Biography of Annie Prolux - 993 Words

Annie Prolux is an author of eight books. She was born in Norwich, Connecticut on August 22, 1935. She is the oldest of fives sisters. She graduated high school in Portland, Maine and attended Colby College. She then attended the University of Vermont and received her bachelor’s degree in History. In 1973 she attended Sir George Williams University of Montreal, where she graduated with a master’s degree in History. In 1983 and 1987 Proulx landed two stories in The Best American Short Stories. She published her first fictional book called Heart Songs and Other Stories, in 1988, followed by a novel, Postcards, in 1992. She won a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award for the comic novel, The Shipping News. In 1998 Proulx won two O. Henry prize stories for Brokeback Mountain and The Mud Below. Brokeback Mountain later became an academy award winning film. In Prolux’s short story 55 Miles to the Gas Pump, a drunken rancher named Mr. Croom hides a secret from his wife. He gets drunk and falls off a cliff. After his death Mrs. Croom’s curiosity sets in. She cuts a hole in the roof and reveals twelve dead women. Some of the women she recognized from missing posters. The women were badly beaten, some covered in paint, and one covered in newspapers. Mr. Croom had the attic locked for twelve years. Proulx uses the plot to keep the reader interested by giving descriptions of the bodies. She starts the story off with Mr. Croom death. It keeps the reader interested to find out what

The Scarlet Letter, By Nathaniel Hawthorne - 1127 Words

In The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, readers are faced with the obstacles of hiding one’s true intentions. Through the lens of three characters, Dimmesdale the priest, Chillingworth the medic, and Hester the typical citizen, the audience is able to learn a valuable lesson. No matter how people may present themselves, if they have a duplicitous nature, this behavior will ultimately be exposed. No man or woman is able to hide who they truly are forever, because eventually people will know what their true motives are. In all aspects of his life, Arthur Dimmesdale struggles with truth and confession. He cannot decide whether to be honest about his character, or do everything in his power to preserve and shield his real identity. To†¦show more content†¦This is evident in his sermons becoming better and more relatable, his nightly lashings, and the deterioration of his health. Dimmesdale s sermons becoming more relatable proves that with each passing day, he can feel the guilt of his mistake gaining weight on his psyche. His lashings indicate that he is cowardly and would rather physically hurt himself in private than take responsibility for what what he has done with dignity and honesty. The deterioration in his health is symbolic of the time he has left to confess. The longer Dimmesdale took to confess, the worse his condition got; his sickness was pushing himself to confess by draining his health so he would finally break and redeem himself. Throughout the novel, Dimmesdale attempted to keep his double life together but his guilt forced him to confess, exposing his true nature. In the novel, Roger Chillingworth has slowly transformed into a shell of who he once was. To the public, he first appears as who he once was, an educated scholar, but is later recognized for who he has turned into, a man corrupted with revenge. The creation of the persona that is Chillingworth shows the origin of Roger’s vengeance. It is evident that Roger is quick to jealousy and revenge because before he even chooses to ask Hester about her sin, he creates an alter ego to mask his true identity. Who he was before he came to the colony is now slowly becoming his false appearance while his new real character is oneShow MoreRelatedThe Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne1242 Words   |  5 PagesLYS PAUL Modern Literature Ms. Gordon The Scarlet Letter The scarlet letter is book written by Nathaniel Hawthorne who is known as one the most studied writers because of his use of allegory and symbolism. He was born on July 4, 1804 in the family of Nathaniel, his father, and Elizabeth Clark Hathorne his mother. Nathaniel added â€Å"W† to his name to distance himself from the side of the family. His father Nathaniel, was a sea captain, and died in 1808 with a yellow fever while at sea. That was aRead MoreThe Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne960 Words   |  4 Pages3H 13 August 2014 The novel, The Scarlet Letter, was written by the author Nathaniel Hawthorne and was published in 1850 (1). It is a story about the Puritan settlers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, set around 1650 (2). The story is written in the third person with the narrator being the author. The common thread that runs through this novel is Hawthorne’s apparent understanding of the beliefs and culture of the Puritans in America at that time. But Hawthorne is writing about events in a societyRead MoreThe Scarlet Letter, By Nathaniel Hawthorne919 Words   |  4 Pagessymbolism in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s â€Å"The Scarlet Letter†. Symbolism is when an object is used in place of a different object. Nathaniel Hawthorne is one of the most symbolic writers in all of American history. In â€Å"The Scarlet Letter†, the letter â€Å"A† is used to symbolize a variety of different concepts. The three major symbolistic ideas that the letter â€Å"A† represents in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s â€Å"The Scarlet Letter† are; shame, guilt, and ability. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s â€Å"The Scarlet Letter†, the firstRead MoreThe Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne1397 Words   |  6 PagesFebruary 2016 The Scarlet Letter was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1850 which is based on the time frame of the Puritans, a religious group who arrived in Massachusetts in the 1630’s. The Puritans were in a religious period that was known for the strict social norms in which lead to the intolerance of different lifestyles. Nathaniel Hawthorne uses the puritan’s strict lifestyles to relate to the universal issues among us. The time frame of the puritans resulted in Hawthorne eventually thinkingRead MoreThe Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne999 Words   |  4 Pages Nathaniel Hawthorne is the author of the prodigious book entitled The Scarlet Letter. In The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne commits adultery with Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. Her husband, Roger Chillingworth, soon finds out about the incident after it becomes clear that she is pregnant. The whole town finds out and Hester is tried and punished. Meanwhile, Roger Chillingworth goes out then on a mission to get revenge by becoming a doctor and misprescribing Dimmesdale. He does this to torture DimmesdaleRead MoreThe Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne1037 Words   |  5 Pagesthat human nature knows right from wrong, but is naturally evil and that no man is entirely â€Å"good†. Nathaniel Hawthorne, author of the classic novel The Scarlet Letter, believes that every man is innately good and Hawthorne shows that everyone has a natural good side by Hester’s complex character, Chillingworth’s actions and Dimmesdale’s selfless personality. At the beginning of the Scarlet Letter Hester Prynne is labeled as the â€Å"bad guy†. The townspeople demand the other adulterer’s name, butRead MoreThe Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne1517 Words   |  7 PagesNathaniel Hawthorne composes Pearl as a powerful character even though she is not the main one. Her actions not only represent what she is as a person, but what other characters are and what their actions are. Hawthorne makes Pearl the character that helps readers understand what the other characters are. She fits perfectly into every scene she is mentioned in because of the way her identity and personality is. Pearl grows throughout the book, which in the end, help the readers better understandRead MoreThe Scarlet Letter, By Nathaniel Hawthorne1488 Words   |  6 Pages In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter, the main character, Hester Prynne, is a true contemporary of the modern era, being cast into 17th century Puritan Boston, Massachusetts. The Scarlet Letter is a revolutionary novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne examining the ugliness, complexity, and strength of the human spirit and character that shares new ideas about independence and the struggles women faced in 17th century America. Throughout the novel, Hester’s refusal to remove the scarlet letterRead MoreThe Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne1319 Words   |  6 PagesPrynne and Arthur Dimmesdale are subject to this very notion in Nathaniel Hawthorne s The Scarlet Letter. Hester simply accepted that what she had done was wrong, whereas Dimmesdale, being a man of high regard, did not want to accept the reality of what he did. Similar to Hester and Dimmesdale, Roger Chillingworth allows his emotions to influence his life; however, his influence came as the result of hi s anger. Throughout the book, Hawthorne documents how Dimmesdale and Hester s different ways of dealingRead MoreThe Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne1714 Words   |  7 PagesSome two hundred years following the course of events in the infamous and rigid Puritan Massachusetts Colony in the 1600s, Nathaniel Hawthorne, descendant of a Puritan magistrate, in the 19th century, published The Scarlet Letter. Wherein such work, Hawthorne offered a social critique against 17th Massachusetts through the use of complex and dynamic characters and literary Romanticism to shed light on said society’s inherent contradiction to natural order and natural law. In his conclusive statements

