Problem Statement and Justification Research Paper Example

Problem Statement and Justification Research Paper Example Problem Statement and Justification Paper Problem Statement and Justification Paper This research is to be conducted in response to the concerns that have been principally motivated by the disturbing racial crime statistics which have revealed relatively high levels of criminality and growing rates of incarcerations among the African and Hispanic American populations. Moreover, approximately 90% of youth gang members who are directly related to juvenile delinquency are non-whites (Schmalleger, 2007). Hence, special attention and emphasis should be given to racial ethnicity in discovering effective intervention strategies in crime prevention in order to employ appropriate strategies for the progress and development of the racial minorities who are often relegated as marginalized sectors of society. Literature Review All research must have a sound basis upon which the key facts and ideas are drawn. To carry out this research, it will be critical that a lot of information regarding the use and general applicability of LIFT programs is researched. This will not only enhance the reliability of the final research findings but will also serve as an indication of the authenticity of those findings so that they can be more acceptable. That aside, a thorough and extensive review of literature on the research topic will enable the research to narrow down its scope and become more specific by adopting specific research question to concentrate on and by enhancing the process of formulating appropriate hypotheses for the research. Youth Violence The level of violence among the young people has been alarming (Irving Darlington, 2001). The various child welfare groups have tended to wonder what could be done because it appears that once a child gets to his/her teen years, one starts to exhibit behavior that is totally unacceptable and out of the ordinary. This problem has been very rampant in this information age when many parents seem to care less about what their children are doing, believing that once a child is out to school it is the work of the teachers there to ensure the child is taught in the right manner, including behavioral ethics. On the other side, teachers have concentrated on formal lessons more than teaching morals to children. As a result, the school child is left to learn behavior from the peers with whom one frequently converses. If not, the child learns the behavior of the superstars in the movies one watches (Schneider, 2005). According to the social learning theory, children learn bad behavior from the people who matter to them. Therefore, it is critical that the child is exposed to the right people and programs so that lessons learnt are those that ideal and helpful (Adams, 2005). That is why a lot of emphasis has to be placed on the manner in which a child is brought. Given that the people with whom a child spends the most time in any given day are the parents and/or the teachers, these two hold the key to the future state of being for the child. And since aggressive behavior is learnt in early childhood but becomes manifest in teenage, it is the role of the parents and teachers to ensure that anything that might encourage or lead a child to adapt or develop aggressive behavior is dealt with appropriately (Schmalleger, 2007).

Free ACT Practice Tests Massive Collection of Online Sources

Free ACT Practice Tests Massive Collection of Online Sources SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips When you’re trying to prepare for the ACT, the last thing you want to worry about is finding ACT practice tests. To help make the process a little less stressful for you, we’ve compiled this huge list of sources for free ACT practice tests and questions. Not all practice tests are created equal, though. For each test source, I’ll talk about how you can best use the practice material to best prepare for the ACT. Why Do You Need ACT Practice Tests? You, of course, understand that in order to prep for the ACT, you need practice material. Ultimately, though, you may need more practice tests (and more supplementary materials) than you’d expect. Let’s talk about the three key reasons why you’ll need an arsenal of tests and questions to go into the ACT 100% prepared. Real Practice One of the most stressful parts of taking any standardized test is sitting through potentially uncomfortable testing conditions. You have to stay focused and alert for several hours with few breaks, and you have to jump from section to section without breaking your stride. Taking officialACT practice tests under realistic testing conditions helps prepare you for test day. This means sitting through an entire test in one go while carefully timing how long you spend on each section For this type of preparation, you should really only use official ACT tests. Content Practice This component of ACT prep is about building your knowledge of all the content that’s actually tested on the exam. If you’re working on specific subject prep, you’ll need materials that test (and teach) understanding of subject-specific content. Official ACT practice questions are the ideal for this sort of practice, but they’re limited in number and should really be saved for â€Å"realistic† practice and/or strategy prep. Unofficial or supplementary materials can prepare you well when it comes to brushing up on content, even if they’re not in strict, official ACT format. Strategy Prep ACT questions follow a very particular set of rules when it comes to style and logic. Although unofficial practice tests try to recreate this with their practice questions, it’s rare to find an unofficial source that does a good job. Official practice tests are important when it comes to familiarizing yourself with strategy required to do well on the â€Å"real† ACT. The more comfortable you are with the various types of ACT questions, the more efficient and the more confident you’ll be on the actual test. Where to Find