Ending The Stigmatization Against Those With Mental Illness

Ending The Stigmatization Against Those With Mental Illness By: Georgia Canfield 4/25/16 Dr. Gullian Authors Goetzel, Ozminkowski, Sederer, and Mark estimated that around one in five Americans will be affected by some sort of mental illness in their lifetime (Goetzel, Ozminkowski, Sederer, Mark 2002). This study indicates that millions of Americans suffer from mental illness, which is often overlooked and still not fully understood. From a sociological perspective one could ask the following: What does society classify as a mental illness, who suffers from mental illness, how do those with mental illness interact with society, and how does society respond to those classified as having a mental illness. These questions can be answered by evaluating the stigma generally held by society about those who suffer from a mental illness and how they are in turn disadvantaged due to said stigma. Possible solutions for ending the stigma held include increasing public ads on mental illness, providing courses on college campuses about the prevalence and treatment of it, having frequent lessons in elementary and high school, widely accessible businesses and numbers that offer treatment and having those with mental illness tell someone they trust that they are suffering. Sociologist and author Ferrante provided an insight on how society interacts with those who have a mental illness when she explained,Show MoreRelatedWhen An Individual Has Lung Cancer, There Is An Immediate1411 Words   |  6 PagesIndividuals who suffer from a mental illness are often stigmatized by prejudice and discriminatory views or actions, through the stereotypical portrayals and mass media characterization of people with mental disorders. First, one must understand the reasons and origins of mental illnesses. Individuals with mental disorders/illnesses may suffer from child abuse, sexual abuse, drug abuse, psychological trauma, childhood trauma, may have a family history of a relative having a mental disorder, or may sufferRead MoreHomelessness Is Becoming An Epidemic1566 Words   |  7 Pagesbarriers, a lack of affordable and appropriate housing, the individual/household’s financial, mental, cognitive, behavioral or physical challenges, and/or racism and discrimination. Most people do not choose to be homeless, and the experience is generally negative, unpleasant, stressful and distressing†. More importantly, recent research studies have shown increased association between prevalence of mental illness among the homelessness in western countries. For example, Fazel, Khosia, Doll, and GeddesRead MoreBirth Defects in differenct Cultures1229 Words   |  5 Pages Since the 1960s, the federal government introduced ways that mentally ill patients could live outside a mental hospital, where they were confined from the general public, and live a normal life. Many communities and mental centers were built to allow continuous and efficient care for those patients from their homes. Yet, the question remains whether or not the whole world has accepted mental illnesses. Many believe that the mentally ill should be hidden from society out of shame and humiliationRead MoreBenefits Of Leisure And Leisure865 Words   |  4 PagesResults Benefits of Leisure Although recreation and leisure has been proven to be beneficial to the physical and mental health of youth, sports participation has declined from 77% in 1992 to 59% in 2005 (Holt, Kingsley, Tink, Scherer, 2010). In 2005 Spinney and Millward (2010) did a study determining that despite the benefits of leisure those living in financial poverty are not participated in active programs as they are costly, despite having the desire to. Physical inactivity can have seriousRead MoreHomelessness : Homeless Population, Origins And Consequences Of Homelessness1373 Words   |  6 Pagesrisk factors for the homeless population, origins and consequences of homelessness, prevention and treatment strategies, and other considerations will be presented. The definition of homelessness may cover a broad range of individuals, including those physically deprived of a home and housed persons unwilling to remain in their homes (Ravenhill 6). Some researchers conceptualize homelessness as â€Å"alienation from the rest of the society.† This type of alienation originates from losing connection withRead MoreCauses Of Suicide Among Young Rural Women2227 Words   |  9 Pagestimes more often associated with mental illness than not.1 The explanations for these trends draw on psychological and sociological theories: it has been hypothesized that men are more likely than women to use lethal means of attempting suicide, and that the economic hardship, unemployment, and social disintegration that afflict city life make suicide a greater problem in urban than in rural areas.4 In China, however, the trends regarding gender, urban status, and mental health are surprisingly reversed:Read MoreSuicide Among Young Rural Women2226 Words   |  9 Pagestimes more often associated with mental illness than not.1 The explanations for these trends draw on psychological and sociological theories: it has been hypothesized that men are more likely than women to use lethal means of attempting suicide, and that the economic hardship, unemployment, and social disintegration that afflict city life make suicide a greater problem in urban than in rural areas.4 In China, however, the trends regarding gender, urban status, and mental health are surprisingly reversed:Read MoreThe Stigma Of Mental Illness2582 Words   |  11 PagesI. INTRODUCTION Until recently, few health insurance plans provided coverage for mental health services to the same extent as physical health services, if they were covered at all. The reasons for the discrimination in health insurance vary, but mental illnesses historically have not been well understood by the public, and people have had a hard time understanding that mental illnesses are biologically based diseases that affect the mind and body just like any other disease that has solely physicalRead MoreHealth Disparities Among Minorities : A Pervasive Problem Within The United States.the Institute Of Medicine Defines Disparity2469 Words   |  10 Pagesand adolescents that identify as part of the sexual minority, lesbian, gay or bisexual, experience a different subset of health disparities in addition to those earlier discussed. A study published in the Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing found that family acceptance of a child’s sexual orientation directly affects their mental and physical health (Ryan, Russell, Huebner, Diaz and Sanchez 205). This study, â€Å"showed clear associations between parental rejecting behaviors during adolescenceRead MoreSexual Predators2439 Words   |  10 Pagesrelationships with other adults (Henderson, 39). Eight-five percent of sexual activity was nonorgasmic with one-fourth of activity ending before any stimulation occurred by the offender (Sanford, 83). Now that we know some offenders characteristics, it is paramount that we learn to identify traits that may be common to youthful victims. Characteristics of a victim Crimes against Children Research Center (CCRC) at the University of New Hampshire found current research makes the stereotype of the online

Alzheimer s Disease A Common Neurodegenerative Disease

Alzheimer’s disease is a common neurodegenerative disease. It is the most common form of dementia which is a general term for memory loss and other intellectual abilities serious enough to interfere with daily life (Alzheimer’s Disease Dementia). Dementia and Alzheimer’s have been around for centuries, but Alzheimer’s disease wasn’t first described until 1906 by Dr. Aloysius Alzheimer. In the past, there was a stigma for elderly people with the disease. People with dementia and Alzheimer’s were seen as a burden on society. Society has only recently accepted and cared for people with the disorder because more information is known about the disease. There wasn’t much treatment in the past accept for locking those away in institutions or just being kept hidden by family members (Batsch). There are now treatments and research being done for dementia and Alzheimer’s, but no cure remains and many individuals still suffer from the dis ease. Future treatments for the disease include taking aim at significant aspects of the disease like fighting beta-amyloid plaques, recruiting the immune system, reducing brain cell inflammation, and studying the heart-head connection (Alzheimer’s Treatments: What’s on the Horizon?). There are other ways to possibly treat the disease in the future as well. Hopefully from looking at the history of the disease, how the disease affects the brain and body, and future treatments, Alzheimer’s disease and dementia will be