Full Expert Review The Official SAT Study Guide

Full Expert Review The Official SAT Study Guide SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips The Official SAT Study Guide is the most important book to have in your prep program. Nearly every student who's serious about SAT prep has this in his or her library. Even despite its obvious strengths, the book has its major drawbacks, and it will not be enough for most students. Read this detailed review to find out what the cons of this book are, and how you should integrate it as part of your prep. Note: This review is for the Official Study Guide to the Old, pre-March-2016 SAT. Read our review of the Official Study Guide to the New SAT here! Why trust this review? When you get advice on the internet, it's important to understand why you should believe the advice you're receiving. Because your SAT score is important, follow the wrong advice, and it might be too late to improve your score. To be transparent, here’s why you might be able to trust this review more than others: I like to think that I know what I’m talking about.I scoredtwo perfect scores on the SATand have worked personally with thousands of students prepping for the SAT. I’ve worked with students at all levels, from people at a 1200 level to people aiming for a 2300+. Other writers often don't have the expertise to differentiate between books, and they recommend books as an afterthought (and you can probably tell). I don’t get paid for these recommendations, and I don’t get paid if you buy these books.I’ve studied dozens of books for SAT prep, and I review the books that I come across. Other sites, especially about.com and reviews.com, get paid for featuring books and get a kickback when you buy a book they recommend. One disclaimer: I’m co-founder ofPrepScholar, an online SAT/ACT prep program. I believe we’ve built the best prep program available right now. Itdiagnoses your strengths and weaknessesand gives you a structured all-in-one program, combining the best aspects of the books below, so you know exactly what you need to study at every point. But I want to stress that you don’t need a program to excel at the SAT. In fact, writing this guide may lose us some customers, since you might decide that you don’t need a program at all. But if you decide that you don’t want to manage 10 books and want an integrated complete program that customizes to your learning,check PrepScholar SAT out. Official SAT Study Guide Review When I consider the quality of a book, I think about a few important questions: Who's the author, and what is his or her experience with the subject matter? How effective is the book, and why? What are the book's main pros and cons? We'll consider each question below. About the Author: The College Board It doesn't get much better than this. The book is the official book published by the creators and administrators of the SAT, the College Board. They've put in 10 full-length practice tests, and because they're official questions from previous administrations of the SAT, they're the best set of questions available anywhere. How effective is this book? We’ve written at length about theimportance of official SAT practice questions. The SAT test is weird and tests concepts in ways that you’ve never seen in school before. This means that you need to train with realistic questions so you learn the patterns of the SAT. Official SAT tests released by the College Board are the gold standard for SAT practice questions. This book contains 10 such tests. Each test released by the College Board contains real questions given to real students at previous administrations of the SAT. The quality of official questions is far better than questions written by unofficial sources like Kaplan and Barron's. With that said, this book will not be a complete prep program for most students. It doesn't go into detail on test strategy and tricks - after all, the College Board has maintained since the beginning of the SAT that the SAT is not able to be prepped for (which we know is factually false). It also doesn't provide focused practice on specific strengths and weaknesses, which we believe is critical to an effective prep program. Its answer explanations are also quite poor, as they don't teach you how to solve the problem - they just tell you why the correct answer is correct, and why the incorrect answers are incorrect.The book also doesn't tell you how to use it - it's important that you reflect on your mistakes, for example, and space out your prep. In the end, this book is great for what it is - 10 practice tests - but not for more than that. The Official SAT Guide's Pros and Cons Pros: The best set of practice tests you can get anywhere, period. 10 full-length tests should cover all but the most ambitious students. Since each one takes at least 4 hours to complete and review, this is already 40 hours of material. Answers for each question are available online. Cons: Answer explanations are not helpful for self-learning for most students. Most of the explanations read like this: â€Å"A is wrong because A is wrong. B is correct for these reasons† rather than showing you how to solve the question from step 1. You need to understand yourself well to learn from your mistakes. Answers are available only online and through a clunky web interface that’s annoying to use. Book doesn’t provide other instructional material. If you’re bad at algebra, you can’t rely on this book alone. People are buying it purely for the tests, and the College Board knows this. Taking practice tests without a system for learning isn’t going to improve your score, and the book doesn’t provide guidance on how to do this. Overall Rating This book is a critical piece of any student's prep program. There simply is no better source of official prep questions. It's so important that we've integrated it as a central part of our online SAT prep program. To use this book effectively, you'll definitely need advice on how best to use it, and balance it with other materials. You can also getall free official practice tests here, but they don’t have answer explanations. Overall Rating: 90/100 What's next? Read our detailed guide to theBest SAT Prep Booksto put together your own study program based on the best SAT books available now. What's a good SAT score for you?Figure it out with our step by step guide based on the colleges you're applying to. Aiming for a high score? Read ourguide to scoring a perfect SAT score, written by me, a perfect SAT scorer. Check out our industry-leading online SAT program. We've designed it to cover all the advantages of books and tutors at an affordable price. Featuring in-depth strategy lessons and thousands of practice questions, we have the content from the leading books. We include the critical Official SAT Study Guide. Beyond that, the programacts like your personal tutor. It guides you step-by-step through what you should be working on at every moment to best improve your score. Itcustomizes to your strengths and weaknesses, then gives you focused practice so you learn the patterns on the SAT. Furthermore, it motivates you to study so that you put in enough time. There's a 160 point guarantee - if you don'timprove your score by 160 points, you get all your money back. Have friends who also need help with test prep? Share this article! Tweet Allen Cheng About the Author As co-founder and head of product design at PrepScholar, Allen has guided thousands of students to success in SAT/ACT prep and college admissions. He's committed to providing the highest quality resources to help you succeed. Allen graduated from Harvard University summa cum laude and earned two perfect scores on the SAT (1600 in 2004, and 2400 in 2014) and a perfect score on the ACT. You can also find Allen on his personal website, Shortform, or the Shortform blog. Get Free Guides to Boost Your SAT/ACT Get FREE EXCLUSIVE insider tips on how to ACE THE SAT/ACT. 100% Privacy. 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Dinosaur Footprints and Trackmarks

