simply by removing the tape from the table, the tape became charged enough to attract the paper. Next, two pieces of tape were stuck to the table and when they were held together they repelled. The repulsion got stronger the closer together the pieces were held. Then, a piece of tape was hung off the edge of the table. A second was stuck on the table and a third was stuck on top of it. They were pulled from the table together and the peeled apart. When the bottom piece was brought close to the hanging tape, it repelled it. This shows that two pieces of tape, peeled from the same table, will share like charges, and thus repel each other. Next a series of experiments were completed using an ebonite rod, a glass rod, wool, silk, and an electroscope. In the first experiment, the ebonite rod was charged by rubbing it on wool and brought close to the hanging tape, which it repelled. This shows that the charge from the wool would easily transfer to the ebonite rod, and then share the same charge as the table and the tape. Next, the glass rod was charged with the silk and when brought close to the hanging tape it attracted it but when it was brought close to the straw in the electroscope, it repelled it, which shows that the tape shared the same charge, but the straw held an opposite charge. Then, the electroscope was neutralized with a finger and the charged ebonite rod was brought near the plate and the opposite side of the plate was touched with the finger...

1970 Palestinian Hijackings of Three Jets to Jordan

1970 Palestinian Hijackings of Three Jets to Jordan On Sept. 6, 1970, terrorists belonging to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) almost simultaneously hijacked three jetliners shortly after they took off from European airports on routes toward the United States. When hijackers on one plane were foiled, hijackers seized  a fourth jet, diverted it to Cairo, and blew it up. The two other hijacked planes were ordered to a desert airstrip in Jordan known as Dawson Field. Three days later, PFLP hijackers seized another jet and diverted it to the desert strip, which the hijackers called Revolution Field. Most of the 421 passengers and crew on board the three planes in Jordan were freed on Sept. 11, but hijackers held on to 56 hostages, most of them Jewish and American men, and blew up the three jets on Sept. 12. The hijackingspart of 29 hijackings attempted or carried out by Palestinian factions between 1968 and 1977triggered the Jordanian civil war, also known as Black September, as the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the PFLP attempted to seize control of Jordan from King Hussein. Husseins toppling failed, however, and the hostage crisis was resolved on Sept. 30 when the PFLP released the last six hostages it held in exchange for the release of several Palestinian and Arab prisoners held in European and Israeli jails. The Hijackings: The Five Planes PFLP hijackers seized a total of five planes during their September 1970 operation. The planes were: Sept. 6: El Al Flight 219 from Amsterdam to New York, a Boeing 707 carrying 142 passengers and crew. It was Hijacked by Patrick Argà ¼ello, a Nicaraguan-American doctor, and Leila Khaled, a Palestinian. An Israeli air marshal and passengers on the plane subdued the hijackers, killing Argà ¼ello. The plane landed safely in London. British authorities released Khaled on Sept. 30 as part of a deal for the release of hostages held in Jordan.Sept. 6: Trans World Airlines (TWA) Flight 741, en route from Frankfurt to New York, a Boeing 707 carrying 149 passengers and crew. Hijackers renamed the plane Gaza One and ordered it to the Jordanian airstrip. It was blown up on Sept. 12.Sept. 6: Swissair Flight 100 from Zurich to New York, a DC-8 with 155 passengers and crew. It was over France when hijackers seized it, renamed it Haifa One, and ordered it to Dawson Field in Jordan. It was blown up on Sept. 12.Sept. 6: Pan American Flight 93, a 747 taking off from Amsterdam and carrying 173 passen gers and crew, was ordered to fly to Beirut, even though the international airport there didnt have a runway for 747s. One more PFLP member, an explosives expert, boarded the plane in Beirut. The hijackers then ordered it flown to Cairo, where it landed at 4:23 a.m. and was blown up shortly afterward.The hijackers told us the plane would be blown up, but they said it so politely and with such smiles that we couldnt take this too seriously, Cornelius Van Aalst, the flights service supervisor, told reporters in Cairo, after the ordeal. The hijackers were very friendly, according to Van Aalst, showing exemplary manners and helping to carry an injured woman in a blanket from the plane. Sept. 9: BOAC Flight 775 from Bombay to London, a VC-10, was seized while flying over Lebanon. (The British Overseas Airways Corporation is the forerunner to British Airways.) PFLP hijackers said they had seized the plane as a ransom for the release of Leila Khaled, the foiled hijacker aboard the El Al plane. The BOAC plane carried 117 passengers and crew. It was allowed to land in Beirut, where it refueled, then flew to Dawson Field in Jordan to join the two other hijacked jets there. Why the Hijackings PFLP leader George Habash had planned the hijackings with Wadi Haddad, his lieutenant, in July 1970, when Jordan and Egypt agreed to a cease-fire with Israel that ended the War of Attrition that had stretched back to 1967. Habash, whose militants had been taking part in raids on Israel from the Sinai, Jordan, and Lebanon, was opposed to the settlement. If a settlement is made with Israel, Habash vowed, we will turn the Middle East into a hell. He was true to his word. Habash was in North Korea (on his way home from Beijing), on a shopping trip for weapons, when the hijackings took place. That created confusion over what the hijackers were demanding, as they had no clear spokesman. At one point a hijacker on board the Pan Am flight said the PFLP wanted the release of Sirhan Sirhan, the Palestinian convicted assassin of Senator Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, and serving a life sentence at the California State Prison, Corcoran. The PFLP then submitted a formal list of demands that called for the release of Palestinian and Arab prisoners in European and Israeli jails. There were about 3,000 Palestinian and other Arab individuals in Israeli jails at the time. Over three weeks, hostages were released in tricklesand the hijackers demands were met. On Sept. 30, Britain, Switzerland and West Germany agree to release seven Arab guerillas, including Leila Khaled, the El Al Flight 219 hijacker. Israel also released two Algerians and 10 Libyans. The Jordanian Civil War PLO leader Yasser Arafat seized on the hijackings to go on the offensive in Jordanagainst King Hussein, who nearly abdicated his throne. A Syrian military column was on its way toward Amman, the Jordanian capital, in support of the Palestinian assault. But with the backing of the United States Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean and even the Israeli military, which was ready to intervene on the kings behalf, Hussein mobilized his forces and turned them against Palestinians in a bloody three-week war. Hussein triumphed, severely weakening the hijackers stance. A turning point in the battleand the hostage crisiswas the Jordanian militarys rescue of 16 British, Swiss and German hostages held captive near Amman.

Energy, Sustainability and Renewability Assignment

Energy, Sustainability and Renewability - Assignment Example Various issues will be discussed in this assignment related to energy and its other variables. KEY TERMINOLIGIES For better understanding of this report some key terminologies have to be discussed in detail. These terms are the essence of this paper and cannot be comprehended without excessive research from different books and journals related to physics. Energy Although energy has been described in the introductory paragraph, a further analysis will be produced here. As described before that the ability of a system to do work on another system is known as energy. Coming towards the sub-division or the types of energy present in the language of physics. Energy can be divided into mechanical, solar, thermal, chemical, electrical, electromagnetic and nuclear energy. Mechanical energy is further broken down into two very important categories, potential and kinetic energy. Potential energy is the form of energy stored in a body for e.g. a fully stretched elastic band and kinetic energy i s the one when a body is motion for e.g. the same elastic band when being released. Sustainable Energy The fact that energy is utilized by burning or disfiguring other natural resources brings about the change in thinking of man, can we provide energy otherwise? The answer to this lies in the definition of sustainable energy. It is the provision of energy that meets the need without compromising the ability to generate energy in the future (Smith, 1998). Several factors go into making energy sustainable. The first is whether or not the current use of the energy is something which could potentially persist into the future, which leads many forms of renewable energy to qualify as sustainable. Therefore renewable and sustainable can be termed as in-lieu terminologies. Some of the renewable energy sources are hydroelectricity, solar energy, wind energy, wave power, geothermal energy, bio-energy, and tidal power. Examples Some of the examples of sustainable/renewable will be discussed in this report to better understand the various benefits and downsides of this form of energy. Hydroelectricity is the first term that will be discussed. It is one of the most used alternate energy being used in the modern world today. The flow of water in the river is used to turn turbines which in turn produce massive amount of electricity. Then comes wind energy which is the most blossoming alternate energy source in the commercial market is the ability to produce energy with the help of wind. Wind energy has had a huge impact in the energy industries. Wind farms have been set up in various windy cities of the world top produce large amount of electricity. The output power produced has been increasing by the day. The fact is clearly shown by the figure (Maggie, 2008) Issues with Renewable Energy Various questions have been raised with the alternate energy process. Although that the new renewable sources are cheap and effective, still many organizations and researches show that this form of energy production is more harm, since cost effectiveness is not the only issue at hand. Even before the low cost electricity is produced the problem which arises is that the setup of such plants which produce cheap energy, be it a dam or a wind city. Solar panels cost way more than burning fossil fuel and setting millions of panels for sustained energy providence is also a very costly factor. The problem is just not cost effective. Natural and environmental damages have huge costs

