Consumerism Essay Example for Free

Consumerism Essay THE DISHONEST FACE OF CONSUMERISM A statistic illustrates that in 1950, there is one car for every fifty people but in 2009, there are more than one car for every twelve people in America. This example demonstrates the increasing effect of consumerism by the end of the 20th century. According to Cambridge Dictionary, consumerism is the situation in which too much attention is given to buying andowning things. In the light of this definition, it can be concluded that consumerism usually leads to materialism since materialists claim that happiness can be increased through buying and spending as well . It is inevitable that there exist a dissidence between people about this issue. Authors like Juliet Schor, Annie Leonard and Danielle Todd support consumerism is a foe whereas Peter Saunders and James Twitchell, advocates the idea that consumerism is a friend. Consumerism has many negative outcomes like overspending, overworking, credit card debts, social and economic problems etc. These negative aspects of consumerism are in majority therefore consumerism is a foe. Consumerism is a foe since it causes overworking by triggering the insatiable nature of human. Each person aims to reach a good, qualified life and this ambition causes competition between people. As Annie Leonard mentions, we have become a nation of consumers (9). The reason behind this situation is exactly the competitive life circumstances, each person buys more and more to be the best. It is acknowledged that human has an insatiable nature by birth and the consumerist system triggers this stimulation substantially since people do not want to stay out of the competition. Todd states that consumers are well aware of the insatiable nature of consumerism, but recognize that in their society it is the only possible way to live (1). The most negative aspect of consumerism emerges at that point; since consumers can never be fulfilled with the goods they consume there occurs a circle which tucks people into a trap. The empty and miserable consumers buy more and more goods with the hope of finding fulfillment and reaching the best. For instance, a young man buys an Iphone 4 and just three months later he sees his friend’s Iphone 5  and decides to buy an Iphone 5 immediately for reaching his friend’s level . To purchase more, this man obliged to work exceedingly so his life passes with heavy working conditions. According to Leonard, this situation creates a c razy work-watch-spend treadmill (13). This circle damages people’s lives since it is almost impossible to get rid of this circle because of the unsatisfied nature of human. With the existence of this circle, people turn into robots, they cannot think anything except money, working and shopping. Eventually, people’s psychological and physical healths are damaged because of stress, they become tired, they do not have individual times, they do not have any hobbies, they drift apart from nature and get stuck into shopping malls etc. Briefly, it can be said that consumerism is a foe since it triggers the unsatisfied nature of people and ensnare their lives with the work-watch-spend circle. Advertisements cause the problem of overspending which is the most mischievous outcome of consumerism. Advertisements have seven functions like identifiying brands, supplying information, persuasion previewing new trends etc. but persuasion is the best function which is related with consumerism. Advertisements and consumerism definitely have a positive correlation since powerful and visual advertising directs consumers to purchase goods and services. As Juliet Schor states, it can be said that the growing importance of television causes consumerism (1). It demonstrates that people who watch TV are more inclined to purchasing more. Schor also asserts that an avarage level of TV watching of 15 hours a week equals nearly $3,000 per year (1). So it can be concluded that television is very effective on people’s buying decisions, advertisements direct people to spend more money. These tricky advertisements lead people to buy redundant goods. For instance, Twitchell mentions that he bought a Mazda Miata although he did not need this car (1). Moreover, he states that he bought the car because of an advertisement which promotes the idea that if you buy this car, all of your dreams will come true (2). This is a clear example of overspending, an effective advertisement made Twitchell buy a luxury and redundant good which was pretty expensive. Twitchell’s experience is just the tip of the iceberg, the rate of overspending will increase more and more with the growing importance of television. Due to overspending, people become unable to afford their basic, biological needs since they spend all their money for visible status  goods. Shortly, it is verified that advertisements direct people to consume more and more but this huge effect of advertisements are destructive since over-consumption makes people unable to afford their basic needs. Credit card debts is another destructive outcome of consumerism. In Turkey, one million and sixty thousand people have credit card debts by 2014. This statistical data demonstrates that consumerism is not a friend for one million and sixty thousand people in Turkey. As it is mentioned before, human has an insatiable nature therefore people see products as a hero and they purchase more and more. Banks take advantage of people’s fralities and give them lots of credit cards. This situation brings a trouble into society like credit card debts. Juliet Schor argues that one of the most fascinating things about credit card debt is how m any people are not conscious of their behaviour (3). While buying goods people cannot be aware of what they spend since they are not aware that these credits are borrowed. They assume that these credits are free and limitless. Credit cards are presented as hero by banks, consumers can buy what they want without making payment by cash but at the end this dream concludes with a disappointing end, hoarded credit card