Dinosaur Footprints and Trackmarks You can do the dinosaur footprint math yourself: If the average Tyrannosaurus rex walked two or three miles per day, it would have left behind thousands of footprints. Multiply that number by T. Rexs multi-decade life span, and youre well into the millions. Of these millions of footprints, the vast majority would have been erased by rain, floods, or the subsequent footprints of other dinosaurs. However, a tiny percentage baked and hardened in the sun, and an even tinier percentage managed to survive to the present day. Because they’re so common, especially compared to complete, articulated dinosaur skeletons, dinosaur footprints are an especially rich source of information about the size, posture, and everyday behavior of their creators. Many professional and amateur paleontologists devote themselves full-time to the study of these trace fossils or as they’re sometimes called, ichnites or ichnofossils. Other examples of trace fossils are coprolites - fossilized dinosaur poop to you and me. How Dinosaur Footprints Fossilize One of the odd things about dinosaur footprints is that they fossilize under different conditions than dinosaurs themselves. The holy grail of paleontologists - a complete, fully articulated dinosaur skeleton, including imprints of soft tissues - usually forms in sudden, catastrophic circumstances, such as when a Parasaurolophus is buried by a sandstorm, drowned in a flash flood, or chased by a predator into a tar pit. Newly-formed footprints, on the other hand, can only hope to be preserved when theyre left alone - by the elements and by other dinosaurs - and given a chance to harden. The necessary condition for dinosaur footprints to survive for 100 million years is that the impression has to be made in soft clay (say, along a lake, coastline, or riverbed), and then baked dry by the sun. Assuming the footprints are well-done enough, they can then persist even after being buried under successive layers of sediment. What this means is that dinosaur footprints aren’t necessarily found only on the surface. They can also be recovered from deep beneath the ground, just like ordinary fossils. What Dinosaurs Made the Footprints? Except in extraordinary circumstances, its pretty much impossible to identify the specific genus or species of dinosaur that made a given footprint. What paleontologists can figure out fairly easily is whether the dinosaur was bipedal or quadrupedal (that is, whether it walked on two or four feet), what geological period it lived in (based on the age of the sediment where the footprint is found), and its approximate size and weight (based on the size and depth of the footprint). As for the type of dinosaur that made the tracks, the suspects can at least be narrowed down. For example, bipedal footprints (which are more common than the quadrupedal kind) could only have been produced by meat-eating theropods (a category that includes raptors, tyrannosaurs, and dino-birds) or plant-eating ornithopods. A trained investigator can distinguish between two sets of prints. For example, theropod footprints tend to be longer and narrower than those of ornithopods. At this point, you might ask: cant we identify the exact owner of a set of footprints by examining any fossil remains unearthed nearby? Sadly, no. As stated above, footprints and fossils are preserved under very different circumstances, so the odds of finding an intact Stegosaurus skeleton buried next to its own footprints are virtually zero. Dinosaur Footprint Forensics Paleontologists can only extract a limited amount of information from a single, isolated dinosaur footprint. The real fun starts when the prints of one or more dinosaurs (of the same or different species) are found along extended tracks. By analyzing the spacing of a single dinosaur’s footprints - both between the left and right feet and forward, in the direction of motion - researchers can make good guesses about the dinosaurs posture and weight distribution (not a small consideration when it comes to larger, bulkier theropods like the huge Giganotosaurus). It may also be possible to determine whether the dinosaur was running rather than walking, and if so, how fast. Footprints also tell scientists whether or not the dinosaur held its tail upright. A droopy tail would have left a telltale skid mark behind the footprints. Dinosaur footprints are sometimes found in groups, which (if the tracks are similar in appearance) counts as evidence of herding behavior. Numerous sets of footprints on a parallel course may be a sign of mass migration or the location of a now-vanished shoreline. These same sets of prints, arranged in a circular pattern, can represent the traces of an ancient dinner party - that is, the dinosaurs responsible were digging into a heap of carrion or a tasty, long-gone tree. More controversially, some paleontologists have interpreted the proximity of carnivorous and herbivorous dinosaur footprints as evidence of ancient chases to the death. This may certainly have been the case, in some instances, but its also possible that the Allosaurus in question tromped along the same patch of ground as the Diplodocus a few hours, a few days, or even a few years later. Don’t Be Fooled Because theyre so common, dinosaur footprints were identified long before anyone had even conceived of the existence of dinosaurs - so these track marks were attributed to giant prehistoric birds! This is a good example of how its possible to be right and wrong at the same time. Its now believed that birds evolved from dinosaurs, so it makes sense that some types of dinosaurs had bird-like footprints. To show how quickly a half-baked idea can spread, in 1858, the naturalist Edward Hitchcock interpreted the latest footprint finds in Connecticut as evidence that herds of flightless, ostrich-like birds once roamed the plains of North America. Over the next few years, this image was taken up by writers as diverse as Herman Melville (author of Moby Dick) and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who referenced birds unknown, that have left us only their footprints in one of his more obscure poems. Source Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. To the Driving Cloud. The Belfry of Bruges and Other Poems, Bartleby, 1993.