Palestine by Joe Saco Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Palestine by Joe Saco - Essay Example On reading Joe Sacco’s graphic creation ‘Palestine’, I had my personal encounter of Palestinians under tumultuous state of oppression. It was as if I inevitably swam from the surface down to depths and depths of grievances which the Palestinian nation has every right to raise against the bureaucratic Israel. For one, Palestinians must be delivered from taking the ordeal of battling with armed Israeli soldiers who ruthlessly torture them to psychological, emotional, and physical deaths. Second of all, they deserve more than to grieve or wail at occupied territories which drove them out of their homes since the 1960s, making them live in inhumanely poor shelter conditions as refugees dwelling in camps without paved roads, proper roofing nor toilets as depicted in Sacco’s reports – a picture worse than an abandoned civilization. Moreover, I personally advocate support for Palestinians who express grievance for the absence of fair trial when their family members are put to jail at Israeli’s unjust discretion. The enemy’s brutish behaviour of inflicting extreme physical harm against the innocent in jail who barely know the grounds for their suffering must be highly condemned indeed.

Social Networking with Wal-Mart Essay Example for Free

Social Networking with Wal-Mart Essay The final assignment for this course is a Final Paper. The purpose of the Final Paper is for you to culminate the learning achieved in the course by completing a final research project on organizational communication processes. The Final Project represents 25% of the overall course grade. Focus of the Final Paper The final research project requires you to choose a specific topic relevant to organizational communication processes, research that topic incorporating sources (literature review), analyze the issue in a real world organization, and present your findings. The final paper should be 8-10 pages (excluding title and reference pages), double spaced, and formatted in APA. Identify an organizational communication concept that is particularly interesting to you and that you would like to learn more about. Potential topics include: international and intercultural communication, communication competence in the workplace, diversity and communication, leadership communication, communication and decision making, communication in groups/teams, and communication technology in organizations. Identify an organization with which you are familiar and apply your research on the communication concept you selected to the organization. What did you learn about the concept by applying it to your selected organization? What did you learn about the organization by applying the organizational communication concept? Propose a specific program, training or course of action that you believe could potentially improve communication in the organization. Be sure your recommendations are supported by analysis of your  research. Use at least six resources, three of them from Ashford’s online library databases Carefully choo Find needed answers here https://bitly.com/12BM3Or Carefully choose what you want to major in. Do not pick a major just because it is popular, or it is what your parents want you to study. You need to choose a market that you can see yourself in for years to come, as choosing the wrong major could lead to unhappiness. Business General Business Final Paper The final assignment for this course is a Final Paper. The purpose of the Final Paper is for you to culminate the learning achieved in the course by completing a final research project on organizational communication processes. The Final Project represents 25% of the overall course grade. Focus of the Final Paper The final research project requires you to choose a specific topic relevant to organizational communication processes, research that topic incorporating sources (literature review), analyze the issue in a real world organization, and present your findings. The final paper should be 8-10 pages (excluding title and reference pages), double spaced, and formatted in APA. Identify an organizational communication concept that is particularly interesting to you and that you would like to learn more about. Potential topics include: international and intercultural communication, communication competence in the workplace, diversity and communication, leadership communication, communication and decision making, communication in groups/teams, and communication technology in organizations. Identify an organization with which you are familiar and apply your research  on the communication concept you selected to the organization. What did you learn about the concept by applying it to your selected organization? What did you learn about the organization by applying the organizational communication concept? Propose a specific program, training or course of action that you believe could potentially improve communication in the organization. Be sure your recommendations are supported by analysis of your research. Use at least six resources, three of them from Ashford’s online library databases

Naturalism and Symbolism in the Poem Design by Robert Frost Essay

Naturalism and Symbolism in the Poem "Design" by Robert Frost The poem "Design" by Robert Frost is a sonnet written about man's relationship with nature. Frost deliberately uses the form of a sonnet, using the octave for a discussion and the sextet for questioning the fact that there is a force that controls our existence. There are natural characters and some degrees of irony also that give this poem a naturalistic feel. Frost uses the style of a sonnet in "Design" to present a philosophical problem - who controls our destiny. The octave is a single, smooth flowing sentence full of description. We are introduced to three things the narrator happened upon one day. There is a scene of contradictory pictures. The color of the white heal--all, the white spider, and the white moth all suggest purity and innocence. These are the, as the speaker describes them, "characters of death and blight." The octave has a lighter tone than the sextet. Even thought the tone is lighter there still seems to be a tension and seriousness that flows evenly to the sextet, which seems to bring chills to the reader's spine. The sextet is a series of questions that reveals a blend of emotions. The sextet brings about an unexpected change in tone. The poet is no longer observing, but questioning. The first question sounds like he is questioning something that doesn't fit in. The next question brings about a harsher image. The last question is the revelation into the speaker's torment. In the sextet, where the issues are raised, they should be solved in the following octet. They are not. Frost poses three unanswerable questions. The speaker seems reluctant to asks these questions and face them openl... ...ting there. It may be considered fate. The fate of the moth lay in the spider eating it. It was born to fly near that white flower and feed the spider. There is also a third reason that could be addressed. Naturally, a white moth would be attracted to a white flower as camouflage from predators. The white spider would use the flower as concealment from prey. There is a design at work but not a "design of darkness." It is simply an order of nature. It can be attributed to survival of the fittest. The final verse however calls to doubt not just evidence of natural darkness but the entire epistomogical basis of the poem. Is there someone or something controlling us or are we so small that is doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things. "If design govern a thing so small" questions the result and method of the rest of the poem.