debts. Victims of credit cards have to sell their houses, cars etc. to pay their credit card debts. So, it can be concluded that although many people believe to the misleading friendly face of consumerism actually it is just an invisible enemy which drags people to debt spiral. Some may say that consumerism is a friend. However, this assertion is not true. It should not be forgotten that the capitalist system leads to the occurrence of consumerism. Saunders defends that capitalism is good for the soul since it gives people a chance to live a good life (6). That assumption can be accepted to an extent since each person aims to reach a good life. This is a common will of all humanity but it should be considered that human being is insatiable and this system exploits people’s weaknesses which is coming from their nature. As it is mentioned in second and third paragraphs, advertisements exploit people’s weaknesses dramatically by giving the message that they are insufficient. Peop le cannot reject the desirable choices that the system provides and they become a part of this system even if they cannot afford the requirements of a good life. Saunders also hypothesizes that no socioeconomic system can guarantee people a good life, they can just provide happy and worthwhile lives and capitalism  passes with flying colors on this test (19). There exist a social stratification in today’s world so these flying colors are just accessable for upper and middle classes but what about the working class? Their labor is exploited all the time by this capitalist system. A good system should provide a happy and worthwhile life to everyone, not just the selected rich ones. To sum up, it is true that capitalism can be seen as desirable and attracts many people’s attention but this does not mean that capitalism is a friend since it just provides tricky and temporary dreams to a minor group of rich people. In conclusion, negative aspects of consumerism like overspending, overworking, credit card debts, social and economic problems etc. outweigh so consumerism is a foe. Although some argue that it is a friend, actually in real life it is impossible to support that argument since consumerism triggers the unfulfilling nature of human and it is not desirable or beneficial in the long run. Consumerism is just a foe which make s you a victim with empty promises. Schor believes that, to avoid this situation people should decrease the time they spend in front of the TV, use no credit cards, stop buying unnecessary products and try to make logical, consciously decisions while purchasing (4). If people take these suggestions into account, they can reach a good life without these tricky systems. It should not be forgotten that spending less makes people feel better. WORKS CITED Leonard, Annie. â€Å"The Story of Stuff.† Free Range Studios, 2007. 20 Aug. 2009. Web. Saunders, Peter. â€Å"Why Capitalism Is Good for the Soul.† The Insider 23.4 (2008): 14- 21. Insider Online. The Insider Heritage Foundation, Apr. 2008. Web. Schor, Juliet. â€Å"Juliet Schor on The Overspent American.† TIME.com. N.p., 20 May 1998. Web. http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/s/schor-overspent.html Todd, Danielle. â€Å"You Are What You Buy: Postmodern Consumerism and the Construction of Self.† Fall 2011. Web. Twitchell, James. â€Å"How I Bought My Red Miata.† August/ September 2000. Web.

Innovation and Traditionalism in Art Essay -- Art Artistic Arts Histor

I am sure that we have all, at one time or another, noticed that almost any discussion concerning the merits and demerits of art, if it goes on long enough will come to the qualities of innovation and traditionalism in regards to aesthetic value. As soon as these two qualities are mentioned, there comes an inevitable forming up of those who favor innovation and deride tradition and those who favor tradition and deride innovation. Either side usually admits only enough merit to their opposition, and limitation of their own view, to make themselves seem reasonable and objective: but the bulk of their effort goes into savaging their opponents and extolling the ultimately ascendant nature of their position. I am inclined to take neither view, but to propose a third. It is not enough that we should pursue either innovation or traditionalism simply because we have some sort of aesthetic attraction to them, such as, for example, sentimentality or novelty. There may be those who would r espond that there is simply no arguing about taste: that you like what you like and that is that. Certainly such people are right in one sense, but this response seems too simplistic and of a ‘sour grapes’ nature to convince me that this is the end of the matter. Rather, I suggest, it is the purpose to which we apply either innovation or traditionalism which dictates whether or not they have aesthetic merit: too often, our adherence to either of the two qualities becomes a thoughtless habit of our culture rather than anything useful in itself. In order to prove the viability of this qualification, I will first explore the negative and positive qualities of innovation, and the possible causes thereof. Then I will look at the negative and positive qual... ...wild beast, a tiger or some such, with whom I am trapped in a small room. There are many factors which may influence the tiger in one way or another, and while these factors, such as my experience of tigers (traditionalism), or clever new ways to influence them (innovation), are of deadly importance, the tiger remains the primary focus, or reality, in the room. Often, however, we confuse the factors for the art itself, the means for the ends, the cause for the effect. We talk of our difficulty about defining art in empirical terms, as if it were an elusive fog of wraiths, a "veil of unknowing", or an ethereal mist of fleeting experiences: we are unable to ever really grasp the identity of what we seek to define. Maybe this is true, but every now and again I am sure I see something strangely beautiful, terrifyingly real, gracefully elusive, gliding through the vapours.

