How to Ace the ACT 6 Top Tips for Success

How to Ace the ACT 6 Top Tips for Success SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Getting a stellar ACT score isn't easy. You'll have to put in sufficient study time, and you'll have to employ effective study strategies. So what should you be doing to reachthe top ACT score of your dreams? In this article, I'll explain exactly how to ace the ACT from the methods you need to use in your test prep to the best test-taking tips to maximize your score. What Is Acing the ACT? For the purposes of this article, acing the ACT refers to getting a score over a 30. Getting this score will make you competitive for admission to most colleges, and based on past results, if you get a score higher than 30, you’ll likely score better than 95% of students who take the ACT. To get this score, you’ll only be able to miss a handful of questions on each section. You should be aware that for the most selective colleges, you may need a score of 34 or higher for your ACT score to help your chances of getting in. Depending on your college goals, calculate your target score and what a good score would be for you. Regardless of whether you’re aiming for a 30 or a 36, if you follow the advice in this article, you’ll be preparing yourself to reach your goals. If you’re striving for a 20-27, you may want to focus on our posts about improving your Math, Reading, English, and Science scores. How Long Do You Have to Study? Mostly, how long you need to study depends on your starting point and your target score. How much you need to improve will determine the study time you need to achieve your goal. If you haven’t taken the ACT, take an official practice test simulating real testing conditions to determine where you’re at and how much you need to improve. Here’s a rough estimate of how long you’ll have to study based on how many points you need to reach your goal: 0-1 point improvement: 10 hours 1-2 point improvement: 20 hours 2-4 point improvement: 40 hours 4-6 point improvement: 80 hours 6-9 point improvement: 150 hours + Keep in mind that this is just an estimate based on our data. However, it should give you a general idea of the amount of time you’ll have to put in to ace the ACT. How to Acethe ACT: Best StudyStrategies You don’t just need to put in the requisite study hours to ace the ACT; you need to study efficiently. Regardless of whether you’re using test prep books, you have a tutor, or you take an ACT prep class, you should be incorporating these practices into your ACT studying. Use Real or Realistic Practice Questions The best questions to study from are those that will most closely resemble the questions that appear on the ACT. The ACT is unlike tests you've taken in school and its format is unique. If you want to ace the ACT, the best way to do so is by knowing you can condfidently answer all of the different types of questions that are likely to appear on the test. A huge flaw of many test prep books is that their practice questions are either much harder or much easier than those you’ll find on the ACT. Also, some books present questions in a different format than that of the ACT. What are good sources for ACT practice questions? Undoubtedly, you should use the released official ACTs. For more real ACT questions, you can purchase The Real ACT Prep Guide. Also, the ACT website has practice questions and offers an online ACT prep program. Furthermore, PrepScholar has thousands of realistic ACT questions written by ACT experts. Focus on Your Weaknesses and Analyze Your Mistakes You’ll make the best use of your study time by focusing on why you’re missing questions and trying to improve your weaknesses. If you just do a ton of practice questions, but you don’t stop to figure out why you’re getting questions wrong, your score won’t improve much. If you want to ace the ACT, you’ll have very little room for error. You must comprehend how to correctly answer every type of question and be able to finish each section in the allotted time. For each practice test or question set you do, mark every question that you’re even 20% unsure about. Then, when you’re reviewing, thoroughly examine each question you got incorrect or guessed on. Make sure you understand how to correctly answer the question and what you didn’t grasp or did wrong. Keep track of all of these questions with specific notes about what you need to improve. Ask yourself why you got questions wrong, and be as specific as possible. Take notes about why you're getting questions wrong. These are the major areas you might need to improve. Content Again, to ace the ACT, you’re going to want to know all of the content well. The ACT tests you on a number of concepts related to reading, writing, science, and math. By identifying the specific types of questions you get wrong, you can identify the topics you need to learn better. For example, on Math, you may notice that you’re missing questions related to coordinate geometry. On English, you may be having difficulty with questions that deal with punctuation. Once you diagnose your content weaknesses, study the content. We have articles on this blog related to every type of question. When you’ve become more familiar with the content, do a ton of related practice questions and understand how to correctly answer each practice question. Time Even if you understand ACT content and how to do each question, you may struggle finishing sections on time. If you're finishing sections with more than 5 