Franklin Essay -- essays research papers

A Prominent Individual Benjamin Franklin was a very prominent figure in shaping our nation. Many people look at him as a role model or just as an amazing individual. He had his faults just like every human being had, and he shouldn’t be discredited because of a few minor glitches to his character. As being the only person that had signed The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution, and the Treaty of Paris, this immediately separates him from all others. One of the things that he wrote about in Benjamin Franklin: The Autobiography and Other Writings, was trying to be the ideal person, and even made a list of virtues to live by. His virtues were very important to his lifestyle, and he followed them to a great extent.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  One of his important virtues was humility. It was simply stated: â€Å"Imitate Jesus and Socrates.† From the beginning of Franklin’s life, when he went to grammar school he was always interested in learning. His father took him from grammar school and his next move was to be an apprentice to his brother as a printer. With undying love for knowledge he continued to learn how to read and write well. â€Å"From a child I was fond of reading, and all the little money that came into my hands was ever laid out in books† (Franklin 13). He continually got books from other print shops and stores to read on the side of working. One of the writings that touched him the most was the Socratic dialogue that he read in the back of a grammar book that he borrowed. He continued his research on Socrates, and therefore the Socratic method became a driving force in his beliefs. That is why he states that we should ‘Imitate Jesus and Socrates’. Their views must have some basis in common in order for him to look up to them that much.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"My intentions were to acquire the Habitude of all these virtues, I judg’d it would be well not to distract my attention by attempting the whole at once, but to fix it one of them at a time, and when I should be master of that, then proceed to another, and so on till I should have gone thro’ the thirteen† (Franklin 93). He believes that if he masters all of these virtues that he will become the perfect individual. If humility is the thirteenth one, than it must be the most important one in his life, or at least a closure to a perfect lifestyle. He made a book in which he allotte... ...t. Franklin learned very much in his life, maybe even more than he taught to others. Franklin has a method of teaching that I believe is a proper way of getting ideas across. â€Å"Do as I say, not as I do.† I feel that this statement alone totally defeats the characterization of Franklin being a hypocrite. The flaws in Franklin’s character should not be analyzed as closely as some look at them. It is all part of a learning process, which he has passed on to us as readers.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Many of the setbacks that Ben Franklin has had in his life are looked at by some people to be considered flaws that contribute to hypocrisy. He was a great individual, maybe not perfect, but he did many things for the well being of our nation. He is one of the frontrunners of modern society with his inventions and discoveries. His experiments go beyond the major things such as electricity, every thing that he has done in his life was an experiment. He tried to be the perfect individual and a teacher of perfection. I think he did a very good job of accomplishing his goals and we should look up to him as being not only a down to earth person, but also a person that has risen to supremacy.

Total Accounts Receivable

Bradmark Wholesale General Supply ACL Case Study This paper contains the summary of the details and results of the audit tests on Bradmark’s Revenue and Expenditure Cycles. The audit tests were performed through the ACL Program. 2005 Rachelle Cultura | Trixia Ebol | Christine Fonseca Mary Rose Samas | Nadaine Tongco Ross & Specter Co. October 24, 2012 1 | P a g e REVENUE CYLCE Assessment of Internal Controls over the Revenue Cycle The assessment of Bradmark’s internal controls over its revenue cycle procedures were done through the analysis of the processes each department is undertaking.For the Sales Department, it is but right that the clerk will seek the approval of the credit manager for customers with insufficient available credit. However, the credit manager should not only verbally authorize the clerk to change credit limits. More so, it is inappropriate for him to delegate the said task to the clerk as it violates the general control of authorization. Reconcilia tion of the documents – packing slip, shipping notice, and bill of lading – with the goods to be shipped must likewise be done for independent verification.Several copies of these documents must be made to be filed for future reference and monitored by the departments responsible in the each of the operational processes. In conclusion, Bradmark needs to improve some of the internal controls over its revenue cycle procedures. Existence or Occurrence From Bradmark’s data files on sales invoices, cash receipts and list of customers, the ACL software was used to compute and determine the Accounts Receivable balances of customers in the books. January 20, 2005 United City 920 4 h Street Bridgewater, New Jersey 8807 Dear Sir/Madam, In connection with an examination of our financial statements by Ross & Specter Co. , Certified Public Accountants, 8th Avenue, Manhattan, New York (NY) 10014, we will appreciate it if you will indicate the correctness of the following info rmation. Our records indicate that, at the close of business on December 31, 2004 the amount payable on your account was $8,627 Please sign the confirmation form in the space provided below if this amount agrees with your records.If it does not agree, do not sign below but explain and sign on the reverse side. Please return this form directly to our accountants in the enclosed envelope. Very truly yours, Ross & Specter Co. Confirmation – Information is accurate: ________________________________ Signature and date 2 | P a g e In order to verify the existence or occurrence of what these accounts actually owed to Bradmark, confirmation letters were sent to certain customers. Customers with unpaid balances in the records received confirmation requests from Bradmark.The figure above is an example of a positive confirmation letter