Fredrick Douglas Paper

Fredrick Douglass The analysis By Justin Ruano 11/14/11 Hist Am Civ 1607-1877 [pic] Have you ever wondered to yourself if you firmly belief in something that you could understand the opposite side of it? Well if you just so happened to believe in slavery and I were to tell you a story about an American born slave that is making his case to abolish I, would you listen? In the book Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass, An American slave & Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Fredrick Douglass in his portion of the book goes on to make his case that slavery should be abolished.The way he goes about reasoning why it should be abolished is first he tells us about his experience during his period of slavery and in that experience it explains with a main point why and how it works. Secondly, he uses this book as a tool to help expose the true evil of slavery and uses once again experience which is a helpful thing. Lastly, he uses the fact that slave owners make the slaves ignorant o f their age, where they were born, and who their parents are. Fredrick Douglass throughout this book uses experiences to show why slavery should be abolished.Fredrick Douglass was born in 1818 and he died in 1895, and he was born into slavery in Talbot Country, Maryland. (Fredrick Douglass facts page) In chapter 1, Fredrick Douglass said that he had witnessed these beatings and that it had happened often. â€Å"I remember the first time I ever witnessed this horrible exhibition. I was quite a child, but I well remembered it. †¦ It was the first of a long series of such outrages, of which I was doomed to be a witness and a participant†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Douglass pg 21) For example, the last paragraph of( page 21) going to( page 22) is the first experience of the beatings he witnessed. He took her into the kitchen, and stripped her from neck to waist, leaving her neck, shoulders, and back entirely naked†¦. † By using experiences, he is able to show people that even some s lave owners kill their slaves from beating. Murder is a sin especially for the religious people who were not so affected by this. For example on the bottom of (page 25) Fredrick Douglass Notes that Mr. Severe was called a very cruel man. Also noted that he had seen him whip a woman and take great pleasure in doing so. Since when does anyone take pleasure in torturing people is my question.For Fredrick Douglass, this book was his greatest resource to convincing people to abolish slavery because, slavery did not affect many people and especially for white people, they of course were not going to care. The challenge fir Douglass was that people didn’t know and they didn’t care. That was his biggest challenge. Books don’t lie. For Fredrick Douglass, he would have liked to be alive during the time slavery was officially gone. For example why this book helped him make his case is because he went through these things and witnessed these events. His biography of how sla very really was like back then.Beatings to the point slaves would die due to a lot of bleeding. The main point for this reason of how he went about to explain his case is this book. He wrote it with events, names, dates. Things that define what history is. Another example of how his book was a tool to help him make his case is that throughout this whole book he talked about a lot of violence from the beatings that he witnessed. In the First chapter he mentioned how he was roughly 7 years old and he witnessed a brutal beating his master gave one of the salves that was with Fredrick Douglass. Pg 21) Finally, by using this book as a tool he exposed evil by once again talking about his experiences about slavery. Fredrick Douglass a few times in the book says that the slave-owners tend to make the slaves ignorant of their age, where there from, and even their parents. For example, he says on the very first page of chapter one that, â€Å" By far the large part of the slaves know as litt le of their ages as horses know of theirs, and it is the wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their slaves thus ignorant. †(Douglass pg 17) For someone to not know their age or mainly anything about themselves is pretty ridiculous.He also says on the same page that he doesn’t really know anyone who even knows their own birthday, nor is he knowledgeable of his age. For him just trying to make his case about slavery should be abolished is hard enough. To even have a hard time to find out his age is also pretty unbelievable. Also for him once again trying to make a case that it should be abolished was very difficult but to not even recall his mother’s death or anything is pretty sad. For the people he is trying to convince is also an advance fro his case because