minutes remaining and you're making careless mistakes, then you're rushing. If you're consistently struggling to complete sections in the allotted time, then you need to focus on improving your time management. If you’re rushing, all you may have to do is slow down and read the questions more carefully. If you’re having trouble finishing questions on time, monitor your time spent per question during your practice. Also, you may increase your speed as you improve your content knowledge. Additionally, you may be able to better your time management by adopting quality test-taking strategies. For Reading and Writing, you need to figure out the most efficient way for you to read the passages to maximize your score. Drill your approach in your test prep so that you’re comfortable with it. For Math, memorize all formulas you may need to know. Strategy Some students are comfortable with the content and don’t have issues with time management, but they’re still missing questions. Usually, this occurs because of a lack of understanding of ACT strategy. If you’re missing questions because you’re falling prey to common ACT tricks, then you may need to improve your knowledge of ACT strategy. For example, if you know the grammar rules that are tested on ACT English but you’re missing questions because you’re not reading the whole sentence, you need to work on your ACT strategy. Strategy errors occur when you understand the content that’s being tested, but you need to improve your approach or understanding of the questions. Follow these tips for ACT success! Top Test-Taking Tips to Ace the ACT Following these tips will help you avoid strategy errors and enable you to correctly answer questions more quickly and efficiently. Make sure to use these tips when taking practice tests so they become habit for you. Answer Every Question On the ACT, there's no penalty for incorrect answers, so it's in your best interest to answer every single question. Even if you're clueless on a specific question, you should guess because you have a 25% chance of randomly picking the correct answer on the multiple choice questions. This is also why it's important to have good time management; you want to make sure that you're able to answer all of the questions. If you're running out of time and know you won't get to the end of the section, you should still fill in random bubbles to give yourself a chance at getting more right answers. Underline Key Words in the Questions Regardless of the section, underlining key words can help you make sure you understand what the question is asking and avoid careless mistakes. For instance, In Math, you can know for certain whether you should be solving for x or y. In Writing, you can ensure if a question is asking you whether a sentence should be added or deleted. Eliminate Wrong Answers Even though this strategy may sound obvious, it’s important to use, especially if you’re not immediately 100% confident in your answer. In Reading and Writing, there may be answer choices that seem possible, but if anything about the answer choice isn’t correct, it must be eliminated. Similarly, in Math, if you have a rough estimate of the correct answer, you can eliminate any answer that isn’t close to your estimate. Or if you know the answer is positive, you can eliminate any answer that’s a negative number. Eliminating wrong answers will increase your chances of getting questions right and help you arrive at the correct answer. Get rid of wrong answers! Finish with Extra Time to Recheck Your Work You should try to finish each section with approximately 5 minutes remaining. During the remaining time, check any questions you were unsure of. I recommend marking any questions you’re uncertain about while you’re taking the test. Double check how you got your answer. Once you feel comfortable with your answer, go to the next question. If you’re still unsure, stick with your initial guess. After looking over questions you had doubts about, ensure that you did all your bubbling correctly. Final Advice: How to Ace the ACT It’s not easy to ace the ACT, but it’s possible with hard work and a good study plan. If you need help with organization, motivation, or test-taking strategies, you may benefit with the help of a tutor, in-person class, or online program like PrepScholar. For further guidanceand detailed instructions on how to acethe ACT, read our articles for how to get a perfect ACT score, and how to get a perfect score in Reading, English, Science, and Math. What's Next? If you don't have much time to prepare for the ACT, read our guide to cramming for the test. Also, to ace the ACT, you'll want to review our comprehensive ACT prep information. Finally, to help with your test preparation, learn about the best ACT prep books. Want to improve your ACT score by 4 points? Check out our best-in-class online ACT prep program. We guarantee your money back if you don't improve your ACT score by 4 points or more. Our program is entirely online, and it customizes your prep program to your strengths and weaknesses. We also have expert instructors who can grade every one of your practice ACT essays, giving feedback on how to improve your score. Check out our 5-day free trial:

A Case Study On Kentucky Fried Chicken Marketing Essay

