Sample on Case Study Assignment

Sample on Case Study Assignment Case Study Assignment Mar 26, 2018 in Case Studies Introduction It has been necessary that the ratios of students to teachers be examined in order to find out whether more teachers should be employed to assist students or enroll more students to utilize the services provided by teacher. It has been found possible to find this relationship by the use of descriptive statistics to estimate whether more teachers should be employed or more students should be enrolled. The main method that has been identified is the use of statistical techniques such as the use of descriptive statistics: mean, median, standard deviation and variance as well as the use of analytical techniques such as correlation analysis. Correlation analysis has been done by determination of correlation coefficient. Some of the schools in San Diego include Dana Middle School, Point Loma High School, San Diego Unified School and Herbert Hoover High School. This study involves the analysis of these schools in San Diego from the year 2000 until the year 2004.

Narrative Discourse On The Language Abilities Of Elderly...

Narrative discourse, or the ability to recall and tell an orderly and continuous account of an event or a series of events, is a vital aspect of social communication throughout society. Narrative discourse not only includes the ability to tell imaginary or real stories, but also recounts of personal events and instructions on how to execute a task. Moreover, narrative discourse ability forms during early childhood and is utilized throughout adulthood into old age. However, along with changes in memory and executive functions, many elders experience changes in their language abilities. Conversely, many elderly individuals are acquiring cognitive injuries, such as strokes and traumatic brain injuries, that further impact the language, memory, and executive functions. Because more individuals are aging and surviving strokes and brain injuries than ever before, it is crucial to understand the effects of these cognitive disorders on the language abilities of elderly individuals. In order to understand the impacts of brain injuries of the narrative discourse, it is vital to compare the narratives produced by normally aging individuals and those produced by individuals with brain injuries, such as strokes and traumatic brain injuries (TBI). Subtle changes in the language abilities are expected as individuals age; however, most aspects of narrative discourse are preserved into normal aging. For example, the research team of Ulatowska, Chapman, Highley, and Prince (1998) evaluatedShow MoreRelatedMy Goals As A Social Worker Practitioner1737 Words   |  7 Pagespopulation it is important to understand how the culture play a big role in people’s life. The systems approaches, like feminist therapy and family therapy share postmodern notions. The systems orientation stresses the importance of understanding individuals in the context of the surroundings that influence their development (Corey, 2013). Introduction In this paper I will address my personal theoretical orientation. My goal as a social worker practitioner, is to work with the diverseRead MoreWho Are You Calling Old? Negotiating Old Age Identity in the Elderly Consumption Ensemble Michelle Barnhart Àà º Lisa Penaloza18943 Words   |  76 PagesAge Identity in the Elderly Consumption Ensemble MICHELLE BARNHART ËÅ" LISA PENALOZA As the elderly population increases, more family, friends, and paid service providers assist them with consumption activities in a group that the authors conceptualize as the elderly consumption ensemble (ECE). Interviews with members of eight ECEs demonstrate consumption in advanced age as a group phenomenon rather than an individual one, provide an account of how the practices and discourses of the ECE’s divisionRead MoreThe Gospel of John Essay5342 Words   |  22 PagesApostle John resides in his ability to penetrate to the theological foundations that undergird the events of Jesus life. 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Let us march on ballot boxes.... --Martin Luther King, Jr. †¢ Mad world ! Mad king! Mad composition ! 6. antagonist: the character or force opposing the protagonist in a narrative; a rival of the hero 7. apostrophe: addressing an absent or dead person or a personified abstraction †¢ â€Å"Eloquent, just, and mighty Death ! whom none could advise....† †¢ O WORLD, I cannot hold thee close enough! 8. approximate rhyme: alsoRead MoreThe Demand for and Supply of Accounting Theories5427 Words   |  22 Pagestheories in a regulated economy. Coupled with these is the effective of government intervention on the demand for accounting theories. Based on this, the author has argued that government regulations seems to provide some sort of incentives mostly for individual lobbyist that proposed accounting procedure, therefore, producing a negative effective with regard producing a common accounting theory. From the look of thing one could argued that the changes political issues and scenario will also continue toRead MoreThe Demand for and Supply of Accounting Theories5427 Words   |  22 Pagestheories in a regulated economy. Coupled with these is the effective of government intervention on the demand for accounting theories. Based on this, the author has argued that government regulations seems to provide some sort of incentives mostly for individual lobbyist that proposed accounti ng procedure, therefore, producing a negative effective with regard producing a common accounting theory. From the look of thing one could argued that the changes political issues and scenario will also continue toRead MoreChicano Murals in Los Angeles3931 Words   |  16 Pageswhat we want, reflecting most clearly any changes in the sociopolitical environment. Murals lay out a powerful visual image of the ideology of their creators or sponsors, be it the Church during the Renaissance, government funded projects, or individuals expressing opposition. In Mexico, after the Mexican Revolution of 1917, the government commissioned a vast number of mural projects to transmit its revisionist history of the country, and celebrate the empowerment of the underclass in their recent

