Case Study You Are Your Own Worst Enemy Essay

Gen Y are demonstrated to be a considerable security hazard to associations since Gen Y’s download and use non-authorized IT Tools while at work or utilizing organization innovation and frequently bargaining programming like texting programming and open-source advances. What’s happening is very straightforward, yet exceptionally risky. Having/utilizing them on organization innovation opens an entryway for programmers and information criminals to enter unnoticed into your organization’s data resources. Yet, Gen Y are not even mindful that they are causing possible trade offs. Question and Answer( Legend:Q=Question,A=Answer) Q1. Consider yourself a business director. You have representatives you regulate and you are liable for guaranteeing that they meet day by day work shares. Be that as it may, you discover they are putting in two or three hours out of every day shopping web based, talking with companions through texting, etc. How would you rouse your representatives to play out their work? How would you limit them from non-business related exercises without making a smothering, exhausting, and dull work environment? A1. As a chief, I am dependable and assumes responsibility for all the exercises that include in my organization and it is extremely vital for me to have a representative which has an information to perform and tune in to their assignment appropriately and ready to stand the guidelines and guideline of my organization. Control is an absolute necessity. They should center to their activity task and utilize their time appropriately particularly during working hours. What's more, as a Manager I should comprehend what the various sorts of Managerial capacities . What's more, one of it is guiding that alludes to inspiration, correspondence and administration. I am the Manager so I will be the one to spur my representatives by discussing them with the intensity of administration. To propel them to play out their work I will give them motivations or compensations to make them beneficial. I may build their wages to urge them to play out their undertaking great. By confining them I think won't work in light of the fact that their life are append to the innovation †that more often than not of their work they are before the PC that possibly will entice to open a long range interpersonal communication site or shopping site that isn't identified with their work. I won't thoroughly limit them yet rather I will permit them to accomplish their non-business related exercises during breaktime. They merit a little break that will make them quiet and not all that distressing. I will take a review from them that manages realizing what they would recommend so as to have a charming work environment that will influence them positively. In that, my representatives will be urge to function admirably. Q2. The contextual analysis referenced the requirement for worker instruction. What components would you remember for instruction program for helping representatives better comprehend the risks where they place the organization’s IT framework by utilizing innovation the incorrect route while at work? A2. It is smarter to direct a direction the second that they are utilized in the organization. This will assist them with having a superior comprehension seeing to their errand, for example, the general principles and guidelines and the best possible utilizing of the IT framework of the organization. Utilizing innovation in the incorrect manner while at work will make an incredible harm and disappointment carry out their responsibility in the organization. Now and then it will be lost of the organization and their notoriety will devastate. And furthermore I can incorporate short instances of associations that have been undermined as a result of perilous programming, having a kindred Gen Y individual make the introduction, indicating safe processing habits.I will alsoinclude the things that can occur in the association if the representatives are constant in doing things online that are not related in their work, additionally the unsafe impacts on it on association as well as on them likewise that they will not, at this point concentrated on their work obligations and they taking their work in danger that they can be terminated and out of the organization.. Q3.Beyond the trade offs caused to IT framework, what do you see amiss with shopping on the web while at work? Is this unlawful or deceptive, maybe both, or not one or the other? A3.Nothing isn't right about the shopping on the web on the grounds that it’s your cash that you going through with however during your work it is both unlawful and simultaneously unethical.It is supposed to be illicit in light of the fact that before working at the organization, there is a sure agreement that they should sign expressed that they ought to stand the principles and guidelines of the organization, including: the best possible utilized of their time for their work and carry out their responsibility without doing pointless activities, for example, visiting with the others. Likewise, it is exploitative on the grounds that it could be uncalled for to the other people who were carrying out their responsibility appropriately while the others are simply burning through their time, having their pay fouling up things. You utilized in the association to work, you are exposed to work with the entirety of your insight, aptitude and centered in light of the fact that your bei ng paid by the organization and planning something not related for your work isn't acceptable. It’s unquestionably justification for excusal from employment.But at that point, individuals could possibly consider it to be deceptive, in light of the fact that such a significant number of individuals do it. Q4.Read the adequate use strategy (AUP) for your school. Is it true that you are doing anything with your school’s innovation that damages the AUP? Provided that this is true, what's going on here? How predominant among different understudies is the infringement? Does across the board infringement by one way or another or another make it alright? A4.(Since our school have no AUP, answers depend on PC lab ordinance,rules and regulations).Yes, some of the time I mess around introduced in the PC which is carefully disallowed dependent on the mandate gave by th President.It is extremely regular since understudies have spared games on their blaze drives and through this they can introduce and mess around they need whenever yet they ensure that they do this without their teachers.No, in light of the fact that even infringement is widespreaded after the following day they will do it over and over. Q5.Why do you think Gen Y is being singled out? Wouldn’t it bode well that individuals in other age bunches additionally put an organization in danger by abusing innovation? What is so extraordinary and remarkable about Gen Y? A5.Generation Y grew up with innovation and depend on it to play out their employments better. Gen Y is the computerized age, and in this manner utilizes innovation more, particularly those sorts of devices that can bargain security. Truly, other age bunches abuse innovation however not to the degree of Gen Y. As law offices vie for accessible ability, businesses can't disregard the requirements, wants and mentalities of this huge age. Twenty to thirty year olds grew up with simple access to PCs, consistent association with the web, and advanced mobile phones close by. They’re acquainted with utilizing innovation in all aspects of their lives and completely trust in its capacity to make their lives simpler. This age dreams unbounded. They’re looking for two things †cash and joy. Q6.Would you consider working for an organization that disallowed access to long range informal communication locales, gaming, sites, and internet shopping while at work? Why or why not? What about in the barrier business? In specific places inside resistance associations, you’re not permitted to convey phones and so forth since you can take photographs and recordings with them. Would you like to work there? Why or why not? A6.Yes. Working in the organization that denied access to long range informal communication locales, gaming, and web based shopping is something offers order to the worker in regards to planning something not related for their work and furthermore these things must be done not in your work environment yet in your own place like in your home and in your own PC. In the organization that phones and other like it that can take pictures and recordings are not permitted, why or why not work in this sort if association? For me it’s okay ,we as a whole realize that PDA is accommodation approach to impart to others more often than not in crisis, so not conveying PDA is difficult for me to follow yet on the off chance that the organization is extraordinary and there’s a great deal of advantages or great pay for their workers I will, they take care of business for their own security.