A Case Study On Kentucky Fried Chicken Marketing Essay KFC  Corporation, based  in  Louisville, Kentucky, is the world’s  most popular chicken restaurant chain.  It  primarily  sells  chicken  specializing in Original Recipe ®, Extra Crispy ®, Kentucky Grilled Chickenà ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢ and Original Recipe Strips with home-style sides, Honey BBQ Wings, and freshly made chicken sandwiches.(www.kfc.com)  KFC  was founded  by Colonel Harland D. Sandersin  1964, KFC operates restaurants in 109 countries and territories around the world.  KFC operates more than 5,200 restaurants in the United States and more than 15,000 units around the world. KFC is KFC  is  part of Yum! Brands, Inc., the world’s largest restaurant company in terms of system restaurants, with more than 36,000 locations around the world. The company is currently ranked 239 according to Fortune 500 List, with an excess of $11 billion revenue in 2008.( http://www.kfc.com/about/)  PRODUCTS AND SERVICES KFC’s  main  prod uct is pressure-fried  pieces of chicken made with the original recipe.  The other chicken  offering, extra crispy,  is made  out of  garlic marinade and double dipping the  chicken in flour before deep frying in a  standard industrial kitchen  set  machine.   It also serves potato chips and wedges, coleslaw, zinger burger, depending on the  international  location.(www.wikepedia.com) MISSION STATEMENT To sell food in a fast, friendly  environment that appeals to pride conscious, health minded  consumers (www.KFC.com)  KEY SUCCESS FACTORS -Quality -Service -Cleanliness satisfying  the customers’ needs. COMPETITORS KFC competitors are pizza hut, macdonalds,and dominoes. MARKETINING ANALYSIS OF KFC SEGMENTATION Market Segmentaion is a  way  by which an  organization  or  firm  divides its target market into different homogenous groups in other to identify and meet the needs of its target customers..  They are four bases of market segmentation. KFC has divided its  market  into  distinct  groups of customers to meet their needs. Geographic Segmentation KFC has over 20,000 outlets all over the world and it segments its  market  geographically by regions KFC offers different  varieties  of  chicken  depending  on tastes in a certain country.  In north  India, chicken is their primary product while in the north, vegetable is  usually  preferred to  chicken.  KFC also segments its market based on  size  of the population.  In India, KFCs outlets  are found  in urbanized areas that are densely populated.  Geographic se For  instance  In north  India, chicken is their primary product while in the north, vegetable is  typically  preferred to  chicken. Demographic segmentation In demographic segmentation, the market  is divided  into  different groups based on age, sex, nationality, income etc KFCs segments its  market  according to Age(  7-60) Sex ( Both Males and Females) Income( for  high income  earners and  average  income  earners) Also, segmentation may be based on ethnicity; an example in China, some ethnic groups in China  prefer  hot and spicy food while others like it plain.  It is  therefore  necessary to meet the needs of these clients differently if one owns a chain of restaurants in those different regions. Physograpic segmentation Psychographic segmentation refers to the use of consumer lifestyles as a  basis  for classifying ones’ customers. Since different people have different interests and activities, then such an approach would be  feasible  in marketing. In this approach, companies may  classify  their  consumer  on the basis of their values.  In Psychographic Segmentation, segments  are divided  on the basis of social class,

Personal Leadership Development Plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 3

Personal Leadership Development Plan - Essay Example As is basic for these groups, I might be working in moderately little, cross-utilitarian assemblies with others, on the whole working a little set of records. Inside that group, my particular obligations could extend from City Manager, City Planner, Government Manager, Non-Profit Manager, Executive Assistant, or Chief of Administration, all of which I have experience finishing now through my different employments, volunteers, internships, and grounds associations. Imperative authority aptitudes in aggregations of the sort incorporate high assignment introduction, capacity to oblige and team up both remotely with the customers and inside the group, and the ability to boost bunch effectiveness through fitting undertaking division. While the examination of my outcomes from the collection of overviews and evaluations will offer a more definite dissection of how my current qualities play into or challenge those obligations, I feel that I to a great extent have a solid premise in those mea surements with evident room to develop and enhance later on. In general, I observe that I am a legit and minding diligent employee who values productivity and close flawlessness. Not just do I accept that these are critical models throughout my life, I observe that I proclaim these characteristics to others, on occasion setting a bar excessively high for any other person to arrive at. While I value the general capacity to be both strongly meticulous and for the most part minded, I do periodically become involved with the particulars of an assignment, staggering to demand that everything is executed simply right. Humorous in view of the extent to which I get a kick out of the chance to arrange things, I get amazing delight and fervor from spontaneity, maybe due to its irregularity. All the more formally, I have wide arriving at abilities, running from different sorts of managerial