Death of a Salesman Willy Loman’s Mental Breakdwon Essay

In Death of a Salesman Willy Loman was a man made of false dreams. Willy Loman was a man who destroyed himself with his false hopes and dreams. Throughout his whole life he was trying to become a Salesman like his father and he thought he would die a rich and successful man. Willy Loman was a man who tried so hard to achieve the American dream but failed to do so due to the multiple circumstances throughout his life. Environment around Willy Loman has had a huge affect on him which is causing him to be instable. Willy is not only destroyed by his own ideals but destroyed by his own two children Biff and Happy and Howard firing him also broke him down even more. Willy Loman is destroying himself trying to achieve the American Dream and trying to become a salesman like his own father but is failing to do so. He wants to own his own business. Willy also wants to be â€Å"bigger† then Uncle Charlie and that is why he never takes a job under Uncle Charlie even after getting fired. He wishes to die the â€Å"Death of a Salesmman† where many people to mourn for him and remember him as a great salesman. Willy has spent his whole life trying to achieve all these dreams of his but he still hasn’t really achieved any of them which is causing him to have a mental breakdown. However Willy aims in life have been useless as he hasn’t really achieved anything. Willy Loman is constantly lying to himself and his family to escape from being a failure. He is constantly trying to achieve his dream of becoming a great salesman but is lost in reality and is running out of time. In the play Charlie said to Willy â€Å"When are you going to grow up. † Even though Charlie was made fun of by Willy he still is his only friend and cares for him and even offers him a job after Willy gets fired by Howard but Willy refuses to take the job because of his high standards and his dreams which he hasn’t be able to accomplish yet. Willy knows he hasn’t accomplished anything yet and that is why he is guilty and starts lying to himself and to his family and even goes on and has an affair with another woman. He has the affair with the other woman to give himself a â€Å"boost† or to go into another world because he feels he has been a failure at not achieving the â€Å"American Dream. † Having an affair also caused Willy to breakdown because Biff caught him cheating and Willy feels guilty about it. Willy put in his whole life for his sons, Biff and Happy and they turned their backs on him. Willy always loved Biff and thought he would be an amazing business man but after Biff saw Willy cheating it tore Biff apart. Biff failed math and went to Boston to get his dad to talk to his math teacher but at that time he caught his father cheating which made him not get along with his dad for the rest of his life. Willy knows deep down it his fault that Biff never became a successful business man. The fact that he feels guilty is also a huge factor in his mental breakdown. The psychoanalytic theory describes how the environment around a person has an effect on the person. In Willy’s case it his sons and his failiures in life which is causing him to be unstable. From the multiple causes of Willy’s mental breakdown the biggest thing that broke him down was when Biff at the end of Act II shows him the rubber tube he found and explains to him that he was never what Willy wanted him to be. After all that Willy realizes his sons actually do love him even though they aren’t successful businessman. When will realizes he is almost finished is when Biff says â€Å"Pop, I’m nothing! Im nothing Pop. Cant you understand that? There’s no spite in it anymore. Im just what I am, that’s all. † Biff also says â€Å"Will you let me go for Christ’s sake† Will you take that phony dream and burn it before something happens? After this situation Willy realizes he has not accomplished much in life and his life is almost finished but Biff does love him. Willy has been chasing the American dream for ever trying to follow his father but has never succeeded which has caused him to fail throughout his whole life because he never really did what he was good at which was using his hands. After Willy committed suicide biff tells us what Willy could have been which could have made him successful. Biff says â€Å"Charley, there’s more of him in that front stoop than in all the sales he ever made. † This shows that Willy was never a salesman but was good with his hands. The played concluded with Willy committing suicide so his sons could collect the insurance money and because he had realized he was a failure in life but still wanted his children to be happy and successful. The multiple complications lead to the destruction of an American Dream. Willy wanted a dream that seemed materialistic and unimportant which caused his own life and destruction of his kids. Willy trying to chase the American dream and trying to be better then Charley and trying to be like his dad caused him to be a failure and eventually take his own life. Him not being able to achieve his dreams throughout his life caused him to be a failure and destroying his kids as well.

Large Corporations Essay

Large corporations such as Wal-Mart or Home Depot often come under criticism for putting mom-and-pop shops out of business. While this may be a valid criticism, the consumers neglect to realize that they play the biggest part in shutting these businesses down. Consumers across the country are always looking for the best deals or the lowest prices, and in most cases the larger corporations are where products can be found at the lowest price. Many small business owners and the populations of small towns dislike large corporations moving into the area because they believe it negatively effects the local economy. In reality, we should embrace large corporations moving into our communities because they boost the local economy, they lower prices on products we use every day, and they create hundreds of jobs. Some believe that large corporations harm the local economy. While this is true in some cases, studies have shown that placing a Wal-Mart in an area actually increased sales for businesses in or around the area. In a study conducted in 2002 by Jim Simmons, a retired University of Toronto geography professor, the professor states: â€Å"We tried to see if there was a substantial sales decline in the nearby areas, but it was difficult to find,† said Mr. Simmons. â€Å"We couldn’t find any situation where people lost sales or went out of business.† (Shaw, H. 2002). This is just one of the many findings from the study. In an effort to further boost the local economies of the areas new Wal-marts are opened in, Wal-Mart has implemented a Locally Grown program that has been enacted since 2008. Pam Kohn, who is a senior vice president and general grocery merchandise manager, had this to say about the program. â€Å"At Walmart we are committed to increasing our locally grown offerings and the number of local small farms we work with. Through this program we are able to cut shipping costs and decrease food miles, but most importantly we are offering our customers an opportunity to support their local farmers without worrying about the impact on their wallets.† (Economics Week, 2008) This means that not only are they benefitting the stores around the area, but also the farmers in the area as well. This leads to a stronger local economy, and ultimately a thriving community. Stores like Wal-Mart are famous for keeping their prices so low. This is one reason why they are able to maintain a grip on the consumers of an area. They accomplish this by keeping the cost to produce and transport the goods low. In January, a study by the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. found that, â€Å"an individual family could save $589 a year on groceries by shopping at a supercenter. Overall, shoppers could save $3.76 billion in merchandise nationwide.† (Blazier, A, 2004) A major reason they can keep prices lower than mom-and-pop run businesses is their ability to buy merchandise in bulk. Buying in bulk works the same way it does for a consumer. The more of a product that is purchased, the less the cost is per unit. Consumers see this every day when they go to stores like Sam’s Club or Costco. When they buy their merchandise in bulk, they are able to offer it to the consumer at a lower price. (Kale, 2011) This is what could eventually drive the mom-and-pop owned businesses out of the area, and draw a negative criticism from the public. The interesting thing about this criticism is that the public complains about Wal-Mart driving these smaller businesses out, yet continue to shop at the Wal-Mart to save money. It would seem as though all that would be needed to be done would be to stop shopping at Wal-Mart and start shopping at the locally owned businesses. On the topic of jobs, there is a general increase in the availability of jobs after a large corporation moves in. Going back to the Wal-Mart example, a study was conducted to show how Wal-Mart affected job creation. In a study conducted by University of Missouri-Columbia professor Emek Basker, Wal-Mart creates a net value of 50 jobs more than it â€Å"destroys.† In her study, she presents these findings: â€Å"I find that immediately after entry, retail employment in the county increases by approximately 100 jobs; this figure declines by half over the next five years as some small and medium-sized retail establishments close. Wholesale employment declines by approximately 20 jobs over five years. Restaurant employment increases slightly; there is no change in employment in manufacturing or in automobile dealerships and service stations.† (Basker, 2005) In addition to the new jobs that are created, most Wal-Mart employees can enroll in health benefit programs, whether part time or full time workers. This means that smaller communities where health insurance options may have been limited will now have jobs where health insurance is a benefit. Also the low income families who can not afford pricey health insurance have the opportunity to receive benefits. Another benefit of having a Wal-Mart move into a community is the money it brings into the area. As with all businesses, large corporations have to pay taxes that go to local governments in the area they operate. In a bi-monthly publishing by the Department of Agriculture and Resource Economics, Mitch Renkow writes, â€Å"Wal-Mart generates substantial sales tax and property tax revenues for the county in which it locates. This could potentially be of great benefit to the fiscal well-being of the local government in the town or county where the Wal-Mart is located.† (Renkow, 2005) This means that there is more money being generated for local spending, With all of the business that Wal-Mart can do, that is that much more money for the local area, much more than any mom-and-pop shops could provide. We should embrace bigger corporations moving into the area because it ultimately creates a stronger local economy. These corporations bring in products from around the world to communities that would have never gotten a chance to purchase them. They also keep the prices low so that low income families can afford them. Through job creation, slashing prices, and the attention to the area that comes with a big store such as Wal-Mart, it can be said that local economies benefit from these new stores opening in the area. WORKS CITED: Shaw, H. (2002). Wal-mart boosts local economies: Study: Finding shows retail behemoth benefits neighbouring stores. National Post. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/329926525?accountid=32521 Sailee, Kale (2011) How Does Walmart Keep Its Prices So Low? Retrieved from: http://www.business-online-news.com/how-does-walmart-keep-its-prices-so-low.html Blazier, A. (2004, Apr 15). Study concludes Wal-Mart creates more jobs than Retail chain chases away. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/464131659?accountid=32521 Matthews, C. (2012, 07). Ten Ways Wal-Mart Changed the World. Retrieved from http://business.time.com/2012/07/02/ten-ways-walmart-changed-the-world/#ixzz2IYS1yFFm Renkow, M. (2005). N.C. State Economist. Department of Agriculture and Resource Economics. retrieved from: www.ag-econ.ncsu.edu/VIRTUAL_LIBRARY/ECONOMIST/novdec05.pdf Basker, Emek, (2005) Job Creation or Destruction? Labor-Market Effects of Wal-Mart Expansion. Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 87, No. 1, February 2005. retrieved from SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=371102 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.371102

