Case Brief, U.S. V. Clemons, 32F.3d 1504(11th Cir. 1994) Research Paper

Case Brief, U.S. V. Clemons, 32F.3d 1504(11th Cir. 1994) - Research Paper Example Althouse was murdered late in the night while driving toward a colleague’s house, to discuss the next day’s arrest warrants The court relied on the law stating that any individual who kills or attempts to kill federal agents while they are engaging in their official duties can be convicted of murder. In cases whereby an individual is found guilty of an attempted murder, a jail term of not more than twenty years is issued. The court was convinced that the federal agent (Althouse) was engaging in official duties when he was murdered. Clemons argued that the evidence presented to the judge was insufficient to show that the federal agent was on official duties at the time of the murder. In addition, he argued that the court broke the law by relying on similar cases and evidence to make its decision. Smith argued that the use of Clemon’s confessions in implicating him is against the law. The court argued that Althouse was trying to prevent the theft of FBI property when he was murdered. Even though the duties were being carried out late in the night, the court still believed that Althouse was performing his duties. The way in which Clemons carried out the carjacking led to murder. Any individual who kills or attempts to kill federal agents, or any officer or employee working in the secret service or drug enforcement administration, is punishable under sections 1111 and 1112 of the United States’ Constitution. Individuals found guilty of attempted murder are given jail terms of not more than twenty years. The court made its decision based on the argument that the federal agent was performing his official duties. Althouse was trying to prevent the theft of a federal car when he was killed. In such circumstances, the judges were convinced that the agent was performing official duties. The court also relied on the evidence presented by Althouse’s colleagues. Althouse had

Importance of Natural Product Synthesis

Importance of Natural Product Synthesis History of medicine dates back practically to the existence of human civilization. Historically, the majority of new drugs have been generated from natural products and from compounds derived from natural products. Natural products, including plants, animals and minerals have always been a source of therapeutic agents for many years. Natural products sometimes exhibit pharmacological or biological property that can be of therapeutic benefit in treating diseases. As such, natural products are the active components not only of most  traditional medicines  but also of many newer medications. Furthermore, synthetic analogs of natural products with improved potency and safety can be prepared and therefore natural products are often used as Lead Copmpounds for  drug discovery. In fact, natural products are the inspiration for approximately one half of U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved drugs. The birth of the natural product synthesis dates back to 1828 when Friedrich Wà ¶hler synthesized urea, a naturally occurring substance from ammonium cyanate. This event as trivial as it may seem by today’s standards not only gave birth to a boundless science called organic synthesis but also contributed to a demystification of mother Nature by burying the fact that synthesis of nature’s molecules is her exclusive domain. The second major achievement in the field of organic synthesis is the synthesis of acetic acid from elemental carbon by Kolbe3 in 1845. It is historically significant because Kolbe coined the word Synthesis for the first time to describe the process of assembling a chemical compound from other substances. The total synthesis of naturally occurring pigments alizarin in 1869 by Graebe and Liebermann and indigo in 1878 by Baeyer represent landmark accomplishments in the field. Probably, after urea, the most spectacular total synthesis of the nineteenth c entury was that of Emil Fischer’s (†¡)-glucose not only for the complexity of the target but also for the considerable stereochemical control that accompanied it. Figure 1: Although the precedent was set in the nineteenth century, it was only in the twentieth century the field of total synthesis started to flourish when Robert Burns Woodward synthesized Quinine. This event ushered in the modern era of total synthesis and Woodward who received the 1965 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for several brilliant examples of total synthesis such as his 1954 synthesis of strychnine, cholesterol5 is regarded as the father of modern organic synthesis. Figure 2: Today the art of organic synthesis has improved to astoundingly high levels of sophistication. Through its practice, chemists are able to synthesize organic molecules of all types of structural motifs and for all intents and purposes. Some modern classical examples of total synthesis include the synthesis of prostaglandin PG2ÃŽ ± and Ginkgolide by E. J Corey, Ingenol by Wood, Brevetoxin by Nicolaou, Vancomycin by Evans, Taxol by Holton6, Nicolaou7, Wender and Danishefsky8 groups independently. The discipline of natural product synthesis today, is an important field of investigation whose dividends stretch from new scientific knowledge to practical applications. Considered by many as the flagship of organic synthesis, natural product synthesis symbolizes