Customer Relationship Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Customer Relationship Management - Essay Example   Engaging in CRM allows company employees, who work in various customer contact departments such as customer support, marketing and sales, to become better placed and able to make rapid and well informed decisions on every aspect of the business ranging from competitive positioning tactics to up-selling and cross-selling opportunities. According to CRM Magazine, although it was once thought to be a type of software, CRM has gradually evolved and has now become a customer-centric philosophy that most organisations are adopting and developing various policies that help it permeate throughout the various organisations. CRM is seen to encompass a set of three key elements that play an important role in the success of a well formulated CRM program. These three elements are basically technology, people and process (destinationcrm, 2010). Customers have long been considered as being the biggest asset to any business enterprise and more often than not, this definition is seen to specially apply to those customers who will continue engaging with the business and hence remain its customers in the future (Rust, Lemon and Zeithami, 2004). Customers are usually perceived as the main reason for which companies as well as business enterprises exist. The value of a given customer can be calculated so as to show the customer lifetime value. The customer lifetime value (CLV) is commonly defined as the current value of the entire. The value of a given customer can be calculated so as to show the customer lifetime.

Is Free Cash better than dividend per share (DPS) Assignment

Is Free Cash better than dividend per share (DPS) - Assignment Example This study examines between Earnings per Share and Free Cash to determine the best investment option. Dividend is a payment made by public corporations to the shareholders from the profits. Dividend per Share (DPS) refers to the sum or dividends of declared dividends for every ordinary share issued (Brigham & Daves, 2012). Dividends are a proportion of company’s profits reported by the business to the shareholders since shareholders are owners of the company and deserve a share of company’s profit. When a corporation decides to issue a dividend to the shareholders they allocate a fixed amount per share with shareholders getting a fraction of dividend proportionate to the shares, they hold (Brigham & Daves, 2012). Some corporations issue fixed sum of dividends to the shareholders and transfer the other undistributed profit amount is maintained as retained earnings. Investing in companies that issue shareholders with dividend gives the investors an opportunity to generate a steady return through income from the stock purchases (Ehrhardt & Brigham, 2010). However, the com pany should examine the pay-out ratio to ensure the earnings of the company are capable of supporting the current dividend payment amount. Investing in a corporation with the dividend per share implies the shareholders have the higher chance of increasing income, but the company has a problem with managing its operations due to inadequacy of cash (Ehrhardt & Brigham, 2010) Free cash flow refer to pay a firm has generated for its shareholders after deducting expenses investing in its growth. It measures the amount of cash per share a company makes after accounting for capital costs such as buildings and equipment (Westbrook, 2014, p.111). It is equivalent to total cash flow less capital spending. It is essential in a corporation because it plans the financial health of the company and gets rid of all accounting suppositions built into earnings. It is a measure of the company’s

