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Sandysum

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  • Location
    Singapore
  • Application Season
    2015 Fall
  • Program
    MA in Applied Economics

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  1. Hi forummers, This forum has been very helpful in my uni applications so far and hence I've decided to post my latest conundrum here. No one around me seem to know what to do and I'm really lost. I'd appreciated your help greatly. I took the GRE test two days ago and the screen froze, eating up almost 4 minutes of my time for the quant section. As a result, I scored 159Q/159V which is not my ideal score. The test center was very apologetic but they could do nothing, I've since lodged a complain to ETS but I doubt they will do anything (there's even video footage of me waving at the cameras frantically for help!!!) This is my second try, first try (157V/159Q). I'm applying to the schools below and the next test date is 21st Feb which means that some of the schools have to wait for my GRE scores if I do decide to retake. I've read that for many schools, the GRE cut off is 160 for quant. I.e. anyone scoring below this will not be considered. I'm very worried - as I've pinned a lot of plans with regard to getting accepted and of course I want to send as strong an application in as I can. I'm confident of my other submission documents as I have work experience with a major firm and my undergrad school is quite renowned (from Singapore). However, if this is true, I will consider taking the test again. MA in Economics: 1. University of California, Santa Barbara: 13 Feb 2015 2. University of Southern California: 1 April 2015 3. University of California, Santa Cruz: 1 Feb 2015 Another unique situation I'm facing is that, in Singapore we are graded by CAP (out of 5). It's based on a very strict bell curve (only top 5% of every class can score A etc.) and it's really hard to score above 4 basically, as we've had a lot of really bright Chinese scholars pushing the curve up in recent years. When I translate my scores to GPA it doesn't sound so impressive (3.1 GPA). Can anyone let me know if the grading system in the US is based on a bell curve too? Is it reasonable to convert the scores just through simple calculations? Thanks for your time! You'd have helped me greatly and I await your responses.
  2. This is really weird for me, as I work in corporate communications right now and have been trained to communicate succinctly and to convey as much as possible with as little words as possible. Guess, I got to undo that now! But thank you for the advice, I will bear that in mind!
  3. That's so nice of you! I just got my online links sent out to my professors and I was surprised that they are so open to helping as I used to be a really shy student, albeit I scored well. Pretty good idea to get them something. My professors are spread out now over Europe and Asia so perhaps I have to get them an online voucher or something
  4. I wrote the below in about 40 minutes - exceeded the clock by 10 mins oops. But basically the problem I have is that my mind tends to get distracted and I have many ideas, and to tie them down into a coherent thought and into three paragraphs is hard for me. Any help is appreciated! Thank you in advance. -- The following appeared in an article written by Dr. Karp, an anthropologist. "Twenty years ago, Dr. Field, a noted anthropologist, visited the island of Tertia and concluded from his observations that children in Tertia were reared by an entire village rather than by their own biological parents. However, my recent interviews with children living in the group of islands that includes Tertia show that these children spend much more time talking about their biological parents than about other adults in the village. This research of mine proves that Dr. Field's conclusion about Tertian village culture is invalid and thus that the observation-centered approach to studying cultures is invalid as well. The interview-centered method that my team of graduate students is currently using in Tertia will establish a much more accurate understanding of child-rearing traditions there and in other island cultures." Write a response in which you discuss what specific evidence is needed to evaluate the argument and explain how the evidence would weaken or strengthen the argument. This argument makes a strong claim that the observation-based method of research is invalid due to conflicting results gathered from an interview-based method. However, in coming to this conclusion, Dr Karp fails to address several key factors that is necessary for evaluation and has made many assumptions and displayed poor reasoning. Hence the argument has several flaws and more evidence is needed to evaluate it. Firstly, we need a common definition of what ‘rearing’ is to even have a basis of comparison for the results of the various research methods. Without definition of this terminology, we cannot measure the extent of ‘rearing’ regardless of what method we use. Child rearing can comprise feeding, teaching, nurturing, discipline, staying together, celebrating etc. Perhaps the village has a centralised system for most of this function but not discipline, which is carried out by the biological parents. We then have to define if this is considered being reared by the entire village. This argument could have been more convincing if it has stated the concept of ‘rearing’ explicitly. Secondly, we need more information and details about the two different approaches used by Dr. Field and Dr. Karp. For example, how complete was the observation-based method? Was the children observed all day and all night, and was every interaction taken down? Perhaps they engage more with the entire village