Business Environment McDonalds

Business Environment McDonalds Introduction The McDonalds is a public corporation operating in the restaurant industry. The company is the largest chain of fast food and hamburger outlets (McDonalds 2013a). The company serves about sixty-eight million consumers on a daily basis, at the 119 countries covered by its business outlets.Advertising We will write a custom assessment sample on Business Environment: McDonalds specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The headquarters of the company is located in the US (Pederson, 2008). The McDonalds Company is a public company traded on the New York stock exchange. The company has adopted the legal structure of a franchising company, structured along functional contours, where the CEO oversees five major activity areas. These areas include operations, which covers franchising and equipment; development, which covers construction and property finance, which entails new product development and supply chain management (McDonalds 2013b ). The other areas are marketing, which entails the marketing and sales and human resources, which entails safety, personnel, customer service and hygiene. The business profile of the company covers property investing, restaurant franchising and operating company restaurants. The products of McDonalds include fast foods like hamburgers and chicken; vegetarian foods like salads and other food items like rice and soup (McDonalds 2013b). The company offers franchising services, marketing, and property management and investment, where it collects rents (Pederson, 2008). The Organizational Purposes Of Businesses The three major objectives of the McDonalds include quality management, where the company ensures that all its outlets offer services in the quickest manner possible. The company expressly requires all its outlets to offer high quality products at the reasonable prices offered by the different outlets; the prices of products at the different outlets vary, depending on market dyna mics and the country of location.Advertising Looking for assessment on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More As an aspect of quality management, the McDonalds Company pursues to expand the customer awareness of the nutritious menu items offered at the different outlets. For example, the company has expanded its menu, to include foods and beverages containing vegetables and fruits in its menu. Towards getting the information to the customer, the company has worked hard to increase the awareness of its customers, about the vegetable, fruit and dairy options available at its outlets, for children and other consumer groups (Rungfapaisarn 2011; Gasparro and Jargon 2012). The company strives to offer the highest quality of food products, including the vegetarian fast foods offered at its vegetarian outlets and its organic milk, which were introduced in response to increasing global obesity levels (Ashbridge 2007). Quality management is monitored through evaluating the performance of the employees of the company, against the standards communicated through the training process and the training manual of the company (GAPbuster 2009). The quality of products is maintained through the standardization of the infrastructure and the processes employed at the different outlets (GAPbuster 2009). The second major objective of the company is increasing customer satisfaction, which is an important aspect of the company’s business. The company believes that without increasing their customer loyalty, the result will be a decrease in the meaning of the company developed in the customer’s mind (Mourdoukoutas 2012). It also believes that low customer loyalty results in a decrease in the positive words of mouth expressed to family and friends, which will reduce its association to excellent service delivery. The company pursues customer satisfaction through the identification of the needs of consumers better than its competitors.Advertising We will write a custom assessment sample on Business Environment: McDonalds specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More For instance, many of the company’s customers associate McDonalds to the inviting, friendly atmosphere they experience (Mourdoukoutas 2012). The restaurants, also offer comfortable seats, a playground for children and television at its outlets. They also strive to serve customers conveniently, offering their orders in a fast and efficient way. Customer satisfaction is monitored through the feedbacks given by customers, by the word of mouth responses collected by the company from its customers, as well as through company surveys done among the customer population (McDonalds 2013b). The company evaluates the customers regarding the levels of customers through a number of channels including observation and direct interviewing, which complements the information collected fr om the feedbacks collected. The third major objective of the company is upholding the company’s reputable image. The McDonalds Company started its first outlet in 1954, and by 2011, the company had approximately 32,000 operational outlets, which served a customer population of more than 60 million people on a daily basis, across the more than 100 countries covered by its chain of restaurants (Mourdoukoutas 2012). The McDonalds Company maintains its reputable image by ensuring that the service outlook and the products offered at their different outlets are uniform. For instance, for a consumer at Paris, they will find many of the menu products at the outlets in a New York City outlet. The company also pursues improving its status as a player that develops careers, rather than a company that offers, dead-end, minimum-wage scales for its employees (Mourdoukoutas 2012). The achievement of maintaining the company’s reputation is maintained through the standardization of the services as well as the menu items offered across the different outlets, as well as the training of staffs on service delivery (GAPbuster 2009).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 main stakeholders of McDonalds include the shareholders of the company. The company can improve the effectiveness of shareholder investing in the company, through increasing the revenues created by the company, so that the returns realized by the shareholders increase. Through that approach, the company will encourage more investment among current investors, and new investing among potential investors. The second main stakeholder groups are the customers of the company, who are the different groups and entities served at the many outlets. Towards increasing the engagement of its customers, the company should ensure that they respond to the changing customer needs, as well as forecast demand according to the target market. An example is India, where their entry as a vegetarian restaurant was very successful (Gasparro and Jargon 2012). Towards increasing the engagement of customers, the company should also ensure that they increase their customer service and the quality of the pro ducts offered. The third main stakeholder is the workforce, which includes the management and the employees of the company. Towards increasing the engagement of its work force, the company should improve employee development, which will increase the capacity of the employees to deliver. The company should also adopt effective motivation strategies, for example, the recognition of excellent performance, so as to encourage better service delivery from its workforce. The McDonalds company strives to engage in environmentally responsible business and process. These include the consumption of less energy, releasing fewer emissions into the atmosphere and reducing the wastes injected into their surroundings (McDonalds 2013b). The ways of achieving the three major areas of green responsibility include the use of sustainable packaging and ensuring proper waste management at its varied operational centers. In the area of energy conservation, the company is pursuing alternative sources of ene rgy, intended at increasing their energy consumption efficiency, which will save money and lower their environmental impact (McDonalds 2013c). The company has also invested in the green restaurant design, by ensuring that building standards ensure the protection the environment. The company also engages organizations and experts, including Conservation International, Wildlife Fund, The US Green Building Council, and Environmental Defense Fund, among others. The strategic alliances are expected to increase the participation of the company in environmental protection (McDonalds 2013b). Nature Of The National Environment Of Mcdonalds An emerging economy is one which is moving from the status of a developing to an industrialized or developed status, while a transitional market is one which is shifting from a centrally administrated economy (where government control is high) to a free market economy. Examples of a government controlled economy include the Soviet block nations, while free market economies include European and North American nations (Myant and Drahokoupil 2010). The differences include that in a transition economy, more people are likely to enter the middle of the lower class, as the transition brings about many