the power of chemical synthesis at any given time and defines its scope and limitations. It also serves to improve chemical synthesis by attempting to push its frontiers into higher molecular complexity, diversity, and efficiency. they can synthesize not only the molecules of nature and their analogues, but also myriad other organic molecules for potential applications in many areas of science, technology and everyday life Introduction to THF-containing natural products Tetrahydrofuran (THF)-containing natural products widely occur in several important families of biologically active compounds, such as the annonaceous acetogenins [1] and polyether antibiotics isolated from Streptomyces organisms (ionomycin, lonomycins A–C, or monensin) [2]. It’s worthwhile at this juncture to discuss few THF ring containing natural products such as which have been of paramount importance to the mankind and also to the researchers who have been actively involved in the synthesis and isolation of these natural products. Acetogenins Acetogenins abbreviated as AAGs are a group of THF-Containing natural products isolated from Annonacae species which are vastly distributed in tropical and subtropical regions. They exhibit different biological activities such as antitumor, ant-imalarial, anti microbial, anti protozoal, pesticidal activities2. The common structural features of acetogenins include several free hydroxy groups with various stereo centers, differently located oxygenated functional groups and tetrahydrofuran (THF) ring(s) along the long hydrocarbon chain with an ÃŽ ±, ÃŽ ²-unsaturated ÃŽ ´-lactone moiety at the end. Uvaricin, a bis THF acetogenin was the first of the AAGs isolated from Uvaria acuminata in 1982. It exhibited potent anti-cancer activity by inhibiting NADH cells in the mitochondrion. The total synthesis of Hexepi-Uvaricin was published by Hoye in 1994 and subsequently first total synthesis was achieved by Keinan in 1998. Montanacin D is a non classical acetogenin isolated from the ethanolic extract of the leaves of Annona Montana16 by Qin group in 1999, possessing a 4,8-cis THP ring along with a 16,19-trans THF ring. Ionomycin Amphidinolides Amphidinolides constitute a series of unique cytotoxic polyketide macrolides obtained from marine symbiotic dinoflagellates of the genus Amphidinium, which are symbionts of Okinawan marine flatworms Amphiscolops spp.1 They exhibit potent cytotoxic activity against murine lymphoma L1210 cells and human epidermoid carcinoma KB cells. Given below are some important Amphidinolides that incorporate a THF-ring in their structure Pectenotoxins Pectenotoxin (PTX)-group toxins are a group of polyether macrolide compounds found in microalgae and bivalve molluscs of Australia, Japan, New Zealand and some parts of Europe. Their presence in shellfish was discovered due to their high acute toxicity in the mouse bioassay after intraperitoneal (i.p.) injections of lipophilic extracts of shellfish. Pectinotoxins are exclusively produced by Dinophysis species. In shellfish they are always accompanied by closely related okadaic acid (OA)-group toxins. The common structural features of (PTX)-group toxins include a spiroketal group, three THF-rings, a bicyclic ketal and a six-membered cyclic hemiketal (Allingham et al., 2007). PTX2 is beleived to be the main precursor, from which many PTX-group toxins are derived through biotransformation during metabolism in the gut of bivalves. It is suggested that an oxidation of PTX2 occurs, leading to the formation of other PTX-group toxins, including PTX1, PTX3, and PTX6 PTX-group toxins have been shown to cause cell cycle arrest, cell death and apoptosis. The wide range (10-9 and 10-6 M) of effective concentrations of PTX-group toxins as well as the apparent resistance of some cell lines to the cytotoxic effect of PTX-group toxins indicate the existence of cell-specific factors affecting the sensitivity of biological systems to this group of natural compounds. Studies have confirmed that PTX2 induces apoptosis in several cell lines through multiple mechanisms, involving the perturbation of the cell cycle machinery, inhibition of mitotic separation and cytokinesis through the depolymerization of actin filaments. Oscillariolide and Phormidolide Oscillariolide is a halogenated macrolide isolated from a marine blue-green alga Oscillatoria sp. from Gokashowan-Bay, Mie Prefecture. It exhibits significant cytotoxic activity in the echinoderm egg assay. Phormidolide, a closely related macrolide was isolated from the extract of a laboratory culture of an Indonesian isolate of the cyanobacterium Phormidium sp. It displayed cytotoxicity towards drine shrimp with a LC50 of 1.5  µM. The characteristic features of both oscillariolide and phormidolide include a trisubstituted bridged THF macrolactone with a long polyhydroxy chain containing a unique terminal bromo diene. Structural elucidation revealed that the polyhydroxy side as well as THF ring of both compounds have same stereochemistry Chagosensine Chagosensine is a sixteen-membered chlorinated macrolide isolated from the methanolic chloroform extract of a bright yellow sponge Leucetta chagosensis usually found in the coral reefs of Red Sea, Aqaba Gulf (Israel). the extract of the Leucetta sp. sponge exhibited potent ability to inhibit the epidermal growth factor receptor signaling pathway. A new mechanism for the action of naamidine A and inhibition of tumor cells was shown.