Habit 3 Put First Things First

Propensity 3 Put First Things First Presentation Highly viable individuals are known to concentrate on finding openings around them. They at that point use these chances to further their potential benefit distinctly mulling over their standards and qualities. They do this so as to accomplish individual or authoritative objectives (Hergenhahn, 2005).Advertising We will compose a custom article test on Habit 3 Put First Things First explicitly for you for just $16.05 $11/page Learn More The choices they make are fixated and centered around effectively characterized statements of purpose. For one to profit completely from ideas of Habit 2 Put First Things First, one needs to have altogether comprehended and disguised Habit 1 and Habit 2. Propensity 1 spotlights on the individual’s character improvement (genius action). It is through the character that one creates in this phase the individual in question can forgo exercises that don't contribute towards the accomplishment of the characterized objectives. Propensity 2 starts in view of â€Å"an end†. Stephen Covey (2004) accentuates on making an away from of one’s goal. This needs to begin with examining one’s current circumstance so as to know one’s position. It is by so doing that one can concoct an individual or hierarchical constitution. The last draws clear rules and guidelines towards accomplishing the present moment and long haul objectives. The said objectives join to frame the statement of purpose. The reason for this examination is to basically investigate the thoughts and ideas of Habit 3 Put First Things First. The investigation uncovers how this propensity might be applied in reality through utilization of functional models. A gander at the 2 X 2 network, designation and suggestions will assist with representing better the ideas of Habit 3 Put First Things First. The 2 X 2 Matrix Highly viable individuals perceive the exercises that are imperative to them and those that are not significant (Gazzaniga, 20 10). With the utilization of 2 X 2 Matrix, Stephen Covey (2004) arranges the everyday exercises into four classifications; - Pressing issues 1 Urgent - Projects Important - Deadline driven exercises Prevention Not Urgent 2 - Relationship building Implementing frameworks - Planning and arrangements - Improving proficient information - Emails 3 Telephone Calls. Not Important Interruptions; a partner strolling in to the workplace Unplanned gathering Trivial 4 Busy Work Unproductive exercises 1. Significant and critical are delegated Quadrant 1. 2. Significant and not pressing are named Quadrant 2. 3. Critical and not significant are delegated Quadrant 3. 4. Not significant and not dire are delegated Quadrant 4. For successful administration, Quadrant 1 exercises ought to be given inclination. All errands ought to be assessed to decide the significant exercises and their urgencies. It is acceptable to manage exceptionally significant and critical issues first. Cutoff time driven underta kings ought to be given need as well. Emergency matters and squeezing issues ought to be viewed as first as well.Advertising Looking for paper on brain science? How about we check whether we can support you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More To deal with your life viably dependent on the standards and qualities sketched out in your statement of purpose, you need to concentrate on exercises of Quadrant 2 particularly the significant exercises which are not dire. This works far towards improving your creation limit. For instance, rather than setting out on arranging every day at once, it could be perfect for you to concentrate on week after week exercises that are inline with the achievement of your own objectives and jobs. For example, an individual who expects to diminish 10 kilograms of their body weight in one month can think of an entire week plan that diagrams the exercises the individual will attempt every day so as to decrease the ideal weight. In the week after wee k plan, the individual in question can indicate the eating regimen to contemplate every day taking the measure of calories their body requires and modify their dinners to suit the necessary calories. The person can likewise get ready for the activities to embrace every day of the week. The person may assign two days for running and three days for indoor rec center exercises. Another significant part of Quadrant 2 includes arrangement. An understudy who wishes to exceed expectations in their tests must do certain things that may improve the odds of scholastic greatness for the specific understudy. This would include concentrating all the course materials thoroughly and guaranteeing that the individual has secured the whole prospectus. The individual ought to set out on intensive modification of the whole course work. The individual in question can draw in different understudies in conversations on the various points in the course diagram. An audit of past tests would support that per son in seeing how the inquiries in the tests are set. A similar case would apply to a designer who wishes to be exceptionally successful in his profession. The designer may consider selecting for a propelled course in his calling. This would support that person hone his expert aptitudes and information. The person in question would likewise effectively partake in courses and workshops with a point of boosting their expert properties. At times individuals connect with themselves in exercises that take a great deal of their time. Those exercises may not be fundamentally imperative to the satisfaction of their objectives. These are exercises of Quadrant 3 which include earnest exercises however which may not be significant or important. These exercises are depicted as pressing since they include others who might be critical to people’s lives like companions and family members. Exercises of Quadrant 3 may have nothing to do with the acknowledgment of people’s individual ob jectives. Now and again these exercises might be delineated as significant. They may convince numerous individuals to put additional time and vitality on them. They may not be as significant as seen. For instance, in an office arrangement, an associate may go to your office to make a colleague. A little conversation may follow and without both of you seeing, a significant measure of time may in the end be squandered which would have in any case been spent progressing in the direction of the achievement of your authoritative objectives. Calls might be different types of distractions.Advertising We will compose a custom exposition test on Habit 3 Put First Things First explicitly for you for just $16.05 $11/page Learn More Your guests make take a great deal of your time by drawing in you in discussions that might not productively affect your work. It is essential to know the motivation behind the call and evaluate whether it merits giving your opportunity to at that specific second. I t is starting there that you would have the option to conclude whether to accept that call, defer or disregard it. Despite the fact that the web is the best data device, it has been abused in many associations ruining the last from accomplishing their objectives. In specific cases, you may discover representatives occupied on the PCs making the feeling that they are accomplishing something considerable towards execution of the company’s mission. Then again, those representatives might be occupied with talking with their companions through the different social locales, reacting to messages from their companions or surfing in the web for materials of their own advantages. Every one of these things are not fundamental in a person’s life that is the reason Covey (2004) orders them as not significant. They have almost no noteworthiness to the achievement of the crucial any given organization. Some little issues may emerge in an association inciting concerned chiefs to requi re the purported â€Å"urgent meetings†. In such conditions, the gathering plans may not be painstakingly drawn and the gatherings taking an interest in the said gatherings may not be mulled over. Such gatherings may not be enough arranged for by all gatherings in the long run prompting wastage of time by the concerned gatherings. These gatherings may not include any an incentive towards the satisfaction of the company’s mission. Quadrant 4 represents exercises that are not significant just as not earnest. Certain individuals may give reasons of being occupied with the aim of evading certain obligations or exercises given to them by their separate associations. One might be astonished to discover that these individuals may not be as occupied as they may depict to be. A closer assessment on the lives of the said individuals may uncover that they might be occupied with exercises that are not all that significant like watching films, understanding papers and books. In a p erfect world, it is critical to decrease the time taken on these exercises and focus more on the exercises that would lead one to being profoundly powerful in acknowledging either one’s individual or authoritative objectives and targets. Appointment An exceptionally viable individual should comprehend that it is unimaginable to expect to achieve all the exercises that will support the person in question accomplish the proposed objectives. It is thusly significant that one distinguishes the particular exercises to chip away at in accomplishing one’s objectives. One needs to understand the qualities and shortcomings of the individuals that one intends to work with. By so doing, one would be fit for understanding the capacities of various individuals. When designating, it is imperative to abstain from guiding the people concerned. It is basic told them the vision and objectives to accomplish. Let them comprehend the ideal qualities. Allow them to acknowledge and value you r principles.Advertising Searching for exposition on brain science? How about we check whether we can support you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Find out More An individual whose objective is to cut 10 kilograms of body weight in one month can appoint their eating regimen intending to an expert nutritionist. On the off chance that the individual is a veggie lover, he can advise the nutritionist already. By so doing, he would tell the nutritionist his qualities and

Essay Samples For Year 8

Essay Samples For Year 8When it comes to essay samples for years 8, there are many things you need to consider. You may find that some students have difficulty with essay writing and others might have no problem. What is important to remember is that when you write a school essay, you need to write something that is based on an idea that you know about. This is the most effective way of getting your point across and to ensure that you do not deviate from what is in the essay, you should know what to write in the first place.When it comes to writing an essay for your year 8 English test, the most important thing that you can do is to identify what you are going to write about. You must be able to identify a topic that you know about so that you know what to write about. It is therefore important that you know as much as possible about that topic.In order to do this, it is advisable that you spend some time reading on the topic of the year 8 exam and when you have done this, you should have an idea of what you will be writing about. This means that you need to make sure that you have at least some idea of what it is that you are going to be writing about and if you cannot, then you need to spend some time researching the topic so that you have enough information to write an essay on that topic.One of the first things that you need to do when you want to write an essay on a specific topic is to look at essay samples for year 8. These are essays written by other students who did get a good grade on their essay and who were asked to write an essay on the same topic. However, the reason why you need to look at the essay samples for year 8 is because these are one of the most important things that you can use to help you when you are trying to write your own essay.In most cases, the people who created the essay samples for year 8 are some of the top students in the class and they will be able to give you pointers as to how to structure your essay and how to best place your ideas into a coherent sentence. They will also be able to tell you which keywords to use so that you can ensure that you get the best results possible out of your essay. This means that you should spend time studying essay samples for year 8 so that you have as much information as possible about what you are going to be writing.The second thing that you need to remember is that you should learn about the different keyword terms that are used by the editors and the readers when they are looking for information online. This is so that you can make sure that you use the right keywords so that you can get the best results.A final point to remember is that when you are looking at the different essay examples for years 8, you should make sure that you get tips from them about what to do when you are writing your essay. These tips can include things such as how to make sure that your essay is concise, how to create a thesis statement and whether or not to include facts or opinion whe n writing an essay.These are all the things that you need to remember about essay samples for year 8. You should do whatever you can to ensure that you get the best results possible when you are writing your essay.

Kristine Le. Diabetes Mellitus Type 1 . The Diabetes Quebec

Kristine Le Diabetes Mellitus Type 1 The Diabetes Quebec Association states that in the past, a diagnosis of diabetes meant certain death. This was held true until a Canadian physician, Frederick Banting, discovered the hormone insulin in 1921. He was able to isolate a unknown matter from the pancreas of a dog and inject it into another dogs pancreas s. This discovery enabled them to save the lives of these diabetic dogs. Through trial and error Banting was able to perfect the purification of insulin in order for it to be injected on a daily basis to compensate for the insulin not being produced by the pancreas to control the blood sugar in hyperglycemic patients. Diabetes mellitus is an inability of the body to catabolize glucose†¦show more content†¦This disease does not favor one gender over the other, it effects males and females equally. Currently, the origin of diabetes is a conundrum. Although, it is understood that the immune system attacks the beta cells but it is not clear how or why it occurs. It is hypothesized that T1D maybe hereditary and environmental factors contribute to the onset (5). Symptoms prevail in individuals whom have the majority of their beta cells destroyed via a cellular mediated autoimmune response (1). The insulin signaling cascade is initiated when insulin binds to insulin receptors located on the cell s surface. The insulin receptor has four subunits: two alpha subunits located on the outside of the cell and two transmembrane beta subunits (3 4). When insulin binds to the alpha subunit receptors, it transmits a signal across the plasma membrane and activates tyrosine residues that are attached to the beta subunits. The activation of the tyrosine residues causes it to autophosphorolate and then phosphorolate other proteins that also have tyrosine residues attached to them. These phosphorylated proteins then move on to trigger cellular responses such as translocation of GLUT4 vesicule to the cell membrane. The vesicule becomes a tr ansporter to allow glucose to come into the cell so that it can continue on and be stored as glycogen (3). A beta cell-specific autoimmune process is the beginning of the destruction of the beta cells that produce insulin.

