Scores on Princeton Review SATs at Francis Parker 100-200 points lower than real PSAT scores.

Scores on Princeton Review SATs at Francis Parker 100-200 points lower than real PSAT scores. In the fall of 2007, Francis Parker High School in San Diego administered a practice SAT exam for their juniors. This test was created by the Princeton Review, a large and well-known test prep company. Around the same time, Parker juniors took the official PSAT, which was administered by the College Board, the company that makes the SAT. Recently, the Parker counselors handed back the results from both tests. The results were laughable: many students' scores on the Princeton Review SAT were 100-200 points lower than those on the PSAT. In my opinion, there are two main reasons for this score disparity: 1) Princeton Review tests are NOT REAL SATs. The only real SATs are made by the College Board. Princeton Review problems tend to exaggerate certain elements of the test, and some are simply flawed. Test scoring and scaling is notoriously inaccurate. 2) It is in Princeton Review's best interest to administer diagnostic tests that are more difficult than real SATs. That way, students scores appear to increase when they take the actual SAT, even if their scores are actually hovering at roughly the same level. Today, I personally examined the Princeton Review practice SAT that Parker students took last year, and having studied thousands of SAT questions over the years, I can say with certainty that it was more difficult than a real SAT would have been, especially in the Critical Reading section (which, not coincidentally, is the hardest section for which to write realistic questions). Plus, the test is full of spelling errors and typos. How can you trust a test where the creators didn't even take the time to spell-check the questions? Thus, I have a suggestion for Francis Parker's college counselors: while it may save you money in the short term, you should never trust an outside company to administer your school's practice SATs! Having juniors take a practice SAT in the fall is a great idea, but this important of a task should never be outsourced to a self-interested corporation such as the Princeton Review. There are over a dozen real SATs available directly from the College Board, so there is no good reason to give your students "imitation" SATs instead. -Brian

Brief History and Geography of Tibet

The Tibetan Plateau is a huge region of southwestern China consistently above 4000 meters. This region that was a thriving independent kingdom that began in the eighth century and developed into an independent country in the twentieth century is now under the firm control of China. Persecution of the Tibetan people and their practice of Buddhism is widely reported. History Tibet closed its borders to foreigners in 1792, keeping the British of India (Tibets southwestern neighbor) at bay until the British desire for a trade route with China caused them to take Tibet by force in 1903. In 1906 the British and Chinese signed a peace treaty that gave Tibet to the Chinese. Five years later, the Tibetans expelled the Chinese and declared their independence, which lasted until 1950. In 1950, shortly after Mao Zedongs communist revolution, China invaded Tibet. Tibet pleaded for assistance from the United Nations, the British, and the newly independent Indians for assistance to no avail. In 1959 a Tibetan uprising was squelched by the Chinese and the leader of the theocratic Tibetan government, the Dalai Lama, fled to Dharamsala, India and created a government-in-exile. China administered Tibet with a firm hand, prosecuting Tibetan Buddhists and destroying their places of worship, especially during the time of the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). After Maos death in 1976, the Tibetans gained limited autonomy although many of the Tibetan government officials installed were of Chinese nationality. The Chinese government has administered Tibet as the Autonomous Region of Tibet (Xizang) since 1965. Many Chinese have been financially encouraged to move to Tibet, diluting the effect of the ethnic Tibetans. Its likely that the Tibetans will become a minority in their land within a few years. The total population of Xizang is approximately 2.6 million. Additional uprisings occurred throughout the next few decades and martial law was imposed upon Tibet in 1988. The Dalai Lamas efforts to work with China toward solving problems to bring peace to Tibet earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989. Through the work of the Dalai Lama, the United Nations has called upon China to consider giving the Tibetan people a right to self-determination. In recent years, China has been spending billions to improve the economical outlook for Tibet by encouraging tourism and trade to the region. The Potala, the former seat of the Tibetan government and the home of the Dalai Lama is a major attraction in Lhasa. Culture The Tibetan culture is an ancient one that includes the Tibetan language and a specific Tibetan style of Buddhism. Regional dialects vary across Tibet so the Lhasa dialect has become the Tibetan lingua franca. Industry Industry was non-existent in Tibet prior to the Chinese invasion and today small industries are located in the capital of Lhasa (2000 population of 140,000) and other towns. Outside of cities, the indigenous Tibetan culture is comprised primarily of nomads, farmers (barley and root vegetables are primary crops), and forest dwellers. Due to the cold dry air of Tibet, grain can be stored for up to 50 to 60 years and butter (yak butter is the perennial favorite) can be stored for a year. Disease and epidemics are rare on the dry high plateau, which is surrounded by the worlds tallest mountains, including Mount Everest in the south. Geography Though the plateau is rather dry and receives an average of 18 inches (46 cm) of precipitation each year, the plateau is the source for major rivers of Asia, including the Indus River. Alluvial soils comprise the terrain of Tibet. Due to the high altitude of the region, the seasonal variation in temperature is rather limited and the diurnal (daily) variation is more important—the temperature in Lhasa can range as much as -2 F to 85 F (-19 C to 30 C). Sandstorms and hailstorms (with hail of tennis-ball size) are problems in Tibet. (A special classification of spiritual magicians was once paid to ward off the hail.) Thus, the status of Tibet remains in question. Will the culture be diluted by the influx of Chinese or will Tibet once again become Free and independent?