a thing of the past. In the past,Show MoreRelatedAlzheimers Disease1334 Words   |  6 PagesAlzheimer’s Disease Brittany Mathis HCS/245 July 14,2013 Tynan Weed Abstract Alzheimer’s has many causes and affects each patient differently. There have been studies done that have found that older African American’s are more likely to develop Alzheimer’s than older whites. A cause of Alzheimer’s has not been completely identified yet, but genetic and environmental factors are known to increase the risk. While we all know that Alzheimer’s is a complicated disease there areRead MoreAlzheimer s Disease Is The Most Significant Risk Factor1074 Words   |  5 PagesAlzheimer s Disease Abstract Alzheimer’s disease currently represents the second leading cause of death in people older than 65 years residing in the modern world. (1) Census records attest to this assertion, which has prompted medical researchers to further investigate the etiology and course of development of the disease in order to better treat the debilitating condition. This paper investigates how Alzheimer’s entered the medical lexicon and how its definition has shifted over the past centuryRead MoreThe Disease Of Alzheimer s Disease Essay1482 Words   |  6 PagesAlzheimer’s disease is a degenerative brain disease that is seen in the elderly. It is the most common form of dementia, which is a general term for memory loss and other intellectual abilities serious enough to interfere with daily life (Alzheimer’s Disease Dementia). Alzheimer’s is one of the leading causes of death in America. Dementia and Alzheimer’s have been around for centuries, but Alzheimerâ₠¬â„¢s disease wasn’t first described until 1906 by Dr. Aloysius Alzheimer. In the past, there was aRead MoreGenetic Interaction Between Lsd1 And Hyperphosphorylated Tau1470 Words   |  6 PagesInvestigating a Genetic Interaction Between LSD1 and Hyperphosphorylated Tau in a P301S Mouse Model Background Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia and is characterized by the degeneration and death of brain cells that causes a loss of mental function. Although neuronal loss is not considered a normal part of aging, age is a significant risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) (Lindsay et al., 2002). Hallmarks of AD include tau tangles and Amyloid-ÃŽ ² plaques, whose interaction is thoughtRead MoreHealth Care and Stage Dementia Support Essay example1302 Words   |  6 Pagesaffect individual ¡Ã‚ ¯s ability to work and therefore they are not able to complete the tasks. In an aetiology view, dementia is commonly caused by advanced age, family history, neurodegenerative conditions and vascular. (Brown Edwards, 2005) Neurodegenerative conditions are those diseases of the brain such as infectious diseases tend to strike people in very old age. (Brown Edward, 2005) Up to now, the most common type of neurodegenerative diseases is known as Alzheimer ¡Ã‚ ¯s dise ase. (Stewart, PrinceRead MoreAlzheimer s And Alzheimer Dementia991 Words   |  4 PagesSome alternate names for Alzeheimer s include Alzheimer dementia (AD), Alzheimer dementiia, syndrome, and sclerosis. The name of the disease was chosen after Dr. Aloysius Alzheimer was credited with discovering the first case of presenile dementia. This would later be called Alzheimer s disease in honor of Dr. Alzheimer s discovery. In the year of 1901, Dr. Alzheimer was studying a 51-year-old patient named Auguste Deter. The patient was suffering from strage behavioral patterns of symptoms. OneRead MoreAlzheimer s Disease : A Progressive Disease925 Words   |  4 PagesAlzheimer s disease is a progressive disease that destroys memory and other vital mental functions. Alzheimer s disease is the most common cause of dementia, a group of brain disorders that cause the loss of intellectual and social skills. AD can eventually render a person unable to function in society and to even care for them selves. Since the disease is the 6th leading cause of death in the United States constant research is being done to try to prevent it and to find a cure. Alzheimer s diseaseRead MoreAlzheimer s Disease : A Slow Progressing Neurodegenerative Disease Essay1694 Words   |  7 PagesAlzheimer’s disease (AD) is a slow-progressing neurodegenerative disease that has no cure and most often affects people over the age of sixty-five. Neurodegeneration is characterized by the loss of function in the central nervous system due to degeneration of neurons found mostly in the brain. The most recent data from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention shows that AD is the sixth-leading cause of death in the United States. The cause of Alzheimer’s is still not completely understood, butRead MoreA Brief History Of Alzheimer s Disease1675 Words   |  7 PagesIntroduction 1.1 A brief overview of Alzheimer’s diseases The life expectancy is now doubled from the last century in the developed countries due to the revolution progress in medicine and health mainly to chronic diseases. Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is one of the most well-known and familiar diseases in the modern societies AD was first reported by Alois Alzheimer in 1907.The AD is the most common type of dementia and a neurodegenerative disease characterized by the damage of nerve cells in theRead MoreAlzheimer s Disease And Disease935 Words   |  4 Pageswith Alzheimer’s disease. This disease is commonly found in the elderly. This explains why people assume older people have a bad memory. Alzheimer’s does not occur in a short period of time, it typically takes months to develop. It involves gradual memory loss due to two specific protein fragments that spread to different parts of the brain killing brain cells as they go. As mentioned in the article Alzheimer’s Disease Fact Sheet (2015), Dr. Alois Alzheime r first discovered the disease by noticing something

A Pencil free essay sample

Most people are entranced by diamonds: so reflective and beautiful, so hard and seemingly indestructible; something so romantic and exotic made of an element considered so ordinary. I, however, much prefer to admire a different allotrope of carbon: graphite. There is beauty in its structure, layer upon layer of carbon atoms, each holding itself together with incredibly strong bonds—even stronger than those in diamonds—but so easily pulled apart. I own quite a bit of graphite. Graphite pencils and sticks of lead are hidden all over my room, like eggs on Easter morning. I own a grayscale rainbow, from mechanical pencils I use for writing to wooden ones ranging from 6H to 8B, scattered among my vast collection of waxy colors. My rainbow, however, means far more to me than any number of hastily dyed eggs. I am fascinated by graphite’s ability to peel apart, leaving shadows of itself on everything it touches. We will write a custom essay sample on A Pencil or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page It reminds me of the human mind—or perhaps simply my own. Pencils are a medium for my thoughts, a pathway through which I can pour myself. Like the graphite, with every swipe of my pencil, a piece of my mind—a thought, an image, an emotion—peels away onto the paper beneath my fingers. Each mark of my pencil is a shadow of my mind, pressed into existence. A pencil is truly remarkable; it can make the most abstract and intangible of concepts clear and concrete and can share the insulated world of my mind with others. Armed with a pencil, I am a fearless warrior, an artist with nerves of steel, a confident scientist and mathematician. With a pencil in hand, my thoughts and emotions, my creativity and ingenuity, pour onto paper like water, as if my thoughts were the streams that pour from my fingertips in the shower, uncontrollable and free. But more than simply allowing themselves to be used, pencils have taught me about potential passions and even about myself. As soon as my chubby baby fingers could pick up a pencil, I learned the joys of art and creation. Storytelling became a passion of mine, as I peeled away Post-It note after Post-It note, covering hundreds with the scribbles of a toddler with no knowledge of written letters, yet the dreams of a writer. As I grew older, the scribbles turned into letters and faces, words and pictures. Though now lost, the first story I remember writing filled page after page of a large notepad, a tale of a princess in her castle, complete with illustrations. I can just barely remember the sketch of a princess, filling half of a page, her bubblegum pink dress ballooning from her waist. Art became a constant presence, from sketches in the margins of notes and on stolen sheets of printer paper to the countless short stories and novel concepts I drew up. I have kept many of my old not ebooks, filled with stories and characters, and my sketchbooks, worn to near