The Appeal of English Essay Topics Terrorism

The Appeal of English Essay Topics Terrorism Ruthless English Essay Topics Terrorism Strategies Exploited Hence, if you believe banking essays are boring just like your organization studies are, then you're probably wrong here. Banking essays can be real fun to play with if you've got a comprehensive understanding about the discipline and have keen interest in writing, so should you believe that you cannot write decent banking essays than again you're mistaken. Introduction to internet banking 4. History of internet banking 6. The danger of death due to terrorists has come to be an integral component. The issue concerning terrorism takes a distinctive place in our society because a good deal of. Among the most prevalent issues in our world today is the matter of deforestation. Inside my point of view terrorism is no problem. Using English Essay Topics Terrorism Our country is spending a great deal of money every year to resist against the terrorism and remove the terror ist group. Today, terrorism is not just the issue of India, but in our neighboring country also, and governments around the world are earning a lot of effort to manage it. It's a global issue that has affected almost all the nations around the world directly or indirectly. India is a nation that earns a whole lot of its revenue from tourism. It is all of the game of deciding on the right sort of topic for your banking essays and if you're unable to devise a great topic then however much your essay is good, it won't create any worthwhile influence on the reader. Just in the event you aren't certain what a controversial essay is and what things to watch out for, just scroll to the base of the article to learn and come back to this section again when you're all set to select your topic. Following are various sorts of essay topics for students that are categorized in many sections so you can easily chose the topic according to your need and requirement. Controversial essay writi ng is among the best strategies to understand how to persuade people and touch on the subjects which are challenging! Sociology essays handle the study of human social behavior in a society, therefore, it is quite interesting for the students who want to know more about human psyche but boring for people who don't like studying their species. Though the essay questions change, the topic of the essays often stays the same. How to increase my writing essay. English Essay Topics Terrorism Explained Terrorism is now a worldwide threat which has to be controlled from the initial level. It has become a big national and international problem all over the world. It is not just coercion, but it also revenge. It has become a common social issue. Immigration ought to be regulated somewhat as a way to stop international terrorism. Regional terrorism is easily the most violent among all. Political terrorism is significantly more crucial than criminal terrorism because it's carried out by well-trained persons. The Most Popular English Essay Topics Terrorism Everybody is todays world should be united to combat terrorism. Acts of terrorism impacts the human mind to a large extent and makes people so fear they fear to go outside from their home. Typically it uses fear as the most powerful weapon and attempts indirectly propagate certain ideas and programs. Inside this era, the expression terrorism is more than only the use of intense fear for a way of coercion but includes the usage of terrorism as a way of revenge and pure sport and also as a way of suppression. The usage of this violence can be justified in a number of ways. Though many people think that terrorism is evil, it's merely misunderstood because there's no e stablished definition. Many different kinds of social or political organizations might utilize. In addition to safe haven for the group through using diplomatic protection. The Start of English Essay Topics Terrorism Pick the position that you truly share and have thought about. People today utilize terrorism for a weapon to prove and justify their perspective. What to Expect From English Essay Topics Terrorism? The cost of an essay is dependent upon the total amount of effort the writer has to exert. There's, obviously, a limit on the variety of pages even our very best writers can produce with a pressing deadline, but generally, we figure out how to satisfy all the clients seeking urgent assistance. With our customized essay offer, you can be certain to get any kind of essay help you are searching for. Still, be certain you use credible evidence and continue being true to the quantity of information which supports your idea.