Divorce or Annulment Essay -- Social Issues, Custody of the Children

In the failure of marriage, most couples nowadays prefer to have a divorce or annulment. For them, separation is a lot easier than forcing a relationship to work. However, the consequences of divorce appear to have greater impacts on children and not just on the couple. The custody of the children is usually brought into court settlements to determine which party, whether the mother’s or the father’s, qualifies for custody. In this regard, lawyers require help from mental health experts who would make evaluations of both parties. Mental health experts also provide counseling that would help the individuals to cope with the condition that they are experiencing. This way, the psychologist would have dual tasks: a forensic evaluator and a therapeutic counselor. This dual task would be the center of this discussion. In 1997, Greenberg and Shuman wrote an article that shows the irreconcilable conflict between dual roles of mental health experts in court proceedings. Several factors have enabled mental health experts to appear as forensic expert witnesses. However, these two roles are not compatible due to several differences between these and confidentiality and anonymity are compromised. Definitions must first be provided to differentiate between the roles. The therapist refers to a clinician or mental health expert who provides psychotherapy to the client. His primary responsibility is to treat his patient. A fact witness, meanwhile, refers to the person testifying based on direct observations. He does not offer expert opinions. In short, a therapist who serves as fact witness is someone who testifies based on the observations carried out during therapy. His conclusions are thus drawn from his observations (Strasburger, Gutheil, &... ...ings as therapist and forensic expert. This is due to the premise that assuming the roles of both a therapist and a forensic expert may lead to the possibility that the expert is more concerned about the conclusion of the case than the integrity and accuracy of his testimony. Furthermore, there are many differences between the roles of the therapist and the expert. Some of these differences include attitudes of each expert, goals, and roles of therapist-patient and forensic-expert-patient relationships. These differences lead to the incompatibility of dual roles. Furthermore, confidentiality and anonymity are compromised when therapists provide testimony in court proceedings. While some researchers believe that the dual roles can be compatible, the points discussed in this paper are adequate enough to conclude that therapeutic and forensic roles are incompatible.

Raising Resilient Children

Another point he article makes is that by raising resilient children, they tend to be more self- efficient, resulting In future success as a teenager and an adult(Wade). Relation to Textbook There is a section in the textbook titled â€Å"The Wellsprings of Resilience†. It states children who have been beaten, neglected, or constantly subjected to verbal or physical abuse by their parents are more likely than other children to have emotional problems, become delinquent and violent, commit crimes, drop out of school, develop mental disorders such as depression, and develop chronic stress-related illnesses.It goes on to conclude that most children are surprisingly resilient, eventually overcoming drastic effects of having an abusive parent or even being sexually molested. These situations are extremely devastating, but don't happen In everyone life, but if a child was molested, even they can heal from that wound by being rescued by love. The book emphasizes the most significant reason for the resilience of children, is that we are all constantly interpreting our experiences. Whether we want to remain prisoners of childhood, or be enlightened by the possibilities of adulthood, IS a choice that ;s Vital.Child development research RAISING RESILIENT CHILDREN 3 does suggest certain overall guidelines to help parents teach children to be confident, considerate, and helpful: set high expectations that are appropriate to the child's age and temperament, and teach the child how to meet them, explain why the parent has applied a rule, encourage empathy, and notice, approve of, and reward good behavior(Camps). Relates to My World I chose this article because I can definitely relate to It. My mother raised me alone cause my dad left when I was a little girl.I remember In my childhood she always made sure that I was growing up to be an emotionally strong person. When I wanted to get myself dressed with no help, my mom would let me because she wanted me to learn the res ponsibility of dressing myself. She also let me be Ms. Bossy basically. The practices she taught me and wanted me to really grasp during my childhood has positively affected me as a teenager and a young adult. I do not plan to have children anytime soon, but I do completely agree that children need to be resilient. It really evolves their stronghold on life.Having a strong head on your shoulders is essential for getting through the tough tribulations and trials life throws at you. This article hits the head on the hammer. I truly appreciate the Information I have gotten from It. Ask Questions 1 OFF I Nils article sat arts out Walt a parent slang â€Å"How can we Keep two Solos inanely Ana merry, I thought, in a world that can seem as precarious as the one we live in now? † As I continued to read the article, I began asking myself how creditable these experts are and what are they really trying to accomplish.This article does not mention the hardships of raising children, and does not address how difficult it can be to do so. It Just states that if a parent uses these specific strategies when raising their children, the child will be emotionally stable, which is not always the case. Sometimes other things can interfere. Avoid Emotional Reasoning This article begins to go in detail about the parent wanting to solve the child's problems, sometimes blocking the logical thing to do, which is to let the child learn from their mistakes, and develop self-responsibility.Don't Oversimplify The article gives off an either/or thinking, with it being either you practice these guidelines or your children will grow up unemotionally stable. RAISING RESILIENT 5 Consider Other Interpretations This article does not give the opposite side of being resilient, so who is to say that these experts are correct, and know what they are talking about. Tolerate Uncertainty This article does not involve certainty of a sure situation. It Just simply states some things a parent can do to raise their child to be emotionally intact.