Analysis Of The Book The Magical Realism - 1861 Words

1. The novel fits the description of â€Å"magical realism† because a lot of the concept in Bless Me, Ultima seems realistic but at the same time some of the other concepts seem much exaggerated, they are like images that can be imagined in our head, but in the book these things actually happen in life. â€Å"Oh, our sweet baby, we are coming home to you† â€Å"Aghhhhhhh! My brothers!† I screamed. I bolted up and found myself in bed. My body was wet with sweat, and my lips were trembling. I felt a heavy sorrow gagging my heart, and it was hard to breath. Outside I heard the owl cry in alarm. Someone was coming up the goat path. I jumped into my pants and raced out into the cold night. There just coming over the slope of the hill were three dark figures† (page 61 and 62). This excerpt from the book shows how Antonio was having a dream of his brothers and that they were coming home but, when Antonio woke up, he realized that his brothers were really home . In a way his dream was a way of foreshadow. 2. 3. In Bless Me, Ultima the owls are symbolic because the owl symbolizes Ultima’s spirit. â€Å"It was true that the owl was Ultima’s spirit. It had come with Ultima, and as men brought evil to our hills the owl had hovered over us, protecting us† (page 256). This extract from the book shows how the owl connected with Ultima because the owl was an emblem of Ultima. In the book Ultima’s owl plays the role of her spirit, â€Å"It was true that the owl was Ultima’s spirit. It had come withShow MoreRelatedEssay on Analysis of The Metamorphosis1033 Words   |  5 PagesAnalysis of The Metamorphosis This story The Metamorphosis is about Gregor, a workaholic, who is changed into an insect and must then deal with his present reality. The hardest part of being an insect for him was the alienation from his family, which eventually leads to his death. 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Culture Is Not Only A Foreign Word - 1456 Words

Growing up, I never fully understood the meaning of culture. Culture was not only a foreign word to me, but a foreign concept that I could not even think of grasping. I was hidden from the world, both physically and emotionally and I was unaware of the immense barrier that I had constructed in my own heart and mind. I was comfortable. I was â€Å"happy.† But I was ignorant. If I were to classify my hometown, I would not even call it a â€Å"town.† Yes, Fishersville, Virginia has a library, small grocery store, and a few people who live there, but it is really only a place that people drive through. That is it. It is a small â€Å"ville† with an area of only 13.09 square miles and is nestled between two other small towns of Staunton and Waynesboro, Virginia (the places where people really want to go). And honestly, I don’t blame them. I mean, who would even want to stop and visit at a place with the word â€Å"fish† in its name? Although it is incredibly apparent that my hometown is physically sheltered, it is also politically and socially sheltered. My high school was and still is predominantly white. Even though my high school had many of the stereotypical social crowds found in any high school and was incredibly small with an average graduation class of 180, there was still very little diversity. There were maybe a maximum of thirty minority students within my entire school. Period. As much as this statistics is shocking by itself, the most shocking part of it is that people did not processShow MoreRelatedThe Experience of Living in Another Country1448 Words   |  6 Pagesexperience for many people. A common feature of people living in a foreign country is finding them Gathered together in restaurants, discussing about their home and their experiences in the foreign country. Moreover, these groups are not all from the same home country. 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Vargas was tired of all the pejorative language used to describe individualsR ead MoreFilm Is The Tool And Ethnography903 Words   |  4 Pages â€Å"In ethnographic film, film is the tool and ethnography is the goal.†[2] The film is the bridge that engages the audience, connecting them to a foreign realm, whether it be on the academic or entertainment level. Ethnography is a way for viewers to understand not only the customs of foreign individuals and cultures, but to explore their own traditions as well. Through film, the director decides whether or not to appeal to a designated audience. In the interest of aesthetic perception, films are