business opportunities into the economy. Also, the transitional economy differs from the emerging economy, as the very poor are likely to fall into extreme poverty, as they will have limited or no access to the factors of production or opportunities (Myant and Drahokoupil 2010). An emerging economy, on the other hand, is one characterized by a low or medium level per capita, while a transitional economy is most times characterized by a low level of per capita. Both a transition and emerging economies undergoing economic reforms, which are expected to raise the economies to better economic performance (Mundell N.D). Among the two types of economies, there is a constant pursuit to realize efficiency and more transparency in the capital markets. Both a transitional and an emerging economy are characterized by liberalization, where the forces of demand and supply determine the prices of products, compared to where prices are set by a planning organization (Myant and Drahokoupil 2010). Different from a transitional economy, an emerging economy is characterized by a young and growing workforce and an underdeveloped infrastructure, in the areas of housing and roads. Among the two types of economies, there is a characteristic, rapid increase of foreign investment levels. Some examples of transitional economies include Brazil, Russia, and Ukraine. Examples of emerging economies, as of May 2011 included Chile, Colombia, China, Egypt and India (Myant and Drahokoupil 2010). The case of china is clearly an emerging economy, as the Chinese economy is characterized by an increasing transition from a closed to an open market economy (Jbili, Kramarenko and Bailà ©n, 2007). The Chinese economy is also characterized by a high, young popu lation of the workforce, which is replacing the aging workforce, and a ready market for the products from the increasing production. The Chinese is also characterized by a rapidly increasing level of foreign investing, which identifies it an emerging economy (Mundell N.D). Among transition economies is Hungary, as its economy is characterized by increasing unemployment, as a result of the privatization of companies. Hungary is also experiencing a rising inflation level, which is caused by the removal of price control. The economy is also characterized by a lack of reliable infrastructure, low levels of entrepreneurship and skills, high inequality levels (Economic online N.D). From the different characteristics of emerging and transitional economies, a conclusion can be drawn, that the characteristics of an emerging economy are evident from transitional economies. The characteristics include that there is a shift from a government controlled economy to a liberalized economy (Economic online N.D). This leads to the conclusion that an economy can fall under the classes of emerging and transitional economy classifications. The two economies are characterized by a rapid shift from low to middle class levels, as more opportunities are availed (Mundell N.D). The recovery phase of the business cycle is characterized by a rapid increase in the confidence of customers, about the economy’s market. The recovery phase is characterized by reduced bank lending rates, particularly interest rates, which increase the capacity of investors and companies to finance investment projects. The phase is also characterized by a rapid increase in production levels, which is adjusted in response to the overall demand in the particular economy. The increase in production levels enhances the capacity of entrepreneurs to offer more employment opportunities, which results in an increase in the incomes of consumers (Neumeyer and Perri 2004). As a result, the consumers’ ability t o purchase capital goods increases. The phase is characterized by an increase in the profit margins of corporations, and the GDP of the economy rises in response. Governments can increase the opportunities available to businesses at the recovery stage, by requiring banks to offer credit at lower interest rates, which will encourage the funding of more investments (Neumeyer and Perri 2004). The government can also encourage more foreign investment, which will enhance the creation of more employment, so that more money gets into circulation. The government can also increase government spending, which directs more money into circulation, allowing more customers to purchase the increased produce by businesses. The government can also reduce taxation, locally and when exporting, so as to enhance more business locally and internationally (Neumeyer and Perri 2004). According to a report by AlixPartners (2013), as of Feb 2013, the US and the global restaurant are anticipating a forthcoming year of disappointing growth. The anticipated reduction in sales is the result of a reduction in dining frequency, in the next 12 months. These findings were drawn from a survey of 1000 adult consumers by AlixPartners. As a result of the anticipated changes, restaurants will not be able to increase revenues through the opening of new outlets, but will also require engaging innovative strategies. Among these strategies are strategic differentiation, increasing cost management levels and through employing innovation in marketing. Among the industry players that will realize growth, there are expected to engage in a fierce competition for a substantial market share. The major determinant of competitive advantage will be the response to the major influences and drivers of consumer choices, which will be followed by targeted-oriented programs, to drive growth under the uncertain conditions. The major influence of customer dinning choices include convenience, speed of service, and the cus tomer experience of consumers after service delivery. McDonalds, a major industry player in the restaurant industry is responding well towards adjusting to the uncertainty of demand. For instance, the company is investing in healthy foods and in markets, where differentiated diets are the major demand characteristic (Gasparro and Jargon 2012). An example is entry into the Indian market as a vegetarian restaurant and its inclusion of organic diets (Ashbridge 2007). The Behavior Of Organizations In Their Market Environment The characteristics of a perfect competition include that the market should not be characterized by rivalry, where there is a large number of buyers and sellers and the commodities on sale are similar in many all aspects. The features, also include that the products offered by the different sellers should be similar in all aspects, implying that a customer can substitute those of one industry player with those of another. The market should not impose restrictions on the entry and the exit of buyers or sellers (Petri 2004). This implies that in the case the available players increase prices, so they can make abnormal profits – then new entrants should come into the industry, so they can level out the profits realized from sales. A perfect market is characterized by a perfect knowledge of prices and the commodities in the market, among the consumers. The consumers should also be perfectly informed about the prevailing market conditions, therefore will not be willing to offer any price above the prevailing price. A market with perfect competition should be characterized by a perfect mobility of the different resources and factors of production, from one usage to another. This characteristic ensures that all industry players and firms are able to control an equal share of the services of the available factors of production, including labor. Such a market should also be characterized by the absence of transportation costs, as commodities wil l be offered at the same cost, at the different locations; there will be a single market price. In a perfect competition, there is no development of attachment with the customer, as the products of the different sellers are the same; therefore buyers are free to change from one to another seller (Petri 2004). The US and global restaurant industry, in which McDonalds is a major actor, does not fit into the definition of a perfect completion market, as most of the characteristics cannot be seen it the industry. The characteristics that are absent in the restaurant industry include that the industry is dominated by a few large scale sellers, who sideline smaller players. The industry is characterized by a high degree of product differentiation, which shows that the products offered are not homogenous, marking the industry as one that cannot qualify as a perfect competition (Petri 2004). In the industry, entry and the exit of sellers is not free, as evident from the price differentiatio n of McDonalds, which shows that there is no normal price balancing. Other characteristics that cannot be identified in the restaurant industry include the perfect mobility of production resources, the lack of perfect knowledge among consumers, and there is also no absence of transportation costs. Contrary to a perfect competition, McDonalds capitalizes on the building of customer attachment, which shows that the industry does not have perfect competition (Petri 2004). In the US and the global restaurant industry, a number of barriers to new entrants can be identified. Those that can be identified from the case study of McDonalds