Creating Performance Goals and Measures for Your Charter School Essay

This document is designed to provide guidance and assistance in developing sound goals and measures – both educational and organizational – for inclusion in your charter agreement with [Authorizing Agency]. The following guidance focuses especially on providing deeper guidance for developing strong educational goals and measures – i.e., those that will comprise the Academic and Student Non-Academic Performance indicators of your charter agreement. This task demands particular attention because educational performance indicators are often more challenging to state in meaningful, objective terms than are non-educational measures, such as those focusing on Organizational and Management Performance (the third category of performance indicators required for your charter agreement). However, the principles for developing all of these types of goals and measures are very similar; thus, to the extent applicable, you should follow the guidance in these pages for developing your non-educational goals and measures as well. I. General Criteria for Goals Goals should be SMART: Specific and Tied to Standards Measurable Ambitious and Attainable Reflective of Your Mission Time-Specific with Target Date 1. Specific A well-defined goal must be specific, clearly and concisely stated, and easily understood. Academic goals should be tied to academic standards that specify what students should This document was first developed by Margaret Lin as a guidance tool for the Charter Schools Office of Ball State University (IN) to offer to the schools it oversees. It has been adapted for distribution at the Annual Conference of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, Nov. 13-14, 2003, San Diego, CA. Many of the concepts, definitions and principles in these pages are adapted from the following sources: Measuring Up: How Chicago’s Charter Schools Make Their Missions Count, by Margaret Lin (Leadership for Quality Education, 2001); Guidelines for Writing Charter School Accountability Plans, 2001-2002 (Charter Schools Institute, State University of New York), http://www.newyorkcharters.org/charterny/act_guide.html; and â€Å"Some Expectations Regarding the Contents of Charter School Accountability Plans,† District of Columbia Public Charter School Board. know and be able to do, for each subject or content area and for each grade, age, or other grouping level. Equally important, academic goals should be developed with solid knowledge of students’ baseline achievement levels. 2. Measurable A goal should be tied to measurable results to be achieved. Measurement is then simply an assessment of success or failure in achieving the goal. 3. Ambitious and Attainable A goal should be challenging yet attainable and realistic. Academic goals should be based on a well-informed assessment of your school’s capacities and your students’ baseline achievement levels. 4. Reflective of Your Mission A goal should be a natural outgrowth of your school mission, reflecting the school’s values and aspirations. 5. Time-Specific with Target Date A well-conceived goal should specify a time frame or target date for achievement. Ball State expects its charter schools to specify both long-term goals that each school expects to achieve by the end of its fourth year of operation, along with annual benchmarks that will enable the school, authorizer and other stakeholders to monitor and assess the pace of progress. Definitions of Key Terms To develop adequate learning goals and measures, schools should begin with a clear understanding of a few essential terms: Goal: A clear, measurable statement of what students will know and be able to do in order to be considered â€Å"educated† after a certain length of time attending the school. Standard: A clear, measurable statement of what students will be expected to know (a content standard) or be able to do (a performance or skill standard) at a given point in their development, usually each year and at graduation. (Standards are usually defined grade-by-grade and subject-by-subject, and are thus more specific than – but necessary to support – overarching school goals.) Assessment (sometimes also â€Å"measure†): A method, tool or system to evaluate and demonstrate student progress toward – or mastery of – a particular learning standard or goal. (Examples: A standardized test, or a portfolio-judging system) Measure: An application of an assessment that defines progress toward or attainment of a goal and indicates the level of performance that will constitute success. (Example: â€Å"Students at the Successful Charter School will improve their performance on the reading portion of the Stanford-9 by at least 3% per year, on average.†) Assessments – and by extension, measures – should be valid, reliable, and demonstrate scoring consistency: †¢ Valid: Assesses the skill or knowledge it is intended to assess. Reliable: Provides consistent results when taken repeatedly by the student at a given point in his/her development, as well as by other students at the same point in development. Scoring Consistency: Produces consistent scores, ratings, results or responses when a particular assessment tool, scoring guide or rubric is used by different evaluators to assess the same student performance or work sample. 3 II. Essential Principles to Guide the Development of Sound Educational Goals and Measures †¢ Your mandate as the operator of a charter school is not just to teach well but also to demonstrate objectively – in ways that are clear, understandable and credible to a variety of external audiences – that you are doing so. Thus, you must measure and report academic progress precisely and extensively. Distinguish between goals and measures. Goals are the starting point, but require valid, reliable ways to measure and demonstrate that you have achieved them. Make sure that your goals are clear, specific and measurable. Your measures for attainment of those goals should describe how you will assess progress, and how much progress will constitute success. Educational goals must be connected to a well-defined set of learning standards for both content (what students should know) and performance (what students should be able to do). Such standards should exist for every subject or content