Human Resource Management In Health And Social Care †Free Samples

Question: Discuss about the Human Resource Management In Health And Social Care. Answer: Introduction In the present business scenario, the competitiveness in every business sectors is on an increasing trend. In the recent years, one of the promising and potential sectors are being much concentrated is the health sectors (Kickbusch and Gleicher 2012). Around the world, health sectors including hospitals are garnering huge investments both from the private as well as the governments. However, similar to the other business sectors, health sectors are also rapidly evolving. Hospitals are implementing change management in their own way to adjust with the changing scenario and to enhance the organizational performance (Swayne, Duncan and Ginter 2012). Change can be led by the internal organizational modification or by innovation. Internal and external forces are the main drivers to push the change management in the hospitals. Fuda hospital is one of the prominent private hospitals in China. They are specialized in the treatment of cancer. They entered the health business when the majority of the health organizations in China were government owned or controlled by them. Being a private player, they came up with different approach in providing the health service to the patients. However, in the recent time, they are going through a few change management processes in order to enhance their internal management. In the process of implementation of the change management, human resource management has been played an important role. This report will discuss about the issue being identified in Fuda hospital as well as the change management that has been implemented to overcome the issue. The external and internal force associated with the issue will also be discussed here in this report. Recommendations will be given to enhance the effectiveness of the change management in the future. Role of HRM in the change management Healthcare sector is one of those sectors which are directly dealing with the end customers. Moreover, the healths of the patients are being attached with the welfare of the organizations. Thus, effective management of the human resource plays an important role in delivering desired output. In the case of change management, effective management of the human resources will help to implement the policies in the internal organization more effectively and smoothly. The first role of the human resource management in the change management starts with the recruitment policies (Armstrong and Taylor 2014). It is the responsibility of the human resource manager to aware the newly employed employees about the change through which the organization is going. They should be motivated to come up with suggestions and opinions regarding the change. Moreover the newly employed employees should be well trained along with the existing employees in order to effectively aware them about the organizational culture and vision. It will help them in having the clear idea about the change going to be implemented in the organization. Employee motivation and engagement is another important criterion to be considered by the human resource managers in order to effectively implement the change management (Anitha 2014). It will help them to enhance the approval and rate of consensus among the employees regarding the new practices and policies to be implemented in the organization. The more the employees will be involved in their workplace, the more they will feel comfortable with the change in the organization. Be promoting various employee welfare schemes, human resource manager helps in enhancing the performance and job satisfaction of the employees. It is the responsibility of the human resource manager to determine the requirement of the skills and qualifications from the employees which are required for the change management. Accordingly, the existing employees should be given skill development training and the newly employed employees should be selected on the required criterion. It will help the organization in having the right workforce in the organization to face the challenges after the implementation of the change management. In the case of Fuda hospital, human resource management played an important role in effectively implementing the change management in the organization (Hayes 2014). As earlier discussed, health sector is associated with providing health service to the patients. Thus, due to effective human resource management, the job satisfaction of the employees are being effectively maintained which eventually helps in delivering in better customer satisfaction. Thus, more motivated will be the employees, the mor e will be the motivation level of the employees, the more will be the effective service being offered to the customers. Issues identified with Fuda hospital The effectiveness of the staff in the operation theatre is being negatively affected due to the reason that they are facing risk in handling the sharp instruments being used in the operation. The dull or transparent color of the dish is responsible for the inconvenience for the staff. Thus, it is being recommended that the dish and container in the operation theatre should have loud and bright color in order to increase their visibility (Fudahospital.com 2017). It will help to reduce the chance of injury from the sharp instruments. However, several resistance forces came to effect against the recommendations. According to the employees who are against the change, are having the opinion that the effectiveness of inducting bright colors will have no beneficial effects. They are not sure about the chance of its success. According to them, induction of the bright color will only be possible if they are being purchased as a new set. This will involve cost. In addition, some members are al so of the opinion that the bright color will further affect their vision which will also create risk in the operation theatre (Fudahospital.com 2017). Analysis of the change management To analyze the effective change management to overcome the issue in Fuda hospital, Force Field analysis will be used. According to this theory, positive and negative forces are the two forces which are always being active during the implementation of the change management. Thus, effective management of the two forces will help to enhance the productivity of the change management. The first step in the force field model is to define the goal or objective of the change to be implemented. It should be well communicated to all the internal stakeholders and also aware them about the need for the change (Brewster et al. 2017). The next step is to identify the positive and negative forces in the change management. It is the responsibility of the human resource manager or the project manager to identify the positive or driving forces for the change. They should also determine the requirement of the driving forces to gain an understanding about the relevancy of the change to be implemented. I n addition, the negative forces also to be determined in order to identify their issues which may be relevant. Thus, analyzing the positive and negative forces will help to understand that whether the change should be implemented or not. The concerned executives should also aware about the implications of the change management in the organization. The next step is to analyze the forces on the basis of their scoring and implement the change management accordingly (Cooke and Bartram 2015) Linking to HRM theory Management is a crucial aspect in all of the companies and organizations, in order to achieve success. For the achievement of this success, efficient and judicious utilization of the resources are needed. All these are applicable for the fields including health and safety. The following section develops a theoretical perspective towards the role of HR in mitigating the risks of using sharp instruments. David Ulrichs HR model sheds light on the equal distribution of tasks between the managers and the employees. This is possible only if there is a proper strategic vision towards the execution of the tasks (Popescu 2015). As a matter of specification, the theory enhances the clarity of the readers regarding the ways and means of utilizing the organizational resources in Fuda Hospital. Effective adherence to the propositions of this theory helps the hospital personnel to entrust the staffs with their respective responsibilities. Heres not all, after allocation, the managers need to apply effective monitoring technique for assessing the performance of the staffs. Lackadaisical attitude in this direction aggravates the life risk of the patients (Wager, Lee, and Glaser 2017). This is due to the exposure of misutilization of the instruments by the staffs. Along with this, motivation theory is also appropriate in this discussion. Motivation generates an urge among the employees to reveal better performance. Motivating the employees about the judicious utilization of the equipments minimizes the risk factors of the patients. Countering this, it is the eagerness and willingness of the employees for making judicious usage of the sharp instruments. Herein, the provision of motivation and encouragement by the senior and the experienced doctors is only a medium for the professional development of the employees and the wellbeing of the patients (Schaufeli and Taris 2014). The color issue of the kidney dish reflects the negligence of the staffs in terms of providing quality treatment to the patients. The unhygienic condition of the kidney dish contradicts the aspect of effective and judicious utilization of the organizational resources. Herein, the individual roles of the hospital staffs are nullified, which aggravates the health issues of the patients. Not cleaning the equipments regularly reflects the careless attitude of the staffs regarding the transfer of the sharp instruments into the other tables. If this comes in contact of the patient, it proves harmful in terms of their treatment. Countering this, it is the role of the HR, which is nullified in terms of proving incapable to regulate the performance of the employees in using the organizational resources in an efficient and effective manner (Glasby and Dickinson 2014). Critical evaluation of the situation At the first place, sharp instruments must not be kept open in the hospital premises. This aggravates the risk factors of the patients. Even in the operation tables, the sharp instruments need to be kept cautiously as one wrong step might compel the patients to encounter tragic death. As a matter of specification, using the wrong instrument for operation questions the experience and capability of the doctors and nurses, who have been entrusted with the charge of operation (Kim, Farmer and Porter 2013). Table transfer is a common issue in the hospitals. Asking the other department for lending the table of equipments is natural and obvious in the hospitals including Fuda hospital. However, transfer of the table consisting of sharp instruments is the lack of conscious approach towards the performance of the employees. Lackadaisical attitude in these activities increases chaos, which interrogates the role of the HR, as he is the one, who is responsible for the utilization of the organizational resources. Sharp equipments and injury are complementary to each other. If the negligent attitude of the staffs is placed as a medium between these two aspects, the intensity of injury is increased. Viewing it from the other perspective, open exposure of the sharp equipments possesses an inevitable relationship with injury unless the patients are cautious of the steps that they are taking (Campbell et al. 2013). Countering this, the tag patient is only applicable for the persons, who for some disease or illness lack the basic understanding of the things, which acts as an obstacle in their way. In this respect, it is less likely that they would be cautious about the sharp instruments. Yellow color of the kidney dish, on one hand, can be considered as the unhygienic condition. In view of this connotation, the role of the HR is not at all appropriate in terms of ensuring the benefit of the patients. On the other hand, the yellow color also indicates brightness, which possesses flexibility for the staffs to be aware of the instruments that they are placing in the dish (Dickinson and O'Flynn 2016). Considering the equipment as dish is inappropriate, as there is no food item being served. Instead, if it is called tray, it would have been appropriate in terms of the equipments, which are placed. Placement of the things in the tray needs creative presentation for luring the guests. However, in this context, prioritizing the equipments according to the needs is important for providing the patients with the treatment and care for their speedy recovery. Viewing it from the change perspective, the yellow color of the kidney dish is justified. This is in reference to the enhancement of the visibility of the employees regarding the equipments, which are placed in the dish (Cherry and Jacob 2016). This cautiousness alters the approach of the staffs towards delivering quality care to the patients. Moreover, this cautiousness is needed in terms of all round development of their own self as well as the recovery of the patients from the sufferings and ailments. Rejection of the offer is also justified as the proposed steps do not go without the difference of opinions among the employees. However, in terms of the organizational decorum and harmony, these conflicts stain the workplace sanctity, which makes the hope of the wellbeing of the patients a distant hope (Valentine et al. 2015). This situation arises, when the staffs maintain consistency in not taking immediate steps for achieving effective resolutions for the workplace problems. On the contrary, organizing frequent discussions open forums and meetings makes the personnel aware of the issues, which the employees are encountering while executing the allocated tasks. Inclusion of the line managers into the speculation of the role of HR in the utilizing of sharp instruments broadens the discussion area of Human resource management. As a matter of specification, line managers are the main person, who is responsible for the products and equipments, which play an important role in providing quality treatment to the patients (Shortell 2013). Identification and justifying success Setting short term goals helps Fuda Hospital personnel to improve their focus on the business activities. Moreover, it enhances their confidence in terms of undertaking challenging tasks, which acts as an agent in terms of their professional development. Herein, evaluation plays an important position in terms of assessing the effectiveness and appropriateness of the undertaken steps in terms of the identified and the specified requirements (Aveyard 2014). Maintenance of frequency in this evaluation is additional assistance in terms of upgrading the standard and quality of the performance. Performing one task and conducting evaluation acts as a wise step for the hospital staffs to estimate their progress in terms of achieving success. The thought of achieving success is necessary, but not by putting the needs and requirements of the patients in the second place. The methods to adopt success are validated, when Fuda Hospital staffs reveal conscious approach towards the ways and methods adopted to carry out the business activities. When the staffs attain the maturity to think about this, their employment itself is validated, which adds value to the aspect of change management. This maturity is crucial in terms of attaining professionalism, which helps in achieving customer satisfaction to a great extent (Patel et al. 2013). Absence of this maturity attaches an interrogative parameter to the roles of HR and the line manager in terms of the efficient and effective utilization of the organizational resources. Viewing it from the other perspective, this maturity or rationality makes the hospital staffs an agent in providing the patients with an escape to the patients from their sufferings and ailments. This rationality sets a good example of the personnel in the minds of the patients and their family. This approachability omits the interrogation a nd affirms the role exerted by the managers and the staffs for treating the sufferings of the patients (Dent and Whitehead 2013). Improvement and recommendations Identification of the areas to modify is the primary step towards altering the business scenario. This can be done through the means of adopting the means of survey and feedback from the stakeholders and shareholders. Effective consideration of the responses of the stakeholders and shareholders would make Fuda Hospital staffs aware of the areas, which needs change. Along with this, the managers need to sit in meeting with the board of directors for making plans regarding making effective advancements with the identified requirements. Involvement of the employees in these meetings would bestow a number of solutions on the management of the hospital. As a sequential step, the best appropriate change needs to be selected for enhancing the productivity. After this, evaluation needs to be done for assessing the appropriateness of the selected yellowish kidney dish in terms of providing quality treatment to the patients. Mere assessment of the equipment would not serve the purpose, the employees need to be provided with training regarding the effective and judicious utilization of the equipment for achieving success. Apart from this, after buying the dish, if it is registered, the hospital authorities would be safeguarded from the risks related to the equipment. Along with this, it would validate the resources, which is noteworthy of the HR in terms of revealing cautious and conscious attitude towards the business activities, especially the delivery of quality treatment to the patients. The most important thing is to conduct open forums and discussions, which would reduce the conflicts, discriminations and harassments in the internal environment of the hospital. These discussions act as a wider platform for the employees and the managers to voice out their opinions before the higher authorities. Herein lays the appropriateness of the word open, which is devoid of any concealment regarding the doubts related to the efficient execution of the business activities. Countering this, the first priority is to set up strategies for progressing with the projects in hand in an efficient and effective manner. Inclusion of the relevant activities in these strategies would help the personnel to achieve successful completion of the tasks with the stipulated time. Therefore time management is one of the crucial recommendations in order to provide the patients with the needed care and treatment. For adopting the best yellow colored kidney dish, the marketing personnel need to conduct market research. This research would enhance the awareness of the ersonnel in terms of the equipments, which are in demand within the market. Evaluation after the selection would help the personnel to estimate the progress in terms of the identified and specified objectives. Systematizing the tasks in this manner would help the hospital to expose their Samaritan side in terms of providing a proper recovery to the patients. References Anitha, J., 2014. Determinants of employee engagement and their impact on employee performance.International journal of productivity and performance management. Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S., 2014.Armstrong's handbook of human resource management practice. Kogan Page Publishers. Aveyard, H., 2014.Doing a literature review in health and social care: A practical guide. McGraw-Hill Education (UK). Brewster, C., Hegewisch, A., Mayne, L. and Tregaskis, O., 2017. Employee communication and participation.Policy and Practice in European Human Resource Management: The Price Waterhouse Cranfield Survey, p.154. Campbell, J., Buchan, J., Cometto, G., David, B., Dussault, G., Fogstad, H., Fronteira, I., Lozano, R., Nyonator, F., Pablos-Mndez, A. and Quain, E.E., 2013. Human resources for health and universal health coverage: fostering equity and effective coverage.Bulletin of the World Health Organization,91(11), pp.853-863. Cherry, B. and Jacob, S.R., 2016.Contemporary nursing: Issues, trends, management. Elsevier Health Sciences. Cooke, F.L. and Bartram, T., 2015. Guest editors introduction: human resource management in health care and elderly care: current challenges and toward a research agenda.Human Resource Management,54(5), pp.711-735. Dent, M. and Whitehead, S. eds., 2013.Managing professional identities: Knowledge, performativities and the'new'professional(Vol. 19). Routledge. Dickinson, H. and O'Flynn, J., 2016.Evaluating outcomes in health and social care. Policy Press. Fudahospital.com (2017). Guangzhou Fuda cancer Hospital. Available at: https://www.fudahospital.com/en_asp_new/ [Accessed on 7th August 2017] Glasby, J. and Dickinson, H., 2014.Partnership working in health and social care: what is integrated care and how can we deliver it?. Policy Press. Grol, R., Wensing, M., Eccles, M. and Davis, D. eds., 2013.Improving patient care: the implementation of change in health care. John Wiley Sons. Hayes, J., 2014.The theory and practice of change management. Palgrave Macmillan. Kickbusch, I. and Gleicher, D., 2012.Governance for health in the 21st century. Geneva: World Health Organization. Kim, J.Y., Farmer, P. and Porter, M.E., 2013. Redefining global health-care delivery.The Lancet,382(9897), pp.1060-1069. Langabeer II, J.R. and Helton, J., 2015.Health care operations management. Jones Bartlett Publishers. McMichael, A.J., 2013. Globalization, climate change, and human health.New England Journal of Medicine,368(14), pp.1335-1343. Patel, V., Belkin, G.S., Chockalingam, A., Cooper, J., Saxena, S. and Untzer, J., 2013. Grand challenges: integrating mental health services into priority health care platforms.PloS medicine,10(5), p.e1001448. Popescu, G.H., 2015. Sustainability, public health, and quality of care.American Journal of Medical Research,2(2), pp.211-211. Schaufeli, W.B. and Taris, T.W., 2014. A critical review of the Job Demands-Resources Model: Implications for improving work and health. InBridging occupational, organizational and public health(pp. 43-68). Springer Netherlands. Shortell, S.M., 2013. Bridging the divide between health and health care.Jama,309(11), pp.1121-1122. Swayne, L.E., Duncan, W.J. and Ginter, P.M., 2012.Strategic management of health care organizations. John Wiley Sons. Valentine, M.A., Nembhard, I.M. and Edmondson, A.C., 2015. Measuring teamwork in health care settings: a review of survey instruments.Medical care,53(4), pp.e16-e30. Wager, K.A., Lee, F.W. and Glaser, J.P., 2017.Health care information systems: a practical approach for health care management. John Wiley Sons.