include the purchase of patents and licenses for the trademarks of market players (AlixPartners 2013). This barrier has been effective, as new entrants cannot use the name, the packaging, or the logo of the McDonalds, without going through franchising and contracting as an agency outlet. Differentiated pricing in the different markets has been effective in the industry, as players like McDonalds offer their prices at a differentiated price at its different areas of operation, showing that it has maintained a market reputation in the different areas (Mourdoukoutas 2012). The developmental nature of the brands of different players is another barrier to new entrants, as companies like McDonalds are known globally, which offers them a competitive advantage above their competitors, especially new entrants. The company has maintained the strength of its name across the globe, which draws from the effective market entry strategies employed at different markets. These include its entry into vegetarian markets like India, as a vegetarian chain of restaurants (Gasparro and Jargon 2012). Major players have prevented the entry of new players, through taking advantage of the customer loyalty developed among consumers, locally and internationally. The marketing strategy of major players like the McDonalds is a barrier to new entrants, as the compan y changes according to the changing needs of its customers and responds to the unique needs of its different customer groupings (Mourdoukoutas 2012). Major industry players are also increasing entry barriers through the retention of the highly experienced members of the labor force, and the expansion of its outlets also acts like a barrier to new entrants. The standardized service delivery of players like McDonalds is another barrier used by the company to control the threat of new entrants. This is evident from the company’s offering of a similar menu at its different operational areas (AlixPartners 2013). The cultural environment of the McDonalds includes the social and the cultural aspects of target markets, including the differentiated dining preferences and the constant calls to eat healthy, which is increasing, in response to increasing obesity levels in the world (Franke, Hofstede and Bond 1991). Some of the ways, through which the McDonalds demonstrates its adaptation to the cultural environments of target markets, include the shift to offering vegetarian-only outlets in India (BBC 2012). This change was employed, in response to the market profile of the Indian market, which is characterized by the non-consumption of meat products, particularly cow meat, as the Hindu regard the cow as a divine creature (Gasparro and Jargon 2012). Another case of adapting to the cultural environment is the inclusion of varied menu items, including organic products like milk, fruit salads, and vegetarian items, in response to the constant calls over global obesity levels (Ashbridge 2007). From the case of the McDonalds, BBC (2012) discussed the strategic shift of the company, towards offering innovative menu listing, so as to take advantage of the emerging markets that are characterized by varied customer prefers and product preferences. One such example is the case of its entry into the Middle East, where they are offering meat-free dishes, particularly pork-free menu items, as the culture of the Muslims regards pork as a religious-banned food (BBC 2012). Significance Of The Global Factors That Shape National Business Activities The international market is paramount to the entry of McDonalds into the international market, as it determines the alternatives available to it, in pursuing its entry into developed and emerging markets, where customers’ needs are differentiated. Some of the entry strategies available to McDonalds include the creation of international agencies, strategic alliances, and international outlets (Franke, Hofstede and Bond 1991). However, the entry of McDonalds into the international market is staged in a manner that allows it to cater for the needs of the target market, as opposed to imposing strategies that have worked elsewhere. As a result, the products of the company are localized according to the customers’ needs, offering products that are preferred at the target markets. An example is the product lo calization of the company’s products in India and the Middle East, where the larger populations prefer meat-free dishes (Gasparro and Jargon 2012; BBC 2012). The challenges facing UK businesses in emerging markets like the UAE include competing in new competitive environments, creating a new customer base, countering new competitors, and countering the increasing expectations of market regulators (ERNST YOUNG 2011). Some of the risks that present a challenge for the businesses include intellectual theft; there is an increasing level of regulatory pressure, dealing with the varied cultural preferences of customers. Other challenges include sourcing of qualified, skilled labor, developing strategic partnerships with local players, and reviewing risks and control levels in the new markets (ERNST YOUNG 2011). This leads to the conclusion that UK companies venturing in emerging markets should not anticipate profitability in the short run, as they have to master the market profil e of the markets, before they can exploit their potential. However, effective research prior to investing can help the entrants in staging more effective entry models, thus increase immediate profitability. The debt crisis in Ireland and Greece is likely to affect UK businesses, as evidenced by the recent banking sector scandals, due to the impact of the debt crisis on the global economy. The effects include that interest rates will rise, so that governments can raise the money to settle the debt. As a result, the borrowing capacity of UK businesses will reduce, which will result in reduced investing in new markets and opportunities (PricewaterhouseCoopers 2013). Reference List AlixPartners, 2013, Press Releases. Alixpartners.com, . alixpartners.com/en/MediaCenter/PressReleaseArchive/tabid/821/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/202/Restaurants-Traffic-to-Remain-Flat-in-2012-Competition-and-Battle-for-Stomach-Share-to-Heat-Up-According-to-AlixPartners-Study.aspx Ashbridge, I 2007, McD onalds milk goes organic. Farmers Weekly, . fwi.co.uk/articles/03/07/2007/104864/mcdonalds39-milk-goes organic.htm BBC., 2012, McDonalds opens vegetarian-only restaurant. BBC Business News, . bbc.co.uk/news/business-19479013 Economic online, N.D, Transition economies. Economicsonline.co.uk. economicsonline.co.uk/Competitive_markets/Transition_economies.html ERNST YOUNG, 2011, Risk Oversight in emerging Markets: InSights for North American Audit Committee Members, Sep 2011, . ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/Insights:_Risk_oversight_in_emerging_markets_September_2011/$FILE/InSights_Risks_oversight_in_emerging_markets_Sept2011%20CJ0186.pdf Franke, R, Hofstede, G Bond, M 1991, Cultural Roots of Economic Performance: A research note, Strategic Management Journal, 12, 165-173. GAPbuster 2009, Mcdonald’s Training Manual 2010, . xec.gapbuster.com/OnlineTraining/Manual/en-US/668Shopping.pdf Gasparro, A, and Jargon, J 2012, McDonalds to Go Vegetarian in India. The Wall Street Journal: p. B7. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444301704577631551022511054.html Jbili, A, Kramarenko, V and Bailà ©n, J 2007, Islamic Republic of Iran: Managing the Transition to a Market Economy. imf.org/External/Pubs/NFT/2007/iran/market/market.pdf McDonalds 2013a, McDonalds: Frequently Asked Questions. aboutmcdonalds.com/mcd/our_company/faqs.html McDonalds 2013b, McDonalds History: Travel Through Time With Us! McDonalds, . aboutmcdonalds.com/mcd/our_company/mcdonalds_history_timeline.html McDonalds 2013c, Getting to Know Us. aboutmcdonalds.com/mcd/our_company.html McDonalds, 2013b. McDonalds: Environmental Responsibility: Doing More with Less. aboutmcdonalds.com/mcd/sustainability/our_focus_areas/environmental_responsibility.html Mourdoukoutas, P 2012, McDonalds Winning Strategy, At Home And Abroad, . forbes.com/sites/panosmourdoukoutas/strategy-at-home-and-abroad/ Mundell, R N.D., The Works of Robert Mundell: Emerging Markets and Transition Economies. http://robertmundel l.net/economic-policies/emerging-markets-and-transition-economies/ Myant, M and Drahokoupil, J 2010, Transition Economies: Political Economy in Russia, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia, Wiley-Blackwell, Hoboken, New Jersey. Neumeyer, P and Perri, F 2004, Business Cycles in Emerging Economies: The Role of Interest Rates, NBER Working Paper, No. 10387, National Bureau of Economic Research. Pederson, JP 2008, International directory of company histories. Gale, London. Petri, F 2004, General Equilibrium, Capital and Macroeconomics, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham. PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2013, Business impacts of the Euro debt crisis, . pwc.com/jg/en/media-article/business-impacts-of-the-euro-debt-crisis-article adrian-peacegood.jhtml Rungfapaisarn, K 2011, McDonalds introduces new inventory/menu management. nationmultimedia.com/business/McDonalds-introduces-new-inventorymenu-management-30168934.html