Does Management Really Work free essay sample

At that article for the ninetieth anniversary of HBR, they wanted to ask a question. How three essential practices can address even the most complex global problems. The three essential practices’ are targets, incentives and monitoring. They establish researchers teams and asked managers a targeted list of open ended questions, designed for ferret out details about how their companies were -or were not- implementing these practices. They learn three things. First; many organizations all over the world are very badly managed. Second; is not so important and finally the third one is; management makes a difference in shaping national performance. Their analysis show that variation in management accounts for nearly a quarter of the roughly %30 productivity gap between the U. S. and Europe. They dig down and research schools and hospitals so they made some interviews and on the basis of interviews conducted in local managers’, they found that effective management can indeed improve performance, even beyond the private sector. We will write a custom essay sample on Does Management Really Work? or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page They assessing 8000 firms in 20 countries in the developed and developing worlds and focused on medium sized manufacturers, both independent and multinational- owned companies had 50 to 5. 000 workers They made some regulations for the firms and institutions and the results are magnificent. For example in one case, factory rose profits by roughly %30 and that company is opened a second factory and hired 100 more weavers after attracting them away from rival firms with the promise of %10 higher pay. The return on good management; As a result, A one – point increment on a five-point management score correlated with better performance at manufacturers around the globe. The score was based on how well the firms adhered to three basic management practices: targets, incentives and monitoring. One point increment on a management score was associated with; +23% Productivity +14% Market Capitalization +1. 4 Percentage Points on Annual Sales Growth