Pricing Essay Example

Pricing Essay Company is a business division of a mid-sized company focused on manufacturing and selling a high quality consumer electronic device through high-end marketing channels such as specialty shops and exclusive department stores. These specialty outlets advise and educate customers about the desirable features of different electronic devices. Elektra charges on average 500 per unit to its distributors, who mark it up to 899 when selling to retail customers. After many years of high sales, Elektra sales in the last year had slumped to 150,000 units per year using only 75 of its manufacturing capacity. The decline in demand was because of fast changing technologies and consumer habits, and the recent introduction of a new generation of the electronic device had not increased sales appreciably. Consequently, Elektra senior management believes it is unlikely that the demand for its products will increase significantly in the next three years until conditions improve substantially and Elektra and its high-end competitors introduce the next generation technology. Nonetheless, they remained confident about the long term prospects of their product. Elektra has recently received a proposal from Megawatt Stores, Inc. A leading national chain of discount retail stores. Megawatt wants to buy Elektra product of the same quality as that sold at present through specialty retailers. Megawatt has offered to purchase 50,000 units annually for a three-year period at 374 per unit. It cannot pay a higher price because it plans to retail the product at only 549. While costs are not expected to increase, an inflation clause will allow Elektra to pass on exogenous cost increases. We will write a custom essay sample on Pricing specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Pricing specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Pricing specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer After extensive negotiations, Megawatt has made a take-it-or-leave-it offer and threatened to explore other strategic partners n case Elektra does not accept its offer. Although Megastars offer is 25 below Elektra normal price, it may be attractive for Elektra to be an early mover in the low- end market because Elektra has considerable surplus capacity, and the Megawatt contract may allow it to accumulate experience in what may emerge as the dominant segment of the market. Elektra variable product costs for sales through its present high-end distribution channel are estimated to be 300, including direct materials 150, direct labor 60, variable manufacturing overhead 70, and sales commission 20 at 4 of sales price. Annual fixed overhead costs are 17,000,000, and are not expected to increase with the increased production required if the Megawatt offer is accepted. By scaling down to a capacity of 150,000 units from the present 200,000, however, Elektra would be able to save about of the annual fixed costs. Variable costs for the Megawatt order are expected to be similar. Direct material costs, however, will increase by 10 because of special casing and packaging with embossing of Megastars private label logo instead of the Elektra brand name. Also, variable costs for the Megawatt order will exclude the 4 commission normally paid to the ales staff because no salesperson is involved in sales to Megawatt. Some Elektra executives are concerned that when customers comparison shop they will find the same quality device as Elektra own brand name product sold through specialty retailers. If the devices are available at a much lower price at Megawatt Stores, many price conscious customers may buy the devices at Megawatt instead of the specialty retailers. Elektra senior managers are very confident that no more than 6 of Elektra present sales will be lost because of the comparison shopping if Megastars proposal is accepted. Comparison shoppers are price conscious customers who shop around to find the cheapest product with the requisite level of quality. Most of Elektra customers are quality enthusiasts who visit only the specialty shops to evaluate the features of different products, rather than the price, before making their purchase decision. Elektra top management is more concerned about these quality enthusiasts but does not believe any of them would shop at Megawatt. If 6 of Elektra high-end channel sales are cannibalized, total sales will be 191,000 units including 50,000 units sold through Megawatt, but no reduction will be possible in axed costs. Another group of Elektra executives is concerned about selling at a discounted price the same quality products as the products sold at present through specialty retailers, and the impact that such a move will have on the special relationship that has been cultivated with the high-end retailers. These executives believe that sales may decrease if the specialty retailers do not push the Elektra brand product as much as its competitors products. Megawatt has insisted on nothing but the best quality product that Elektra sells at present through the peculiarly retailers, and will withdraw its offer otherwise. New technology is developed by Elektra(and also its competitors) on a three-year cycle to increase the value of the product to high-end customers. An alternative considered by Elektra is to invest more on RD immediately and bring the new technology to the market within a year. The fixed and variable cost structure is not expected to change significantly for the new Reproduced with permission from the faculty product that incorporates the new technology. Some Elektra executives are concerned that accelerating the RD may exult in more defects creeping in the product and some complementary products provided by other suppliers not being ready. This increased the risk of customers being dissatisfied with the new generation and hurts Elektra reputation. However, because the new product will likely be substantially more useful to the high-end customers, Elektra could replace the existing product with the new product in the specialty retail channel. By accelerating the new technology, Elektra is not likely to gain significant market share in the specialty channel as competitors will try and attach Elektra technology as soon as possible by introducing their new models with the new technology early. Required What will be the annual profit if the Megawatt offer is rejected What will be the increase or decrease in its annual profit if it accepts Megastars offer Should Elektra accept Megastars proposal What strategic factors should be considered in evaluating the Megawatt offer Should Elektra agree to having its product branded as a Megawatt product and incur the additional 10 increase in direct materials cost How attractive is the potential opportunity to accumulate experience in the low-end market through the proposed strategic alliance with Megawatt Should Elektra accelerate the development of the new technology and bring it to market within a year Is there a difference between the sales lost due to centralization of price-sensitive customers and the sales lost because specially retailers may no longer push Elektra products if Elektra accepts the Megawatt offer Reproduced with permission from the faculty September 2012. Professor Rajah D. Banker prepared this case to provide a b asis for class discussion.