The Great Depression Of The 1920s - 1346 Words

The 1920s was an economic growth period for American companies and businesses. One of the key ways of making money during this period was to buy stocks and shares. As with consumer goods such as washing machines and kitchenware’s, there was the option of buying stocks and shares on credit, which meant that purchasing shares on the stock market was available to almost everyone. Thousands of Americans rushed in to gain benefit from the share market with many using their life savings or borrowed money to take advantage of this boom. These dramatic increases in the sales of shares and stock led to over production; which in the long run, simply could not be sustained. The Wall Street stock market crashed in October 1929 and this triggered the†¦show more content†¦Although the Wall Street Crash signalled the beginning of the Great Depression across the globe, there were other significant underlying factors that contributed to the devastating impact it had on Australia. The Government had been borrowing money from the United States in the form of loans or buying things on credit. The Wall Street Crash led the American Government to begin to recall all borrowed offshore money in order to get their economy back up and running, this was a problem for many nations who were in debt to the U.S. There was also a decrease in the amount of exports shipped from Au stralia and in turn, their price was then lowered which resulted in a fall in off shore spending and lead to a reduction in Government capital spending (Cooksey, 1970) The Great Depression hit the shores of Australia during the 1930’s when international commodities dropped and the nation was left in debt. This initiated a period of high unemployment, poverty and extreme hardship for the people of Australia. The Depression not only affected the nations economy but it also had a huge social impact on Australia’s population as many families and individuals were forced out of their homes and jobs, and were made to live in poverty. (Cooksey, 1970) Due to the decrease in factory productions there was a cut in wages, as well a cull of

Management of Pain Samples for Students †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Management of Pain. Answer: Pain is a physiological, sensory and emotional experience, which is associated with actual or potential tissue damage. It is a universal experience. It is a subjective sensation, which is difficult to define. Pain has a biologically important protective function. The procedure of pain development is usually initiated by noxious stimulus and transmitted over a specialized neural network to the central nervous system, where it is interpreted. Based on the type of pain, the patients pain management plan is developed (Barr et al. 2013). In this essay, a case study of pain management has been demonstrated, while including the pain pathophysiology, all the dimensions of pain management in order to make the assessment a holistic one and the interventions related to the pain management, for particularly the student. A 45 years old patient named Mr. Alex has been admitted to the emergency ward, with severe pain and swollen left leg along with other minor cuts and injuries throughout his body; upon undergoing a fall from his bike. After performing immediate X-ray, it was found that the person had his left leg broken, as a result of fall. Upon admission, the person was screaming in pain. Thus, one of the immediate actions that thenursing professional needs to do was to manage his pain. Initially, pain assessment was done for the patient by the registered nurse. For this, the pain scale has been used. As the patient was in severe pain, the visual analog scale was used. This scale uses a scale of 1 to 10 ranges, in order to define the level of pain the patient is experiencing, by analyzing his facial expression. In this pain assessment, Mr. Alex scored 8, which is signifying that the patient is experiencing intense and horrible pain, indicating the need for immediate pain management. According the pathophysiology of pain, it is stimulated by the neurological pathway. For instance, pain sensation is the normal biological response to injury or disease, which is resulted from the normal physiological process in the nociceptive system through a complex process. The key stimuli of pain are the tissue injury or fracture. In case of Mr. Alex, the tissue injury occurred, when the bone in his left leg broke along with the injury to the surrounding soft tissue (Abdulla et al. 2013). In