that was sent to one of their clients, United City, asking for a verification of their balance amounting to $8,627. Similar positive confirmation letters were also sent to other customers with outstanding balances to the Company. Completeness In terms of verifying whether the sales figure represent those that actually occurred and were shipped during the period, the Sales Invoice and Shipping Log records were joined. However, to find out which items were not shipped, using the unmatched category was necessary. Presented below is the result of this audit test.As observed, the sales last November 4, 2004 to Customer 65003 (University Electronics) was not in the record of shipped goods. This gap should be further investigated by verifying the delivery of the goods with the said customer. In addition to that, there were items that were shipped past the cut-off date (December 31, 2004). The ACL procedure used to determine this was the filter function. The filter â€Å"Ship_Date > `20041231`† was used and the results are displayed below. 3 | P a g e In total, there are ten records that should not be part of the Total Sales amount f or the period.These records amount to a total of $29,495. 70. After taking into account the results for these two tests, the should-be balance for the Total Sales of the period was computed to be $5,317,470. 36. Valuation or Allocation The total Accounts Receivable balance in the records of $4,752,257. 70 was verified by setting a filter of â€Å"Remit_Num = 0† and then getting the total amount due. By doing this, only those sales which do not yet have a remittance advice are part of the accounts receivable. The figure below is the outcome of this procedure. 4 | P a g eHowever, if the difference between the total sales and the total cash received (for the period ending December 31, 2004) was computed, then the total Accounts Receivable balance would be $4,578,008. 14. This indicates that the Accounts Receivable is misstated in the financial statements. Moreover, from the analyse tab and the function â€Å"Age†, an aging of the Accounts Receivable was performed. The sum mary of this analysis can be seen in this figure: 5 | P a g e It should be noted that based on this test, the allowance for doubtful accounts should be adjusted to reflect the actual accounts, which can be considered as uncollectible, i. . those that are already over 90 days. The balance would then be $1,945,870. 20. 6 | P a g e Compared to the current estimation method of the Allowance for Doubtful Accounts of Bradmark, this method of aging the Accounts Receivable is more appropriate. This also ensures that the balance is reasonable and properly valued. Accuracy To test the accuracy of the recorded cash payments from customers, the Sales Invoice record was compared with the Cash Receipts record. These tables were joined and afterwards, the amounts due found in the Sales Invoice table was contrasted with those actually received in the Cash Receipts table.The figure below shows the records that did not match and, in effect, constituted errors to the reported balances of the accounts receivable and cash receipts. There are a total of eight records that show inconsistencies within the records of the company. Nos. 12684, 12687 and 12814 were remittances that were recorded by the Cash Receipts clerk but were not found in the Sales Invoice records. These may be considered as a red flag to Bradmark. With these results, the management should verify if they have, in fact, received these payments as this may indicate theft within the Company.Other records like remittance nos. 12657, 12663 and 12709 demonstrate probable human errors while recording, since these discrepancies were due to lack or excess of digits as shown below. Lastly, remittance nos. 12651 and 12697 reveal that the amounts due have not been paid in full. This constitutes receivables from the customers. There is a need, however, to verify this and include those with partial payments in the list of customers to whom confirmation letters will be sent. 7 | P a g e Other Operational Concerns (Related to Reven ue Procedures)Moreover, to make sure that the credit policy is consistently applied and that no customer exceeded his/her assigned credit limit, the join function was utilized. After joining the tables Customer and Sales Invoice using the many-to-many category, the filter â€Å"Amount_Due > Credit_Limit† was subsequently set. The outcome of this test can be seen from the following figures: 8 | P a g e This shows that six customers (Customer Numbers 65003, 419449, 564291, 784547, 811002 and 925007) were given approval to purchase beyond their allowed credit limit.Particularly noticeable are customers 65003 (university Electronics) and 925007 (Galaxy Company), who have several purchases that exceeded their allowable credit. An in-depth inquiry on this matter should be done to uncover the cause of these violations. EXPENDITURE CYLCE Assessment of Internal Controls over the Expenditure Cycle After assessing its practices, Bradmark’s internal controls over its expenditure c ycle appear to be inadequate. To rationalize this: ? Mr. James Walker has sole control over the determination of when to replenish the Company’s inventory, by how much and to whom to buy.This way of restocking seems to be unsystematic and subjective and by doing so, the Company is not that assured that purchases are made in an arms-length transaction. ? There may be gaps in the receiving report numbering system as the clerk must void receiving reports when errors are made during the data entry, thereby losing its significance as a control tool. ? Check and balance controls in place cannot be relied upon as there is a lack of segregation of duties. Mr. Walker has means to override. To illustrate, since Mr.Walker is the one encoding if the ordered products have been received in the warehouse and also the one making purchase orders, he can make a phony purchase order and indicate that it has already been received, even if no delivery has occurred. The accounts payable clerk woul d not detect that such was the case because her only verification toll 9 | P a g e she has is the RR Number that has been placed in the PO record, which, in the first place, was also encoded by Mr. Walker. Furthermore, it is to be noted that Mr.Walker played a significant role when the system was being put into place and can therefore effectively administer the system. Completeness Furthermore, in order to verify that there are no unrecorded liabilities during 2004, the