he must know that none of them would want to be like him not remembering or knowing anything about himself.Lastly, For Fredrick Douglass to be able to learn his year of birth from a conversation he overheard from his master when trying to make his case would in his mind help him to win the audience he has. Throughout the course of the book Fredrick Douglass makes his case about how slavery should be abolished. The way he goes about that is he talks about his experiences so that his audience will get a good view of exactly what is going on and then determine what works. He then uses the book as a tool so that he has an even stronger case about why it should be abolished.Finally, he talks about how the slave-owners would rather have their slaves to be ignorant about how exactly they are and when they were born, age, and even parents. Hes uses these three things to make his case of why slavery should be abolished and the biggest â€Å"how† is using the book as a tool. Personal Reaction to Fredrick Douglass Part of reading My personal reaction to the book is that I thought there was a lot of emotion that he spilled out into this book and that is what truly made this book enjoyable for me to read. Biographies are my favorite types of books.When I first picked up this book I though it wasn’t going to be a very good book because reading books about someone’s slavery story isn’t what I like to read but as I started to get into the book I thought it was very hard to put down and it was one of the best books that I have read. It was something new to me by reading it but to me it was very good about learning how his life basically went dealing with being a slave and then trying to argue how slavery should be abolished. Very good narrative and I would defitnely recommend this book for someone to read.

Crucible Essay

Telling what seems to be a small lie can harm others more than it harms you. Being honest is better than people being killed over false accusations. In the play â€Å"The Crucible† Arthur Miller creates foil characters between Abigail Williams and Elizabeth Proctor. Foil characters in a story is a technique used to contrast characters. In the play Abigail Williams portrays herself as an innocent girl being afflicted by the devil. In the play Elizabeth portrays herself as a good wife being accused of witch craft because Elizabeth envy’s her. Based on the play â€Å"The Crucible† Arthur Miller portrays Abigail & Elizabeth as foil characters; Elizabeth being a honest woman and Abigail being a dishonest harlot. Elizabeth is a honest woman because she doesn’t lie. John Proctor realizes the only way to prove Abigail is a liar and dishonest is to confess. So he confesses to to the court; Abigail denies this making Danforth confused. Proctor tells Danforth â€Å" [Elizabeth] will never lie Mr. Danforth† (III, 92). Elizabeth is an honest woman because an honest woman would never lie. Danforth no longer knows who to believe on whether or not John Proctor committed lechery so he questions Proctor â€Å"Your wife (Elizabeth) you say is a honest woman. Proctor: In her life she has never lied†¦my wife cannot lie (III, 111). She is a honest woman because she won’t lie and hasn’t lied in her life. Therefore, in the play â€Å"The Crucible† Elizabeth portrays a honest woman because she does not lie. Abigail Williams portrays a dishonest harlot. John proctor confesses his sin to having an affair with Abigail and he tells the court â€Å"She wishes to dance with me on my wife’s (Elizabeth) grave!†¦God help me, I lusted and there is a promise in such sweat. But it’s a whore’s (Abigail’s) vengeance and you must see it(III,94). By John confessing his affair with Abigail he proves that not only is she dishonest for wanting to dance on Elizabeth’s grave; but she is a harlot for having sexual relations with a married man. Reverend Hale sides with John Proctor by saying † I believe [John] pointing at Abigail: This girl has always struck me false† (III,114). Everyone is realizing Abigail is a dishonest harlot and cannot be trusted.  The court is now seeing her for who she truly is. Abigail is a dishonest harlot because she constantly lies and commited adultery with John Proctor. In the play â€Å"The Crucible† Arthur Miller uses foil characterization, He portrays Abigail as a dishonest harlot that cannot be trusted and Elizabeth as a honest woman that is mistaken as a bad person. Elizabeth is a honest woman, she has never lied which makes her trustworthy. Abigail is a dishonest harlot that can’t be trusted, partially why she later runs off to Boston. Telling a lie may not hurt you but it may hurt others. Elizabeth was a good wife whose husband was killed because Abigail envied her. Although Abigail never meant for John to die it was her fault because of her lies and dishonesty.