Official ACT Tests Now that you know why (and how) ACT practice materials are important, let’s talk about where you can find the gold standard of ACT prep material: official ACT tests. In this section, you’ll find both recent and older ACT tests. You should focus on the most current ACT recent for your practice although older tests will definitely be helpful if you need extra material. The good news is that the format of the ACT hasn’t changed that much over the past few decades, so older exams will still give you a good idea of what to expect on test day. I'm not kidding when I say that official practice materials are the gold standard in ACT prep. Free Official Tests These free ACT practice tests are great for officialpractice - those study sessions where you sit down under realistic testing conditions and finish an entire exam. I’d recommend using one as a diagnostic test towards the beginning of your study plan. Be careful not to use these up all at once - these are the only free official tests available. The newest official ACT(2015-2016) is the only one that reflects the test's most recent changes: paired reading passages and a new essay. Other than these updates, however, the ACT's overall content and format has remained pretty consistent. ACT Practice Test and Answers (2015-2016) – form number 72C ACT Practice Test and Answers (2014-2015) – form number 67C ACT Practice Test and Answers (20-2012) – form number 64E ACT Practice Test and Answers (2008-2009) – form number 61C ACT Practice Test and Answers (2005-2006) – form number 59F Free Official Practice Questions The ACT also publishes official practice questions (separate from the official practice tests) on its website. These questions are great for working on strategy and content prep. 75 ACT English questions 60 ACT Math questions 48 ACT Reading questions 40 ACT Science questions 1 ACT Writing prompt ACT Question of the Day Other Official Practice Materials There are other official ACT materials available for purchase: The Real ACT Prep Guidecontains five full official practice tests, which amounts to about 20 hours of study material. This book is awesome for strategy prep and officialpractice, but it will not be much help at all if you need to review test content. It costs about$15 on Amazon. The ACT Online Programcontains two full practice tests or about eight hours of study material. The â€Å"prep† that comes with the program isn’t particularly useful, though, so we advise you to skip that and just use the full tests. It costs about $40 on the ACT website. Where to Find (and How to Use) Unofficial ACTs As you may have noticed, there aren’t unlimited official ACT tests available for practice. If you’re planning on studying for 50+ hours, you’ll need to find supplementary sources. There are so many unofficial sources for ACT tests and practice questions, but these really vary in quality - you don’t want to use just any practice questions you find online without vetting them first. To help you find reliable sources for supplementary materials, I’ve compiled a list of resources here. There may be many other good sources out there, but this should get you off on the right track. Free Online Practice ACTs From Test Prep Companies You should be especially careful with using free prep from test companies since the quality of the material is often questionable. That being said, some companies offer practice tests or questions that may prove to be really helpful as supplementary materials. Just be especially mindful (if you choose to work with these materials) about not treating these practice questions as you would official prep - that means not relying too much on them for strategy or real test practice. Sophia.org Sophia.org offers 2-3practicetests each for ACT math, science, reading, English, and writing. Each practice test has about 60 questions and comes with an answer key and scoring guide. You need to make an account in order to access the (free) tests, and you need to opt in to making your profile private. The site encourages you to treat the practice tests like official practice, but (as you know by now) it's best to use these materials for content review. An example of a Sophia.org practice question Prepfactory.com You can access freematerials with this siteif you make an account. There's a social media-esque functionalitywhere you can test your skills against those of other students. I'd avoid this, however, and just focus on improving your own weak skill areas - it won't be helpful to compare yourself to others while you're studying. You can access practice questions through quizzes for different themed modules. The modules' content study material is a bit disjointed and cursory, so I would skip it and just focus on working through the practice questions. An example of a Prepfactory.com practice question Ivy Global Ivy Global offers both sample ACT questions and a full (unofficial) ACT practice test on its website. You can download their full ACT practice test without making an account or providing any personal information (a big plus). Ivy Global did make a real effort to put together a test that's very similar to the official ACT. I still wouldn't encourage you Ivyglobalfor official practice, but it might come in handy if you run through all of the free official ACT materials listed earlier in this article. An example of an Ivyglobal practice question Varsity Tutors Varsity Tutors has a ton of free material - it seems like there are thousands of practice questions available - but this company isn’t particularly careful about creating questions in the style of the ACT.You should be careful about not putting too much stock in the types of questions you use from this site. Another con - you really can't work through the questions until you register for an account, and you're pressured pretty hard to pay for their tutoring services. That being said, you might find Varsity Tutors helpful if you need access to a ton of material (i.e. if you plan on studying for 50+ hours), and/or if you're a high