The street lamps dimly lit the rain-soaked streets †Creative Writing Free Essays

The street lamps dimly lit the rain-soaked streets of the small town in which I live. Terraced houses line each side of the narrow streets and the sound of raindrops on tiled roofs constantly drum in my ears. The streets are totally empty, not even the odd car or person breaks the monotony of the black tarmac. We will write a custom essay sample on The street lamps dimly lit the rain-soaked streets – Creative Writing or any similar topic only for you Order Now A rusty iron fence surrounds the small park by the houses and the play area is deserted and broken. The sky is dark and overcast, with the occasional roll of thunder rumbling in the distance. By ten o’clock my shift at the local supermarket is over and I have to begin the long, mind-numbing walk home. The supermarket car park is covered in red, yellow and brown leaves from the old trees at the side of the road and I struggle across the slippery surface until I reach the dark subway that leads under the main road to the terraces. The subway walls are covered in graffiti while broken bottles and cigarette ends line the floor. I always feel slightly nervous when walking through this subway; its intimidating darkness makes me uneasy. Emerging from the subway I meet the usual dim glow of street lamps illuminating the small terraced houses that, to me, signified safety and protection. â€Å"Empty your pockets!† shouted a gruff voice, as a man jumped out from the side of the subway exit, â€Å"Give me your money or I’ll kill you!† There stood a tall, well built man, dressed in dark, ragged clothes in an aggressive stance with his fist raised and his other hand in his pocket. He wore a hooded top concealing most of his face, except his black rotting teeth and his stubble covered chin. His shoes had holes and there were cuts and scars on his face. He shivered and shook while the rain soaked him through as he pinned me against the wall. â€Å"Please don’t hurt me,† I begged. â€Å"I’ve done nothing wrong.† â€Å"I said empty your pockets!† repeated the man â€Å"What do you want from me?† I asked nervously. â€Å"If you don’t give me your money, I’ll†¦Ã¢â‚¬  he nodded his head towards his pocket, where my eyes met with the tip of a shining object that I presumed was a knife. â€Å"Ok, just please don’t hurt me!† By now I was petrified, so I nervously put my hands in my pockets and scrambled around for and loose change and then pulled everything out and dropped it on the floor. The man immediately bent down to pick up the coppers and chocolate bar that fell to the floor. He counted the change rapidly and put the chocolate in his pocket. â€Å"What’s in your jacket?† the man shouted. â€Å"N-n-n-nothing,† I stammered. â€Å"Don’t lie!† he shouted, as his voice became more and more desperate. â€Å"Now take your jacket off and give it to me!† I didn’t move. â€Å"Give it to me!† the man screamed at the top of his voice as he tore off my jacket and turned it upside-down to empty it. My wallet, keys and mobile phone fell out and as the man bent down to pick them up I spied my chance to make a run for it. I hesitated to think of my escape route but this proved to be a huge mistake. As I tried to run, the man got a hold of my trailing foot and dragged me to the ground, my feeble body could not escape the grasp of the man. He stared down at me and then kicked me in the stomach to stop me getting the same idea of trying to escape again. Lying in a puddle, I watched him gather the phone and wallet; leaving the keys and throwing away the wallet once he had taken the à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½10 that was in there. â€Å"This doesn’t look like nothing, does it?† he screamed with his face right next to mine, holding the crumpled note in front of my eyes. â€Å"Does it?† â€Å"N-n-no† I managed to say. â€Å"Get up!† he shouted angrily. I scrambled to my feet, still holding my stomach to try to suppress the pain of being kicked. â€Å"Yes?† I didn’t actually want to know what he wanted. â€Å"I’ll see you again later.† He said it with an evil smile and chilling abruptness, and then he turned away and walked, with a limp, towards the subway. As the dark figure merged with the darkness, the thought of how long ‘later’ would be, and what he would do then, ran through my mind. During the confrontation, the rain had turned to hail without me realising, and the hail was stinging my cold, wet face. I was breathing heavily as I picked up my keys and torn coat, draping it over my head. I turned towards the street, still in a state of shock over what had happened and began to take nervous footsteps towards home. Soon the nervous footsteps turned to a sprint when I had come to terms with what had just happened. The street and houses turned to a blur and somehow I just kept running, all the way to the entrance of my street, where I had to stop and coordinate myself in order to find my house. I reached in the pocket of my jacket to retrieve my keys, and slowly found my way to number 56. The keys had a constant jingle, due to my hand’s vigorous shivering, which also made it hard to get it in the lock and open the door. After a minute of nervous frustration the door opened, I jumped in and shut the door behind me. How to cite The street lamps dimly lit the rain-soaked streets – Creative Writing, Papers