Men as Contemporary Shopping Spectacles in London Essay

Men as Contemporary Shopping Spectacles in London - Essay Example London's Covent Garden market surfaces as a prime example of a shopping spectacle for men incorporating all pleasures of consumption from packaging, presentation and buying. American Classics is a store located in the area which caters only to men and their accessories in the form of international American type clothing. The layout of the store is designed to inform and incite men into consumption and also as spectacles to be gazed at. Men are emerging everywhere as hungry predators for all things aesthetic. They are even making a go for cosmetics and beauty products like never before. They even make their own choices rather than depend on their partners to do the obvious. They seem to be better informed than most women these days. Men are gradually becoming aware of their bodies and their looks which is what gives proof for today's metro sexual male; shaving creams, colognes, soaps, clothes, shoes, hair and skin products being the order of the day. Gadgets and gizmos follow close by . These products depended on varied ideas to be marketed which gave consumption and masculinity a massive push towards an upheaval in the British society. It soon led to consumer identities being arranged and expanded at a spiraling recourse towards the male species. Figure 1.Men's Perfumes are Quite the Rage http://www.strawberrynet.com/images/products/00763331005.jpgwww.strawberrynet.com The long held assumption that consumption is a feminine venture has been proved wrong by these men centric malls and retail stores. Author Christopher Breward posits that male fashion in Britain gave a creative lend and space for masculine innovation during the late- Victorian era, in his book, The Hidden Consumer: Masculinities, Fashion and City Life. Hence, this process put men as consumers at the forefront of modernization at the beginning of the twentieth century itself. This also invalidates the idea that Englishmen of the late Victorian times agreed with the concept of a "Great Masculine Renunciation" (Breward 1) of style and fashion as many have suggested. Most material evidence of increasing male fashion consciousness are found in stores, malls, novels, films, photographs, magazines, trade directories etc. Breward's book also provides evidence that male fashion ability was conspicuous from the Victorian times itself, with these very proofs he provides in the form photographs and diaries. Clothing and fashion accessories were available to men even then but since the dominant wisdom was patriarchal, the opposite has been proved. By the help of those photographs and even songs, he posits to examine how many London and Manchester working class gangs utilized fashion to pose different from the rest of the gangs

Internet Censorship Essay - Internet AccessShould be Restricted to Prot

Access to the Internet Should be Restricted to Protect Children      Ã‚  Ã‚   We are now entering an age of computers where people have almost unlimited access to information. There are entire books and encyclopedias that can be purchased for use on personal computers. Information such as stock prices to computer-aided design programs to entire business operations is being used and accessed through the power of the computer. This information is obtained through the thousands of computer programs out on the market, but most importantly, it is obtained by access to what is called the "Internet." The Internet is the term for the ten thousand plus interconnected computer networks throughout the world that enable us to gather and dispense any type of information almost instantly. For the 1.5 million computers and the 10 million plus users, the Internet gathers information easily and quickly by means of messages, newsgroups, discussion groups, and conferences (rmuir, '94). Anyone who owns a computer and has the necessary software and hardware can have a ccess to this infinite amount of information.    This, of course, can include children. Right now children at the age of seven are speeeding down the "information superhighway," accessing an almost unlimited amount of information. In fact, there are schools on the Internet with their own World Wide Web homepages already. Unfortunately, some of this information isn't geared for children and can even be strictly for adults. Just as inappropriate material in books and magazines is regulated, there too should be some form of Internet regulation and ethics because children of secondary schools have access to any and all information including that information which is objectionable and ev... ...p://www.eff.org:80/CAF/cafuiuc.html rmuir@chs.cusd.claremont.edu FYI, RFC#1578 -Schools and Internet, February 22,1994, http://chs.cusd.claremont.edu:80/www/people/rmuir/rfc1578.html Abrahams, Janice. Janice's k12 Cyberspace OUTPOST. October 1,1994. http://k12.cnidr.org/janice_k12/schools.html, http://k12.cnidr.org/janice_k12/menu.html The Family Resource Center in Santa Clara, California, Parents Helping Parents. October 25, 1994, http://www.portal.com:80/~cbntmkr/php.html Gore, Albert. Speech at Royce Hall, UCLA Los Angeles, CA. January 11, 1994. http://sunsite.unc.edu:80/icky/speech2.html Morrison, Michael. Computer Writing and Research Center. University of Texas at Austin. Personal Interview. December 3,1994. Hoker, Delia. Computer Writing and Research Center. University of Texas at Austin. Personal Interview. December 3,1994.   