Purchase Order and Receiving Report files were joined. Then, the resulting table was joined with the Voucher’s Payable file. To search for the items that were recorded, a filter is made to extract unmatched PO number in the three files. The result of this audit test is shown in the figures below: 10 | P a g eThe results indicate that there are 21 incidences where a good was received (as recorded in the RR File) but no order was placed for it (based on the absence of the entry in the PO file). These received go ods are also unrecorded in the Vouchers Payable file conceivably understating the Accounts Payable for the year. Moreover, the results also showed that there are 22 incidences where an order (as shown in Purchase Order file) was not received (as it cannot be found in the Receiving Report file) but was paid for by the Company (as indicated in the Vouchers Payable file).The unusual thing about these incidences was that these transactions were made with the same vendor (Vendor Number 11663). It is possible that all those purchase orders were fabricated and vendor number 11663 is a fictitious supplier. 11 | P a g e The summary of the actions taken is presented in this figure: Valuation or Allocation The Inventory Account is currently valued at $ 1,108,194. 94 which was calculated as the lower between lump sum cost and the market value of the inventory. This was verified by using the Total Fields function.The results are shown in the figure: 12 | P a g e However, such computation does no t value the inventory items individually at their lower of cost or net realisable value in accordance with the accounting reporting standards. Thus, inventory is currently misstated in the financial statements. Thus, to correct the inventory balance, it is necessary to use the filter and total function. Inventory items whose costs are lower than their market value were first added. This resulted to a total of 140 items having a should-be recorded cost of $941,109. 79.Meanwhile, 11 inventory items that should be valued at their market value have a total of $129,986. 27. Adding these two figures together, the inventory balance should be at $ 1,071,096. 06. 13 | P a g e Accuracy In asserting the accuracy of payments to vendors, the Check Register and the Voucher Payable data were joined. This gives us 17 entries that show zero value. Filter and total functions were used to determine if there are payments made which are greater than what was actually owed by the Company. As shown in the figures below, the total disbursed cash is greater than the sum 14 | P a g e f the full amount. The full amount is the basis for the disbursing of cash; however, five records appear to have exceeded this limit. One shows that there was a check issued to settle a payable that has a negative amount. In addition, three checks that have negative values were issued to pay three negatively recorded payables. Further examination of 15 | P a g e these check payments must be made in order to ascertain if these discrepancies have resulted from mere human errors or were intentionally made to cover a fraudulent act.By searching for duplicates, another anomaly was uncovered. One out of the 25 records shows that two consecutively numbered checks were issued to pay for one invoice. The management must investigate on this incident as this involves an explicit misuse of financial resources. 16 | P a g e 17 | P a g e Operational Risk This test focuses on the operational efficiency of the company. To ensure that the discount for their purchases are taken advantage of, the payment due date was compared with the actual payment date.This was done by first joining the Check Register and Vouchers Payable files using the matched category. Subsequently, those checks that do not have a check number were filtered using â€Å"Chk_Num ‘’†. This is to make sure that only those checks that were actually issued are compared to the accounts paid. The resulting data is again filtered using â€Å"Pay_Date > Due_Date† to arrive at those purchases whose actual payment data is beyond their due date. The following tables show the files after the employing the said filter: 18 | P a g e 19 | P a g e 20 | P a g e

The Earnings Game: Everyone Plays, Nobody Wins

SHC 4153 Accounting Theory and Practice Case Study The Earnings Game: Everyone Plays, Nobody Wins. Group member: Chong Li Yun| AH090043| Ho Shuang Tien| AH090095| Chua Huey Shieng| AH090053| Lau Foong Seong| AH090126| Aminah binti Nasaruddin| BH100002| Lecturer: Dr. Aniza binti Othman INTRODUCTION It is all about the shares price. The shares market is so active and everybody wants to win in this game. In reality, nobody would want to become a loser. They try to think the best way to gain the advantage and win in this game. Unfortunately, the players in the game used questionable tactics in order to win the game.All players are connected with each other and the winner will only goes to the player who able to control the game. Finally, who will be the loser? It could be the players itself or the outsiders e. g. the citizen who does not play the game. The dynamic share market could make the economy become gloomy and undesirable consequences will be occurs. Most of the companies involved in the earnings game where the companies have desire or have took actions to meet the analysts’ earnings per share predictions. The common players of this game include the companies themselves, analysts, investors, and accounting firms.There are many issues had been arise in the earnings game. ISSUES AND ANALYSIS 1. 0 MANAGEMENT In order to meet the analysts’ expectation on the earnings per share, companies will use some tactics to distort their current earnings even those tactics may against the law or regulations. The tactics included: a) Channel Stuffing Channel Stuffing is a tactic where the companies borrow from future sales to increase current results by selling goods to customers who aren’t ready to buy yet. In order to attract buyers, the companies are willing to take the cost of storing the goods.Sunbeam, consumer appliance maker is a company who use channel stuffing to boost its earnings in winter by selling millions of dollars’ worth of backya rd grills to customers. The customers not really need the goods at that season and they are allowed to defer payment until the spring. b) Premature Revenue Recognition Premature revenue recognition means the companies recording a highly contingent transaction as a firm sale. For example, MicroStrategy, a web software developer recorded the expected revenue from software upgrades other than actual sales.This is different from accrual revenue that allowed in accounting standard which the sales have been confirmed but the revenue has not been received yet. The software upgrades by customers are just an expectation of MicroStrategy. c) Unusual Structure For example, Boston Chicken has an unusual structure by which their hundreds of stores were owned by large regional franchisees called â€Å"financed area developers† or FAD. Boston Chicken lent money to FAD to start the business or open stores. After that, FAD recovered the funds in the form of fees, royalties and interest. There fore, Boston Chicken earns more profits as the stores opened more.However, the funds that they got back from FAD were not their real revenue. 