Lord Of The Flies Essays (503 words) - English-language Films

Lord Of The Flies Lord of the Flies ?Without society's rigid rules, savagery and anarchy can come to light. This is one of the many themes expressed in William Golding's, Lord of the Flies, and by far the most important. It is exemplified throughout his novel with Jack and his tribe, Ralph and Piggy, and other key characters and symbols. Jacks anarchistic ideas come to view when he forms his tribe, this group would be the more savagery part of humankind. With them, Golding is showing that when or if left alone to fend for themselves, they will go back to the roots of their ancestors and the savageness of them. (i.e. When the tribe is hunting for Ralph near the end.) It is also shown with the Tribal hunting dance and the sow's decapitated head on the stick, which becomes the Lord of the Flies, the evil that lurks in everyone. Ralph is shown as more of the civilized part of humankind. When he blows the conch, he forms a meeting. When the conch and Ralph are together, it forms some sort of order, or democracy, while Piggy, representing clarity and social order, is taking names and such. It seems as if Ralph is trying to portray the role of government in a modern society, listening to everyone's ideas and thoughts, trying to please everyone. Even though Ralph is portrayed more as a civilized human, he still has that human nature to be cruel. This is shown when he tells the kids that ?fatty' is really called ?Piggy', ?...his real name's Piggy!!? (LOTF pg.21), even though he asked not to tell the others that. The defects in human nature is what brought the boys to the island in the first place. The savagery impulses in humankind were belted out in the ?war.' When stranded, the more civilized impulses are brought out because of how society has molded them to be. This is shown with Piggy and his adherence to the rules of his aunt. Jack however, feels that his ?If it's fun, do it!? Philosophy is the way to go. With Piggy and Jack at the two opposite extremes of human nature, Ralph is pulled somewhere in-between. Ralph seems to be empathetic with both sides. Even though Ralph sides more with Piggy, he still does not change his philosophy, meaning that he does not adhere to the ?rules' like piggy, nor does he get as extreme as Jack and his tribe are. Ralph seems to realize that certain rules of behavior should and must be followed in order to prevent anarchy. If anarchy broke loose, it could and would get out of hand. Unfortunately, anarchy defeats order. This happens because Golding has made it seem that government is not a good tool to keep people together. No matter what, human nature (anarchy) will always overcome society (democracy), and no matter how logical or reasonable, government will eventually have to give in to the demands of the public. Book Reports

True Blue essays

True Blue essays If I have my ticket, Lord, can I ride? My bones are weakening, as is my hope. I overheard Master Tolbert speaking to a man, and I have been a slave for over 40 years. Can I have my ticket Lord, please? It could be worse; I could still be a field slave. Now that my legs and arms are weak, Master Tolbert allowed for me to become a house hand. Working on a plantation allows for more social interaction with other slaves than other places. My wife passed over three years ago but I still enjoy the comfort of the other slaves in our community. On Sunday, we even attend our own church ceremonies, which is the only time I ever feel human. Religion plays a key role in our community. Many of us are tempted to run away, but then we are reminded that the sacrifices that we endure now will be rewarded on judgment day. Master Tolbert was in an extremely foul mood today. I believe that his plan to buy four more slaves collapsed leaving him short a few workers in the field tomorrow. Last week I was helping clean up a mess that one of the children made when Master Tolbert came over and accused me of stealing his cigarettes. Now for all the years I have been alive I cannot remember a single time that I have ever touched, let alone thought about, polluting my body with smoke. For that unfair accusation I received ten lashes and was not allowed diner. Im sure one of his ungrateful children stole his pack of cigarettes or Master Tolbert just misplaced them. In general he is not that cruel, Master has his phases. For all the years I have been a slave, I have only been whipped on four different occasions. I know slaves from other communities who receive that kind of abuse in a year. I saw my son a few days ago. He has grown into a well-developed man, only he has very radical beliefs and I fear the white man will kill him. He was taken from my wife and I at birth and I ha ...