area and each grade, age or other grouping level in the school. Focus on outcomes and evidence of learning, not inputs. For example, participation rates or the number of hours spent on an activity are not sufficient measures of success. Participation and investment of time are  necessary first steps, but they are inputs, not measures of learning and accomplishment. In developing goals for your accountability plan, focus on what’s most important. Ten or fewer clear, well-chosen and carefully measured educational goals (for both Academic and Student Non-Academic Performance) should allow you to provide a convincing story of your progress and achievements – and will be more effective than listing a score of vague, trivial, redundant or hard-to-measure indicators. The measures you develop to assess achievement of each goal, if not based on standardized assessments, should be demonstrably valid and reliable. (The attached framework will provide some help in developing validity and reliability of assessments.) A Note on Defining Standards: Milestones on the Path to Broader School Goals Educational goals must be tied to clear content and performance standards specifying what you expect your students to know and be able to do in order to graduate or be promoted to the next level. These standards need only to be referenced in your accountability plan, but they form the foundation of your school’s education program. As such, selecting and developing grade-bygrade, subject-by-subject standards is an essential component of accountability planning that goes hand-in-hand with broader goal-setting. Of course, many of your school standards will be Indiana state standards. However, most schools have important aims beyond the state requirements, and developing these supplemental standards is a technically challenging task. It usually consists of several steps, including: 1. Articulating desired characteristics of â€Å"educated† students at a general level – or setting your  school’s overarching goals; 2. Breaking these general qualities and goals into more concrete graduation or exit standards; and 3. Benchmarking these exit standards down into specific and measurable grade-age-level content and performance standards.2 III. Practical Steps for Developing Sound Educational Goals and Measures †¢ Define a set of goals that describe what success will look like at your school. These goals should be carefully selected to reflect the breadth and depth of your mission, and should answer critical questions such as: How will you know if your school is succeeding (or not)? What will be important characteristics of â€Å"educated students† at your school? What will students know and be able to do after a certain period of time? Outline your goals in precise, declarative sentences. Example: â€Å"All students at the Excelencia Charter School will be proficient readers and writers of Spanish within four years of enrolling.† Identify at least one and possibly multiple measures to assess and demonstrate progress toward each goal. These measures must indicate both (1) the level of performance you will expect your school or students to achieve, and (2) how much progress will indicate success. (It is not sufficient to say you’ll administer a certain type of assessment; you must explain how you expect your students to perform on it to demonstrate progress and success.) Adapted from Accountability for Student Performance: An Annotated Resource Guide for Shaping an Accountability Plan for Your Charter School (Charter Friends National Network, 2nd ed., 2001), p. 5, http://www.charterfriends.org/accountability.doc. You may develop different types of measures to assess (1) absolute achievement; (2) student growth or gains; or (3) achievement compared to other schools. (The box below provides an example of different ways to measure achievement of the same goal.) For every goal, choose means of assessment that make non-attainment of the goal as objectively apparent as success. That is, the assessment(s) should tell you (and external audiences) immediately whether you have achieved a particular goal or not. Make sure that your measures of student learning are based on knowledge of your students’ baseline achievement levels. Without such knowledge, your measures will not be meaningful or realistic. Set long-term goals as well as intermediate (typically annual) benchmarks to assess progress. Administer assessments corresponding to this timeline to provide longitudinal data over the term of the charter. To have time to counter learning deficits that students may have upon entering your school, you may consider setting certain goals for students who have been enrolled in your school for a certain period of time, such as â€Å"students who have been in the school for at least three years.† For every measure you develop, ask yourself, â€Å"Will this measure be readily understandable and credible to someone who doesn’t spend a day or a week in our school getting to know us?† Remember, your school will be judged by the media, community leaders and the public at large, in addition to your authorizer and parents. For measures not based on standardized tests, establishing external credibility typically requires demonstrating validity and reliability. (The attached framework offers an overview of one way for schools to do this.) Understand what data you will need to gather to support each measure. Remember, if you have no data, you have no case proving your school’s achievements. Likewise, if you have insufficient data, you have an insufficient case. There is no single best way to measure achievement of a particular goal. As charter schools, you are free to choose measures that you prefer, provided that they are also meaningful and persuasive to external audiences. The following example shows how three different measures might be applied to a single learning goal. (These goals could be developed by one school or by three different schools that have the same goal.) Note that each measure describes how progress will be assessed and how much progress will constitute success. The third measure allows the school to assess skills beyond those measured on standardized tests, and would thus require some demonstration of validity and reliability or be used in addition to externally validated assessments.