1. 1 Advantages The advantages of doing these tactics are due to several factors. Firstly, they wanted to show a good result to the public especially those investors who are potential to invest in their companies. Therefore, they will either collaborate with accounting firms to show a good audit report, increase their sales by using future sales to replace current sales, communicate with analyst and so on. Regardless of ethical or unethical, what they want is to increase their earning per share (EPS) in order to attract investors.As a result, it can be concluded that channel stuffing, premature revenue recognition and unusual structure have the similar effects to achieve their ultimate goal. 1. 2 Disadvantages For the disadvantages, each approach has different side effects if the method does not work. For channel stuffing, the future sales mig ht be threatened if they cannot find replacement for it. They need to cover for the loan as soon as possible for everything they used this channel stuffing method. If they are failing to cover the loan, probably the person in charged might need to responsible for this matter thoroughly.In the case, CEO of Sunbeam, â€Å"Chainsaw Dunlap†, lost his job and reputation due to channel stuffing. While, for premature revenue recognition, the action actually does not follow the accounting standard because the revenue is recognized before the transaction have been made or before it happens. For example, in the case, MicroStrategy has recorded their future revenue that they expected to collect from software upgrades. This action can cause the company to overstate their sales and it will affect the trueness and fairness of financial statement of the company.Lastly, in order to enhance current earnings at the expenses of future earnings, the unusual structure system has been applied. For example, in the case, Boston Chicken actually acts like a financial institution that give loans for both its franchisees and area developers in order to open new stores. Boston Chicken only creates the impression that their operation is successful and profitable by opened many stores but in reality, the stores was never made any profit. The profits that they gain were not coming from selling chicken but coming from selling franchises.Boston Chicken only wants to boost their Boston Market â€Å"concept† just to increase their earnings per share (EPS). At the end, the system collapsed and the company filed for bankruptcy protection because the company would not able to complete its restructuring plan due to company debt. 2. 0 STAKEHOLDERS There are two main stakeholders that involved in this case which are investors and analysts. All the creative activities that had been done by the management are to meet the expectation of the analysts and at the same time the investors. 2. 1 InvestorsThere is an issue that the investors only depend on earning per share (EPS) as an indicator in making their investment decisions. All of them, no matter those who have the knowledge that EPS show almost nothing about the business’s health or those who know nothing, still follow the trend of relying on only EPS in making their investment decisions even though some of them may know it is unreasonable to do so. They will abandon those shares that could not achieve the quarterly expectation without referring other information. For them, EPS is the easy indicator to know whether the company is performing well or not.However, EPS are not accurate and adequate indicator to show the performance of company because EPS can easily to be manipulated in the market to attract investors to look at the outstanding share of a company’s stock. The higher EPS, the more investors can be attracted. Although investors know that the investment is a very risky, they do not have inte ntions to look other than EPS. This situation can cause some of the investors gain more profit or vice versa. 2. 2 Analysts Analysts as the intermediaries only focus on the earnings estimates.Furnishing correct earnings estimates is what analysts are paid to do. The accuracy of their forecasts would help analysts maximize compensation; gain reputation and ranking on various analysts and at the same time manage their workload. Therefore, they are more willing to focus on earning rather than analyze the other information of the company. 3. 0 ETHICAL ISSUES Most of the organization has been collapsed because of ethical issue practiced in the organization. Same goes to the company, if this ethical issue never had been settled, they will face the same situation like other company faced it before. . 1 Collaboration of company management and analyst Even though there is a regulation for fair disclosure, company management still finds a loophole to collaborate with analysts in influencing a nd manipulating their expectation or forecast value on share. Although it is not against the law, it is unethical for them to control and influence the stock market by collaborating under the table. It is unfair to the investors who seem to be the puppets controlled and influenced by others. 3. 2 Auditors Auditors stretch the regulation to keep the good relationships with the client.Although the auditors know every creative actions and creative accounting of the companies, they still pretend do not know anything in order to retain their clients which contribute to their revenue. It is unethical for them to do so, although it may be legal for companies to do so, however, as auditors, they have the responsible to disclose any actions which may shaken the daily operation and going concern of the companies. RECOMMENDATION 4. 