disintegration by constant use, pages covered in smudged, faded sketches. By the time I was eleven years old, without a pencil at hand, I felt naked, and as if I were missing a part of myself, as if a finger had suddenly gone missing. Even now, I still feel the ache to hold a pencil, to scribble my thoughts onto paper. The possibilities are endless: shall I draw up a new character or an old favorite? Or shall I work my way through the calculus of simple harmonic motion? I could design a costume, work out for myself lessons on thermochemistry, jot down ideas for a new novel, or even list my plans for the future or my reasons for despising Sigmund Freud. It is rare to find my hand not curled around a pencil, furiously attempting to keep up with the flurry of thoughts pouring from my mind. Holding a pencil is a magical experience. It is as if, upon taking the pencil between my fingers, that all the floodgates of my mind burst, and all sorts of thoughts and ideas make themselves known. It is hard for me to think without a pencil at hand. I can spend an eternity trying fruitlessly to think of a new art concept, or to work out a math problem, or to understand or elaborate on a scientific idea, but once a pencil is curled safely in my fist, my mind is set free, as if the pencil could break down the wall of self-consciousness and doubt. I have grown up with a pencil in my hand. Pencils have shaped me into the person I am today—the artist, the writer, the scientist, the thinker—while allowing me a method of expression with no bounds. Pencils have been an integral part of my life—from my latest sketches and equations to my first drawing of a mermaid to the shaky tracings of Spanish words. They represent my passions, my ambitions, and my sense of self. Y entonces, yo soy yo y mi lapiz: I am myself and my pencil.

Research Paper on Isaac Asimov Essay Example

Research Paper on Isaac Asimov Essay Isaac Asimov, born Isaak Yudovich Ozimov about January 2, 1920 in Petrovichi in Byelorussian SSR, died April 6, 1992 in New York City in New York, was a Russian-American novelist, known for his science fiction novels, not least for the Foundation series and the Robot novels. Asimov also wrote hundreds of popular scientific works which have rarely been characterized as science-fiction, such as Sense of Wonder. Asimov’s interest in robots – he formulated three laws of Robotics, – has made him a kind of robots’ godfather. He appeared from 1977 to 1992 in the science-fiction magazine that bears his name: Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine. If you want to write a successful research paper on the topic you need to know that Isaac Asimov also wrote under the pseudonyms H. B. Ogden and Paul French. Asimov was a member of Mensa. Asimov was born around January 2, 1920 in the town of Petrovichi near Smolensk in Belarusian SSR. When he was three, his family moved to the United States and he was growing up in Brooklyn, New York. He graduated from Columbia University in 1939 and became a Ph.D. in chemistry in 1948. Subsequently, he was employed at Boston University where he was to stay, even though he, no longer had any tuition obligation from 1958. Looking ahead, he would most likely to engage in the writing, a career he has already begun. We will write a custom essay sample on Research Paper on Isaac Asimov specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Research Paper on Isaac Asimov specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Research Paper on Isaac Asimov specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Around 1940, he started writing science fiction. In 1941, his novella Star Night came out. It tells a story about a planet that is part of a complex stellar systems, with a night only once every 2000 years. He went on to write a number of classic Foundation trilogy and I, Robot in 1958 before he wrote his last fiction book for a long time to come. Instead, he concentrated on popular science and in the next few decades wrote hundreds of books in a variety of fields. In 1972, he made a brief comeback with The Gods Themselves. It would take him until 1980 before returning to literary writing. During the 1980s and 1990s, he came to write more books in the Foundation and Robot series and then came to linking them. Isaac Asimov died April 6, 1992 of AIDS. He had acquired the disease through HIV-infected blood during a bypass operation in 1983. The cause of his death was announced in 2002 by his wife, Janet, in her biography It’s been a Good Life. Asimov was a humanist, rationalist and opponent of the belief in supernatural phenomena, though not to the religion itself. Politically, he was a supporter of the Democrats and stood on most issues to the left, although he disliked the element of irrationalism that he felt that many on the left suffered from the 60s onwards. He was a nuclear supporter and advocated population control. Free example research papers about Isaac Asimov are a good way to learn more on the topic. At EssayLib.com writing service you can get a high-quality custom research paper on Isaac Asimov topics. Your research paper will be written from scratch. We hire top-rated Ph.D. and Master’s writers only to provide students with professional research paper assistance at affordable rates. Each customer will get a non-plagiarized paper with timely delivery. Just visit our website and fill in the order form with all paper details: Enjoy professional research paper writing service!

Hi-ho-yo-yo inc Example

Hi Hi PAD PRINTING ORDER LIST ANALYSIS COME FIRST SERVED The company provides very illustrative mechanism for managing orders and even in various advertising and marketing scenerios, such levels convey ideal concepts relevant to modern businesses. For example, the printing factor involved various consistent considerations and this involves critical overview of core factors such as dominant business developments. This expression is vital because its policy involves serving clients or customers basing on requests and arrivals. There are no known biases or even preferences. Ideally, the policy applied involves defining relevant sales, and mostly involve queueing to acqure a service. Its relevance is widely seen in airline industries and FCFS is also evident in various party organizations. Shortest Processing Time (SPT) The time taken to complete all processing within a schedule and this procedure involve defining the completeness of tasks against time. The aspect itself involve dispatching relevant scheduling and by ensuring that specific undertakings have been simulated. There are very vital considerations regarding its performance and with a notable understanding of tardiness index, the crucial data is dissipated where the printing itself involve substantial amount of evidence. This consideration hence help to explain the order received set-up time, and this offers the use of SPT-T as a rule control mechanism. The platform reflected by Shortest Time Processing is integrated in terms of delays, procedural undertakings and time considerations. (Degeratu et al, 1999) Earliest date due The scheduling concept offers task assignment which is defined by resource assignment. The task’s arrangement is important because it specifies the amount of performance optimization needed. This model offers dependent priorities and it defines priority class and which involves equation that calculates time t,, with additional expression of virtual lateness considerations. The case here shows that the waiting time is minimized but also found out that the exact priorities are distinctly established. EDD also priorities static priorities and these are bound by limited queuing and at the very least; the mean itself is composed of increased flexibilities. EDD illustrates parallel dynamics, uncalculating relevancy in terms of priority identification. Critical Ratio Critical ratio involves identifying the time remaining before the work is completed and factoring it by remaining work time. This offers an easily updated dynamics, and it hence involves creating automatic updates in performance intervals. Its performance is far much better than other methods in terms of job lateness criteria. Summary of findings CR gives absolute priority to jobs which are to be done within a limited time and which need proper scheduling. Its application involves using systemic ratios which embraces specific levels of urgency within orders. Hence its ratio is derived from order requirement, urgency levels and need and this hence offer specific timings required to complete tasks. References Degeratu, A.M., Arvind, R. and Jianan, W.(1999).Consumer Choice Behaviour in Online and Traditional Supermarkets: The Effects of Brand Name, Price and Other Search Attributes. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 17(1): 55–78.