How to Get 36 on ACT Reading 11 Strategies from a Perfect Scorer

How to Get 36 on ACT Reading Strategies from a Perfect Scorer SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Are you scoring in the 26–34 range on ACT Critical Reading? Do you want to raise that score as high as possible- to a perfect 36? Getting to a 36 ACT Reading score isn't easy. It'll require perfection. But with hard work and my strategies below, you'll be able to do it. I've consistently scored 36 on Reading 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 Reading or above. If you're below this range, my "How to Improve your ACT Reading 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 score a 36 are 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 36 on ACT Reading 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, what it takes to score a 36, and then go into the 10 key strategies so you know how to get a 36 on ACT Reading. 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 Reading score is useful, since this will fuel your motivation to get a high score. 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 Reading? 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 when it comes to admissions, being average is bad, since the admissions rate is typically below 10%. So why get a 36 on ACT Reading? 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 Reading, that gives you more flexibility in your Math, English, and Science scores. It can compensate for a 32 in one other section, for example, to bring your average back up to 34. Harvard's 75th percentile Reading score is likely a 36. There's another scenario where a 36 in ACT Reading is really important. First is if you're planning to apply as a humanities or social science major (like English, political science, communications) to a top school. Here's the reason: college admissions is all about comparisons between applicants. The school wants to admit the best, and you're competing with other people in the same "bucket" as you. By applying as a humanities/social science major, you're competing against other humanities/social science folks: people for whom ACT Reading is easy. Really easy. Here are a few examples from schools. For Harvard, Princeton, Yale, and U Chicago, the 75th percentile SAT Reading score is an 800, or equivalent to a 36 in ACT Reading. That means at least 25% of all students at these schools have a 36 in ACT Reading. 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. I'll be honest- ACT Reading wasn't my strong suit in high school. When I started studying, I was scoring around the 31–32 range. I was always stronger in math and science. But I learned the tricks of the test, and I developed the strategies below to raise my score to a 36. Now I'm sharing them with you. Know that You Can Do It This isn't just some fuzzy feel-good message you see on the back of a Starbucks cup. I mean, literally, you and every other reasonably intelligent student can score a 36 on ACT Reading. 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 of how hard you work and how smartly you study. ACT Reading is Designed to Trick You. You Need to Learn How Here's why: the ACT is a weird test. When you take the Reading section, don't you get the sense that the questions are nothing like what you've seen in school? I bet you've had this problem: in ACT Reading passages, you often miss questions because of an "unlucky guess." You'll try to eliminate a few answer choices, and the remaining answer choices will all sound equally good to you. Well, you throw up your hands and randomly guess. This was one of the major issues for myself when I was studying ACT Reading, and I know they affect thousands of my students at PrepScholar. The ACT is purposely designed this way to confuse you. Literally millions of other students have the exact same problem you do. And the ACT knows this. Normally in your school's English class, the teacher tells you that all interpretations of the text are valid. You can write an essay about anything you want, and English teachers aren't (usually) allowed to tell you that your opinion is wrong. This is because they can get in trouble for telling you what to think, especially for complex issues like slavery or poverty. But the ACT has an entirely different problem. It's a national test, which means it needs a level playing field for all students around the country. It needs a solid test to compare students with each other. Every question needs a single, unambiguously, 100% correct answer. There's only ever one correct answer. Find a way to eliminate three incorrect answers. Imagine if this weren't the case. Imagine that each reading answer had two answer choices that might each be plausibly correct. When the scores came out, every single student who got the question wrong would complain to the ACT, Inc. about the test being wrong. If this were true, the ACT, Inc. would then have to invalidate the question, which weakens the power of the test. The ACT, Inc. wants to avoid this nightmare scenario. Therefore, every single Reading passage question has only one, single correct answer. But the ACT disguises this fact. It asks questions that sound subjective, like: The author would most likely agree with which of the following statements? The first paragraph primarily serves to: In line 20, 'dark' most nearly means: Notice a pattern here? The ACT always disguises the fact that there's always one unambiguous answer. It tries to make you waver between two or three answer choices that are most likely. And then you guess randomly. And then you get it wrong. You can bet that students fall for this. Millions of times every year. Students who don't prepare for the ACT in the right way don't appreciate this. But, if you prepare for the ACT in the right way, you'll learn the tricks the ACT plays on you. And you'll raise your score. The ACT Reading section is full of patterns like these. To improve your score, you just need to: learn the types of questions that the ACT tests, like the one above learn strategies to solve these questions, using skills you already know practice on a lot of questions so you learn from your mistakes The point is that you can learn these skills, even if you don't consider yourself a good reader or a great English student. I'll go into more detail about exactly how to do this. One last point: let's make sure we understand how many questions we can miss and still score a 36. What It Takes to Get a 36 in Reading If we have a target score in mind, it helps to understand what you need to get that score on the actual test. Unlike for English and Math, there's a large amount of variation in grading scale for the Reading and Science sections. On some tests, a certain raw score could get you a 36; on others, that same raw score could drop you down to a 34. I've compiled the conversion tables from 4 official ACT practice tests to show you what I mean. (If you could use a refresher on how the ACT is scored and how raw scores are calculated, read this.) ACT Reading Score Raw Scores Test 1 Test 2 Test 3 Test 4 36 40 38–40 40 40 35 39 37 39 39 34 38 36 38 38 33 – 35 37 – 32 37 34 36 37 31 36 – 35 36 30 35 33 34 35 29 34 32 32–33 34 28 32–33 30–31 31 33 27 31 29 30 32 Notice that Test 1 is the strictest grading scale out of the four. In this case, missing one question drops you to a 35; miss another and you'll drop to a 34; miss one more, and you drop to a 32. This is a very unforgiving test that requires perfection. Test 2, on the other hand, is much more forgiving. You can miss two questions- with a raw score of 38- and still get a 36! The reason these tests differ so much is that the ACT tries to make the scores from every test equivalent to all other tests. A 36 on one test should mean the same as a 36 on another. So if a test has particularly difficult passages or questions, they'll soften the curve. Regardless: The safest thing to do is to aim for perfection. On every practice test, you need to aim for a perfect raw score for a 36. Notice that in three of the four tests, you needed a perfect raw score to get a 36. 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 five to seven more questions right to get to a 36. As a final example, here's a screenshot from my ACT score report. You can see that I likely missed one question, since I scored a 17 on Social Studies/Sciences. Also notice that a single mistake already drops me down to a 97 percentile- there are a lot of students who do extremely well on this test! OK- so we've covered why scoring a higher Reading 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 and reading tips that you should use in your own studying to maximize your score improvement. Strategies to Get a 36 on ACT Reading What's your greatest weakness? Strategy 1: Understand Your High Level Weakness: Time Management, Passage Strategy, or Vocabulary Every student has different flaws in ACT Reading. Some people don't have good strategies for tackling the passage questions. Others don't read quickly enough and struggle to get through all the questions. Here's how you can figure out which one applies more to you: Find an official ACT practice test, and take only the Reading section. We have the complete list of free practice tests here. For that section, use a timer for 35 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: the realistic score you got under normal timing conditions, and 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 Reading 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 2 points, then you have some big problems with time management. We need to figure out why this is. Are you generally slow across most questions? Or did particular questions slow you down more than others? Or are you spending too much time on reading the passage? 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 an 36. Compare your Extra Time and Realistic score- if they differed by more than one point, then you would benefit from learning how to solve questions more quickly. If not, then you likely can benefit from shoring up on your last skill 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 an 36. This type of analysis is so important that it's a central part of my prep program, PrepScholar. When a new student joins, he or she gets a diagnostic that figures out specific strengths and weaknesses. The program then automatically customizes your learning so that you're always studying according to where you can make the most improvement. No matter what your weakness is, my following strategies will address all weaknesses comprehensively. Strategy 2: Learn to Eliminate 3 Wrong Answers This strategy was by far the most effective for me in raising my Reading score. It completely changed the way I viewed passage questions. I spent some time talking above about how the ACT always has one unambiguous answer. This has a huge implication for the strategy you should use to find the right ACT Reading answer. Here's the other way to see it: Out of the four answer choices, three of them have something that is totally wrong about them. Only one answer is 100% correct, which means the other three are 100% wrong. You know how you try to eliminate answer choices, and then end up with a few at the end that all seem equally likely to be correct? "Well, this can work...but then again this could work as well..." STOP doing that. You're not doing a good enough job of eliminating answer choices. Remember- every single wrong choice can be crossed out for its own reasons. You need to do a 180 on your approach to Reading questions. Instead of trying to find the one right answer, find a reason to eliminate three answer choices. "Can I find a reason to eliminate this answer choice? How about this one?" You have to learn how to eliminate three answer choices for every single question. "Great, Allen. But this doesn't tell me anything about HOW to eliminate answer choices." Thanks for asking. One thing to remember is that even a single word can make an answer choice wrong. Every single word in each answer choice is put there by the ACT for a reason. If a single word in the answer choice isn't supported by the passage text, you need to eliminate it, even if the rest of the answer sounds good. There are a few classic wrong answer choices the ACT loves to use. Here's an example question. For example, let’s imagine you just read a passage talking about how human evolution shaped the environment. It gives a few examples. First, it talks about how the transition from earlier species like Homo habilis to neanderthals led to more tool usage like fire, which caused wildfires and shaped the ecology. It then talks about Homo sapiens 40,000 years ago and their overhunting of species