0 ROLE OF ANALYSTS Analysts should be independence and make the risk analysis without influences by the companies’ management team.By providing accurate and sufficient information, investors are able to make their judgments based on their knowledge. An independence body should be established to govern the analysts in order to monitor the analysts and ready to take discipline action once misconduct happened. 5. 0 ROLE OF COMPANIES 5. 1 To include annual plan in quarter earnings report Since quarter earnings report is used as a reference to identify whether the company is doing well or not, companies should enclosed annual plan in the quarter earnings report.This can provide a clearer view to the investors about the company’s plan in one year time. Investors also can understand deeply on how the company is doing besides put all their attentions on the earning per share (EPS) only. 5. 2 To implement the shareholders forum Company should give a platform the shareholders to voice out their opinion. Shareholders would able to monitor the management and give opinion to the management actions. 6. 0 ROLE OF AUDITORS An auditor should foll ow the code of conduct. As an independence body, an auditor should give true and fair view of the financial statements. . 0 ROLE OF INVESTORS The investor should adequate them self with investment knowledge, where do not too depends on the EPS as an indicators. As an intelligent investor, they should prepare them self before they enter the game. For example, attend some investment course or self-learning through internet. The investor has to know how to analyze the financial statement which also indicates the prospective to the company. For example, the training, introducing a new product or investment in R&D will increase the company future value.Means while, there will be a high probability of company default if there are high bad debts or contingency assets. CONCLUSION In a nutshell, as we know and also mentioned in the case, the only solution to stop this game is for all the companies willing to abandon it. Therefore, the recommendations we suggested involving all parties in thi s game to change their mindset and have a brand new start in the corporate world. Everyone plays their own parts ethically to make this world have a brighter future. With the cooperation of all parties, the â€Å"Earnings Game† will be game over as soon as possible.

A Brief Guide to Evaluating Your Own Writing

A Brief Guide to Evaluating Your Own Writing Youre probably used to having your writing evaluated by teachers. The odd abbreviations (AGR, REF, AWK!), the comments in the margins, the grade at the end of the paperthese are all methods used by instructors to identify what they see as the strengths and weaknesses of your work. Such evaluations can be quite helpful, but theyre no substitute for a thoughtful self-evaluation.* As the writer, you can evaluate the whole process of composing a paper, from coming up with a topic to revising and editing drafts. Your instructor, on the other hand, often can evaluate only the final product. A good self-evaluation is neither a defense nor an apology. Rather, its a way of becoming more aware of what you go through when you write and of what troubles (if any) that you regularly run into. Writing a brief self-evaluation each time you have completed a writing project should make you more aware of your strengths as a writer and help you see more clearly what skills you need to work on. Finally, if you decide to share your self-evaluations with a writing instructor or tutor, your comments can guide your teachers as well. By seeing where youre having problems, they may be able to offer more helpful advice when they come to evaluate your work. So after you finish your next composition, try writing a concise self-evaluation. The following four questions should help you get started, but feel free to add comments not covered by these questions. A Self-Evaluation Guide What part of writing this paper took the most time? Perhaps you had trouble finding a topic or expressing a particular idea. Maybe you agonized over a single word or phrase. Be as specific as you can when you answer this question. What is the most significant difference between your first draft and this final version? Explain if you changed your approach to the subject, if you reorganized the paper in any significant way, or if you added or deleted any important details. What do you think is the best part of your paper? Explain why a particular sentence, paragraph, or idea pleases you. What part of this paper could still be improved? Again, be specific. There may be a troublesome sentence in the paper or an idea that isnt expressed as clearly as you would like it to be. * Note to Instructors Just as students need to learn how to conduct peer reviews effectively, they need practice and training in carrying out self-evaluations if the process is to be worthwhile. Consider Betty Bambergs summary of a study conducted by Richard Beach. In a study specifically designed to investigate the effect of teacher comment and self-evaluation on revision, Beach [The Effects of Between-Draft Teacher Evaluation Versus Student Self-Evaluation on High School Students Revising of Rough Drafts in Research in the Teaching of English, 13 (2), 1979] compared students who used a self-evaluation guide to revise drafts, received teacher responses to drafts, or were told to revise on their own. After analyzing the amount and kind of revision that resulted with each of these instructional strategies, he found that students who received teacher evaluation showed a greater degree of change, higher fluency, and more support in their final drafts than students who used the self-evaluation forms. Moreover, students who used the self-evaluation guides engaged in no more revising than those who were asked to revise on their own without any assistance. Beach concluded the self-evaluation forms were ineffective because students had received little instruction in self-assessment and were not used to detaching themselves critically from their writing. As a result, he recommended that teachers provide evaluation during the writing of drafts (p. 119).(Betty Bamberg, Revision. Concepts in Composition: Theory and Practice in the Teaching of Writing, 2nd ed., ed. by Irene L. Clarke. Routledge, 2012) Most students need to conduct several self-evaluations at different stages of the writing process before theyre comfortable detaching themselves critically from their own writing. In any case, self-evaluations shouldnt be regarded as substitutes for thoughtful responses from teachers and peers.