Characters and Plot in the Black Gold Essay Example for Free

Characters and Plot in the Black Gold Essay It is not so frequent to find a novel written with an animal as the main character and the story revolving primarily around him. Nevertheless, there are writers like Marguerite Henry who writes animal stories with so much fascination and passion, one of which is the Black Gold. It was based on true-to-life experiences set during the early 1990s in Oklahoma and Kentucky. Mixing her vast knowledge about the topic and her creative talent in writing, Marguerite Henry was able to weave a story with extraordinary characters confronted with extraordinary conflicts. Brief Summary The story evolved in the story of a colt named Black Gold, following his adventures being a race horse. He was regarded by many as weak and not good in racing since he possesses a smaller body compared to other horses. But through the help of his trainer Hanley Webb and rider Jaydee Mooney, the colt started to win and finally gained victory in the Kentucky Derby. His success continued to flourish until he got injured in one of the races he joined. His leg got a quarter crack. Eventually, the colt died. Black Gold was given a burial in the middle of a field in New Orleans. Analysis of the Characters Being an animal is not a reason to live a life less simple. It is very much evident in the story of Black Gold. His life is consisted of complex occurrences that can be considered as more intricate when compared to lives of other people. His birth was a product of a dream. Al Hoots, the owner of Black Gold’s mother named U-See-It, dreamt that if he will breed U-See-It to a leading sire, the mare shall give birth to the horse that will win in the Kentucky Derby. As a result, Hoots tried to mate U-See-It to a stallion named Black Toney. The money Hoots used came from the oil that during that time was being excavated from their land in Oklahoma. Here is where the name Black Gold originated. Among the individuals who imparted time and dedication to Black Gold was his rider Jaydee Mooney. Jaydee Mooney was the one who initially believed in the capacity and talent of Black Gold: â€Å" †¦us Mooneys always try. We do our best†¦Ã¢â‚¬  ( p. 108). However, his spirit was pushed into limits when Black Gold got injured several days before the Derby: It was the first loss for the team of Black Gold and Jaydee Mooney. Was it the soreness in his foot showing up again-the same trouble hed had the week before the Derby? (p. 143). Nevertheless, Jaydee Mooney proved to be not only as a rider but a friend as well to Black Gold, especially when the horse died. Analysis of the Plot Since the book was based from true stories and actual experiences, Marguerite Henry wrote it by narrating events in chronological order. Although written in this manner, the book is not boring and dragging to read. It is because the plot itself is a compelling one that catches and drawn immediately the attention of its readers. She used literary devices so as to show her creativity and mastery in handling and writing a topic such as that presented in the book. Henry was also successful in presenting transition of events. Every chapter in the book promises a more interesting and intense happenings from previous events and chapters. In addition, Henry was effective in inflicting transitional devices that guide the readers while reading. The use of illustrations in the book helped in the proper interpretation of events in the story since the readers will be carefully guided while going on through the story. However, the use of these illustrations somehow gives an impression that Black Gold is a children’s book. But all in all, the story’s plot, as well as the book in general, was a well- crafted depiction of an extraordinary tale. Reference Henry, M. ( 1957). Black Gold. Illinois: Rand McNally

marine worms :: essays research papers

Flatworms belong to the phylum Platyhelminthes. They have the simplest body plan of all bilaterally symmetrical animals. They are called flatworms because their bodies are compressed. The mouth is the only opening into the digestive cavity the flatworms have. Food is taken in through this hole and wastes are discharged also through this hole. Flatworms have a well-defined nervous, muscular, excretory, and reproductive system. The flatworm distributes the food it digests through a digestive tube that branches throughout all of its body parts. The fact that the worm’s body is flat serves many purposes. It allows the worm to hid in small spaces, to fit into the opening of other animals if the worm is parasitic, and it means that all the cells are close enough to the surface for exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide with the environment (Meinkoth 399).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There are about thirty thousand species of worms in the phylum Platyhelminthes. Twenty five thousand of these worms are parasitic, which is the vast majority of the phylum. The flatworms only account for four thousand of the worms in the phylum, but they are said to be very beautiful compared to the parasitic worms (Snyderman and Wiseman 83). Flatworms display bilateral symmetry, which means that their bodies have a distinctive head and rear, and their right and left sides are mirror images of each other. The fact that these worms are bilaterally symmetric enables them to move from place to place more efficiently. This trait can help the worms catch their food and get away from their enemies. It can help them find a mate and move from location to location. If they were not made like this, they would have very little control over their bodily movements, and not be able to survive in the ocean (Snyderman and Wiseman 84).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Some other characteristics that make worms of the phylum Platyhelminthes unique are the fact that they are light sensitive. They often try to avoid brightly lit areas. They are so sensitive because they possess’ bundles of light-sensitive eyes that are often described as primitive eyes (Snyderman and Wiseman 84). Another interesting characteristic of the flatworms is that they are hermaphroditic. This means that they posses both male and female reproductive organs. When one learns of this they may think that self-fertilization would be common, but it is not. Flatworms also posses amazing regenerative properties. When they lose a body part, a new one will form, and it some cases, the body part often regenerates an entirely new flatworm (Snyderman and Wiseman 84).