Advertising to Children Notes Essay

* Children cannot comprehend advertising messages due to their young age. * Children don’t understand persuasive intent until they are eight or nine years old and that it is unethical to advertise to them before then. According to Karpatkin and Holmes from the Consumers Union, â€Å"Young children, in particular, have difficulty in distinguishing between advertising and reality in ads, and ads can distort their view of the world. † Additionally children are unable to evaluate advertising claims. Beder, 1998) * Older children pay less attention to advertisements and are more able to differentiate between the ads and TV programs but they are also easy prey for advertisers. Around puberty, in their early teens, children are forming their own identities and they are â€Å"highly vulnerable to pressure to conform to group standards and mores. † At this age they feel insecure and want to feel that they belong to their peer group. Advertising manipulates them through their insecurities, seeking to define normality for them; influencing the way they â€Å"view and obtain appropriate models for the adult world;† and undermining â€Å"fundamental human values in the development of the identity of children. † Advertisements actively encourage them to seek happiness and esteem through consumption. (Beder, 1998) * Younger children often do not understand the persuasive intent of advertisements, and even older children probably have difficulty understanding the intent of newer marketing techniques that blur the line between commercial and program content. Calvert, 2008) * One key area in research on the effect of advertising on children has been analysis of age-based changes in children’s ability to understand commercial messages, particularly their intent. Before they reach the age of eight, children believe that the purpose of commercials is to help them in their purchasing decisions; they are unaware that commercials are designed to persuade them to buy specific products. The shifts that take place in children’s understanding of commercial intent are better explained using theories of cognitive development. Calvert, 2008) * During the stage of preoperational thought, roughly from age two to age seven, young children are perceptually bound and focus on properties such as how a product looks. Young children also use animistic thinking, believing that imaginary events and characters can be real. For instance, during the Christmas season, television is flooded with commercials that foster an interest in the toys that Santa will bring in his sleigh pulled by flying reindeer. Young children â€Å"buy in† to these fantasies and the consumer culture they represent. Preoperational modes of thought put young children at a distinct disadvantage in understanding commercial intent and, thus, in being able to make informed decisions about requests and purchases of products. (Calvert, 2008) * With the advent of concrete operational thought, between age seven and age eleven, children begin to understand their world more realistically. They understand, for example, that perceptual manipulations do not change the underlying properties of objects. More important, they begin to go beyond the information given in a commercial and grasp that the intent of advertisers is to sell products. By the stage of formal operational thought, about age twelve and upward, adolescents can reason abstractly and understand the motives of advertisers even to the point of growing cynical about advertising. (Calvert, 2008) * Increased use of the Internet to target children offers increasing opportunities for advertisers to convey their messages. * A new arena for advertising is the Internet. It is estimated that about four million children are using the Internet worldwide and this figure is bound to increase dramatically over the next few years. Beder, 1998) * As the enormous increase in the number of available television channels has led to smaller audiences for each channel, digital interactive technologies have simultaneously opened new routes to narrow cast to children, thereby creating a growing media space just for children and children’s products. (Calvert, 2008) * Newer marketing approaches have led to online advertising and to so-called stealth marketing techniques, such as embedding products in the program content in films, online, and in video games. Calvert, 2008) * Television has long been the staple of advertising to children and youth. Children view approximately 40,000 advertisements each year. The products marketed to children— sugarcoated cereals, fast food restaurants, candy, and toys—have remained relatively constant over time. But marketers are now directing these same kinds of products to children online. (Calvert, 2008) * Rapid growth in the number of television stations and online venues has also led advertisers to market directly to children and youth. Because children and youth are heavy media users and early adopters of newer technologies, media marketing and advertising campaigns using both television and newer media are efficient pathways into children’s homes and lives. Although television is still the preferred medium for reaching children and youth, marketers are exploring how to reach this age group online using cell phones, iPods, game platforms, and other digital devices. Banner ads, for example, which resemble traditional billboard ads but market a product across the