ACT Prep Methods Pros and Cons of Each

Secret Truths of SAT / ACT Prep Methods Pros and Cons of Each SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips You know it's a great idea to prep for the SAT and ACT. After all, for most students it's the most time-efficient way to increase their college admission chances. However, there are so many ways to prep for the test out there what's the best way for you? Obviously, some methods will be better than others, but it's also the case that some methods are overall not very good. Quite frankly, every single SAT / ACT prep method has certain strengths. For some students, tutoring is by far the best while, for others, self-study is clearly optimal. Which one to choose depends on your circumstances and budget, but it’s quite simple to figure out. Pay careful attention because finding the right prep method for you is by far the highest leverage choice you can make to improve your SAT / ACT score. If you choose correctly, you may never again have to worry about test scores. The follow through will be easy, and the point improvements will be quick. Some say half the work is just getting started. I disagree half the work is getting started correctly. Introduction I’ve had personal experience in helping thousands of students study for the SAT. This means that I have a lot of experience and exposure to both the best and the worst prep methods. Name any test prep method, and I’ve probably mentored at least a dozen students who’ve tried it. For each method, I can tell you exactly what worked and didn’t. The â€Å"all iPhone ACT prep† method? The â€Å"binge SAT practice tests† method? The â€Å"six separate private tutors† method? I’ve seen them all, both the success and the carnage, and I can tell you exactly which methods work for which students. To top that off, I’ve developed many test prep methods myself. The first test prep method I made was back in 2003 for myself. When I got 200 points lower than I wanted on the SAT, I sat down and carefully developeda strategy that eventually got me a perfect score and admissions into Harvard. Today, as cofounder of PrepScholar, I’ve written ACT and SAT prep methods for my students, helping them improve their scores sometimes as much as 300 points on the SAT and 5 points on the ACT, or more. All this has taught me the importance of one single point: If you are going to actually improve your ACT and SAT scores, you need to choose the method that best fits your style! You see, like a boat setting sail, a small correction at the start means a big difference in where you end up. If you head in the right direction now, it can save you weeks of agony later on. Prepping the wrong way will totally waste your time and money. You’ll be hosed if you self-study but have no insight on how to improve. You’re also sunk if what you really need is to focus on a couple of areas, but you make the mistake of taking a small group class. The wrong prep can make you feel hopeless and doubt whether you can ever improve your SAT and ACT scores. That’s the bad news. The good news is you really can learn what method is best for you if you have an expert like me (or anyone else with as muchexperience) willing to debunk the topic and take the mystery out of it for you. Students, parents†¦ start your engines! You are, as promised, going to learn the real pros and cons of the different prep methods. Tutoring Is tutoring the best prep method across the board? After all, it costs the most usually running into three or four digits the same cost as a year of tuition at many good public universities! At that price, tutoring must be good, right? I’ve worked with hundreds of tutoring students as well as tutored many students myself in ACT and SAT prep, and I can debunk the myths for you. Pros If all goes well, tutoring is indeed the very best prep you can get. When things go well, your tutor will not only be a great scorer on the SAT / ACT, but your tutor will also be vetted to be a great teacher. It's not enough to have a tutor who only scores well on standardized tests; they also must be able to explain their methods in a way that helps you perform well too. When things go well, tutors will sit with you one-on-one and actively diagnose your errors. They’ll look at your specific errors, ask you specific questions, and use their expertise to figure out customized strategies. Imagine an expert mechanic asking exactly the right question to find which screw in your car needs tightening and then going in and tightening it the right amount. This is what the best tutors will do for you. There’s also a definite emotional advantage to tutoring. The tutor pays close, specific attention to the student and provides emotional support as well as psychological assurance. If you let the test get inside your head, then tutoring can help. The tutor will build a personal connection and soften the anxiety the student feels in taking the test. Cons But, truth be told, most real cases of tutoring fall short of this ideal. The major issue is finding the right tutor. I’ve seen so many tutors who score less than 1400 on the SAT or less than 32 on the ACT. When you’re scoring this low as a tutor, it reveals serious gaps in base skill content. The tutor probably doesn’t understand the most sophisticated idioms or doesn't know how to answer non-routine math problems quickly. This affects not only students who are aiming for above 1400 out of 1600 on the SAT or 32 out of 36 on the ACT, but alsostudents who are aiming for a more modest score like 1000 or 20. You want a tutor who is much better than you, not just a bit better. If you’re learning to drive, you don’t want to learn from someone who just passed their exam last month you want a professional with years of on-the-road experience. Is score all that matters then? Is the solution to hire a college freshman with a perfect score for $50/hour? No. Even if you find a high scorer, there is still the question of whether the tutor can teach. Tom Brady is one of the best football players but is he the best guy to coach a middle school student who is just getting started with the sport? You might think that a decent professional football player who really understands the struggle of middle-school players would make a better coach and you’d be absolutely right. Teaching is hard. You have to understand each student’s way of thinking and then fix the student’s mistakes. However, many purely high scorers suffer from the curse of knowledge. Doing well on the ACT / SAT is so second nature to many high scorers that they have no idea what it’s like not to understand. These suffering tutors explain the same strategies that worked for them over and over again. Unsurprisingly, on the day scores come out, there’s no increase and everyone is disappointed. Here’s a fact that’ll blow your mind: 75% of tutors are not fully effective for their students. Usually, this is more because they don’t know how to teach and notbecause their score is too low. How to Make It Effective The best way to fight against this is to get a good reference. Like lawyers and doctors, the best way to find a good tutoris to get a close friend to tell you who worked for them. Make sure that your referrer’s situation is the same as yours: if your student is scoring high, you don’t want a reference from a low-scorer with a learning disability who may have had different struggles than your student If you don’t have a close reference, an equally good option is to hire a tutor through a company. A reputable company itself acts as the best reference possible. A company like ours has incredibly high standards. We select our tutors through rigorous mock sessions. Our interviewers are tutoring stars themselves. Finally, we keep on grading our tutors monthly to ensure continuing quality, and we match each student to the best tutor for them. We’re not the only company that provides tutors out there, but you definitely want to get a match from a high-quality company. Here’s a list of questions you must ask the tutoring company: Do you require each tutoring candidate to mock tutor before you hire them? Do you only hire tutors who scored 95%tile or above? Do you only have tutors with previous experience improving scores? Do you screen more than a dozen applicants for each tutor you hire? For us, the answers are all yes, and you’d want any company doing tutoring for you to answer yes to everything above too. I can tell you right now, the top two oldest big names in test prep don’t qualify they’ve grown so old and convoluted that the left hand barely knows what the right hand is doing. Summary Cons of tutoring: Hard to select the right tutor Most expensive test prep option Pros of tutoring: If you choose the right tutor, it’s the most effective prep possible Great tutors can give you personalized diagnosis of your issues as well as emotional attention and enforcement Classes Oh boy, classes are going to be a fun topic for me to talk about. There are just so many stories that you wouldn’t believe! But I’ll get to that in just a moment. First, let me be clear. When I say classes, I mean a physical room (or worse, a Skype virtual room) where one teacher stands at the front and talks to many students at a time. Cons Where did classes go wrong? After all, don’t most students in school learn in classes? Doesn’t it combine the best of all worlds? After all, don’t you get a live person without the cost of a tutor? But when it comes to test prep, classes are a recipe for failure like none other. They’re the perfect storm of two ingredients that create destruction. On the one hand, students come into test prep with vastly different skills. Some students will be scoring 20th percentile; other students will be scoring 80th percentile. Some students really need vocab help; others need to make fewer careless mistakes. On the other hand, classrooms have a fixed curriculum. They teach every student the same sequence of lessons and spend the same amount of time on each topic. Mix them together, and you have the perfect recipe for the least effective way to test prep. What will you be doing in a test prep class? Half the time, you’ll be going over stuff you already know. Already know all of Algebra I? Don’t be surprised if you waste multiple hours getting lectured on how to isolate variables and solve for x. On the opposite front, are you having problems with careless mistakes? Don’t be surprised if your course only spends a couple of minutes talking about how to attack careless mistakes and instead devotes a bunch of time to strategies that couldn’t possibly apply to you. But why do classes work well for school? In school, everyone is up to the same speed. When you took Literature II, everyone in your class had already taken Literature I. When all students are at the same point, the same lessons make sense. With test prep, the exact opposite is true: students come in at vastly different levels and don’t have enough time to catch up during the short course. Trust us, many of us at PrepScholar took classes back in high school (when we were naive), and each one of us hasregretted it. One horror story revolved around a big-name test prep company. The teacher spent three hours reading dictionary definitions of vocab words: â€Å"Timmy do you know what the definition of plethora is?† †¦ â€Å"No, Timmy, that is not right. Katie, do you have an answer?