ACT Exam Time Management Handing in the Test Early

SAT / ACT Exam Time Management Handing in the Test Early SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips I recently received a question from one of my students that I believe highlights a very common mistake: "I find that on some sections I finish early and close the section ahead of time – does this mean I'm doing well on those sections?" Here, I'll break down why this sometimes happens, and what it means for you. Isn't Getting Done First a Great Thing? Many students are used to high school exams where the genius in the class finishes ahead of time and hands in the test early. These students then get the idea that handing in the test early is a sign of genius, and strive for the same on the ACT / SAT. But it turns out that closing a section early is almost always a huge mistake on the ACT / SAT due to time management. Read on to find out why. Why Finishing Early is a Huge Mistake The SAT / ACT are time-pressure tests. This means the creators of the tests on purpose give you much less time than you need to feel no time pressure on the tests. Few, if any, students are smart enough to really finish early. I personally received perfect scores on the SAT and know dozens of classmates who got perfect ACT / SAT scores, some of who are genius mathematicians, and none of these people ever finished early. Time is gold on the test, and you canalwaysconvert time to a higher expected score on these tests (I'll show you how). If you accept this, then it's obvious you shouldn't be handing in the test early: are you getting a perfect score in that section you're handing in early? If not, why aren't you using the techniques below to convert that extra time to a higher score? How to Convert Time To Score Okay, you're handing in your math section early, yet you're far from getting a 800. How do you convert that extra time into a higher score? Strategy #1: Have pacing checkpoints. Finishing early should never take you by surprise. You should be glancing at your watch every 5 minutes, and seeing whether you're "too ahead" or "too behind" in your section. Finishing early means you're "too ahead" – you'll realize this halfway through the section. In this case, slow down on the problems. Employ strategies that trade off time for points: read each question twice, write more neatly, think more about each question, double check your answer. This class of strategies "burns" your free time and harnesses it into extra points! Strategy #2: Double check each problem. Okay, say you employed the strategy above, and still have a few minutes left at the end. What do you do? Go back and check your problems. I don't mean glancing at them and mechanically saying to yourself "okay, yeah, that was right," but actually redoing the problem a different way. A very helpful trick is to actually mark "questionable problems" with a star while you're doing the test the first time around. Questionable problems are those you aren't sure about but don't want to waste time on the first time through. When you have time the second time around, go to the starred problems first. Oh, and what do you do if you finish a second check? Hand it in early? Nope, check it a third time. Take it from me – there are countless times I've found one serious mistake on a second or third check-through. That's 20-40 points right there, on a single section! To conclude, never hand in your test early. Manage your time during the first run-through so you never have too much time in the end. If you still end with too much time, check it over again! If you liked this article, you might enjoy: Why you need to prepare for the SAT / ACT How to get a perfect ACT / SAT score Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points?We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:

Rhinoceros Facts

Rhinoceros Facts There are five species of Rhinoceroses- Ceratotherium simum, Diceros bicornis, Rhinoceros unicornis, R. sondaicos, Dicerorhinus sumatrensis- and for the most part, they live in widely separated ranges. By most counts, there are less than 30,000 rhinoceroses alive today, a steep plunge in population for a mammal that has existed on the earth, in one form or another, for 50 million years. Fast Facts: Rhinoceros Scientific Name: Five species are Ceratotherium simum, Diceros bicornis, Rhinoceros unicornis, R. sondaicos, Dicerorhinus sumatrensisCommon Name: White, Black, Indian, Javan, SumatranBasic Animal Group: MammalSize: 4–15 feet tall, 7–15 feet long, depending on speciesWeight: 1,000–5,000 poundsLifespan: 10–45 yearsDiet:  HerbivoreHabitat: Subharan Africa, Southeast Asia, Indian subcontinentPopulation: 30,000Conservation Status: Three species are Critically Endangered (Javan, Sumatran, black), one is Vulnerable (Indian), one is Near Threatened (white) Description Rhinoceroses are perissodactyls, or odd-toed ungulates, a family of mammals characterized by their herbivorous diets, relatively simple stomachs, and ​an odd number of toes on their feet (one or three). The only other perissodactyls on earth today are horses, zebras, and donkeys (all belonging to genus Equus), and the strange, pig-like mammals known as tapirs.  