case of fracture, there are mainly three stages of pain. For instance, acute pain occurs immediately after the fracture of the bone; followed by the sub-acute pain, which lasts for first few weeks after the fracture, this is the period of healing bone and soft tissue. However, chronic pain continues long after the fracture and soft tissue, after completion of healing. Pain is a crucial function of immune response towards external pain stimuli, which involve CNS and nociceptors for transmitti ng messages from the stimuli to brain. Initially after the soft tissue damage surrounding the broken bone in Mr. Alexs leg, the nociceptor or the sensory receptors present in the surrounding area detects the helpful or noxious stimuli, which transmits electrical signal to the nervous system. Two types of nociceptors include the C-fibres and A-delta. Nociceptors consist of variety of voltage-gated channels to transducer signal leading to a set of action potentials to initiate the electrical signalling into the nervous system (Cousins and Lynch 2011). In pain pathophysiology, the CNS also plays important role. The electrical signal brought by the nociceptor attains the spinal cord, where a complex array of neurons in the synaptic connections processes the signal to the cerebral cortex of brain. The signal is received in numerous area of brain. As a result, the responses towards pain and emotional reactions varied so much (Fishman 2012). However, as the broken bone may also damage the nerve ending, the pathway of pain processing is altered, which has caused increased pain signal transmission, thereby enhancing the intensity of pain the person is experiencing. Therefore, in case of Mr. Alex, due to both of the tissue and nerve ending damage, the pain is severe. Alex may need to under immediate surgery to fix the bone, upon local anaesthesia. The three stages of pain will have different types of impact upon the patients life. For instance, the patient is a 45 years old male, who is employed and is responsible for his familys financial status. However, due to his injury and massive pain, he would not be able to move through the first phase, i.e. acute pain phase, which will last for 2-3 days. During this phase, he would need assistance fromnursing staffs or his family members, in order to complete his daily activities, like bathing, dressing, toileting, moving or other works. For the massive pain and independence, his self-esteem is likely to be decreased, which also introduces stress and anxiety in the patient, thereby hampering the psychological well being of the patient (Burchiel 2011). On the other hand, as the patient would not be able to go to his work, while he have to avail treatment expenses, financial constrain is a common issue, which would also impact upon his social and spiritual well being. Regarding legal as pects, the nurses and other medical staffs are liable to meet the needs of the patient in order to eliminate ethical issues. In the next phase, i.e. sub-acute phase, as the healing process is started, the pain would be significantly reduced from the first stage. However, in case of Mr. Alex, he would continue his pain medication through the phase, which will last for 2-3 weeks. At this phase, the patient would be able to complete his daily activities with little or no assistance fromnursing staffs or family member. He would also be able to improve his self esteem. However, at this phase, the patient will not able to join his work, as a result the financial constrain may occur, which would again include stress, thereby hindering his overall wellbeing. At the final stage, i.e. chronic pain, the heath process is complete, but the pain remains due to the damage to nerve endings (Abou-Setta et al. 2011). Without follow up checkups or other required medical processes or lifestyle management or proper rehabilitation, the patient may have some difficulties in future life related to his mobility or employment, whic h again can negatively affect his overall wellbeing. For instance, reduced mobility may hinder his social and cultural life, which in turn reduce his self esteem and hope for the life, reducing spiritual well being. He may also face discrimination in his organization, due to his physical inability, which would lead to an ethical as well as legal issue. As a result, stress and depression may result as psychological negative outcomes. One of the initial responsibilities of the health care team developed for Mr. Alex is to manage his pain. There are several pharmacological and non-pharmacological