How to Get 36 on ACT English 10 Strategies From a Perfect Scorer

How to Get 36 on ACT English 10 Strategies From a Perfect Scorer SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Are you scoring in the 26–34 range on ACT English? Do you want to raise that score as high as possible- to a perfect 36? Getting to a 36 ACT English score isn't easy. It'll require near perfection and mastery of both grammar rules and rhetorical skills. But with hard work and my ACT English strategies below, you'll be able to do it. I've consistently scored 36 on English on my real ACTs, and I know what it takes. Follow my advice, and you'll get a perfect score- or get very close. Brief note: This article is suited for students already scoring a 26 on ACT English or above. If you're below this range, my "How to Improve your ACT English Score to a 26" article is more appropriate for you. Follow the advice in that article, then come back to this one when you've reached a 26. Overview Most guides on the internet on how to get a 36 on ACT English are of pretty bad quality. They're often written by people who never scored a 36 themselves. You can tell because their advice is usually vague and not very pragmatic. In contrast, I've written what I believe to be the best guide on getting a 36 available anywhere. I have confidence that these strategies work because I used them myself to score a perfect ACT English score consistently. They've also worked for thousands of my students at PrepScholar. In this article, I'm going to discuss why scoring a 36 is a good idea and what it takes to score a 36. Then I'll go into the 10 critical ACT English strategies you need to get a perfect ACT English score. Stick with me- as an advanced student, you probably already know that scoring high is good. But it's important to know why a 36 English score is useful, since this will fuel your motivation to get a high score. In this guide, I'm going to talk about doing well on ACT English, rather than about raising your combined English/Language Arts score. The reason is that schools typically care much more about your ACT composite score rather than your subscores and ELA score. However, I'll still touch upon how to raise your essay score at the end. Final note: In this guide, I talk mainly about getting to a 36. But if your goal is a 34, these strategies still equally apply. Understand the Stakes: Why a 36 ACT English? Let's make something clear: for all intents and purposes, a 34 on an ACT is equivalent to a perfect 36. No top college is going to give you more credit for a 36 than a 34. You've already crossed their score threshold, and whether you get in now depends on the rest of your application. So if you're already scoring a 34, don't waste your time studying trying to get a 36. You're already set for the top colleges, and it's time to work on the rest of your application. But if you're scoring a 33 or below AND you want to go to a top 10 college, it's worth your time to push your score up to a 34 or above. There's a big difference between a 32 and a 34, largely because it's easy to get a 32 (and a lot more applicants do) and a lot harder to get a 34. A 33 places you right around average at Harvard and Princeton, and being average is bad in terms of admissions, since the admissions rate is typically below 10%. So why get a 36 on ACT English? Because it helps you compensate for weaknesses in other sections. By and large, schools consider your ACT composite score more than your individual section scores. If you can get a 36 in ACT English, that gives you more flexibility in your Math, Reading, and Science scores. It can compensate for a 32 in one other section, for example, and bring your average back up to 34. Princeton's 75th percentile score for ACT English is likely 36. Even though schools don't typically release their ACT scores by section, they do release SAT section scores. As a stand-in for ACT English, we can take a look at SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores at top schools. (I know ACT English and SAT EBRW don't totally overlap, but you do need to be good at reading and writing to score highly on ACT English.) Here are a few examples. For Harvard, Princeton, Yale, and Dartmouth, the 75th percentile SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing score is an 800 or 790. That means at least 25% of all students at these schools have a 790 in SAT EBRW, or a 36 on ACT English. But if you can work your way to a 36, you show that you're at an equal level (at least on this metric). Even if it takes you a ton of work, all that matters is the score you achieve at the end. Know That You Can Do It This isn't just some fuzzy feel-good message you see on the back of a milk carton. I mean, literally, you and every other reasonably intelligent student can score a 36 on ACT English. The reason most people don't is they don't try hard enough or they don't study the right way. Even if language isn't your strongest suit, or you got a B+ in AP English, you're capable of this. Because I know that more than anything else, your ACT score is a reflection ofhow hard you work and how smartly you study. ACT English Is Designed to Trick You - You Need to Learn How Here's why: the ACT is a weird test. When you take it, don't you get the sense that the questions are nothing like what you've seen in school? You've learned grammar before in school. You know some basic grammar rules. But the ACT questions just seem so much weirder. It's purposely designed this way. The ACT can't test difficult concepts, because this would be unfair for students who never took AP English. It can't ask you to decompose Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov. The ACT is a national test, which means it needs a level playing field for all students around the country. So it has to test concepts that all high school students will cover, like subject-verb agreement, run-on sentences, pronoun choice, etc. You've learned all of this throughout school. But the ACT still has to make the test difficult, so it needs to test these concepts in strange ways. This trips up students who don't prepare, but it rewards students who understand the test well. Tricky ACT English Example Question Here's an example: find the grammar error in this sentence: The commissioner, along with his 20 staff members, run a tight campaign against the incumbent. This is a classic ACT English problem. The error is in subject/verb agreement. The subject of the sentence is commissioner, which is singular. The verb is "run," but because the subject is singular, it should really be "runs." At your level, you probably saw the error. But if you didn't, you fell for a classic ACT English trap. It purposely confused you with the interrupting phrase, "along with his 20 staff members." You're now picturing 20 people in a campaign- which suggests a plural verb! The ACT English section is full of examples like this, and they get trickier. Nearly every grammar rule is tested in specific ways, and if you don't prepare for these, you're going to do a lot worse than you should. Here's the good news: this might have been confusing the first time, but the next time you see a question like this, you'll know exactly what to do: find the subject and the verb, and get rid of the interrupting phrase. So to improve your ACT English score, you just need to: Learn the grammar rules that the ACT tests. Study how the ACT tests these grammar rules and learn how to detect which grammar rule you need in a question. Practice on a lot of questions so you learn from your mistakes. I'll go into more detail about exactly how to do this. First, let's see how many questions you need to get right to get a perfect score. What It Takes to Get a 36 in English If we have a target score in mind, it helps to understand what you need to get that score on the actual test. As you probably know, writing combines your raw score on the multiple choice section with your essay score to give your final English score out of 36. Here's a sample raw score to ACT English Score conversion table. (If you could use a refresher on how the ACT is scored and how raw scores are calculated, read this.) Scaled Score English Raw Score 36 75 35 72–74 34 71 33 70 32 68–69 31 67 30 66 29 65 28 63–64 27 62 Source: ACT In this grading scale, you can earn a 36 only if you get a perfect raw score of 75. In fact, I've never seen a grading scale where you can earn a 36 after missing one question. The curve is also typically quite unforgiving. If you miss one question, you drop down to a 35. Miss two, and sometimes you drop down to a 34. Thus, perfection is really important