Full Review PowerScore SAT Reading Bible by Victoria Wood

Full Review PowerScore SAT Reading Bible by Victoria Wood SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips PowerScore is a test prep company with fingers in many pies, including the SAT prep pie (the most standardized of pies?). They have published a trilogy of SAT Prep books: SAT Math Bible, SAT Writing Bible, and SAT Reading Bible (which is what I'll be reviewing today). Like most prep books, the SAT Reading Bible has some positive and some negative aspects. Read on to figure out whether or not this book is appropriate for you and if you should add it into your own test prep. Why trust this review? When you're evaluating advice (both in life in general and on the Internet in particular), it’s v. important to know why that advice is trustworthy and believable. And as you probably already know if you're reading this blog, your SAT score is important (we even have an infographic to that effect), and following the wrong advice might lead to a bad score and loss of chance to improve it. So why is this review worthy of your trust? Because I know what I’m talking about. I took the (current) SAT twice in high school and scored a perfect 800 on the Critical Reading section both times. I've also been doing in-depth analysis of the SAT questions by skill set and writing articles on each skill. Other reviewers don’t necessarily have the expertise to be able to differentiate between books, so they end up recommending books as a sort of afterthought (and it’s pretty obvious). In addition, I'm not getting paid for this recommendation, and don’t get paid if you end up buying the book (unlike other sites like about.com and reviews.com, which get paid for featuring books and if you click on their link to buy it). I do have one disclaimer, however. Disclaimer I work at PrepScholar, an education company that produces online SAT and ACT prep programs. PrepScholar diagnoses your strengths and weaknesses and customizes a test prep program to suit your needs. My primary job consists of writing and editing articles (like this one) for the associated blog and grading the essays of students taking practice tests through the program. While I think that PrepScholar provides the best prep platform currently available, you don’t necessarily need a prep program to do well on the SAT. Writing this review might actually lost us some customers, since you might decide you don’t need a program after all. But if you decide you don’t want to have to deal with 5 different books and want an integrated program that customizes to your learning, however, you should give PrepScholar a test run (that was a totally unintentional "test" pun, but now I noticed it and there is no going back). PowerScore SAT Reading Bible Book Review When thinking about any (test prep) book with a review in mind, I tend to focus in on the following three points: tend to go with three important questions to evaluate it Who’s the author and what’s her experience/background? How effective is this book overall? What are the pros and what are the cons of this book? About the author Victoria, or Vicki, Wood specializes in GMAT, GRE, and SAT prep. She is the Senior Curriculum Developer (according to her book bio) slash Director of SAT Development (according to her LinkedIn page) at PowerScore, a test prep company that’s been around since 1997. She attended Michigan State University for her undergraduate education, has experience as an educator as well as a test prep specialist, and currently writes for PowerScore's SAT blog. How effective is this book? As I know from my own experience tutoring, SAT Reading is the most difficult score to improve, because the skills you need to master it (logical/critical reasoning skills) are not as easily taught as the content on the Writing and Math sections. To prepare for SAT Reading, you have to focus in on different question types and the skills they’re asking for in order to approach the questions in a systematic way. While the PowerScore SAT Reading Bible does divide up question types, but I didn’t find their approach to learning how to deal with them all that helpful. On the other hand, the PowerScore Reading Bible was the #1 about.com best SAT prep book of 2014, and is also a top-ranking test prep book on amazon.com, which means some people find it useful. Screen shot taken 2015-07-02 at 2.37.20 PM by Laura Staffaroni. All rights reserved. It’s so popular that it ranks higher for ACT prep than for SAT prep on Amazon, despite being an SAT prep book. Wait, what? Amazon, what are you doing. Pros and Cons of PowerScore SAT Reading Bible Pros 1. Accurate categorization of sentence types. For sentence completion, the general categories (contrast, similarity, definition, and cause and effect) seem at least somewhat accurate and useful. After all, knowing what kind of sentence a sentence completion question is might make it easier for you to figure out how the missing word relates to the rest of the words in the sentence. 2. Novel and useful suggestions for studying vocab. On page 150, there is an interesting list of strategies for studying vocab words that I think might be helpful (even if some of the items are awkwardly worded) because it addresses non-verbal learners, with strategies for visual learners and audio (sic; I think they meant aural) learners. For example, instead of just reading a vocabulary word in a sentence, Wood suggests reading it aloud (for aural learners) and drawing a picture to represent the word (for visual learners). If learning vocab (and knowing how to use it) is the main area in which you are struggling, I think this particular list of strategies would be very useful - it might even stimulate you to come up with new ways to learn vocab that work well for you! 3. Accessible. There are fun quotes, tips, vocabulary, and more in the margins of this book. The layout also has a little variety, with even the occasional picture thrown in! 4. Key words for passage based questions. Starting on page 178, Wood lists a variety of key words that are helpful to page attention to when reading the passage. These include change-of-direction words and phrases like "however" and "rather than" as well as comparison words and phrases like "similarly" and "just as." If you struggle with extracting meaning from passages, learning to spot these words is extremely helpful. That being said, there are some serious downsides to the SAT Reading Bible. Cons 1. There can only be one...way to approach the passage. Wood claims there is only one way to attack the passages, which is to read the entire passage. She is quite adamant that you must read the entire passage to score in the 95th percentile or higher, which I have an issue with because what if that's not what you're aiming for and where is she getting those numbers? (I was doing some critical reading of my own there) Saying that