Workshop Critique

Designing a more effective workshop is a daunting challenge to today’s fast moving world that exhibits dynamism in various aspects. As a result it poses a daunting challenge to the workshop organizers and planers especially when there are sensitive issues regarding to conflicts, interracial misunderstanding and poor communication among the participants. In this regard, designing and implementing workshop for the young persons who face challenging issues when they have been asked to work in a group such as Communication, language barriers, culture differences and conflicts, on which the participants wanted to improve on becomes a challenge. As a consequence, design for such a workshop it is deemed necessary to critically balance the goals of the participants and the learning and facilitating resources against the philosophy and objectives of designers (Barbazette, 2001). This aspect of workshop planning and implementation is a key principle to a successful workshop implementation that guarantees positive outcomes of the workshop which some planners usually neglect. In circumstances that balancing principle is neglected the planers usually dominate their design with their views and views of the participants obtained from surveys such as TNA for this case. Although in most cases in the process of workshop designing both planners and participant’s philosophical ands theoretical goals may be coherent in the sense that both aims at improving their educational process, the reality of the school environment can cause inappropriate planning and miscommunication in regard to workshop design. However, planers creativity, innovativeness and awareness can help arrive at a tangible workshop that participants can implement the skills, attitudes, behaviors and knowledge to their daily practices in their respective schools and groups. Therefore in designing an effective workshop the key domains that were considered are logistics, recourses and content. Rationale for Workshop Design The rationale for workshop design was informed greatly by logistics involved, content and the learning and teaching resources. The design was highly influenced by the TNA conducted which revealed that the students or participants had difficulties working in groups in terms of communication, language, barriers, conflicts and cultural differences. In this regard, the workshop was stimulated in away that it became a leaner centered. The logistics involved in the workshop design to a greater extend contributed to the success of the workshop. By summing up the aim of the logistics involved in the workshop design, the workshop was supposed to impact day-to-day group work tasks of the participants (Barbazette, 2001). The focus of the workshop was centered on the understanding the principles and process of effective group formation and functioning with respect to diversity. In order to ensure that the workshop materials are applied by workshop participants to their normal schooling life, the workshop plan utilized the following strategies: first, Individualization technique that used appropriate teaching technological resources to present individualized learning materials to the participants like reference to special links on the internet because we recognize that every participant has quite a bit to learn. Second, Time was sufficiently allocated that facilitated absorption of principles and by most participants. Third, the school support â€Å"buy in† was also central to the plan as the school had to buy in the value of the workshop by permitting workshop to be conducted and students to participate. And the fourth aspect, was the selection of learning materials â€Å"Take to class materials† that are relevant to content and participants. However, despite the logistics involved in planning for the workshop effective learning during workshop proceeding is determined by quality and concern of faculty, peer group, and effective content and pedagogy. These factors are addressed by content, instructional approach and resources used in the following section. The content instructional approach was largely drawn from Kolb learning cycle (see figure 1) that utilized participant’s experiential knowledge as learning resource. Kolb learning cycle model (Kolb, 1984) emphasizes the use of learners experience to build new content. This approach is very important in learning and teaching undertakings especially to students in the sense that facilitator induces reflective aspect to learners in order for it to become a process and routine to develop learners. Kolb learning cycle comprise of four phases: Concrete Experience, Reflective Observation, Abstract Conceptualization and Active Experimentation, which must be adhered to in order to attain meaningful learning. By adhering to these four stages, the participants were able to reflect on their experience to formulate concepts which can be applied to their future situations relating to group work. The new participant’s behavior is tested out by exposing him or her to new situation or previous situations and comparing the effectiveness of learning outcome. For instance, in this case speed ball was reintroduced to participants after learning and revealed that group competency has been gained evident by reduction in task performance time for 17seconds to 1 second. Briefly the four phases of Kolb’s cycle are significant in enhancing learning and skills long term skills that the workshop participants can apply to real life situation. For instance, Concrete experience phase involves ‘doing’ aspect that drive for process and content of workshop through materials. The use of interactive games in workshop like speedball, this enhances experience on the past of participants. Reflective observation is the participant’s qualities and judgments of events and discussion of the learning process with peers (Cranton, 1995; Trotman, 2000; Gordon, 2002). As a result, participants were able to reflect on their training at the workshop and at the same time normal school learning situation this enable the students to have confidence with their colleagues and mitigate painful learning experiences. To enhance a meaningful reflection of the participants keep their journals or a log. Importantly, reflection aspect is vital mechanism to promote learning and professional development. Abstract conceptualization helps learners to plan better future activities added to their reflection of their personal experience by being informed by educated theories. In this context, Educational theories were major drawn from luck man’s model of learn development, forming, worming, storming and performing. While at the same time the Taylor’s set of 16 guiding principles of effective groups was utilized see [table 1] (Taylor, 1996). Through educational information added to the students own reflection, enables the participants to integrate theories and the analysis of the past actions to draw conclusion about their group work practices. Active experimentation is the final and actualization phase according to Kolb cycle of learning in the sense that it enables the work shop participants to use conclusion drawn about present actions from Abstract conceptualization phase as a basis to plan changes to their group work performance, the Active experimentation phase is vital because it generates concrete experience to the participants thereby forming knowledge base to inform, educate others and develop effective group interactive skills. Moreover, the attained concrete experience serve as a platform on which the participants of the work shop can review and reflect to form conclusion about the effectives of the outcomes. The content emphasis was drawn from Turkman’s Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing and ending model (see figure 1). These four distinct stages were emphasized on because the students complaint on