How to Guess Strategically on ACT Math

How to Guess Strategically on ACT Math SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips The ACT allows for guessing without penalty (no negative points here!), but how can you turn guessing into the best strategy to maximize your ACT math score? The more you can increase your guessing odds, the better off you’ll be. And we’re here to show you how. We’ll go through when and how to guess strategically on the ACT math section as well as show you examples of how to guess most effectively in action. Refresher on ACT Math Scoring The ACT is a standardized test and is issued multiple times per year to hundreds of thousands of students, all of whom are scored on the same grading structure. What this means is that each ACT must look and feel like every other ACT as much as possible so that the scoring system is evenly balanced. The individual questions may vary, but the patterns in how the test-makers design both the questions and the answer choices will be as similar as possible. With time and practice, you can learn to not only recognize the structural patterns of the ACT math section when you see them, but also use the clues in both the question and the answer choices to help you find theright answer (or at least narrow down your options!). After all, why take a 20% shot of guessing the right answer when you can bump those odds up to 33% or even 50%? In terms of structure, the ACT math section is 60 math questions in 60 minutes. Each and every question will be a multiple choice question with 5 answer choices. Because the test is presented as multiple choice, the right answer will always be there amongst the answer choices, while incorrect answers are usually generated by common student errors. As for how the test is scored, for each multiple choice question, you will get: +1 point for every correct answer and 0 points for every incorrect or blank answer. There is no negative penalty for an incorrect answer. Developing a Target Score Though you will not be penalized for answering a question incorrectly, your overall test-taking strategy is still going to be tremendously influenced by your target score. And these strategies will change as your score goals change. Why does your target score matter if you aren’t penalized for wrong answers? The ACT math section puts the pressure on by putting you on a strict time crunch, which means that many students cannot take as much time per question as they would like to. You may find you cannot even finish the whole test in the time allotted, or that you couldn’t take the time to be as careful on each problem as you had hoped. Because of this, you will have to develop a plan of attack in terms of questions you can answer thoroughly and questions you have to take a guess on. But before you develop your attack plan, you must first figure out your baseline. Take a practice test andcome up with different ways to mark your questionsone mark for questions you don't know how to do, and another mark for questions you're only somewhat confident about. You may even want to create a third marker for questions that youknowhow to do, but will take a long time or will require multiple steps, so must be done carefully to avoid error. This way, you can save them for last (though this is optional). For now, use your best judgment on how to guess the questions you've marked, but do make sure that you can identify which problems were which later. These marks will help you when you go to analyze your answers (and your guessing strategy) in the next section. Lastly, once you're done with the test,check out our guide to developing your ideal target score, based on your current score and your future goals. Remember too that progress doesn't happen all at once. Let yourself celebrate milestones as you improve towards your target, or even adapt your target score based on your trajectory. Guessing Based on Target Score After you find your target curved score, see how that translates to your raw score. How many questions must you answer correctly to get that target score? Keep that number in your head and then focus the majority of your attention on a few more questions than that target. Why? You're leaving yourself room to get a few questions wrong. So if you need a raw score of 40 to reach your goal, focus the majority of your attention on the first 45-48 questions. The questions are grouped in order of ascending difficulty, so your best bet is to concentrate your hardest on this area. Do note that you should answer each and every question on the ACT math section, even if you have to make a random guess. The reason we said that you should â€Å"focus the majority of your attention† on the questions in your target range is because your time and your focus are precious commodities on the ACT. You’re trying to get as many points possible across the board, so your maximum focus should be on your target score range. Once you’ve dedicated your time to the first 35, 40, or 50 questions (whatever your score range may be), you can feel free to guess on the rest of your questions without fear of reprisal. The odds are that you’ll get a few of them right and there are absolutely no consequences. (For more on this, check out our guide on how to stop running out of time on the ACT math section.) So when should you guess and when should you try to answer the problem? Even if a question is in your prime scoring range, the time to guess is when: You have absolutely no idea how to solve the problem You think the question will take too long to go through properly (make a guess now and come back to it later if you have time) You’re running out of time and need to answer several more questions You’re in your â€Å"bonus