† Imagine that exchange repeated about 90 times and you can imagine how that 3-hour class went. To add insult to injury, many of the biggest names don’t have particularly high standards when it comes to hiring class teachers. Anyone who has a passable resume will get hired. We were literally told this directly by a hiring manager of one of the big-two tutoring company branches. Oh, and did I mention classes still aren't that cheap? They're only slightly cheaper than tutoring but lack many benefits. Classes don’t offer customization and still cost up to $2000. Compare that to our tutoring program that costs less than $2000, and you'll scratch your head wondering why you don't either upgrade to tutoring or save money with a more automated program. Pros I should be fair to classes at this point. There is one type of student classes do work on: If your student has huge motivational issues, and only motivational issues, classes can work. If your student just needs someone to stand over them to get work done, and the qualifications and teaching ability of the person standing over them don't matter, then classes can boost that student’s score. Self Study Self study is the original form of test preparation, and it has some very distinct advantages. First, it’s incredibly cheap free if you do it right and use library books. Students essentially create their own programs and find out what to study and when. Self study can work, and you can find success stories all over the Internet. The first step of a self study program is to identify the right resources. Princeton Review books tend to work best for fast studiers who only want to improve a little, especially by working on test tricks instead of underlying skills. Kaplan is good if you’re mid-range, and Barron’s is the best if you’re at the top and willing to really sink time into getting an even higher score. You then need to self-diagnose your issues by analyzing questions you got wrong on practice tests and training questions. Divide these issues into content holes versus strategy holes. Then, design a study plan to figure out exactly how you will improve up until test day. You absolutely must stick to putting in the hours you promised yourself and revise your study plan as you get more data about what is working and what isn’t. Pros As you can probably see, self studyworks best for a certain set of students. It’s important that you’re self-motivated. If you’ve had a history of being able to plop down hundreds of hours of time to concentrate on a singular goal, then self study might be the right choice for you. If you’re the type of student who gets distracted from time to time or benefits from some external encouragement, you should be careful. Self study also works best for students who are already doing well on the test. They understand enough of the test, and how they have improved in the past, to self-diagnose their issues correctly. Cons It’s very easy, especially if you don’t fit the profile above, to fall by the wayside if you choose to self study. The number one most common mistake is running out of motivation. Like going on a diet, students are a lot more enthusiastic at the start. After tenhours of pounding away at questions, reality sets in. Some students browse YouTube, others skip study days, and still some students grab at any other reason (â€Å"I gotta finish this homework!†) to not study. The second most common reason for self study failing badly is not self-diagnosing correctly. We’ve seen so many self studiers go through a book cover to cover. Most of the material the student probably knows already, and the few pages that really hit upon a weak spot the student glosses over. Other students become obsessed with ways to â€Å"trick† the test and get really into test-taking tactics that don’t actually work for them. Summary on Self Study The end conclusion is that self study can work,and it has producedsome stellar cases you can read about on the Internet. And it is absolutely the cheapest way to study, especially when paired with a library. However, the student does need to be very insightful and self-motivated, and even then there is still a lot of risk involved. Many parents we’ve encountered are confident of their student’s ability to self study. However, often they still invest in help just to be safe after all, it’s their student’s education, their student’s future we're talkingabout here. Some students take pride in self studying, but it’s instructive to ask yourself whether pride or getting the highest score is more important. In the end, for well-qualified students, the decision is a personal one. Online Prep Programs The Internet is more popular now than ever. Budding Internet technologies that were just wisps of ideas in the 1990s are now functional, tested realities. If you’re a parent, you may remember decades ago when we would wait hours to download a tiny file over a noisy modem. Today videos can be streamed live to teach lessons anywhere. I know exactly what you’re thinking. Is online prep for real? The promise of instant access to hundreds and thousands of hours of lessons right in front of you sounds too good to be true. The idea that a machine can pick and choose lessons based on your exact skill level seems too much like science fiction. Can online test prep be the holy grail, or is it just catering to the hype, taking advantage of buzz words? Lucky for you, we at PrepScholar have an exceptional online prep program. What that means is that, in order to develop our product, we’ve done thorough research on every single program out there. We’re here to tell you what works and what doesn’t. First, I want to debunk some myths for you. Online test prep can provide a much better learning experience than usual, but it is not magical learning. If you’re picturing instant, effortless understanding, that’s NOT what online test prep is. Let’s debunk the myths. Here is what online test prep CANNOT do for you: Improve your score without you putting in time Make learning as relaxing as watching a TV show Allow you to learn passively, putting in no effort Improve your score substantially if you have no motivation Eliminate your careless mistakes without you thinking hard about them In fact, no test prep can pull off the magic above! Online test prep is not magic; it can’t get you a 4x improvement (in either efficiency or raw point increase) over the best traditional test prep methods. Anyone claiming revolutionary effortlessness should be seriously examined for whether they’re telling the truth. For quantitative types, a good estimate is that online prep isabout TWICE as good as traditional test prep. In that sense, online test prep can work better! A good online test prep program will: Be comprehensive Diagnose the student’s strengths and weaknesses Assign content lessons based on this diagnosis Keep updating the diagnostics based on student progress Assign strategy lessons based on student performance Let the student know at every single point in time what to work on, whether it’s practice tests, quizzes, lessons, drills, or even taking a break Have exact measures of the student’s skill in every category Motivate the student using progress bars, reminders, and regular parental progress reports If you’ve been following other blog posts about how we recommend students prep for the SAT, you'll have seen that these strategies are strongly recommended even if you are studying on your own. Look around on the Internet and do your own research: You’ll find every high scorer, every high point improver, has used a close variation of the above strategy to achieve their goal. Pros What online test prep does is make the above customization process totally automated so you can put all your hard work into learning and not into stressing about what to do next.It is our strong opinion that the best online prep programs are indeed effective. Another advantage is cost. By letting a computer monitor you and help you, online prep programs are generally a lot more affordable than classroom programs and tutoring. Most online prep programs are twice as affordable (if not more) than classes, and online programs are more effective as well. Finally, another fringe benefit of online prep is you can study anywhere. Students are busy, and studying from a car before soccer practice, or at home if you live away from city center, is very important in encouraging students to put in the right hours. Cons One strong warning about online test prep programs though: You absolutely must choose the right one. Many online test programs are just riding on hype and haven’t invested much in their program. One online prep program by a big-name test prep company costs hundreds of dollars. You take a one-time diagnostic, and then you get an e-book with certain sections highlighted. Here’s the kicker: The e-book is the same as the $20 book they sell at Barnes and Nobles. I personally asked this program’s saleslady about whether this method was good, and she frankly told me, â€Å"Yeah, almost no students finish this program.† I was shocked they would market such a program. Another â€Å"boutique test prep company† started by a celebrity tutor had an online test prep program that was literally just a PDF. No customization, no progress reports. You pay a few hundred bucks, and all you get is access to a site with a PDF. My jaw dropped. Bad online test prep programs offer only token customization, no guidance, and no motivation. They’re no better than e-books. In fact, many programs are actually literally that: an e-book! Note From Our Experience: At PrepScholar, we’ve created a prep program that succeeds in all the ways we described above. It’s based on our founders’ own study methods from when they got their perfect SAT scores and 99th percentile ACT scores. These methods have been improved over time with the thousands of students they’ve taught. Our complete online prep program guides you through a structured study plan from beginning to end. You start by taking adiagnostic exam, and we automatically determine your strengths and weaknesses through advanced statistics. Next, we create a customized study plan for you, assigning you the right lessons and practice questions to work on every week. For example, if you always ace the math section but need help with tricky grammar, your study plan will explain grammar rules carefully and won’t waste your time with math problems you already understand. We track your progress and automatically adjust your schedule so that you’re always workin g on what’s best for you. We also integrate real practice tests into your program, so you get training for the real exam. We also go above and beyond the teaching by caring about student motivation. We know that it’s easy for you to get distracted, even if you know that SAT / ACT prep is important. That’s why we send out progress reports every week to you and your parent, so you know you’re on track. We also help you fit prep into your schedule and commit to your study times. These features have been proven to increase study time by over 200%, leading to better score results. What's Next? You have many choices when it comes to test prep, and each methodhasspecific strengths and weaknesses. Tutoring is great for it’s effectiveness, although you can face problems finding theright tutor and affordingits high cost. Classes are generally not very effective, but they can be good for students who need just monitoring. Self-study is very effective when done right, but it requires motivation, insight, and getting it right. While each method has strong and weak points, that doesn’t mean the methods are created equal for example classes are usually a bad deal, whereas self-study often works. And, of course, everyone today should be seriously considering online prep. It’s an affordable method that can lead to better results than self-study and textbooks. However, only some online programs are actually effective. At PrepScholar, we avoid the mistakes that other programs make and deliver a comprehensive prep program specifically designed to maximize your score. Further Reading Thinking about tutoring? Check out our guide to learn if online tutoring is right for you. Want to get started on your test prep?We have great tips to help you boost your SAT score orACT score. Are you aiming for a top score?Read our guides to getting a perfect score on the SAT or a perfect score on the ACT, written by a full-scorer of both exams.