there's only way to take the test and that you must follow these steps is unnecessarily restrictive. I find that the best way to read the passage is to be flexible - sometimes skimming is the right answer, sometimes looking at the question first helps, and sometimes you just want to power through the passage and answer the questions after. To figure out which strategy is right for you, click here. 2. Way too much focus on sentence completion questions. This tends to be a problem with a lot of prep (books and otherwise), because vocab is easier to pinpoint as an area of weakness, and you get an (artificial) feeling of satisfaction from learning lists and roots and suffixes.Even taking that into consideration, however, the proportions are way off for the SAT Reading Bible: pages 36-154, 395-455 (190 pages, give or take) are all on sentence completion or vocab; out of a 458 page book, that seems a huge proportion, particularly considering only pages 162-385 (234 pages, give or take) are devoted to passage-based questions. The relative amount of pages/time spent on vocab in this book is not proportional to the amount of space the questions take up on even the current SAT (190:234 ≠  19:48. For those of you really wishing there was some bonus math in this book review: you're welcome). Unless your ONLY weakness is vocab, you are wasting your time spending it as this book sugges ts. 3. The sentence completion advice isn’t relevant to most students. All the strategies given seem like they would be pointless if you didn't know the vocab word, and pointless if you did; basically, the advice is only relevant to a certain subset of students. For example, take "The PowerScore Four-Step Solution" (starting with the strategies on p. 41). If you don’t know any of the answer choices/don’t know the vocab, going through the trouble to cross out irrelevant info, rephrase the sentence, read only parts of the sentence, and then try to relate the sentence to your own life is way more time than this question is worth. Sentence completion questions are not worth any more than other SAT Reading questions – why spend so much time? If you do know the word, then adding on extra strategy is extraneous and will just take away time from the passage-based questions. Perhaps these strategies are aimed at those students who "sort of" know what the word means, or can guess by process of elimination, yet do this all really quickly so as not to lose too much time. This not only seems to be a very narrow group of people, but the fact that the strategies are targeted at that demographic is never explicitly stated (at least not as far as I saw). 4. Explanations are convoluted, and the vocabulary used in explanations is unnecessarily complicated. For instance, Wood consistently uses the phrase "question stem" to refer to questions on the SAT. I suppose I can kind of see where she's coming from (if you just call the question part "questions," then what do you call the question + answer? My answer: the question and its answer choices, but I guess that could get clunk), but that's not the only instance of overly complicate vocabulary in this book. Take this quotation from page 55 regarding sentence completion questions: "For example, subordinating conjunctions are often the first word of a Contrast Sentence containing a dependent clause and independent clause." (p. 55) My immediate response: what. If someone needs help with these questions, she probably won't appreciate phrases like "subordinating conjunctions" being thrown into the explanations. Yes, it’s correct terminology, but that is NOT something you will be tested on – why take up extra time learning grammar terms that aren’t even tested on SAT Writing when you could be using that time better elsewhere? You're studying for the SAT, not for your own personal grammar education. See my recommendations for the best way to approach sentence completion questions for an alterative approach. 5. Breakdown of question type is too broad for passage-based reading. While Wood does break down types of passage based questions, the categories (except for vocab in context) are so big as to be meaningless (literal comprehension and extended reasoning). The types of questions are not necessarily grouped by skill – main idea questions are lumped in with facts and details. There are also some unnecessary categories, like cause and effect (the skills you use to answer these questions are not meaningfully different from those you use to answer "facts and details" questions). I know from experience what a pain it is to categorize SAT questions by skill type, so I do understand why Wood chose to emphasize the categories she did; I, however, believe that the most useful way to study passage-based questions is by taking into account both the skill being tested AND the way it is tested. Yes, main point questions and detail questions require core literal comprehension skills, but the way you go about answering main point questions is likely going to be different than the way you answer little picture/detail questions. This mindset also underlies the SAT Reading skills articles that are already up and coming soon on the PrepScholar blog. 6. Questions and examples are of...questionable quality. While no material other than the Official SAT Study Guide (and free official SATs) will have actual SAT questions on them, it's important that any supplemental questions/examples you use to prepare for the SAT are of comparable quality. Frankly, I did not find that to be the case with the SAT Reading Bible. Here's an example of a sentence completion question I found fishy: "Carmine was proud of his ____, intelligent daughter whose sound judgement was admired by her teachers and peers alike. A. irritable B. brave c. sensible D. artistic E. pampered." (p. 60) First of all, the vocab is way too easy. Here's the easiest official single-blank sentence completion question I've been able to find, for comparison: Unable to discover how the fire started, the inspectors filed a tentative report stating that the cause was ______.