in the day but retreat to quality family time in the night, which would lead to a flawed conclusion for Dr. Field’s results. For Dr. Karp’s interview method, there are even more unknowns such as the validity of the sample group and the neutrality of questions asked. He has interviewed children from a group of islands including Tertia. We need evidence that children from Tertia even makes up a good proportion of his sample, otherwise his results are completely invalid, as they are put together from data from another group of people. We also need to know if his questions were neutral and if it was rigged to prompt the children to talk about their parents. Perhaps in the interview, nine out of ten questions were questions relating to the children’s parents, leading to the children spending a lot of time talking about their parents and conveying a distorted view of the situation. Until these facets can be elaborated upon, the validity of the studies is called into question. Lastly, even if the evidences above for Dr. Karp were supported, we need to know if there were any other underlying reasons behind the children’s verbosity of their biological parents. Perhaps it was not because they were being raised by their parents, but due to the opposite reason, that they were so distanced from their parents that they spoke more about them out of curiosity. Hence, to jump to the conclusion that their parents reared these children just because they spoke more about them is a logical fallacy. More contexts need to be given in order to make proper judgment. In closing, the argument is flawed for the above-mentioned reasons and is unconvincing. If the above evidences and relevant facts such as the definition of key terms, research details and context were given, the argument can be strengthened considerably. Without this information, the argument remains unsubstantiated and open to debate.
  5. wow, thanks guys. Indeed, I submitted a very succinct essay the first time round. This is great. I will exercise full creativity this time.
  6. Scandals are useful because they focus our attention on problems in ways that no speaker or reformer ever could. Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the claim. In developing and supporting your position, be sure to address the most compelling reasons and/or examples that could be used to challenge your position. Answer: Scandals, as events that are naturally sensational can be useful in drawing attention to problems, but most of the time unless fronted by a reformer, scandals would lead to no positive changes. Scandals are events that are morally and legally wrong, such as corruption in the government sector or sexual relations between stakeholders of a company. These types of occurrence tend to garner a lot of attention due to its controversial nature and as such would have a pervasive wildfire effect when made known to the public. Scandals can be useful in that it can lead to positive change by highlighting the flaws of the existing system. A high-profile priest in Singapore recently was found to be siphoning money from the church fund to fund his wife’s failing singing career. Garnering a lot of public outrage, the scandal shed light on the transparency and accountability of private church funds, calling for a change in the process of reporting. However, this is usually not the case. Quite the contrary, scandals, without the drive and direction of a reformer, tend to spin wildly out of context and lead to no long-term changes. It is also sometimes detrimental to a part of the society or people close to the individuals involved, causing unnecessary hurt and anguish. Instead of focusing on the issue at hand, the media and public tend to posit the spotlight on the individuals involved instead, detailing the mundane movements of his or her everyday life. When a navy officer was found to be sleeping with an under aged girl, the public were censuring him for doing so while reading long and tabloid-style reports of all the misdeeds in his life. This did not lead to any changes such as in increase in available information for young girls or stricter deterrence laws for this issue. And as such, scandals tend to be a distraction from the real issue at hand and lead to a waste in resource instead. Even as scandal do bring to the table underlying issues that need to be addressed, very few actions are followed through as compared from a speaker or reformer that can directly drive and champion for change. Due to the nature of scandals as events that are unearthed as something ‘juicy’ to entertain the general public, reports are usually originated by journalists and writers who are looking for the next big break. As such, even in the face of scandal, a reformer has to be active in championing for change while using the scandal as leverage. Hence no matter how large the scandal, it will not be useful until it is fronted by someone who is willing to direct and shape the public opinion into a cohesive thought. Lastly, scandals tend to lead to a lot of lies and negativity for the people involved. Especially for scandals that involve a minority group of the country, it tends to lead to segregation or even more distance between the societies, leading to disharmony. Hence, scandals, despite its attention-seeking nature, tend to spin wildly out of context and lead to no action if left by itself. It can only become useful as context when the underlying issue is fleshed out by a reformer; leading to positive policy changes. -- I'm taking my GRE in 3 more days and freaking out. I had a writing score of 4,0 previously and tend to suffer from mental block during the writing part of examinations. All your help is much appreciated! I will return the favour by helping others.
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