ways, through which the Mr. Alexs pain can be reduced. Initially after his surgery in order to fix the fractured bone, the immobilization of the bone has been done, which would restrict the mobilization of the fractured bone, which would reduce the worsening of the pain. To reduce pain and inflammation, the pain medications would be provided to Mr. Alex. However, the dosage and group of the medications would vary, according to the level of pain, as assessed in the pain scale throughout the healing process (Body et al. 2011). As Mr. Alexs pain score was as high as 8 initially, in visual analog scale, initially he would be administered with stronger pain reliever. In case of Mr. Alex, initially, as his pain was severe, strong pain medication would be provided, which includes morphin sulphate, which is usually administered, w hen the pain is moderate to severe. The medication would be administered through IV route. However, prior administering the medication, the patient needed to be assessed for any kind of allergy. Drugs used to treat fractures include nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory agents (NSAIDs) and analgesics. With progress, the patient would need mild to moderate pain reliever. In this context, as his leg has been swollen, inflammation has been taken place, as a result of tissue damage and necrosis. Thus, the patient needs to provide anti-inflammatory medication also (Duke et al. 2013). Thus, NSAIDs are suitable for Mr. Alex. These drugs have analgesic and antipyretic activities.In addition, he would be administered with tetanus vaccine, to reduce chance of infection. Besides these pharmacological treatments, there are non-pharmacological ways to reduce his pain. The initial responsibility of nurse is to make a positive relationship with the patient and continuously encouraging him to cope with the situation. Through the acute and sub-acute phase, the immobilized area of leg should be placed onto a pillow, in order to reduce pain. The position of the patient and postures of the injured leg needs to be changed frequently. In addition, the patients family members should be involved in his care plan, who will motivate and empower his healing process (Morton et al. 2017). Through progression, after releasing from the hospital, a physical exercise plan would be provided by his physiotherapist, in order to improve his leg movement and helping him to carry on his normal lifestyle. In conclusion, it can be said that pain management is a significantliability of nursing staffs, while handling a patient in acute or chronic pain. Based on the type of pain, the pain management plan is developed. For instance, both pharmacological and non-pharmacological pathways would be suitable, based on the patients condition. Pain assessment is crucial throughout the therapeutic procedure. References Abdulla, A., Adams, N., Bone, M., Elliott, A.M., Gaffin, J., Jones, D., Knaggs, R., Martin, D., Sampson, L. and Schofield, P., 2013. Guidance on the management of pain in older people.Age and ageing,42, pp.i1-57. Abou-Setta, A.M., Beaupre, L.A., Rashiq, S., Dryden, D.M., Hamm, M.P., Sadowski, C.A., Menon, M.R., Majumdar, S.R., Wilson, D.M., Karkhaneh, M. and Mousavi, S.S., 2011. Comparative effectiveness of pain management interventions for hip fracture: a systematic review.Annals of internal medicine,155(4), pp.234-245. Barr, J., Fraser, G.L., Puntillo, K., Ely, E.W., Glinas, C., Dasta, J.F., Davidson, J.E., Devlin, J.W., Kress, J.P., Joffe, A.M. and Coursin, D.B., 2013. Clinical practice guidelines for the management of pain, agitation, and delirium in adult patients in the intensive care unit.Critical care medicine,41(1), pp.263-306. Body, J.J., Bergmann, P., Boonen, S., Boutsen, Y., Bruyre, O., Devogelaer, J.P., Goemaere, S., Hollevoet, N., Kaufman, J.M., Milisen, K. and Rozenberg, S., 2011. Non-pharmacological management of osteoporosis: a consensus of the Belgian Bone Club.Osteoporosis international,22(11), pp.2769-2788. Burchiel, K.J. ed., 2011.Surgical management of pain. thieme. Cousins, M.J. and Lynch, M.E., 2011. The Declaration Montreal: access to pain management is a fundamental human right. Duke, G., Haas, B.K., Yarbrough, S. and Northam, S., 2013. Pain management knowledge and attitudes of baccalaureate nursing students and faculty.Pain Management Nursing,14(1), pp.11-19. Fishman, S.M., 2012.Bonica's management of pain. Lippincott Williams Wilkins. Morton, P.G., Fontaine, D., Hudak, C.M. and Gallo, B.M., 2017.Critical care nursing: a holistic approach. Lippincott Williams Wilkins.