s Speech To Achilles In The Iliad

in hopes that he will see the foolishness of his actions and the toll it has taken on the forces. Achilles appreciates the spirit of the men behind the arguments, but finds that the negotiations fail in the unwillingness to persuade him. His response to Phoenix is that the idea that someone could have a shared loyalty to both him and Agamemnon is completely unacceptable to him. Ajax has the greatest affect on the w... 's Speech To Achilles In The Iliad Free Essays on Analysis Of The Embassy\'s Speech To Achilles In The Iliad Analysis of the speeches of the Embassy to Achilles (Book 9) The Greek word hubris, when translated to English, means an exaggerated pride. Achilles’ greatest flaw is completely exposed in Book 9 when Agamemnon sends forth humble terms in an attempt to heal the damage that has been done to his kleos. The result of Agamemnon’s desperate meeting with his assembly results in the decision, put forward by Nestor, to send Odysseus, Phoenix and Ajax on an embassy to convince Achilles to return to the Achaean forces. Of the three men Odysseus, known for his great skills as an orator, is the first to plead their case. Odysseus uses morality as the basis of his argument by appealing to Achilles through the words of his own father who urged him control his temper while in battle. He then goes on to list the gifts Agamemnon has offered in an attempt to show the king’s newly emerged growth as a leader; seeking the interest of his men over that of himself. Phoenix, an old tutor of Achilles, is able to relate the story of Meleager and Cleopatra to a tee because he shares a similar relationship of love with Achilles. He uses the parallels of the personas of Meleager and Achilles to show that the capacity to be loved can bring any man to sanity. He asks him to consider that it is better to return now and receive some glory than waiting too long and receiving no glory at all. The final argument is given by Ajax who speaks through emotion from one warrior to another. He tries to mirror Achilles’ rage through his words in hopes that he will see the foolishness of his actions and the toll it has taken on the forces. Achilles appreciates the spirit of the men behind the arguments, but finds that the negotiations fail in the unwillingness to persuade him. His response to Phoenix is that the idea that someone could have a shared loyalty to both him and Agamemnon is completely unacceptable to him. Ajax has the greatest affect on the w...

Can You Fail the SAT

Can You Fail the SAT SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips The SAT is a pretty high-stakes test - it’s an important part of your college applications, which could mean trouble if you get a low score. But can you fail the SAT altogether? The good news is that officially, it’s impossible to fail the SAT - but that doesn’t mean that a low score doesn't mean bad news. Here, I’ll review everything you need to know about why you can’t really fail the SAT, but why poor marks may as well count as failing. Worried about your score? At the end, I’ll go over the steps you should take to pull them up. Failing the SAT: The Official Answer Before I go into the official answer on whether you can fail the SAT, I’d like to review some important background information on how the test is scored. The SAT is currently scored out of 1600 total points. The lowest score you can get on the SAT is 400.This scoring system isn’t necessarily intuitive, so to give you an idea of what the score distribution looks like: The average test score is 1000. The top 25% of scorers get 1200 points or higher, which is generally considered very good. The bottom 25% of scorers get 840 points or lower, which is generally considered poor. Now that we’ve got that out of the way, I want to reiterate that it’s impossible to officially fail the SAT. There are no letter grades or cutoff scores, only your scaled score (the number you receive out of 1600) and your percentile score (the number that tells you how well you’ve done when compared to other test-takers. A percentile score of 60, for example, would tell you that you scored higher than 60% of test-takers). Because we can link scaled scores with percentile scores, we can tell how well a particular student did on the SAT. Even though there is no official failing cutoff, it’s still possible to get a score that will hurt your college applications. This brings me a more pragmatic response as to whether it’s possible to fail the SAT†¦ Failing the SAT: TheUnofficial (and More Helpful) Answer The whole point of preparing for and taking the SAT (perhaps several times) is to make sure you’ll get into a college you’d like to attend. There is no official passing or failing grade on the SAT, but there are certain score benchmarks that are considered low. How you'd define a low score is really dependent on your perspective - do you want to know what's low based on national performance, ordo you want a more nuanced look at scores based on your personal goals? In the next sections, I'll show you how you can do both. It's helpful to start with a wide perspective, and then focus in on what's most relevant for you. Low Score Based on National Performance First, we’ll take a more general view: what’s considered a low score overall, based on national performance? This one's fairly easy to answer. We can consider a low score to be at the 25th percentile and below (as I describedearlier). This means that out of all the people who take the SAT nationwide, those who get an 840 or lower may be considered low scorers. Low Score Based on Personal Goals More