scoring† zone (aka, not your prime scoring range) Again, remember to mark these different question types. Once you’ve scored your test, look back on the questions you marked. How accurate is your guessing right now? Is there a pattern in your missed guesses? Odds are that you've gotten some of the questions right that you guessed on, but we're looking to increase that accuracy as much as possible. So let’s talk about themost effective guessing strategies for ACT math. Think of your test-taking like a science experimentyou will have your own unique score goals and ways of thinking. As you get more used to working with ACT questions, you'll get better at refining the methods that work best for your unique skill set. ACT Math Guessing Strategies The ACT math section is designed to test how well you’ve learned your math topics and principles and whether you can recognize and figure out how to apply these mathematical concepts to new situations. Most ACT math questions will be fairly straightforward (meaning they are not designed to trick you, even if they are difficult), and each and every math topicon the test is one that you are likely familiar with and have studied for a number of years. This is all to say that you likely have a better understanding of the questions than you may think, even if you don’t know how to actually solve the problem. Often (though not always), a little strategy will allow you to eliminate at least one or two answer choices and make an educated guess. Note: this may seem obvious, but only use your guessing strategies when you don't know how to solve a problem or are not confident about your answer. Guessing often takes a little more time than a straight-solve, so if you know the answer, great! Move on to the next problem. Only stop and take the time to guess if you're stuck. We’ve laid out three of the most important rules of thumb that go into making an educated guess on an ACT math problem. Most of the time you will use a combination of these three techniques on any given problem, so they are less individual strategy than they are a combination of thought processes that you should go through every time you make a guess. So let’s look at all three techniques needed to best make guesses (and when to do so!) on the ACT math section. Guessing Strategy 1: Process of Elimination Being able to eliminate answers onACT questions is arguably a more important skill than even being able to solve questions (or at least equally as important). The entire ACT math section is multiple choice, which is great news for guessing. For every multiple choice question, the right answer is there somewhere. The more you can narrow down your options, the better off you’ll be when you go to make your selection. You don’t even need to know the right answer so long as you know that four of the answers are wrong. If you can eliminate four wrong answers, whatever remains must be correct. Do you know the answer must be a line that slopes up and to the right, even if you don't know where it's supposed to be positioned horizontally? Do you know that the answer must be negative? Even knowing just a tiny bit about the problem or its possible answer will often be enough to eliminate a few answer options. But what if can't eliminate four answer choices and find the final, correct answer? Not to worry! Even if you can only eliminate one answer choice, you’re still better off doing so than taking a shot completely in the dark. Let’s break it down. Eliminating 0 Answer Choices So you’ve come to a question and you can’t eliminate any answer choices at allshould you still guess? Always! There are two scenarios for when you can’t eliminate any answer choicesquestions you’ve looked at but don’t know how to solve, and questions that you haven’t even gotten a chance to look at. For the second scenario, imagine that you’ve just answered question 45 and you’ve got one minute left on the clock. You have no time to even look at the next 15 questions, so you’ve got to just fill in your bubbles and hope that the odds will be in your favor. But no matter what the scenario, if you truly cannot eliminate any answer choice, your best plan of attack will be the same. DON’T pick the most â€Å"tempting† answer or an answer at â€Å"random.† Instead, when guessing without elimination, choose your favorite letterA, B, C, D, or Eand always choose the same letter every time you have to make a blind guess. (Note: A is the same as F, B is the same as G, etc.) Wait, what? There are always five answer options for any given multiple choice question, so the odds of choosing the right answer at random is one-in-five, or 20%. But the catch is that human beings are NOT random. No matter how we try, our attempts at creating randomness will inevitably fail. If you try to make your best attempt at â€Å"randomness,† and guess wildly across the board, you’re more likely to get less than 20% of your guesses right. The best way to achieve randomness is to go in the complete opposite directionpick one letter and stick with it every time. When in doubt, pick your same favorite letter for every question you have to answer blindly, and move on. Eliminating 1 Answer Choice All right, but let’s say you can eliminate one answer choice. How should you guess now? Again, you will always have five total answer options for each question. Now, with one option removed, the odds of us guessing the right answer will be one-in-four, or 25%. And yet, this is still a time to stick with your â€Å"favorite letter† strategy. There are still too many options at play to start jumping around in your guessing strategy, so your best bet is to stick with your previous strategy and guess your same, favorite letter. Unless your designated letter is