top of an Internet page, appear on most webpages. And â€Å"advergames† integrate products such as cereal and candy into online video games to sell products to youth. (Calvert, 2008) * Although television is still the dominant venue for advertising, marketers are exploring new ways to market to children and adolescents through online media and wireless devices, often using stealth techniques whereby consumers are immersed in branded environments, frequently without knowing that they are being exposed to sophisticated marketing campaigns. Marketers carefully analyze children and adolescents’ interest patterns, focusing on games for â€Å"tweens,† as well as communication software for teens. Tracking these patterns provides extensive information that marketers now analyze in aggregate form, but that can, in the future, be used for one-on-one relational marketing strategies directed at specific individuals. (Calvert, 2008) * Online interactive agents are a virtual form of stealth advertising. Marketers program robots, or bots, to reply? to surfers who initiate a conversation. Such bots are programmed to respond to users in a one-on-one relational way that builds brand loyalty, as for instance, with virtual bartenders who â€Å"talk† to those who visit their sites. These alcohol-related websites feature humor, games, and hip language to appeal to minors. (Calvert, 2008) * Many companies have realized that children, particularly tweens and teens, enjoy using technology for education, communication, and entertainment purposes. The Internet allows tweens and teens to become involved with, explore, and learn about products when and where they want to (Schumann and Thorson, 2007). * Some marketers suggest that the best way to engage children through the Internet is by the use of ‘viral’ or buzz marketing strategies that encourage children to email their avourite commercials and other product information to each other (Schumann and Thorson, 2007). As the Internet has continued to grow in prominence and commercial strength, concerns about this medium have grown accordingly, particularly as they relate to children and teens (Schumann and Thorson, 2007). * Typically, these concerns focus around issues of time spent on the Internet and its effect on intellectual and social development, the vulnerability of children to advertisers’ tactics and children’s access to inappropriate content (Schumann and Thorson, 2007). One of the concerns often voiced about children and Internet advertising is how much time children are exposed to advertising messages while online and also how much attention they pay to these messages (Schumann and Thorson, 2007). * Because exposure to Internet advertising is not regulated like advertising on broadcast television, there is concern about the amount of exposure that a child may have to advertising messages. On television, a single advertisement for a single brand may last 30-60 seconds before switching to another advertisement. On the internet, however, a child can spend hours on a single web site playing games, chatting to friends, catching up on product news, all while being continually exposed to a range of persuasive messages for that brand (Schumann and Thorson, 2007). * While television and other media have long been used to sell to children, the Internet presents some important differences. For example, television advertisers are asked to maintain a clear separation between content and advertising; Internet advertisers are not. And television advertisers are prohibited from using their corporate logos both as content and pitchmen at the same time; Internet advertisers face no such restrictions. As a result, Tony the Tiger has free rein among the games, quizzes and activities on Kellogg’s site, while on television he is restricted to station breaks (Carleton, 2000). * Today, children spend an estimated $130 million annually, and influence another $500 million in household purchases. And the Internet is a great place to reach those young consumers (Carleton, 2000). * Unlike traditional media, the Internet allows children and adolescents to access different kinds of content, and a specific characteristic is that this can be done in privacy, without the knowledge of parents (Marshall, 2010). * The most influential sources of information for children today making decisions and keeping contact with peers are media, meaning that children receive far more information from media than from parents and schools. This phenomenon has been called ‘the parallel school of media’, which means that children and adolescents will daily use up several hours on various media (Marshall, 2010). * Children can very quickly adopt and use new media technology and companies and advertising agencies are extremely innovative and creative when it is a question of targeting children with commercial messages (Marshall, 2010). * Children are targeted because of the amount of money they spend on themselves, the influence they have on their parents and because of the money they will spend when they grow up (three different markets). Young children are increasingly the target of advertising and marketing because of the amount of money they spend themselves, the influence they have on their parents spending (the nag factor) and because of the money they will spend when they grow up. (Beder, 1998) * Children represent three different markets. In addition to the direct money that children spend and the money they influence, children also represent a third major market and perhaps the most significant and that is the future market. Advertisers recognise that brand loyalties and consumer habits formed when children are young and vulnerable will be carried through to adulthood. (Beder, 1998) * In Australia, children under 18 have an average $31. 