importantly, you’ll want to consider what score you’ll consider as a personal failure - not in the sense that the score is a failing grade, but in the sense that the score will fail to help you achieve your personal college admissions goals. An SAT score is just a part of your college application, but a low score will subject the rest of your app to high scrutiny.A very low score might get your app tossed out, even if the rest of your credentials signal that you’d be a good fit for the school. I can’t tell you exactly what SAT score lies at these critical points (i.e. the scores that will hinder you from getting into certain schools). But there is a way to get a ballpark estimate of these â€Å"failing† scores based on the schools you’re interested in. Here’s how you do it: Step #1 Make a list of all the schools you’re interested in (8-10 colleges is ideal). You can include a few reach schools and a few safety schools, but try to compose a list of mostly target colleges. Step #2 For each school, Google â€Å"[name of school] PrepScholar admissions requirements.† The correct link should be one of the first couple results. Here's an example of what your search results will look like: The second link is the one you want! Step #3 On the PrepScholar admissions page, find the information for the 25th/75th percentile SAT scores (we currently have data for the old 2400 point SAT - when schools release data for the current SAT, we’ll update these pages). Because we’re trying to figure out a benchmark for your own personal dangerously low score, we’re most concerned with the 25th percentile score for any school of interest. This means that only 25% of students were accepted to that school with SAT scores lower than the one listed. Step #4 Convert the old 25th percentile SAT scores (out of 2400) to current SAT scores (out of 1600). You can do this by taking the old score and multiplying by â…”, then rounding to the nearest multiple of 10. This gives you your â€Å"danger† score for a particular school in the new scoring system. Example: If the 25th percentile score was 1510 in the old scoring system, I multiply by â…” to get 1007. I round to the nearest multiple of 10 and get 1010. Step #5 If you’ve gathered SAT info for several schools (especially if you’re looking primarily at target schools), you can average the converted scores to get an idea of what your personal definition of â€Å"failing the SAT† might be. If the average score that you calculate seems impossibly high, you might want to re-do this exercise with less competitive schools (i.e. schools with lower SAT scores for admitted students). Applying to schools with average SAT scores that are closer to your own may increase your chances of admission - if your own SAT score is relatively low for a particular school (i.e. at or below the 25th percentile), it won’t necessarily be impossible to get in, but it will definitely be more difficult. For more detailed info, check out our guide on howto calculate an ideal target SAT score. What toDo If You Have a Low Score If your SAT score is around or below that critical 25th percentile mark, there are a few things you can do. Option 1: You can look at schools with less competitive SAT scores for admitted students (like I mentioned earlier). Option 2: You can strategically prepare for the SAT to bring your scores closer to your target. Here, I’ll walk you through the steps you should take if you choose Option 2. How to Prep for the SAT: A Low Scorer's Guide The following tips and strategies are for students with lower-than-average SAT scores (remember that the average is about 1000 out of 1600). If your scores are already pretty high but you’re applying to extremely competitive schools, you should start by checking out our guide to getting a perfect SAT score. Understand Your Mistakes Before you work through any more prep material, it’s really important that you spend some time figuring out why, exactly, you’re missing points. Understanding your mistakes will help you hone in on your weaknesses in future study sessions. If you haven’t done enough practice material to do this sort of analysis, I encourage you to sit through a full diagnostic practice test. Most errors on the SAT fall into one of these four categories: Careless mistakes - you should have gotten the question right but missed the point because you were unfocused or rushing. Time mismanagement - you missed questions at the end of a section because you ran out of time. Lack of content knowledge - you missed a question because you never learned what was necessary to answer it correctly (this most commonly happens in the math section). Misunderstanding the question - you interpreted the wording of the question incorrectly, which led to you selecting the wrong answer (or just guessing). For more information on this process, check out our guide to effectively tallying and analyzing SAT errors. Fill in Content Gaps Building up foundational knowledge is extremely important for students who hope to significantly improve their scores. Like I mentioned earlier, you may notice this issue most often in the SAT math section - to get a head start on determining which content areas may need more work, learn about what exactly is tested on SAT math. The best way to fill in content gaps isn’t to complete more official practice tests - you’ll have the most luck with class notes, textbooks, and reliable SAT prep books. When you've filled in knowledge gaps, you can focus less on content and more on test strategy. Prevent Timing Issues All questions on the SAT are worth the same number of raw points. If you find yourself