for ACT English. On every practice test, you need to aim for a perfect raw score for a 36. It's pretty clear then that you need to try to answer every question. You can't guess on too many questions and get a 36, which means you need to get to a level of mastery where you're confident answering each question. Whatever you're scoring now, take note of the difference you need to get to a 36. For example, if you're scoring a 30 now, you need to answer nine more questions right to get to a 36. As a final example, here's a screenshot from my ACT test, showing that I scored a perfect raw score and a 36 on ACT English. OK- so we've covered why scoring a higher English score is important, why you specifically are capable of improving your score, and the raw score you need to get to your target. Now we'll get into the meat of the article: actionable strategies that you should use in your own studying to maximize your score improvement. Strategies to Get a 36 on ACT English What's your greatest weakness? Strategy 1: Understand Your High Level Weakness - Content or Time Management? Every student has different flaws in ACT English. Some people aren't comfortable with the underlying grammarmaterial. Others know the grammar ruleswell, but can't solve questions quickly enough in the harsh time limit. (As we'll discuss, the ACT English section applies VERY heavy time pressure. So you likely do suffer from some time pressure- we're trying to figure out how much) Here's how you can figure out which one applies more to you: Take only the Englishsection of a practice test. We have the complete list of free practice tests here. For that section, use a timer for 45 minutes. Treat it like a real test. If time runs out and you're not done yet, keep working for as long as you need. But starting now, for every new answer or answer that you change, mark it with a special note as "Extra Time." Grade your test using the answer key and score chart, but we want two scores: 1) The Realistic score you got under normal timing conditions, 2) The Extra Time score. This is why you marked the questions you answered or changed during Extra Time. Get what we're doing here? By marking which questions you did under Extra Time, we can figure out what score you got if you were given all the time you needed. This will help us figure out where your weaknesses lie. If you didn't take any extra time, then your Extra Time score is the same as your Realistic score. Here's a flowchart to help you figure this out: Was your Extra Time score a 32 or above? If NO (Extra Time score 32), then you have remaining content weaknesses. You might have weaknesses across a range of subjects, or a deep weakness in only a few subjects. (We'll cover this later). Your first plan of attack should be to develop more comfort with all ACT English subjects. If YES (Extra Time score 32), then: Was your Realistic score a 32 or above? If NO (Extra Time score 32, Realistic 32), then that means you have a difference between your Extra Time score and your Realistic score. If this difference is more than two points, then you have some big problems with time management. We need to figure out why this is. Are you generally slow at Englishacross most questions? Or did particular passages or types of questionsslow you down? Generally, doing a lot of practice questions and learning the most efficient solutions will help reduce your time. More on this later. If YES (both Extra Time and Realistic scores 32), then you have a really good shot at getting a 36. Compare your Extra Time and Realistic score- if they differed by more than one point, then you would benefit from learning how to answer questionsmore quickly. If not, then you likely can benefit from shoring up on your last content weaknesses and avoiding careless mistakes (more on this strategy later). Hopefully that makes sense. Typically I see that students have both timing and content issues, but you might find that one is much more dominant for you than the other. For example, if you can get a 36 with extra time, but score a 32 in regular time, you know exactly that you need to work on time management to get a 36. Strategy 2: Comprehensively Learn the Grammar Rules There's just no way around it. You need to know all the grammar rules tested on the test and how they work. In addition, you'll also need to know rhetorical skills that test you in your writing logic. You'll be asked to decide how to organize sentences and paragraphs together. Certain grammar rules, like punctuation, appear far more often than other rules. But because we're going for perfection, you'll need to know even the less common rules. In our PrepScholar program, we've identified the following as the grammar and rhetorical skills you need to know: Grammar Rules Punctuation: Commas, Apostrophes, Semicolons, Dashes Number Agreement: Subject/Verb Agreement, Pronoun Number Agreement Idioms and Wrong Word (Examples: affect/effect, neither...nor, there/their/they're) Parallel Construction Verb Forms: Tense, Conjugation Conciseness: Eliminating waste from sentence phrasings Sentence Fragments, Run-on Sentences Pronouns: Pronoun Choice, Pronoun Case Faulty Modifier Comparison/Description Rhetorical Skills Macro Logic: How sentences and paragraphs fit together Transitional Logic: How to connect different thoughts together Relevance: Determine whether a sentence is extraneous or fits in Author Intent: Understand the point of the author and writing techniques Formality and Tone There are a lot of rules, but they differ from each other in how commonly they appear on the test, and how hard they are to study. For example, Punctuation is the most common grammar rule on ACT English, but it only uses a few separate concepts. The Idioms skill is also very common, but it uses a wide range of idioms, such that each unique idiom appears no more than once on each test. It's therefore important for you to focus your time on studying the highest impact grammar rules. Our PrepScholar program, for example, quizzes you in relation to how common each grammar rule is, so that you focus your efforts on the rules that make the biggest difference to your score. Strategy 3: Do a Ton of Practice and Understand Every Single Mistake On the path to perfection, you need to make sure every single one of your weak points is covered. Even one mistake on all of ACT English will knock you down from a 36. The first step is simply to do a ton of practice. If you're studying from free materials or from books, you have access to a lot of practice questions in bulk. As part of our PrepScholar program, we have over 1,200 ACT questions customized to each skill. The second step- and the more important part- is to be ruthless about understanding your mistakes. Every mistake you make on a test happens for a reason.If you don't understand exactly why you missed that question, you will make that mistake over and over again. I've seen students who completed 15 practice tests. They've solved over 3,000 questions, but they're still nowhere near a 36 on ACT English. Why? They never understood their mistakes. They just hit their heads against the wall over and over again. Think of yourself as an exterminator, and your mistakes are cockroaches. You need to eliminate every single one- and find the source of each one- or else the restaurant you work for will be shut down. Here'swhat you need to do: On every practice test or question set that you take, mark every question that you're even 20% unsure about When you grade your test or quiz, review every single question that you marked, and every incorrect question. This way even if you guessed a question correctly, you'll make sure to review it. In a notebook, write down the gist of the question, why you missed it, and what you'll do to avoid that mistake in the future. Have separate sections by grammar skill (eg Number Agreement, Idioms, Sentence Fragments) It's not enough to just think about it and move on. It's not enough to just read the answer explanation. You have to think hard about why you specifically failed on this question. By taking this structured approach to your mistakes,you'll now have a running log of every question you missed, and your reflection on why. No excuses when it comes to your mistakes. Always Go Deeper- WHY Did You Miss an English Question? Now, what are some common reasons that you missed a question? Don't just say, "I didn't get this question right." That's a cop out. Always take it one step further- what specifically did you miss, and what do you have to improve in the future? Take the Subject/Verb Agreement example I gave above (with the Interrupting Phrase trick). You