the answer choice that has been eliminated (in which case, go ahead and pick a backup letter), your best shot of succeeding at the random odds are to guess your same consistent answer choice. Eliminating 2 Answer Choices (Now We’re Getting Somewhere!) You’ve eliminated two answer choices that you know have to be wrong and are down to three possibilities. This is the time to change up your guessing strategy. If you can eliminate two answer choices, the odds are that you know at least a little bit about this kind of math problem. Maybe you’ve only got enough knowledge about exponentsto know that the answer can’t possibly be negative, or enough of an understanding of probabilitiesand fractions to know that the denominator must be even. If you’re familiar enough with the type of math problem that you can eliminate two answer choices, you’re likely to be familiar enough with the problem to make your best guess. A random shot at the answer will get you a one-in-three chance of getting it right, or 33%, and your best guess should put you at those same odds, if not a little higher. But the best way to test your mathematical instincts on problems like these is to look back through your practice test. For any questions where you were down to three, how many times did you guess the correct answer? How many times did you get it wrong? Take a look at your previous patterns. If your odds were less than 33%, it might be time to go back to your â€Å"favorite letter† strategy. Eliminating 3 Answer Choices If you can eliminate three answer choices, you’re in a great place! This will give you a one-in-two shot of choosing the correct answer, or 50%. Go with your gut, do eenie-meenie-miny-mo, or choose the letter you like best. And again, look over your previous guesses of this nature. How often were you right or wrong? Did you guess at 50% odds every time you were able to eliminate three answer choices? Your strategies for guessing and elimination should always be informed by your past performance. When something is working, refine it as best you can. When something isn’t working, alter your approach. Eliminating 4 Answer Choices If you can confidently eliminate four answer options, then celebrate! No need for guessing hereyou’ve found the correct answer. We’ve talked about guessing after you’ve eliminated answers, but how exactly do you go about eliminating answer choices? Let’s take a look. Always adjust your strategies based on how well they're working. If your guesses are netting lower than chance percentage, take a step back and try to find the patterns in how you're working to see what might be going wrong. Guessing Strategy 2: Approximating If you have even a general idea of what the right answer might be (even a ballpark figure will do), you will often be able to eliminate one or two of the most blatant outliers. Though the answer choices are most often generated based on common student errors, there will still generally be answer choices that are way far afield. Do you know that the answer must be positive? Discard anything negative right away. If you’re given the hypotenuse of a triangle, you know that each leg must be less than that given hypotenuse. Discard anything equal to or greater than the hypotenuse. Let’s take a look at this in action. Don’t worry about actually solving the problem, just give yourself enough of a ballpark to see if you can eliminate one or two (or three or four!) answer choices. Our two triangles are in a ratio of 2:5 for all their sides. Now we are looking to compare both their hypotenuses. The smaller triangle has a hypotenuse of 5, which means that the larger triangle must have a hypotenuse that is larger than 5. Already, we can eliminate answer choices F and G, since they are less than 5. Now that leaves us with three answer choices, H, J, and K, which aren't bad odds for guessing, but we can go a little further than this. We know that the ratio is 2:5, which if we know anything about ratios, we know means that the larger side is a little more than double the smaller side. If the smaller hypotenuse is 5, the larger hypotenuse must be a little more than double this. This means that the hypotenuse of the larger triangle must be larger than 10. The only answer choice that is larger than 10 is answer choice K, 12. 5. Though we haven't officially done the work to solve the problem, this is a very good guess, just based on approximation and process of elimination. [Note: the correct answer is, indeed, K, 12.5.] You can also approximate answers on geometric figures on the test. Although the instructions state that "illustrative figures are NOT necessarily drawn to scale," they essentially alwaysare. (The exception is those inquestions that ask about what MUST be true, i.e. what you can prove.)If you're attempting a question that asks about side lengths, angle measures, or ratios, you can use the figure to make a ballpark guess about these values. This question is asking about specific values, so we can assume it's toscale. We can, therefore, make our guesses based on the given measurements. In addition, as a general rule of thumb, the correct answer will be "cannot be determined" less than 20% of the time. So it's a good idea to eliminate this answer choice if you don't know how to solve this kind of problem. Always guess one of the values if you are forced to make a guess. So, based on the given hypotenuse measure of 6, and the fact that our drawing is to scale, we can estimate that the measure of CD appears to be about half of that. This means that CD probably measures about 3. Maybe it's little more, maybe a little less, but we can most certainly eliminate answer choices F and G. And, since we already eliminated answer choice K, that leaves