(A) noteworthy(B) definitive(C) fundamental (D) conclusive(E) indeterminate I think that the difference in the level of vocab is probably very slight, but it is there. For a look into the words most often found on the SAT, check out this free resource. Second of all, I feel like an alternate answer could be argued for that practice question: if you take the meaning of "sound" to be "relating to things you hear," rather than "reliable," and think that musicians are artistic, then I feel like "Carmine was proud of his artistic, intelligent daughter whose sound judgement was admired by her teachers and peers alike" is totally arguable (sound judgement sounds like it's something musicians would have to me, and I have a master's degree in music!). If it were just the sentence completion questions that had quality lapses, I wouldn't be so concerned (since those are going away in Spring 2016 anyway), but the passages used for passage-based reading questions in this book also struck me as problematic. There are no references in the intro or at the back of the book to reprints or licensing that would indicate the passages are taken from works of literature, which makes me think that they were written by Wood herself (or others at PowerScore). This is in no way meant as a slam at Wood's writing - I quite enjoyed her passage warning residents of Naples about the dangers of volcanic activity - but it does make me wonder how comparable the passages in this book are to passages that appear on the SAT. It's the classic "more practice isn't better when the questions aren't what you'll encounter on the actual test" problem. Overall Rating So...I don't know that I would really recommend using this book for prep. Aside from the fact that it’s not particularly recent (published in 2012), and that (this edition) will be obsolete by Spring 2016, its cons outweigh its pros. My general sense is that it has good strategies for learning vocab and for reading in general†¦but not great strategies for SAT Reading. If you’re being extremely thorough and want to make sure you leave no stone unturned in prep, this could be helpful. As I said, it does present some concepts in ways I hadn’t seen (like ways to learn vocab or read passages). If you’re trying to improve a very low score, this book also might be able to help you with improving some core strengths (not the actual strength of your core, that would require doing sit-ups while doing test prep). When it comes to SAT strategies, however, I think that this book goes into way too much (unhelpful) detail, and if you’re scoring at a 500 or above, I don’t see this really boosting your score that much. Overall rating: 51/100 Other Options For SAT Reading Prep? If the words "free online resources for SAT Reading prep" are music to your ears, then I have got some good news for you! In addition to general strategy articles for low and high scorers, the PrepScholar blog also breaks down questions by skill type with focused suggestions. Most of the articles (on sentence completion, vocab in context, analogy, author technique, and paired passage questions) are live; the others will be posted in the next week or so. What’s Next? Read our detailed guide to the best SAT books for Critical Reading, the best SAT prep books, and our list of the best SAT Prep Websites to pull together your own study program. What’s a good SAT score for you? Figure it out using our step-by-step guide based around the colleges you’re applying to. Aiming for a high score? Read our guide to scoring a perfect 800 on SAT Reading or a perfect 1600 on the SAT, written by our resident perfect scorer (and PrepScholar co-founder) Allen Cheng. And don’t forget to check out our top-of-the-class SAT prep program! Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points? Check out our best-in-class online SAT prep program. We guarantee your money back if you don't improve your SAT score by 160 points or more. Our program is entirely online, and it customizes what you study to your strengths and weaknesses. If you liked this Reading lesson, you'll love our program.Along with more detailed lessons, you'll get thousands ofpractice problems organized by individual skills so you learn most effectively. We'll also give you a step-by-step program to follow so you'll never be confused about what to study next. Check out our 5-day free trial:

The eNotes Blog The Greatest Books of AllTime

The Greatest Books of AllTime Is it possible to rank the worlds best literature? Well, no, and were certainly not going to try. Although in 2007, one publication did. Now we ask, did it get it right? The Top Ten: Writers Pick Their Favorite Books  is a collection of Top Ten lists provided by some of the worlds most respected authors125 altogether, from Norman Mailer, to Jonathan Franzen, to Stephen King and Annie Proulx. In all, a total of 544 works were mentioned at least once in the 125 lists, which were further separated by different criteria to concoct a number of other lists: The Top Top Ten Books of All Time The Top Ten Books by Living Writers The Top Ten Books of the Twentieth Century The Top Ten Mysteries The Top Ten Comedies and many more. Despite the books seemingly absolutist mission to seek out the best ten books ever, its editor J. Peder Zane views the collection more as a reading guide. He was inspired by a dream that other readers will probably find familiar; stranded on a desert island and thirsting for nothing other than a really good book, Zane suddenly found himself pelted from above with one masterpiece after another, turning his little isle into a Tower of Biblio-Babel. He interpreted the dream to represent the opportunity and befuddlement book lovers face, and resolved to answer that perpetual readers question, What should I read next? Part Rand-McNally, part Zagats, part cultural Prozac, it takes the anxiety out of bibliophilia by offering a comprehensive and authoritative guide to the worlds best books.J. Peder Zane Something notable about the reduction of a near infinite choice of works to one relatively small collection is the resultant ability to point out patterns in the writers selections. Amongst all of them, there is an overwhelming prevalence to go for memorable character-driven dramas of love and death, delineated by nuanced prose, as Sven Birkerts so elegantly puts it. We can also see that across all of the lists, the 1920s produced the most popular works, comprising 15 novels named on two or more lists. (The twentieth century in all was the far more appreciated century.) The books appendix cross-references the 544 books by many other illuminating standards. And yet, can we really reduce the supposed best literature of all time into lists, no matter how many we have of them? Annie Proulx, who submitted a list of her own top ten didnt seem to think so as she penned,  Lists, unless grocery shopping lists, are truly a  reductio ad absurdum. Whatever you believe, whether the 544 books in The Top Ten  can be considered the best books ever or not, the collection must at least highlight a multitude of books that can all be deemed worth your time. Close your eyes and stab your finger on any one of its pages and youll stumble upon a good read (or at least somebodys good read). After all, given that 125 famous and respected living writers contributed to the list of top top ten below, it wouldnt do you any harm to give each a try. At least, I know what my next New Years resolution will be. Thanks to Flavorwire, we have a nifty infograph to pictorially dilute the massive amount of information found in the book. Have a look through the results and tell us what you think in a comment. Who was shafted? Who doesnt deserve to be on the list? We want to hear your thoughts!