Rhinoceroses are characterized by their large sizes, quadrupedal postures, and single or double  horns on the ends of their snouts- the name rhinoceros is Greek for nose horn. These horns probably evolved as a sexually selected characteristic- that is, males with bigger, more prominent horns were more successful with females during mating season. Considering how big they are, rhinoceroses have unusually small brains- no more than a pound and a half in the largest individuals, and about five times smaller than a comparably sized elephant. That is a common attribute in animals which have elaborate anti-predator defenses like body armor: their encephalization quotient (the relative size of an animals brain compared to the rest of its body) is low. WLDavies/Getty Images   Species There are five extant rhino species- the white rhinoceros, black rhinoceros, Indian rhinoceros, Javan rhinoceros, and Sumatran rhinoceros. The largest rhinoceros species, the white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum) consists of two subspecies- the southern white rhinoceros, which lives in the southernmost regions of Africa, and the northern white rhinoceros of central Africa. There are about 20,000 southern white rhinoceroses in the wild, the males of which weigh over two tons, but the northern white rhinoceros is on the brink of extinction, with a mere handful of individuals surviving in zoos and nature reserves. No one is quite sure why C. simum is called white- this may be a corruption of the Dutch word wijd, which means wide (as in widespread), or because its horn is lighter than that of other rhinoceros species. Actually brown or grey in color, the black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis) used to be widespread across southern and central Africa, but today its numbers have dwindled to about half those of the southern white rhinoceros. (In Greek, bicornis means two-horned; an adult black rhinoceros has a larger horn toward the front of its snout, and a narrower one directly behind.) Black rhinoceros adults rarely exceed two tons in weight, and they browse on shrubs rather than grazing on grass like their white cousins. There used to be a bewildering number of black rhinoceros subspecies, but today the International Union for the Conservation of Nature recognizes only three, all of them seriously endangered. The Indian or greater one-horned rhinoceros, Rhinoceros unicornis, used to be thick on the ground in India and Pakistan until a combination of hunting and habitat destruction restricted its numbers to the puny 4,000 or so individuals alive today. Full-grown Indian rhinos weigh between three and four tons and are characterized by their long, thick, black horns, which are prized by unscrupulous poachers. On a historical note, the Indian rhinoceros was the first rhino to be seen in Europe, a single individual shipped to Lisbon in 1515. Plucked from its natural habitat, this unfortunate rhino quickly died, but not before it had been immortalized in a woodcut by Albrecht Durer, the sole reference point for European  enthusiasts until another Indian rhino arrived in England in 1683. One of the rarest mammals in the entire world, the Javan rhinoceros (Rhinoceros sondaicos) consists of a few dozen individuals living on the western edge of Java (the largest island in the Indonesian archipelago). This cousin of the Indian rhinoceros (same genus, different species) is slightly smaller, with a comparably smaller horn, which has not, sadly, prevented it from being hunted to near-extinction by poachers. The Javan rhinoceros used to be widespread across Indonesia and southeast Asia; one of the key factors in its decline was the Vietnam War, in which millions of acres of habitat were destroyed by incendiary bombing and poisoning of vegetation by the herbicide called Agent Orange. Also known as the hairy rhinoceros, the Sumatran rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) is almost as endangered as the Javan rhinoceros, with which it once shared the same territory of Indonesia and Southeast Asia. Adults of this species rarely exceed 2,000 pounds in weight, making it the smallest living rhinoceros. Unfortunately, as with the Javan rhinoceros, the relatively short horn of the Sumatran rhinoceros hasnt spared it from the depredations of poachers: The powdered horn of a Sumatran rhino commands over $30,000 per kilogram on the black market. Not only is D. sumatrensis the smallest rhino, but its also the most mysterious. This is by far the most vocal rhino species and herd members communicate with one another via yelps, moans, and whistles. Habitat and Range Rhinoceroses are native to Subharan Africa, Southeast Asia, Indian subcontinent, depending on their species. They live in a variety of habitats, including tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas and shrublands, tropical moist forests, and deserts and xeric shrublands. Diet Rhinos are all herbivores, but their diets depend on their habitat: Sumatran and Javan rhinos feed on tropical vegetation, including some fruits, while black rhinoceros are primarily browsers that feed on herbs and shrubs, and Indian rhinos feed on both grasses and aquatic plants. They require a great deal of time to forage and spend most of their active time doing that. Rhinos can be active day or night and generally regulate their activity depending on the weather. If its too hot or too cold, they will stay near water. Behavior If theres one place the average person does not want to be, its in the path of a stampeding rhino. When startled, this animal can hit top speeds of 30 miles per hour, and its not exactly equipped to stop on a dime (which may be one reason rhinos evolved their nasal horns as they can absorb unexpected impacts with stationary trees). Because rhinos are basically solitary animals, and because they have become so thin on the ground, its rare to see a true crash (as a group of rhinos is called), but this phenomenon has been known to occur around watering holes. Rhinos also have poorer eyesight than most animals, another reason not to linger in the path of a four-ton male on your next African safari. The closest rhinoceros bond is between a mother and her offspring. Bachelor rhinos congregate in small crashes of three to five, and sometimes