scorer and want toanalyze official ACT vs. non ACT questions. An example of a Varsity Tutors practice question Union Test Prep Union Test Prep offers one free practice test which is administered online. Each question is presented (and graded), which is very different from what you'll encounter on the actual ACT - the format of the exam reminds me more of the GRE than any college entrance exam, to be honest. You don't have to register with Union Test Prep to access these questions. An example of a Union Test Prep practice question Albert.io Albert.iooffers hundreds of practice questions for ACT Math, ACT Science and ACT Reading. You must create an account to answer questions, but you get 100 free credits, which you can use to answer up to 100 questions. The questions are all clearly tagged, so this can be a great resource for targetingspecific skills. An example of an Albertpractice question Kaplan If you register with Kaplan, you can sign up for a free ACT practice test. They have them scheduled in advance, so this will only work if one of their ACT test times fits within your schedule. I expect these practice tests to be similar to their prep book (which I'll get to shortly) - good for an introduction to the test, especially for low scorers, but not so helpful for students who are already familiar with the exam or are already getting relatively high marks. Princeton Review Princeton Review has a system that's pretty similar to Kaplan's - you can take a free ACT online demo and test if you register with the site. Princeton Review has a reputation for writing questions that are(conceptually) easier than what you'd see on the test, so this might not be the best option for high-scoring students who are looking to push up their scores. ACT Prep Books Unofficial ACT prep books can be helpful when it comes to content review and practice. The ACT is pretty transparent about what concepts they actually test on the exam - if you have weak areas, instructional books and practice questions (even if they’re not similar to ACT questions) can help you develop a better grasp of the material. One of the downsides to ACT prep books is that they aren’t free. You may be able to find these books at your public or school library if you’d rather not purchase the materials. If you’re looking for a more exhaustive list of the most helpful ACT books, especially for books by subject, check out our guide to the best ACT prep books. Best Non-Official ACT Book:The ACT Black Book A great book for strategy, the Black Book teaches you to think about the ACT as a predictable, standardized test. It offers alternative strategies for students who may not understand all concepts in the same way. If there's a downside to this prep book, it's that you have to be pretty self-motivated and self-driven in order to useit effectively. It costs about$17 on Amazon. Best Book for High Scorers:Barron's Barron’s books are very thorough and cover a lot of content. They’re good options if your score is already high, but you’re aiming for perfect (or close to perfect). Some of the questions can be unrealistically (and unhelpfully) difficult. It costs about$12 on Amazon. Best Book for Low Scorers:Kaplan This is an all-in-one book that covers all ACT sections. It includes practice tests and answer explanations in addition to basic ACT strategies. This book is not helpful if you’re pretty motivated to study and are serious about improving your score - this is really a bare-bones book It costs about$20 on Amazon. Making a Plan: How to Study for the ACT If you want to make the most of all these ACT materials, you’ll want to make a plan for using them strategically. The major steps you’ll need to take to make a plan are below, although you can get more detailed info if you check out our guide on how long you need to study for the ACT. These materials will be most helpful if you come up with a road map for using them before diving in. Get a Baseline: Start With a Diagnostic ACT Test Take one of the recent, official ACT tests to get a baseline score. Unofficial diagnostic tests won’t help you understand where you’d need to improve on the actual ACT. Checking out target schools (and their correlating target ACT scores) will give you a goal score range to aim for. Practice Strategy and Review Content With Supplementary Materials If you’re weak in strategy skills or content knowledge, you should primarily use unofficial supplementary materials to study and improve in those areas. You can use these practice questions to drill skills or test knowledge without worrying about wasting official prep material. Once you’ve spent some time learning new skills and content, you may want to really test your performance with the official ACT practice questions (not the full tests). Use Official ACTs As Full-Length Practice Tests You can always find more unofficial prep material, but there’s a limited number of official ACT practice tests. Use these official resources as full-length practice tests under real testing conditions. You shouldn’t stop there, though. Get everything you can out of those tests by carefully analyzing your answers and mistakes, so you know which skills and content areas you should focus on next. Remember to save one or two official tests for the end of your study program so you can familiarize yourself with a full-length exam before you take the actual ACT. What's Next? Now that you have a ton of material to work with, you might want to start thinking about putting together a (more detailed) study plan and ACT strategy. First, figure out how long you should plan on studying for the ACT. Next, determine what your own ACT score goal should be - what's a good score? A bad score? An excellentscore? If you don't have too much time to study but still want to prepare as best you can, download those official ACT tests and check out our guide to a 20 hour prep program. Want to improve your ACT score by 4+ points? Download our free guide to the top 5 strategies you need in your prep to improve your ACT score dramatically.