likely already know how Subject/Verb Agreement works. But if you missed that question, you'd need to think about why you missed it (because the interrupting phrase made you confuse the subject and verb). Then you need to write down a strategy for noticing this in the future. Here are some examples of common reasons you miss an English question, and how you take the analysis one step further: Content:I didn't learn the grammar rule needed to answer this question. One step further:What specific rule do I need to learn, and what resources will I use to learn this grammar rule? Overlooked Rule:I knew the grammar rule, but the ACT question was written in a way that made me miss it. One step further:How do I solve the question now? Is there a strategy I can use to notice this grammar rule in the future? Careless Error:I knew the grammar rule and normally would get this right, but I slipped up for some reason. One step further:Why did I make this careless mistake? Was I rushing? Did I misread the question? What should I do in the future to avoid this? Get the idea? You're really digging into understanding why you're missing questions. Yes, this is hard, and it's draining, and it takes work. That's why most students who study ineffectively don't improve. But you're different. Just by reading this guide, you're already proving that you care more than other students. And if you apply these principles and analyze your mistakes, you'll improve more than other students too. Bonus: If all of this is making sense to you, you'd love our ACT prep program, PrepScholar. We designed our program around the concepts in this article, because they actually work.When you start with PrepScholar, you’ll take a diagnostic that will determine your weaknesses in over forty ACT skills. PrepScholar then creates a study program specifically customized for you. To improve each skill, you’ll take focused lessons dedicated to each skill, with over 20 practice questions per skill. This will train you for your specific area weaknesses, so your time is always spent most effectively to raise your score. We also force you to focus on understanding your mistakes and learning from them. If you make the same mistake over and over again, we'll call you out on it. There’s no other prep system out there that does it this way, which is why we get better score results than any other program on the market. Check it out today with a 5-day free trial: Strategy 4: Justify Every Answer and Point Out Specific Grammar Errors Many top students take a "soft approach" to ACT English. They learn the grammar rules when studying, but on the test they go "by ear": if a sentence sounds off, they'll assume it's wrong without thinking too hard about why. When you've mastered grammar rules, this can serve you well. For example, if I said, "The bee fly to the hive," you'd know this was wrong instantly- it just feels wrong. You know simple subject/verb agreement so well that you can tell something is wrong before you can articulate what exactly it is. However, most students never get to this level of familiarity with all ACT grammar rules. This makes trusting your ear unreliable for many rules. This is especially true for wrong word choice, like "Its a good day to be an American." Because "its" sounds the same as "it's," your ear is of no help here! What's the strategy to counter this? Point out the specific error, and justify it to yourself. Let's run through an example. This is a grammar question that needs only one line from the passage to answer: Here's what I'm thinking as I read the question (a stream of consciousness): " 'The Sun sets gradually the images of a winged horse'...this doesn't seem right. I know 'sets' can take an object, like 'Tom sets the bowl down slowly,' but the Sun can't set anything down, and especially not images of a winged horse. This has got to be a run-on sentence, but let me keep reading. 'the images of a winged horse, a drinking gourd, a heartbroken hero appear in lights overhead.' Yep- the second part of this sentence is an independent clause, and it's a run-on because it's improperly connected to the first clause, 'The Sun sets gradually.' So I need an answer choice that fixes this:" F: no change, which is wrong G: this has a comma splice error- you can't connect two independent clauses with just a comma. H: this looks good. It joins two independent clauses properly- with a comma and a conjunction ('and'). J: 'The Sun setting gradually' is now a dependent clause, but to join a dependent clause with an independent clause, you need a comma that's missing here. For example, 'The Sun setting gradually, we drove down the highway.' would be correct. Thus answer J is wrong. Now, I'm not literally thinking all these words in my head, but it matches my thinking process as I go through the question and evaluate each answer choice. You can see how I first identified the run-on sentence error in the original sentence. That made it very clear to me how I could find an answer choice that fixed this error. As you learn the different grammar skills and how they appear on the test, you'll start evaluating answer choices for common ways that the ACT tries to trick you. Is a verb underlined? I'm going to check the subject to see if it follows subject/verb agreement. Then I'll check the verb tense. Is a pronoun underlined? I'm going to check the antecedent to see if it matches. Does an underline come right after a comma? I'm going to check if there's a faulty modifier error. I can justify every one of my answers because I know the grammar rules. This makes my answering more robust, not just based on whether something 'feels' right or wrong. Note as well that in these questions, the ACT often fixes the original error in an answer choice- but then introduces another error. You need to make sure the answer you choose is 100% correct, in terms of both grammar and logic. Don't be intimidated if you can't do this right now. With practice and reflection, you will get to this point. Once again, it's like "the bee fly to the hive." You want to get to a point where all ACT grammar rules automatically sound as wrong as that sentence. Find patterns to your mistakes, and make sense of the chaos. Strategy 5: Find Patterns to Your Weaknesses and Drill Them Remember Strategy 3 above about keeping a list of every mistake? You need to take this even one step further. If you're like most students, you're better at some areas in ACT English than others. You might know pronouns really well, but you'll be weak in sentence constructions and fragments. Or maybe you really like parallel construction, but have no idea what faulty modifiers are. This is especially true in grammar and ACT English, because some grammar mistakes likely sound obvious to you, but others are completely foreign. If you're like most students, you also don't have an unlimited amount of time to study. You have a lot of schoolwork, you might be an athlete or have intense extracurriculars, and you have friends to hang out with. This means for every hour you study for the ACT, it needs to be the most effective hour possible. In concrete terms,you need to find your greatest areas of improvement and work on those. Too many students study the 'dumb' way. They just buy a book and read it cover to cover. When they don't improve, they're shocked. I'm not. Studying effectively for the ACT isn't like painting a house. You're not trying to cover your bases with a very thin layer of understanding. What these students did wrong was they wasted time on subjects they already knew well, and they didn't spend enough time improving their weak spots. Instead, studying effectively for the ACT is like plugging up the holes of a leaky boat. You need to find the biggest hole, and fill it. Then you find the next biggest hole, and you fix that. Soon you'll find that your boat isn't sinking at all. How does this relate to ACT English? In this analogy, your knowledge of English grammar is the leaky boat, and the holes are the gaps in your knowledge. You need to find the grammar rules you're struggling with the most, then do enough practice questions until they're no longer a weakness. For every question that you miss, you need to identify the type of question it is and why you missed it. Once you discover patterns to the questions you miss, you then need to find extra practice for this grammar rule. Let's say you analyze your past practice tests and questions and find that you're missing a lot of misplaced modifier questions. After you identify this pattern, the next step is to find good lesson material to teach yourself the main concepts behind what