their difficulties they do experience during working in groups greatly lie in the misunderstanding of the critical process of effective group formation and functioning. The content planned was aimed at covering and teaching the participants how to form, storm, norm, perform and adjourn the group once it is through with the task assigned. The group forming stage the emphasis was on the group leader role was stressed since there is little agreement from the team other than leader guidance and direction. Moreover, the many questions relating to objectives, purpose and individual concerns should be answered by the leader, while the members can engage in system testing to understand it better. Therefore, the forming phase entirely is dependant on the leader’s directives. The second phase of storming, the members may experience difficulties in decision making and struggle for positions. As a result, these struggles cause increase of purpose clarity but plenty of uncertainties may also persist. Therefore, the workshop participants were informed to be tolerant with different views of members disregarding their ethnic, gender or race, and try as much as possible to reach an agreeable compromise in line with their goals to avoid emotions distract their progress (Farbstein, 2003). The workshop participants were informed that if they successful undergo the first two phases, then the third stage of norming will come in automatically with ease in decision making and agreement amongst the members. Moreover, the group shall have strong unity, commitment and respect for the leader. Thereafter, the team moves to performance stage where the team shall be more strategically aware of why it is doing what it is doing due to shared vision without strict supervision or leader direction. As a result, the team shall have ambitions to over achieve their goals, easy conflict and disagreement solving and the group shall work with less instructions and directives, while the leader’s role shall only be streamlined to delegate and oversee the performance. Then lastly, the group can adjourn as the last stage when the task has been accomplished successfully. The participants were informed the joy and fulfillment of adjourning stage rests on group dissolution when everyone move to do other things or assignments feeling good about what's been achieved. Therefore, group member ought to strive to have a happy ending by facilitating a successful group formation and functioning in their school learning activities. In addition to Turkman’s model of group formation and performing, Taylor’s 16 principles of effective group performance were included in the content since they guide and help group running normally. These included: Testing inferences and assumptions, Sharing all relevant information, Focusing on interests as opposed to positions, Agreeing on what important words mean, Being specific when referring to anything like using examples like Peterson and not you, Disagreeing openly with any member of the group, Make statements and then invite questions and comments and Explaining the reasons behind questions, actions and statements. Additionally, jointly designing ways to test disagreements and solutions, Discussing undiscussable issues, Keeping discussions focused, there should be no taking of cheap shots as they may distract the group, All members are expected to be participating in all phases of the group processes, Exchange relevant information with non-group members, Make decisions by consensus, Doing self-critiques. These principles are vital and useful to group as they offer guidelines to successful group functioning and performance. Workshop resources were carefully selected since the learning resources can be turned into a factor with a positive impact (Farbstein, 2003; Kieren, 2005; Smith, 1998). The challenge towards meeting sufficient workshop resources was funding or financial limitation to avail the necessary resources to the participants such as handouts on principles of effective group performance and the Turkman’s model of group forming, storming, norming and performing. Despite financial limitation, there was use of relevant text books, reference to important websites for information regarding effective group functioning and use of charts was widely used. In addition to that, the participants were requested to write a position paper in rejection or support of the pedagogical innovations used in the workshop. Workshop outcomes The workshop outcome from my observation, it was very good and the team was able to communicate with each other, they have followed exactly the Tuchman’s model of team development, forming, storming, and norming, performing, and then ending. Moreover, I observed that the conflict on the norming stage was not obvious because the number of the team members were few; therefore they were able to overcome their conflict so easily. Additionally, during the activity, I noticed that some students showed leadership skills and some were just followers and listeners. The major theory that can be used to explain this show of behavior is goal setting and reinforcement theories. This is in the sense that the participants were able to set their personal goals that motivated and spurred their behavior and need to achieve. While on the other hand, the facilitators were able to reinforce positively the participants especially by use of extrinsic motivators. As a result, the survey results obtained from students showed that they all liked a lot the workshop (Kirkpatrick, 1994). Recommendations for improvements The workshop was successful but needed more aspects and issues to be looked at or incorporated. For instance, during facilitation there is need to integrate workshop design with more academic theory and application in sense that they are interwoven to have it deliver skills and knowledge at its best. The making of this linkage can help to continue the momentum from the participants’ experience. However, there is need to revolve around more personal theory around participants responses to the experience and less of academic theories. Furthermore, there is need to allocate sufficient time to maximize the outcomes of the activity by considering its implications and impacts of day-to-day participants academic undertaking. And finally, learning and teaching resources ought to have more attention paid to and proper resources mobilization to even include handouts to help participants with application outside the workshop. Lastly, the TNA need to be clearer and all inclusive to include wide views of stakeholders. Conclusion In conclusion, the paper has looked at the workshop design and implementation with insight to its outcomes. The success of the workshop demonstrate the fact that technical competency at any organization is not enough, but rather the interpersonal skills that facilitates individuals development of effective work relationships. In order to attain that, there was collaborative approach to design and implement the workshop to meet the needs from various participants’ perspectives. As a result, the workshop was able to successfully transfer of learning to behavior because: first, participants improved their communication skills demonstrated by reduction in speedball exercise time from 17 seconds to 1 second. This also indicates that Participants had attained an increase in self-awareness in relation to body language, tone of voice and active listening. Moreover, the participants showed that they were less aggressive and more assertive in relation to their approach while interacting with their peers. Secondly, the participants gained insight into behavior of self and others. Therefore, the participant developed a sense to appreciate others’ cultural, racial and ethnic differences and was able to adapt necessary communication styles aimed at improving their interpersonal relations.