like woolly mammoths to extinction. So then we run into a question asking, "Which of the following best describes the main subject of the passage?" Here are the answer choices: A: The transition between Homo habilis and neanderthals B: The study of evolution C: How the environment shaped human evolution D: The plausibility of evolution E: The influence of human development on ecology (I know the ACT only has four answer choices, but we'll just pretend they have five for this example to discuss the different kinds of wrong answers.) As you're reading these answer choices, a few of them probably started sounded really plausible to you. Surprise! Each of the answers from A–D has something seriously wrong about it. Each one is a classic example of a wrong answer type given by the ACT. Wrong Answer 1: Too Specific A: The transition between Homo habilis and neanderthals This type of wrong answer focuses on a smaller detail in the passage. It’s meant to trick you because you might think to yourself, "well, I see this mentioned in the passage, so it’s a plausible answer choice." Wrong! Think to yourself- can this answer choice really describe the entire passage? Can it basically function as the title of this passage? You’ll find that it’s just way too specific to convey the point of the overall passage. Wrong Answer 2: Too Broad B: The study of evolution This type of wrong answer has the opposite problem- it’s way too broad. Yes, theoretically the passage concerns the study of evolution, but only one aspect of it, and especially as it relates to the impact on the environment. To give another ludicrous example, if you talked to your friend about losing your cell phone, and he said your main point was about the universe. Yes, you were talking about the universe (since we all live in this universe), but you were talking about only a tiny, tiny fraction of it. This is way too broad. Wrong Answer 3: Reversed Relationship C: How the environment shaped human evolution This wrong answer choice can be tricky because it mentions all the right words. But of course the relationship between those words needs to be correct as well. Here, the relationship is flipped. Students who read too quickly make careless mistakes like these! Wrong Answer 4: Unrelated Concept D: The plausibility of evolution Finally, this kind of wrong answer preys on the tendency of students to overthink the question. If you’re passionate about arguing about evolution, this might be a trigger answer since any discussion of evolution becomes a chance to argue about the plausibility of evolution. Of course, this concept will appear nowhere in the passage, but some students just won’t be able to resist. Do you see the point? On the surface, each of the answer choices sounds possibly correct. A less prepared student would think that all of these were plausible answers. But plausible isn't good enough. The right answer needs to be 100%, totally right. Wrong answers might be off by even one word- you need to eliminate these. Carry this thought into every ACT Reading passage question you do and I guarantee you will start raising your score. Strategy 3: Predict the Answer Before Reading the Answer Choices As we've discussed already, the ACT is designed to goad you into making mistakes by putting really similar answer choices next to each other. In Strategy 2, we covered the strategy of ruthless, unforgiving elimination of answer choices. Here's another Strategy that works well for me. Before reading the answer choices, come up with your own answer to the question. Gaze into your crystal ball and predict the right answer. This strategy is exactly designed to counteract the trickiness of the answer choices. If you don't apply this strategy, your thinking process likely resembles something like this: "OK, I just read the question. Answer A is definitely out. B can kind of work. C...it doesn't exactly fit, but I can see how it can work." and so on. By now, you've already fallen into ACT, Inc.'s trap of starting to muddle the answer choices. Take the opposite approach. While you're reading the question, come up with your own ideal answer to the question before reading the answer choices. This prevents you from getting biased by the ACT's answer choices, especially the incorrect ones. If it's a "Big Picture" type question asking about the main point of the passage, answer for yourself, "What would make a good title for this passage?" If it's an "Inference" question, answer for yourself, "What would the author think about the situation given in the question?" Even if you can't answer the question straight away- for example, if you have to refer back to the line number to remember what the passage was saying- try to form a hunch briefly before looking at the answer choices. (There are of course some detail-oriented questions that are hard to solve this way. For example, questions that ask "All of these were mentioned as details EXCEPT FOR" require you to look at the passage. Even in these cases, you can form hunches about details that you remember reading about, and those you don't.) The key here is that the passage must support your answer choice. Every correct answer on ACT passages needs to be justified by the passage- otherwise the answer would be ambiguous, which would cause problems of cancelling questions I referred to earlier. Note that this only works if you can read and understand passages well! That's why I don't recommend this strategy yet before you hit a 26 level since you're more likely to come up with the wrong answer choice in your head. Strategy 4: Experiment with Passage Reading Strategies and Find the Best for You In your prep for the ACT, you may have read different strategies for how to read a passage and answer questions. Some students read the questions before reading the passage. Others read the passage in detail first. At your high level, I can't predict which method will work best for you. We're going for perfection, which means that your strategy needs to line up with your strengths and weaknesses perfectly, or else you'll make mistakes or run out of time. What I will do, however, is go through the most effective methods. You'll then have to figure out through your test data which one leads to the highest score for you. Passage Method 1: Skim the Passage, then Read the Questions This is the most common strategy I recommend to our students, and in my eyes the most effective. I prefer this one myself. Here it is: Skim the passage on the first read through. Don't try to understand every single line, or write notes predicting what the questions will be. Just get a general understanding of the passage. You want to try to finish reading the passage in three minutes, if possible. Next, go to the questions. If the question refers to a line number, then go back to that line number and understand the text around it. If you can't answer a question within 30 seconds, skip it. My preferred way to tackle a passage: skimming it on the first read-through. This strategy is a revelation for students who used to close-read every detail about a passage and run out of time. This skimming method works because the questions will ask about far fewer lines than the passage actually contains. For example, lines 5-20 of a reading passage might not be relevant to any question that follows. Therefore, if you spend time trying to deeply understand lines 5-20, you’ll be wasting time. By taking the opposite approach of going back to the passage when you need to refer to it, you guarantee reading efficiency. You're focusing only on the parts of the passage that are important to answering questions. Critical Skill: You must be able to skim effectively. This means being able to quickly digest a text without having to slowly read every word. If you're not quite good at this yet, practice it on newspaper articles and your homework reading. Passage Method 2: Read the Questions First and Mark the Passage This is the second most common strategy and, if used well, as effective as the first method. But it has some pitfalls if you don't do it correctly. Here's how it goes: Before you read the passage, go to the questions and read each one. If the question refers to a series of lines, mark those lines on the passage. Take a brief note about the gist of the question. Go back to the passage and skim it. When you reach one of your notes, slow down and take more notice of the question. Answer the questions. Here's an example passage that I marked up, with questions on the right. Notice that beyond marking the lines and phrases referenced in the question, I left clues for myself on what's important to get out of this phrase. In the hands of an ACT expert, this is a powerful strategy. Just like Method 1 above, you save time by skipping parts of the passage that aren't asked about. Furthermore, you get a head start on the questions by trying to answer them beforehand. But there are serious potential pitfalls to this method if you're not careful or prepared enough. Here's one: when you first read the questions before the passage, you won't have enough time to digest the actual answer choices (nor will they make sense to you). So you have to make your best guess for what the question is asking when you're writing a note along the passage. In some cases, this can lead you astray. Take this example from above: When I read the question, I saw that it referred to lines 75-76, starting with "Like an eagle." So I marked this in the passage and added a note to myself: "Meaning?" The problem is, it's not obvious what this is supposed to mean. What does it mean for a person's words to "slip regally and strike with awful ease?" This is especially difficult with figurative language. If I were the obsessive type, I might struggle for far too long trying to understand what this means. What meaning am I supposed to extract from these lines? How deeply should I read into this? But when I read the answer choices, I can see the answer choice is actually pretty obvious. The line is referring to the rich customer's words. It has nothing to do with the narrator and her relationship with her parents. It's clear then that the answer is G. The customer is implying that most of the house is dirty, and that the narrator's mother should take care to find a place where there aren't cockroaches scampering about. Critical Skill: You need to have so much experience with the ACT Reading section that you can anticipate what the question is going to ask you for your notes to be helpful. If you're not sure of this, you can easily be led down the wrong track and focus on the wrong aspect of the passage. Passage Method 3: Read the Passage In Detail, then Answer Questions This method is what beginner students usually use by default, because it's what they've been trained to do in school. Some beginner books like Princeton Review and Kaplan also suggest this as a strategy. It's my least favorite method because there are so many ways for it to go wrong. But for the sake of completeness, I'm listing it here in case it works best for you. Here's how it goes: Read the passage in detail, line by line. Take notes to yourself about the main point of each paragraph. Answer the questions. As you might guess, I don't like this method for the following reasons: By reading the passage closely, you absorb a lot of details that aren't useful for answering questions. The notes you take aren't directed toward helping you answer the questions. By interpreting the passage ahead of time, you risk being led astray. But this might work especially well for you if you're very good at reading for understanding, and if you have so much expertise with the ACT that you can predict what the test is going to ask you about anyway. This can also work if taking notes forces you to read the passage much more closely than you would otherwise. In all other cases, I haven't seen this strategy work very well. Choose Which Works Best for You, Based on Test Data Because I can't predict which one will work best for you, you need to figure this out yourself. To do this, you need cold, hard data from your test scores. Try each method on two sample test passages each, and tally up your percentage score for each. If one of them is a clear winner for you, then develop that method further. If there isn't a clear winner, choose the one that feels most comfortable for you. As part of our PrepScholar program, we give you advanced statistics on your score performance so that you can experiment with methods that work best for you. Next strategy: find your weak links and fix them. Strategy 5: Understand Every Single Mistake You Make On the path to perfection, you need to make sure every single one of your weak points is covered. Even just two mistakes 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 1,500 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 have done 20 practice tests. They've solved over 3,000 questions, but they're still nowhere near a 36 on ACT Reading. 