stuck on a particularly difficult question, circle it and come back to it after you work through the end of the section. Remember, though, that since there's no guessing penalty on the SAT, you should answer every question even if you have to guess. If you find yourself consistently running out of time on the test, read about nine ways to buy time on the SAT. Eliminate Question Misunderstandings Even if you have the content knowledge you need to answer a question, you can’t use it effectively if you don’t really get what the question is asking. This is sometimes related to timing issues - if you’re rushing to read through a question, you can end up missing important information. Simply working through practice problems and familiarizing yourself with the test format can help with this issue. Also, marking up your test booklet as you read questions can help you read more actively, especially if you make a point of underlining the most important parts of a question. Conclusion: Can You Fail the SAT? Even though it’s impossible to fail the SAT, it is possible to get a score low enough to hurt your college admissions chances. This critical score will vary based on the sort of schools you’re interested in, but it’s easy to calculate if you follow the steps I’ve outlined above! If you’re worried about a failing performance on the SAT, there are many steps you can take to bring up your scores.Remember that you’re not alone in this - a lot of smart students struggle with low SAT scores. If you customize your study plan to address your weaknesses, you’re on the right track to achieving your target score. What's Next? If you're still concerned about low SAT scores, there are a lot of things you can do to either boost your SAT performance or boost your college applications more generally. First, read more about what constitutes a good, bad, or average SAT score. If you want to focus on bringing up your scores, check out our guide for low SAT scorers. There are unique steps for students to take if they have a relatively high GPA but are still struggling with underperformance on the SAT. 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Case Study 6 Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Case Study 6 - Research Paper Example Dell was accessible and delegated authority believing in, â€Å"turning loose talented people who can be relied upon to do what they’re supposed to do.† Dell also spent 30% of his time at company operations and meeting with customers. The issues with Dell's performance are his lack of understanding the employee's initially and Dell's inability to communicate. The Five tasks of crafting and executing strategy by â€Å"Crafting and Executing Strategy† are discussed below: 1. â€Å"Developing a strategic vision of where the company needs to head and what its future product/customer/market/technology focus should be.† Dell took the right approach in desiring to sell directly to the customer, custom to the customers needs build-to-order computers. Dell also wanted to take the discount pricing approach for the company. 2. â€Å"Setting objectives and using them as yardsticks for measuring the company’s performance and progress .† During the early y ears the company did not seem to have many hard set objectives. Dell's objective was to adhere to the strategic vision while also improving quality control. Dell also began to partner with key suppliers and incorporating e-commerce technology and use of the internet. 3. â€Å"Crafting a strategy to achieve the objectives and move the company along the strategic course that management has charted. â€Å" Dell began to increase his workforce, and his marketing capabilities in order to sell directly to individuals desiring a 2nd and 3rd computer. By doing this Dell became a cost leader, due to direct sales. 4. â€Å"Implementing and executing the chosen strategy efficiently and effectively.† By allowing the company to be managed by a more experienced person in the early stages of the company Dell was able to implement and execute the discount strategy very well. 5. â€Å"Evaluating performance and initiating corrective adjustments in the company’s long-term direction, objectives, strategy, or execution in light of actual experience, changing conditions, new ideas, and new opportunities.† Dell was able to become one of the industry leaders in quality, price, and market share within a 20 year period. When Dell realized the margin was low on using retail stores to resell dell computers, the company made the correct adjustments and began to only sell, as was their strategy, directly. 2. What are the elements of Dell’s strategy? Which one of the five generic competitive strategies is Dell employing? How well do the different pieces of Dell’s strategy fit together? In what ways is Dell’s strategy evolving? Dell's strategy involved: â€Å"1. Selling direct to customers is the most efficient way to market the company’s products because it eliminates wholesale and retail dealers that impede Dell’s understanding of customer needs and expectations and that add unnecessary time and cost. 2. Allowing customers to purc hase custom-built products and custom-tailored services is the most effective way to meet customer needs. 3. A highly efficient supply chain and manufacturing organization, grounded in the use of standardized technologies and selling direct, paves the way for a low-cost structure where cost savings can be passed along to customers in the form of lower prices. 4. Dell can deliver added value to customers by (1) researching all the technological options, (2) trying to determine which ones are â€Å"