Theories of Buying and Selling

Jan Bronowski is a salesperson for Packard Bell (a computer company www. packardbell. com) and works exclusively in PC world  (www. pcworld. com) a retail company selling personal computers, printers, software and ancillary computer-related equipment. Working on a one-toone basis, the job involves demonstrating the functions of hardware and software packages, answering any questions the prospect may have and solving problems by matching the appropriate products to the customer’s needs. At the point of purchase, the prospect is ‘handed over’ to someone else who deals with payment, credit arrangements and invoicing. After six months, Jan has been relatively successful. He has worked hard and believes that his confidence, the ability to strike up rapport with prospects and his ability to ‘read a prospect’ have contributed to his success. The company have decided to promote him to their direct business division, selling to local firms. As part of his new job, Jan has contacted by telephone the office manager of a local company which produces chemicals and employs 60 people, 12 of those in office and administrative positions. He is excited at the prospect of making his first sale. The office manager was interested in his products and has asked Jan to call and see him the following week. Prior to his visit, Jan has been asked to post the relevant details of his products to the office manager. He has also been requested to bring some of the equipment to demonstrate to the office staff who would eventually use any such equipment. Thinking about his forthcoming visit, Jan is apprehensive; his background in retail has been with relatively inexperienced customers, and he is unsure of his ability to explain the product in these new surroundings to a more technical audience. He is also worried about demonstrating the product to the office staff since one of the advantages which will become apparent at any such demonstration is the potential staff savings of the equipment. Meanwhile, back at the chemicals company, the office manager is trying to convince his managing director of the wisdom of his decision because of the capital outlay required. The purchasing manager is upset because he has not been consulted about the proposed purchase and rings Jan directly to complain of his annoyance at being bypassed, telling Jan that he is determined to block the purchase on principle.

acquired dyslexia essays

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Sacbe, the Ancient Maya Road System