misplaced modifiers are and how to fix or avoid them. You'll also need to find more practice questions that test you on misplaced modifiers and drill until you're making few, if any, mistakes. This is the best way for you to improve your English score. Once again, this is exactly how I designed our PrepScholar online ACT prep program to work. It automatically figures out your greatest weaknesses so you don't have to. We use advanced statistics with data from our thousands of students. With PrepScholar, you don't need to worry about what to study- you just need to focus on learning. Because it's worked for thousands of students, I'm pretty sure it'll work for you too. Click here to learn more. Strategy 6: Be Careful With "No Change" Answers In ACT English, most questions have a NO CHANGE option. The ACT loves tricking students using these answer choices, because it knows that students who don't know grammar rules won't see anything wrong with the sentence. No Change is a really easy answer to choose. No changes are one of the most common careless mistakes- make sure you don't fall for them. Be very careful whenever you choose one of these No Change answer choices. Typically, these are correct answers around 25% of the time- not much more. (We actually went through and counted this in real tests). If you find that you're choosing No Change 40% of the time, you're definitely not detecting grammar errors well enough. Every time you choose No Change, try to double-check the other answer choices to make sure you're not missing a grammar error. Especially take note of grammar rules that you tend to ignore mistakenly. Like I mentioned in Strategy 2 above, if you write down your mistakes and study your weaknesses, you'll be able to know which grammar rules you're weak at, and pay special attention to. Personally, this was my most common careless mistake on ACT English. When I could see the error, I got the question correct nearly 100% of the time. The only times I missed questions were when I accidentally ignored an error. I solved this by double-checking each of the answer choices to make sure I wasn't leaving any stone unturned. Strategy 7: Think About Grammar in Everyday Life Among all subjects, English on the ACT is special because it appears in your everyday life. For school, you have to read a lot and you have to write a lot. Use these experiences as opportunities to notice grammar rules and sentence constructions. This is unique to ACT English. ACT Math is so bizarre compared to everyday life that you won't just naturally find ways to apply the Pythagorean theorem at breakfast. ACT Reading and Science similarly require very specific skills when reading a passage or chart. But you can practice your grammar skills throughout the day. Here are some ideas: Proofread your friends' essays. Challenge yourself to uncover every grammatical error. Read high quality, formal publications, like the New York Times or the Economist. These articles go through editors, so they rarely have grammar errors. You'll develop that ear for language I mentioned. Notice common errors around you. A lot of people comma splice, for example. Hold yourself to a higher standard in texting and messaging. (I know this isn't that cool- you don't have to capitalize every sentence and use periods, but at least use its/it's and their/there/they're correctly.) The more you think about grammar as a fundamental skill rather than something specialized for ACT, the more natural it will feel to you. Strategy 8: Finish With Extra Time and Double Check Your goal at the end of all this work is to get so good at ACT English that you solve every question and have extra time left over at the end of the section to recheck your work. In high school and even now, I can finish a 45 minute English section in 30 minutes or less. I then have 15 minutes left over to recheck my answers two times over. As I've explained above, the best way to get faster is to get so fluent with ACT grammar that you rapidly zero in on the grammar mistakes without having to think hard about it. Try to aim for a target of spending 40 seconds on average for each question. This gives you enough time to double-check comfortably. What's the best way to double-check your work? I have a reliable method that I follow: Double-check any questions you marked that you're unsure of. Try hard to eliminate those answer choices. If it's a No Change question, double-check that you're not missing any grammar mistakes. If I'm 100% sure I'm right on a question, I mark it as such and never look at it again. If I'm not sure, I'll come back to it on the third pass. At least two minutes before time's up, I rapidly double-check that I bubbled the answers correctly. I try to do this all at once so as not to waste time looking back and forth between the test book and the answer sheet. Go five at a time ("A G C F B") for more speed. If you notice yourself spending more than 30 seconds on a problem and aren't clear how you'll get to the answer, skip and go to the next question. Even though you need a perfect raw score for a 36, don't be afraid to skip. You can come back to it later, and for now it's more important to get as many points as possible. Quick Tip: Bubbling Answers Here's a bubbling tip that will save you two minutes per section. When I first started test taking in high school, I did what many students do: after I finished one question, I went to the bubble sheet and filled it in. Then I solved the next question. Finish question 1, bubble in answer 1. Finish question 2, bubble in answer 2. And so forth. This actually wastes a lot of time. You're distracting yourself between two distinct tasks- solving questions, and bubbling in answers. This costs you time in both mental switching costs and in physically moving your hand and eyes to different areas of the test. Here's a better method: solve all your questions first in the book, then bubble all of them in at once. This has several huge advantages: you focus on each task one at a time, rather than switching between two different tasks. You also eliminate careless entry errors, like if you skip question 7 and bubble in question 8's answer into question 7's slot. By saving just four seconds per question, you get back 300 seconds on a section that has 75 questions. This is huge. Note: If you use this strategy, you should already be finishing the section with ample extra time to spare. Otherwise, you might run out of time before you have the chance to bubble in the answer choices all at once. Strategy 9: Read the Whole Sentence Most of the questions ACT English ask you the underlined part of a sentence should be changed. When you answer these questions, don't just read the underlined portion. To correctly answer the questions, you must read the whole sentence (or sentences, if the underlined section overlaps across two different sentences). Phrases not included in the underlined portion of the sentence often provide information that's essential for deciding whether or not the underlined portion should be changed. Let's go through another example from the ACT to see this strategy in action. If you only read the underlined word, you probably won't think there's anything wrong with it. "Consecutively" is an adverb modifying the verb "to speak"- nothing to change there. When you read the whole sentence, however, you're able to notice that because of the phrase "for twelve hours straight", "consecutively" is redundant. In the context of the full sentence, consecutively means "without stopping," and the phrase "for twelve hours straight" implies that she could speak that long without stopping. Therefore, the word "consecutively" is unnecessary and should be omitted. If you didn't read the whole sentence, you might not notice the redundancy error and would most likely select A. However, since the word "consecutively" is unnecessary, the correct answer is D. In addition, certain types of questions on the ACT require reading not just the sentence with the underlined section, but sentences before and after it as well. For example, you need the context provided by multiple sentences to answer some verb tense and paragraph order questions as well. Strategy 10: Experiment with Passage Strategies and Find the Best One for You The format of ACT English is unlike any high school English test most students have seen before. As a result, many students don't intuitively know which method of approaching the passages will be the most effective for them. Because you're already scoring at a high level, I can't say with 100% accuracy which approach will work best for you. You're aiming for a perfect