as many as 10, to cooperate against predators. Rhinos may also gather around limited resources, water pools, wallows, feeding areas, and salt licks, always staying one body length apart. Reproduction and Offspring All rhinoceroses are polygamous and polyandrous- both sexes seek multiple mates. Courting and mating can occur at any time during the day. During courtship, males engage in mate-guarding behavior until the female is in full estrus and will permit males to approach her. Indian male rhinos whistle loudly to announce reproductive condition and location, six to 10 hours before breeding activity. Gestation takes 15–16 months, and by two months of age, calves are weaned and may be left alone while the female forager a few feet away. When separated temporarily, the female and her calves stay in contact through vocalizations. Calves suckle until the calf is two or the mother conceives again; they become completely independent at three years. Females become sexually mature at 5–7, and males at 10 years. Rhinos typically live between 10 and 45 years, depending on the species.   mantaphoto/Getty Images Evolutionary History Researchers trace the evolutionary lineage of modern rhinoceroses back 50 million years, to small, pig-sized ancestors that originated in Eurasia and later spread to North America. A good example is Menoceras, a tiny, four-footed plant-eater that sported a pair of small horns. The North American branch of this family went extinct about five million years ago, but rhinos continued to live in Europe until the end of the last Ice Age (at which point Coelodonta, also known as the woolly rhino, went extinct along with its fellow mammalian megafaunas like the woolly mammoth and the saber-toothed tiger). One recent rhinoceros ancestor, Elasmotherium, may even have inspired the unicorn myth, as its single, prominent horn struck awe in early human populations. Daniel Eskridge/Stocktrek Images/Getty Images Conservation Status All of the five species of rhinoceroses are listed as endangered or vulnerable ty the IUCN. Three are listed as Critically Endangered (Javan, Sumatran, and black rhinos); one is Vulnerable (Indian), and one is Near Threatened (white).   Ã‚  Klaus Vedfelt/Getty Images Threats Rhinoceroses have been continually driven relentlessly to the brink of extinction by human poachers. What these hunters are after is rhino horns, which, when ground up into powder, are valued in the east as aphrodisiacs (today, the largest market for powdered rhino horn is in Vietnam, as Chinese authorities have recently cracked down on this illicit trade). Whats ironic is that the horn of a rhinoceros is composed entirely of keratin, the same substance that makes up human hair and fingernails. Rather than continuing to drive these majestic animals into extinction, perhaps poachers can be convinced to grind up their toenail clippings and see if anyone notices the difference! Sources Emslie, R. Ceratotherium simum. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: e.T4185A16980466, 2012.-. Diceros bicornis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: e.T6557A16980917, 2012.  Hutchins, M., and M. D. Kreger. Rhinoceros Behaviour: Implications for Captive Management and Conservation. International Zoo Yearbook 40.1 (2006): 150-73. Print.Talukdar, B.K. et al. Rhinoceros unicornis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: e.T19496A8928657, 2008.  van Strien, N.J. et al. Rhinoceros sondaicus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: e.T19495A8925965, 2008.van Strien, N.J., et al. Dicerorhinus sumatrensis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: e.T6553A12787457, 2008.

Featured Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Featured - Article Example In the Bahrain Grand prix history, the 2011 event has been considered as a dark event because the race was delayed due to protests in Bahrain. The situation was aggravated to an extent that even driver such as Mark Webber and Damon Hill protested (Galloway, 2014). In this article, the author argues that the Bahrain formula one grand prix switch to a night occasion for 2014 has been confirmed with the race organizers. Further, the article asserts that the race will be shown live on the sky sport formula one channel, which would occur under floodlights at six pm Bahrain local time. The 2014 race that will be held under floodlights is the second formula one competition to be held at night after the race in Singapore. The organizers decided the race to occur at night as a commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the Bahrain Grand Prix that started in 2004. Having chosen to celebrate the 10th anniversary in the Grand Prix, the organizers converted the April competition race into the Calendar’s second nighttime race. In addition, the race organizers installed a lighting system around the 6 km field that was tracked during the global endurance championship race that took place in the same venue in November 2013 (Galloway, 2014). It is clear from the article that the session start times for the other coming races or competitions for the formula one season have been confirmed with Bahrain given the chance to organize and stage qualifying and the final races under floodlights from six pm Bahrain local time that is four pm BST. Unlike the previous races, the Friday races will start at two pm local time while the second practice starting at six pm. The third practice will take place at three pm on Saturday. Because it is the second country to host formula one race under floodlights, Bahrain joins Singapore, a place where formula one staged its first competition under the floodlights. All the Grand Prix events in Bahrain will be aired live on Sky sports television.