Sacbe, the Ancient Maya Road System A sacbe (sometimes spelled zac be and pluralized as sacbeob or zac beob) is the Mayan word for the linear architectural features connecting communities throughout the Maya world. Sacbeob functioned as roads, walkways, causeways, property lines, and dikes. The word sacbe translates to stone road or white road but clearly sacbeob had layers of additional meanings to the Maya, as mythological routes, pilgrimage pathways, and concrete markers of political or symbolic connections between city centers. Some sacbeob are mythological, subterranean routes and some trace celestial pathways; evidence for these roadways are reported in Maya myths and colonial records. Finding the Sacbeob Identifying the routes of the sacbe on the ground has been extremely difficult until recently  when techniques such as radar imaging, remote sensing, and GIS became widely available. Of course,  Maya historians remain an important source of information for these ancient roadways. The issue is complex, ironically enough, because there are written records that contradict one another. Several of the sacbe have been identified archaeologically, many others are still unknown but have been reported in colonial period documents such as the Books of Chilam Balam. In my research for this article, I did not discover any explicit discussions on how old the sacbeob are  but based on the ages of the connecting cities, they were functioning at least as early as the Classic period (AD 250-900). Functions In addition to simply roadways that facilitated movement between places, researchers Folan and Hutson argue that sacbeob were visual representations of economic and political connections between centers and their satellites, conveying the concepts of power and inclusion. Causeways may have been used in processions that emphasized this idea of community. One function described in recent scholarly literature is the role of the sacbe road system in the Maya market network. The exchange system of the Maya kept the far-flung (and very loosely connected) communities in touch  and made it possible both to trade goods and make and sustain political connections. Market centers with central locations and associated causeways include Coba, Maax Na, Sayil, and Xunantunich. Deities and Sacbeob Maya deities associated with roadways include Ix Chel in several of her manifestations. One is Ix Zac Beeliz or she who walks the white road. In a mural at Tulum, Ix Chel is shown carrying two small images of the Chaac god as she is walking along a mythological or real roadway. The deity Chiribias (Ix Chebel Yax or the Virgin of Guadalupe) and her husband Itzam Na are sometimes associated with roads, and the legend of the Hero Twins includes a journey through the underworld along several sacbeob. From Cob to Yaxuna The longest known sacbe is the one that stretches 100 kilometers (62 miles) between the Maya centers of Cob and Yaxuna on the Yucatn Peninsula of Mexico, called the Yaxuna-Cob causeway or Sacbe 1. Along Sacbe 1s east-west course are water holes (dzonot), steles with inscriptions and several small Maya communities. Its roadbed measures approximately 8 meters (26 feet) wide and typically 50 centimeters (20 inches) high, with various ramps and platforms alongside. Sacbe 1 was stumbled into by early twentieth century explorers, and rumors of the road became known to the Carnegie Institution archaeologists working at  Cob  by the early 1930s. Its entire length was mapped by Alfonso Villa Rojas and Robert Redfield in the mid-1930s. Recent investigations by Loya Gonzalez and Stanton (2013) suggest that the sacbes main purpose may have been to connect Cob to the large market centers of Yaxuna and, later,  Chichà ©n Itz, in order to better control trade throughout the peninsula. Other Sacbe Examples The Tzacauil sacbe is a solid rock causeway, which starts at the Late Preclassic acropolis of Tzacauil and ends just short of the large center of Yaxuna. Varying in width between 6 and 10 meters, and in height between 30 and 80 centimeters, this sacbes roadbed includes some crudely cut facing stones. From Cob to Ixil, 20 kilometers in length, is a noh be followed and described in the 1970s by Jacinto May Hau, Nicolas Caamal Canche, Teoberto May Chimal, Lynda Florey Folan and William J. Folan. This 6-meter wide sacbe crosses a marshy area and includes numerous small and large ramps. Close to Coba was a fairly large platform next to a vaulted building, which the Maya guides referred to as a customs house or  way station. This road may have defined the boundaries of Cobas urban area and region of power. From Ich Caan Ziho through  Akà ©Ã‚  to Itzmal, is a sacbe approximately 60 km in length, of which only a portion is in evidence. Described by Ruben Maldonado Cardenas in the 1990s, a network of roads still used today leads from Ake to Itzmal. Sources Bolles D, and Folan WJ. 2001.  An analysis of roads listed in colonial dictionaries and their relevance to pre-hispanic linear features in the Yucatan peninsula.  Ancient Mesoamerica  12(02):299-314. Folan WJ, Hernandez AA, Kintz ER, Fletcher LA, Heredia RG, Hau JM, and Canche N. 2009.  Coba, Quintana Roo, Mexico: A Recent Analysis of the Social, Economic and Political Organization of a Major Maya Urban Center.  Ancient Mesoamerica  20(1):59-70. Hutson SR, Magnoni A, and Stanton TW. 2012.  Ã¢â‚¬Å"All that is solid†¦Ã¢â‚¬ : Sacbes, settlement, and semiotics at Tzacauil, Yucatan.  Ancient Mesoamerica  23(02):297-311. Loya Gonzlez T, and Stanton TW. 2013.  Impacts of politics on material culture: evaluating the Yaxuna-Coba sacbe.  Ancient Mesoamerica  24(1):25-42. Shaw LC. 2012.  The elusive Maya marketplace: An archaeological consideration of the evidence.  Journal of Archaeological Research  20:117-155.

French policing- Directorate-General of Customs and Indirect Taxes Essay

French policing- Directorate-General of Customs and Indirect Taxes - Essay Example The minister of Budget, Public Accounts and Civil Service controls the Directorate-General. The Directorate-General of Customs and Indirect Taxes is responsible for ensuring that fraud is detected and tackled, indirect taxes are levied accordingly, smuggling is prevented at borders, counterfeit products are detected and dealt with, drug trafficking is prevented, money laundering is stopped, and borders are thoroughly surveyed (IMF, 1996). The Directorate-General of Customs and Indirect Taxes in France serves the purpose of guarding the borders, guarding the coasts, handling custom services and conducting rescue operations in the sea. The history of French custom services can be traced back to the revolutionary period. France formed a military custom service responsible for fighting in major wars which included the First World War and the Franco-Prussian War. This custom service was referred to as the General Firm. The servicemen who served in this custom service were armed and they acted as frontier guards, as well as performing other functions related to para-military activities such as patrolling to prevent smuggling (IMF, 1996). During that time, custom service workers were divided into two groups, those working in brigades and those working in offices. Those working in brigades were well organized, armed, disciplined and operated along military lines. Those working in offices were given the same duties and respon sibilities as custom inspectors in other countries. Individual custom officers serving the customs department later on wore blue uniforms with red stripes on the trousers. Most of them were known to be former soldiers. The customs service of the military took part in the initial stages of the Second World War. However, after French was defeated, the service was disbanded and never reconstituted again. The custom service in France has been tasked with the responsibility of custom and immigration checks at certain