60 to spend each week and they influence more than 70 per cent of their parents’ clothes and fast food purchases. (Beder, 1998) * Both the discretionary income of children and their power to influence parent purchases have increased over time. (Calvert, 2008) * The affluence of today’s children and adolescents has made youth a market eminently worthy of pursuit by businesses. Calvert, 2008) * Evolution of a child consumer. (Beder, 1998) – From age 1: Accompanying Parents and Observing. Children are taken with their parents to supermarkets and other stores where all sorts of goodies are displayed. By the time a child can sit erect, he or she is placed in his or her culturally defined observation post high atop a shopping cart. From this vantage point the child stays safety in proximity to parents but can see for the first time the wonderland of marketing. – From age 2: Accompanying Parents and Requesting. Children begin to ask for things that they see and make connections between television advertising and store contents. They pay more attention to those ads and the list of things they want increases. At the same time, the youngster is learning how to get parents to respond to his or her wishes and wants. This may take the form of a grunt, whine, scream, or gesture–indeed some tears may be necessary–but eventually almost all children are able on a regular basis to persuade Mom or Dad to buy something for them. – From age 3: Accompanying Parents and Selecting with Permission. Children are able to come down from the shopping trolley and make their own choices. They are able to recognise brands and locate goods in the store. At this point the child has completed many connections, from advertisements to wants, to stores, to displays, to packages, to retrieval of want-satisfying products. For many parents this is a pleasing experience. Ditto for the marketers, for it signals the beginning of the child’s understanding of the want-satisfaction process in a market-driven society. – From age 4: Accompanying Parents and Making Independent Purchases. The final step in their development as a consumer is learning to pay for their purchases at the checkout counter. – From age 5: Going to the Store Alone and Making Independent Purchases. – By the age of eight children make most of their own buying decisions. * Integrating a variety of different theoretical perspectives, Patti Valkenburg and Joanne Cantor advanced a developmental model? of how children become consumers * In the first stage (birth to two years), toddlers and infants have desires and preferences, but they are not yet true consumers because they are not yet truly goal-directed in their product choices. During the second stage (two to five years), preschoolers nag and negotiate, asking for and even demanding certain products. At this point in their development, young children do not understand the persuasive intent of commercials; they focus on the attractive qualities of products and cannot keep their minds off the products for long. These developmental characteristics make them extremely vulnerable to commercial advertisements. By the end of this stage, children replace whining and throwing tantrums to get a desired product with more effective negotiation. In early elementary school (five to eight years), children reach the stage of adventure and first purchases. They begin to make clearer distinctions between what is real and what is imaginary, their attention spans are longer, and they make their first purchases outside the company of their parents. * In the final stage (eight to twelve years), elementary school children are attuned to their peer groups’ opinions. Their critical skills to assess products emerge, and their understanding of others’ emotions improves considerably. In the later years of this stage, interest shifts from toys to more adult-like products, such as music and sports equipment. Although children’s consumer behaviors continue to develop during the adolescent years, the foundation is laid in these early years with a progression from simple wants and desires to a search to fulfill those desires to making in- dependent choices and purchases to evaluating the product and its competition * (All Beder, 1998). The ability of elementary children to recognize both traditional online advertising such as banner and button ads and embedded advertising that is part of advergames seems to be limited. With only about a third of the children able to accurately identify advertising, a large percentage is left unable to identify advertising content. * Children’s culture is increasingly dominated and defined by market interests, as advertisers, children’s industries, and other producers of consumer goods clamour to capture the hearts, minds and pocketbooks of this profitable demographic. * The creation of online communities and spaces for children and youth has thus become a growing and lucrative endevour for many media, toy and food companies. This article provides a critical analysis of one such online community called NeoPets, whose premise is that users create or adopt a virtual pet to