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's what 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 question type (vocab questions, big picture questions, inference questions, etc.). 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 a Reading 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? Here are some examples of common reasons you miss a Reading question, and how you take the analysis one step further: Elimination: I couldn't eliminate enough incorrect answer choices, or I eliminated the correct answer. One step further: Why couldn't I eliminate the answer choice during the test? How can I eliminate answer choices like this in the future? Careless Error: I misread what the question was asking for or answered for the wrong thing. One step further: Why did I misread the question? What should I do in the future to avoid this? Vocab: I didn't know what the key word meant. One step further: What word was this? What is the definition? Are there other words in this question I didn't know? 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. Reviewing mistakes is so important that in PrepScholar, for every one of our 1,500+ practice questions, we explain in detail how to get the correct answer, and why incorrect answers are wrong. We also point out bait answers so that you can you can learn the tricks that the ACT plays on test takers like you. Bonus Tip: Re-solve the Question Before Reading the Answer Explanation When you're reviewing practice questions, the first thing you probably do is read the answer explanation and at most reflect on it a little. This is a little too easy. I consider this passive learning- you're not actively engaging with the mistake you made. Instead, try something different- find the correct answer choice (A-D or F-J), but don't look at the explanation. Instead, try to re-solve the question once over again and try to get to the correct answer. This will often be hard. You couldn't solve it the first time, so why could you solve it the second time around? But this time, with less time pressure, you might spot a new reason to eliminate the wrong answer choice, or something else will pop up. Something will just "click" for you. When this happens, what you learned will stick with you for 20 times longer than if you just read an answer explanation. I know this from personal experience. Because you've struggled with it and reached a breakthrough, you retain that information far better than if you just passively absorbed the information. It's too easy to just read an answer explanation and have it go in one ear and out the other. You won't actually learn from your mistake, and you'll make that mistake over and over again. Treat each wrong question like a puzzle. Struggle with each wrong answer for up to 10 minutes. Only then if you don't get it should you read the answer explanation. Strategy 6: Find Your Reading Skill Weaknesses and Drill Them Reading passage questions might look similar, but they actually test very different skills. At PrepScholar we believe the major passage skills to be: #1: Big Picture/Main Point: What is the main point of the passage or paragraph?#2: Little Picture/Detail: What does this small detail mean? Where in the passage was the following detailed mentioned?#3: Inference: What would the author most likely feel about the following hypothetical scenario?#4: Vocabulary in Context: What does this word or phrase mean in the context of the passage?#5: Author Method: How does the author construct the passage? What is the author's purpose in utilizing the following method? Each of these question types uses different skills in how you read and analyze a passage. They each require a different method of prep and focused practice. Luckily, there aren't very many unique skills on ACT Reading. There are only five above, compared to 18 for ACT English, and 24 for ACT Math. The passage tends to repeat these types of questions over and over again for the entire section. The flipside is, getting better at these skills is often a bit harder than mastering a narrow math skill like trigonometry. Because you've been reading and making logical arguments your entire life, bad habits are a lot harder to unlearn. The ACT requires a lot of skills. Make sure you know which ones are your weaknesses. If you're like most students, you're better at some areas in Reading than others. You might be better at getting the Big Picture of a passage, compared to the Inference. Or you might be great at reading passages quickly, but bad at memorizing details. If you're like most students, you also don't have an unlimited amount of time to study. 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 all your bases with a very thin layer of understanding. What these students did wrong was they wasted time on subjects they already knew, and they didn't spend enough time on their weaknesses. 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 Reading? You need to find the sub-skills that you're weakest in, and then drill those until you're no longer weak in them. Fixing up the biggest holes. Within reading, you need to figure out whether you have patterns to your mistakes. Is it that you don't get Inference questions? Or maybe you're really weak at interpreting details? Or from Strategy 1: is it that you're running out of time in reading passages? For every question that you miss, you need to identify the type of question it is. When you notice patterns to the questions you miss, you then need to find extra practice for this subskill. Say you miss a lot of inference questions (this is typically the hardest type of question for students to get). You need to find a way to get focused practice questions for this skill so you can drill your mistakes. 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 7: Force Yourself to Be Fascinated by the Passage Subject Matter The ACT has passages about a lot of weird topics. Victorian novels, underwater basket-weaving, and the evolution of gerbils are all fair game. It's unlikely that you're naturally thrilled about all the subjects you'll read about. This makes it easy to tune out when you're reading the passage. This makes it harder to answer the questions, which will make you more frustrated. Instead, adopt this mindset: For the next 10 minutes, I am the world's most passionate person about whatever subject this passage is about. For every single passage, be as excited as she is. Force yourself to care about what the passage is telling you. Pretend that your life depends on understanding this passage. Maybe you're about to give a lecture on this subject. Or someone's holding a puppy hostage if you don't answer enough questions correctly. When I was preparing for the ACT in high school, I even took this so extremely that I ended up genuinely interested in whatever the passage was telling me about. I remember reading a passage about Native American life and thinking, "Wow, I'm really glad I just learned this." (I know this sounds crazy.) If you stay engaged while reading, you'll understand the passage so much better, and you'll answer questions with way more accuracy. 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 Reading that you solve every question and have extra time left over at the end of the section to recheck your work. I'll admit, this is hard for the ACT. You have 35 minutes for 40 questions, which means less than 10 minutes per passage and less than 60 seconds per question on average. After reading the passage, this might mean less than 30-40 seconds per question. But you get better at speed. In high school and even now, I can finish the 40 minute Reading section in 30 minutes or less. I then have 10 minutes left over to recheck my answers two times over. The best way to get faster is, as explained above, to choose an efficient reading strategy that works best for you, and to do so many questions that you're fluent at interpreting what the ACT wants you to do. Here are some time benchmarks that might help: You should finish skimming a long passage within three minutes. This ultimately means less than two seconds per line. If a question takes you more than 30 seconds to solve, and you're not within 30 seconds of the answer, skip it immediately. If you can do this well, you'll get a little less than a minute per remaining passage question. 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 answer choices. Make sure that the passage supports your answer. 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 J D 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 near 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 five seconds per question, you get back 200 seconds on a section that has 40 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: Be Ready for Turbulence in Scores Now you know what it takes to achieve perfection in ACT Reading. You know the best strategies to use for tackling the passage. You know how to identify your weaknesses and learn from them. You know how to save time, and you know to stay engaged while reading a passage. Even despite all this, sometimes a passage just won't click with you. Of all ACT sections, I find that Reading has the most volatile score. How you vibe with a passage has a big impact on your score. You might get a string of questions wrong just because you couldn't really understand what the passage was really about. This doesn't happen on Math or Writing. No matter what happens, you need to keep calm and keep working. You might swing from a 36 on one practice test to a 32 on another. Don't let that faze you. Remember from the scoring charts above that there's a huge variation from test to test, which also suggests that students tend to vary significantly from test to test. Don't start doubting all the hard work you've put in. Keep a calm head, and, like always, work hard on reviewing your mistakes. This might even happen on the real ACT. You might get below your target score and be crestfallen. Pick yourself up. This happens. If you've consistently been getting 36's on practice tests, you should take the test again and try to score higher. Very likely, you will. And because many schools nowadays Superscore the ACT, you can combine that new 36 with your other sections for an awesome ACT score. Strategy 10: Don't Focus On Reading Other Texts One strategy for ACT Reading I hear proposed often is to read a lot of advanced writing like the New York Times, the Atlantic Monthly, and the New Yorker. Their logic is, the more you practice reading, the better you'll get at ACT Reading. This seems so plainly obvious that many don't question it. I don't fully agree with this approach. As I mentioned above, ACT Reading tests very specific skill sets- can you read a passage of a certain length and type, and can you answer specific types of questions about it. When you're reading a text casually, you're not going to treat it with the same type of scrutiny and mindset. You're in more of a general understanding mode, trying to get the gist of the reading. You're not actively in the mindset to pick apart what specific lines mean, or to infer what the author would feel about a specific situation. If you'd have to force yourself to read an hour a day to pick up this habit, it's far more effective to practice on ACT Reading passages. The skills you'll use align far more closely this way. Now, if reading these texts is already part of your regular routine, by all means continue doing it. You're likely reading at a very high level, and you can only get better at reading more quickly and with better comprehension. But if these kinds of texts are difficult for you, or you don't regularly do this as a habit, focus your time on the ACT. Your score will thank you. (Note that reading in general is a fantastic habit, and as a nation we don't do enough of it. It can lead to a lot of personal growth, so I encourage you to do it for your overall growth- just not if the purpose is to improve at ACT Reading). In Overview Those are the main strategies I have for you to improve your ACT Reading 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 ACT Reading 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. 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 guide to a 36 on ACT Math. Read our complete guide to a perfect 36, written by me, a perfect scorer. Learn how to write a perfect-scoring 12 ACT essay, step by step. 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