us with answer choices H and J. We've got a 50-50 chance, so it's a good time to make a guess. And an educated guess between the two choices would better favor answer choice H rather than answer choice J because it's close to our initial estimate of 3. [Note: the correct answer is, indeed,H, 3.6.] Guessing Strategy 3: Finding the Round Answers and Shortcuts If we remember that the ACT math section is designed so that a student without a calculator can solve every problem, this can inform how we go about both solving our problems and eliminating our answer choices. Not being able to use a calculator limits one’s mathematical possibilities, especially when a time-crunch is involved. For this reason, the ACT tends to favor shortcuts (like triangle shortcuts) and round numbers. If you can eliminate answer choices that would not produce nice, round numbers, you can often find your right answer. Let’s look at this principle in action, We are told that a bag originally contains 18 marbles, and we must find the additional number of marbles to get a 3 5 ratio. Well, a 3 5 ratio of marbles (an object that CANNOT be broken into pieces) means that our new total number of marbles must be divisible by 5 (since 5 is our denominator). This, in turn, means that our total number of marbles must have a units digit of either 0 or 5. For 18 + x to equal a number ending in 0 or 5, x MUST end in either 2 or 7. (e.g., 18 + 2 = 20, or 18 + 17 = 35). We can, therefore, eliminate every answer choice that does NOT end in 2 or 7. In this case, we can eliminate every answer choice except for F. We didn’t even have to know how to solve the problem or walk through the steps. We just knew to look for a round and easy number to work with and found it through process of elimination. [Note: the correct answer is, indeed, F, 12.] Guessing Strategy 4: Avoiding Temptation The test is designed around the statistically average student, and many of the answer choices are generated based on common student errors. Though the ACT is not designed to "trick" you, people have a tendency to fall into predictable thinking patterns, and it’s easy to select wrong answers that the average student falls for again and again if you’re not paying close attention. If you look at a question in the medium or difficult range that you can solve in a second or two, it may just be too good to be true. If an answer choice seems immediately appealing, especially on a difficult question, it might just be a trap. Think about how many other students would have felt the same way on trial tests. Take a moment to really examine the question. Even if you don’t know how to solve it, you might still be able to spot a trap when you see it if you take a second to breathe. Let’s say this is a problem that you have no idea how to go about solving, but you do know a little about averages. If you’re going quickly through the test or you are only thinking about the bare principles of averages, you might think that answer choice C looks awfully tempting. After all, Tom’s starting with a score of 78 and he needs an 80. If he gets an 82, that seems like it will balance out about right...right? Except that this question is number 47 out of 60, which means it is in the "medium-high difficulty" range. 82 is way too tempting of an answer to be correct for this level of difficulty. Even if we don’t know how to solve the question, we can pretty safely eliminate answer choice C. Based off of our basic understanding of averages, we can also safely eliminate answer choices D and E. We might not know how to do weighted averages, but these answer choices seem way too small to raise up our current average of 78 to 80. Without knowing how to solve the problem, we have narrowed down our options to answer choices A and B, which gives us a 50-50 chance of guessing correctly. Not bad at all! [Note: the correct answer is A, 90.] Go you and your awesome, ACT-guessing self! The Take-Aways Though it is very useful to know how to actually solve your ACT math problems, we’ve seen that it is not always necessary. Though you shouldn’t guess on every ACT math question, it can help your scores to guess strategically when you have to do so. Just remember to always use your guessing strategies when you have the chance to look at the problem, and stick with your favorite letter whenever you must make a blind guess. And take a deep breath. You probably know more than you think, and you probably know enough to at least eliminate an answer choice or two, even if you’re feeling overwhelmed. Practice and focus will have you beating the odds and boosting your scores in no time. What’s Next? Still not satisfied with your ACT math scores?Improve your individual ACT math topicskills by working through ourindividual math topic guides. In each guide, we willwalk you through the definitions of each math topic, the formulas you'll need, and how you'll see the questions on the ACT math section. We'll also give you real ACT math problems (and answer explanations) for you to practice your skills on. Been procrastinating on your ACT prep?If you've found yourself in a procrastination rut, check out our guide onhow to stop procrastinatingso you can get back to studying. Aiming for a perfect score? If you're looking to score a perfect 36 on your ACT math section, then look no further than ourguide to getting an 36 on the ACT math, written by a perfect-scorer. Want to improve your ACT score by 4 points? Check out our best-in-class online ACT prep program. We guarantee your money back if you don't improve your ACT score by 4 points or more. Our program is entirely online, and it customizes what you study to your strengths and weaknesses. 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