nuture. * Acquisition of currency (called ‘NeoPoints’), gained by playing various games, exchanging or selling items, filling out marketing surveys, and entering contests and games of chance, allows for the purchase o pet food and other virtual consumer products. * Neopets is part of a landscape of global, youthful, digital entertainment products that have emerged with the Internet and technological convergence. In its few years of operation, 16 million users have created Neopets. According to promotional material, Neopets is one of the fastest growing Internet youth communities. * The neopets site generates revenue through a strategy it calls ‘immersive marketing’, a scheme similar to product placement in films. Food manufacturers and entertainment giants have thus flocked to neopets, eager to reach this youthful market through insinuation of their brand in games and activities on the site. * Neopets generates a substantial part of its revenue by providing market research and consumer studies of its users. The neopets website exemplifies the new ‘children’s digital media culture’- a culture which fosters deepening levels of intimacy between marketer and children by dissolving traditional barriers between ‘content and commerce’. * In neopia, products and brand names are integrated within the many games and features that are part of the rich content on the site. Advertisers and entertainment companies such as Walt Disney, McDonalds and Mattel have flocked to Neopets, eager to reach the tween and teen market. * The majority of neopets users are under 18 years of age, with 39% below the age of 12 and 40% between 13-17 years old. Neopets conforms to modern conventions found in Saturday-morning cartoon series, comics, children’s advertising and product design: the use of a brightly coloured palate, with a predominance of primary and secondary colours, and highly-stylized ‘bubbly’ graphics. * Immersive advertising directly integrates a sponsor’s product or service into the activities available with in the site. Advertisers hope that immersive advertising campaigns will encourage children to play with the products, thus enabling them to later identify their brand. As children and youth continue to expand their access and presence on the Internet, they adopt participatory roles in the creation of online content and contribute in meaningful ways to online environments, including games and communities. * As children are sucked into the commercial marker in an increasingly competitive cradle-to-grave branding strategy, neopets strategy of immersive advertising amidst a fantastical community concerned with the ethos of acquisition and entrepreneurialism as entertainment provides a salient example of ‘childhood as a cultural space constituted by consumerism’. Neopets global marketing strategy of cross-media licensing and integrated marketing is a blatant example of branding children’s media environments. Slapping consumer culture onto children’s culture means we are denying children a degree of autonomy and agency in creating their own spaces.

Continuity and Change-over-Time Silk Road Trade 200...

The Silk Road is a trading route on the continent of Eurasia that stretches from the vast coast of China all the way to Eastern Europe. The trade route was at its greatest use from 200 B.C.E. to 1450 C.E. The society that began the Silk Road was the Han Dynasty in China in approximately 200 B.C.E. The Han Dynasty facilitated trade in the east, while the Roman Empire facilitated trade in the west and in Europe. The two empires traded many goods, as well as cultural aspects of each society’s way of life. From 200 B.C.E. to 1450 C.E., the Silk Road changed in terms of trade, such as what items were traded, and contact with civilizations, such as what societies made use of the Silk Road. Although these changes affected the efficiency of trade†¦show more content†¦Under the unification of the Mongols, trade on the Silk Road continued to be active. When the Ming Dynasty took over control of China from the Mongols in 1368, porcelain began to be trade on the Silk Road. The fa ll of the Mongols in Asia opened trade to other places in the known world, such as Mongolia, and southern Russia. Over time, the societies controlling trade along the Silk Road changed as empires either rose to power, or declined then collapsed. Although the goodsShow MoreRelatedSilk Road1687 Words   |  7 PagesThe Silk Road was a trade network the connected the East to the West on the Eurasian continent. This trade included both overland and maritime routes. The central Asian kingdoms and peoples became the nexus point for much of this trade which lasted from the 3rd century B.C.E. to the 15th century C.E. Many products and other cultural expressions moved along the Silk Road and diffused among various kingdoms along it. In breaking down and separating the patterns of interaction that occurred along theRead MoreHistory Essay3334 Words   |  14 PagesAP WORLD HISTORY  ® Modified Essay Questions for Exam Practice This document provides modifications of the AP World History Comparative and Continuity and Change-Over-Time (CCOT) essay questions from the 2002 to the 2010 operational exams. The modified questions provide examples of essay questions that align more closely with the Curriculum Framework for the revised course as of the 2011-12 academic year. The accompanying rationale for each question explains the revisions. Mission Statement