English score, which means that if your strategy doesn't perfectly line up with your strengths and weaknesses, you'll make mistakes or run out of time. Rather than prescribing you one strategy that you must use for ACT English passages, then, I'll instead go through what ways of approaching the passage are the most effective. You can then try the different strategies out and see which one leads to the highest score for you. Passage Method 1: Graf-by-Graf Though every student is different, this is the one strategy that we recommend everyone at least tries. Here it is: Read through the passage one paragraph at a time. After each paragraph, answer the questions referring to that paragraph. Skip if you can't answer a question within 30 seconds. Repeat for each succeeding paragraph. The great part about this strategy is that it both gives you a clear sense of the passage and forces you to read through whole sentences before answering questions about them. The only drawback is that going graf-by-graf can be a little time-consuming, so if you struggle with running out of time on ACT English, you might want to consider one of the other passage methods. Definitely try going graf-by-graf first, though- you might be pleasantly surprised by how well it works for you! Passage Method 2: Answer as You Go Many students gravitate to this method by default because it's both straightforward and quick. We don't recommend it as our top method, however, because of its potential pitfalls. Here's the method: Start reading through the passage. When you come to an underlined word, phrase, or sentence, continue reading past it to the end of the sentence. Answer the question about the underlined word, phrase, or sentence, then move on. The answer-as-you-go method is great if you're using the graf-by-graf approach but keep running out of time with just a few questions left or if you find yourself distracted or overwhelmed by multiple hops back and forth between the same paragraph and different questions. Unfortunately, this method does have one major drawback: you won't get as thorough a perspective on a question's context, which makes answering questions about transitions or the paragraph as a whole more challenging. It can also fail completely if you don't always read to the end of the sentence (for the importance of this, see Strategy 9). Passage Method 3: Sentence-by-Sentence In this approach, you only read the sentences of the passage that include underlined words, phrases, or sentences. If you're running out of time with a lot of questions left over when you use the graf-by-graf method, this strategy might be a good option for you. The key to using this method is that you always have to read the entire sentence. Even if you do execute this method perfectly, however, it suffers from the same drawbacks as answering as you go: if you read through the passage a sentence at a time, you won't get as clear an understanding of the overall structure and context of the passage, which makes answering rhetorical skills questions more difficult. We don't recommend using this method if you're aiming for a score higher than a 25. Passage Method 4: Read the Passage First The final ACT English passage approach we recommend is skimming the entire passage first, then going back through sentence-by-sentence to answer the questions. Of all the approaches to the ACT English passage, this is the most thorough. If you find yourself missing most of the macro logic or big picture questions because you didn't really understand the passage as a whole, this strategy could be a good fit for you. For most students, however, this approach is more trouble (and time) than it's worth- the graf-by-graf method is usually sufficient for answering macro logic questions and is much more time effective. Choose Which Method Works Best for You While we do recommend the graf-by-graf method as a starting point for most students, we can't predict which method will be most effective for you. To figure this out for yourself, you need some cold, hard data about your ACT English performance. Try out each method on at least one (and preferably two) sample passages each, then compare your performance on each. If one method is a clear winner for you, go with it; if not, choose the method that's the most comfortable for you. Once you've tried out all the passage approach strategies and figured out which one works best for you, you must use it consistently with every ACT English practice passage and test. These strategies all depend on teaching you to approach passages methodically, which means that they will only be effective if you use them every single time. In Overview Those are the main strategies I have for you to improve your ACT English score to a 36. If you're scoring above a 26 right now, with hard work and smart studying, you can raise it to a perfect English score. Even though we covered a lot of strategies, the main point is still this: you need to understand where you're falling short, and drill those weaknesses continuously. You need to be thoughtful about your mistakes and leave no mistake ignored. One last tip: try to keep a steady head while you're taking the test. It's really easy to start doubting yourself because you know you need a near-perfect raw score. Even if you're unsure about two questions in a row, try to treat every question as its own independent test. If you start doubting yourself, you'll perform worse, and the worse you perform, the more you doubt yourself. Avoid this negative spiral of doubt and concentrate on being confident. You'll have studied a lot, and you'll do great on this test. Keep reading for more resources on how to boost your ACT score. What's Next? We have a lot more useful guides to raise your ACT score. Read our accompanying guides on how to get a 36 on ACT Math and how to get a 36 on ACT Reading. Better yet, read my high-level guide on how to score a perfect 36 on the entire test. Learn how to write a perfect-scoring 12 ACT essay, step by step. We also have a rough index to all ACT Prep info here. Want to improve your ACT score by 4 points? Check out our best-in-class online ACT prep classes. We guarantee your money back if you don't improve your ACT score by 4 points or more. Our classes are entirely online, and they're taught by ACT experts. If you liked this article, you'll love our classes. Along with expert-led classes, you'll get personalized homework with thousands of practice problems organized by individual skills so you learn most effectively. We'll also give you a step-by-step, custom program to follow so you'll never be confused about what to study next. Try it risk-free today:

History and Environment in the Mimbres Valley Article

History and Environment in the Mimbres Valley - Article Example The valley thus experienced a variation in the population over the years, and this affected its overall ecology. The research focuses on how the people survived in this valley; how its ecology changed, and how this differs from the present. The area features a short river, predominantly pinon, juniper and oak trees, orchards and alfalfa, and a floodplain, which continues to be farmed by gravity-fed small irrigation canals. The riverine environment contrasts significantly from surrounding areas, which also has more drought-resistant vegetation. Although it appears the land is fairly preserved, the significant recent degradation as the third cycle of human interference is resulting in more permanent consequences for plant and animal life. The original Mimbres people transformed from a lifestyle of hunting and gathering to farming supplemented their diet with wild plants and animals and were self-sufficient. Culturally, they resembled the Hopi and other pueblos. As their population increased, they cut down more trees, engaged in more intensive farming, used more weedy plants, and overexploited select larger animal species. This also denuded the valley bottom from plant life. Some of the check dams constructed in marginal areas to retain rainwater still remain. The first cycle of degradation then occurred between A.D. 1000 to 1130 despite evidence of some measures of environmental conservation. However, as noted by Lt. Emory in 1846, the environmental balance was later restored. This is attributable to the population decline by the 1400s and the preservation of the river. The next cycle of degradation was caused by the opening of a shelter during the later 1800s, in particular from the wood gathered to fuel it resulting in large-scale deforestation aided by steel tools, wagons, and horses. However, this situation reversed after the smelter was closed.