Term Structure of Interest Rates Essay Example

Term Structure of Interest Rates Paper Forward rate for a I-year bond in 2 years Forward rate for a 1 year bond in 3 years = 10% What is the price of a 3, year zero coupon bond with a face value of $100? Correct Answer: Question: Calculate the expected holding period return for an investor who p researches a 5. 5% two-year bond and plans to sell it after one year. The Burch ease price is $97,350, the expected market rate for a one year bond in one year is 7. 20% and the bond pays coupon interest annually. The bond has a SOCIO face value. Correct Answer: Question: An investor with a one- year investment horizon has chosen to invest in a four-year bond. Find the expected market rate of a three-year bond in one year if the forward rate, is 6. 4% with a liquidity premium of 50 basis points? Correct Answer: 5. 9% 6. 74% SIS_ASS Question: Compute the spot rate for a 2-year zero coupon bond given the i) I year 3. 5% coupon bond, ii) 2-year 11% coupon bond and iii) 3-year 10. 2% co upon bond are 11. 5%, 10. 5% and 10% respectively. All coupon bonds pay interest annually and have a face value of SOCIO. Correct Answer: Question: We use data to study the term Structure Of interest rates. Correct Answer: Question: The expectations theory of the term strut true of interest rates states that Correct Answer: Question: forward rates are market expectations of future interest rates. Cross sectional 10. 45% Calculate the expected holding period return for an investor who purchases a 7. 5 0% two-year bond and plans to sell it after one year. The purchase price in 5102. 0 00, the expected market rate for a one year bond in one year is 6. 25% Asses. shred. ND the bond pays coupon interest semi- annually. The bond has a $100 face value. Coupons can be reinvested at 6% p. A. Until the end Of the holding period. Correct Answer: 6. 57% Question: Which of the following statements are FALSE? Correct Answer: under the liquidity premium theory invest torso would demand a liquidity premium from a bond with a maturity that matches their investment horizon. Question: The yield curve shows the relationship between: Correct Answer: Question: Manchuria Bank purchased a large a mount of Commonwealth Government Bonds (CAB). We will write a custom essay sample on Term Structure of Interest Rates specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Term Structure of Interest Rates specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Term Structure of Interest Rates specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer They wish to strip and repackage the coupon interest as individual zero coupon bonds, According to their calculations, the term structure of interest rates suggests that the spot rate of a 2- year zero coupon bond is 10%. You would advise Manchuria to advertise a yield to on the 2-year zero coupon bond. Selected Answer: Correct Answer: Response Feedback: less than 10% In order for Manchuria Bank to earn a return on the IR coupon strapping they would need to offer a yield less than 10%. The yield on a bond and the time to maturity of the bond Asses. shred.. Online Quiz Questions for Week 4 Topic: Duration Question: When interest rates decline, the duration Of a II- year bond selling at a premium Correct Answer: Question: Who ICC Of the following is incorrect? Correct Answer: Question: The duration of a bond that pays coupon interest annually is 8. 05 yea The yield to maturity Of the bond is 10%. If the yield falls by 25 basis points , what is the percentage change in the price of the bond? Correct Answer: Question: The duration of a bond is positively correlated with the bonds Correct Answer: Question: Which of the following two bonds is more price SE incentives to changes in interest rates? A par value bond, X, with a 5-year- to;maturity and a yield to maturity. A zero;coupon bond, Y, with a S; year-to-maturity and a 10% yield to maturity. Selected Answer: Correct Answer: Response Feedback: Question: The two components of interest-rate risk are Correct Answer: Question: Holding other factors constant, the interest- ate risk of a coupon bond is higher when the bonds: Correct Answer: Question: Duration is important in bond portfolio management because l) it can be used in immunization strategies, II) it provides a gauge of the effective average maturity of the portfolio. Ill) it is related to the interest rate sensitivity of the portfolio. IV) it is a good predictor of interest rate changes. Selected Answer: Correct Answer: I and Ill , II, and Ill yield to maturity is lower. Price risk and reinvestment risk. Both have the same sensitivity because both have the same yield to maturity. Bond Y because Of the longer duration. Duration is the best mesas ere of bond price sensitivity; the longer the duration the higher the price sensitivity. Time to maturity. I . 83% The duration Of a zero- coupon bond decreases with an increase in time to maturity. Increases. Response Feedback: Duration can be used to calculate the approximate e effect of interest rate changes on prices, but is not used to forecast interest rates, Question: When interest rates decline, the duration of a II- year bond selling at a premium Selected Answer: Correct Answer: Question: Which of the following is incorrect? Correct Answer: Question: Compute the duration of a overvalue bond with a coupon rate of and a remaining time to maturity of 3 years. Assume coupon interest is paid annually and the bond has a face value $100. Correct Answer: Question: The duration of a bond that pays coupon interest annually is 8 . 05 years. The yield to maturity of the bond is 10%. If the yield falls by 25 basis points, What is the percentage change in the price Of the bond? Correct Answer: Question: Which of the following are true about the interest- rate sensitivity Of coupon bonds? Bond prices and yields are inversely related. II Prices of long-term bond s tend to be more sensitive to interest rate changes than prices Of short- term bonds. Ill Interest-rate risk is directly related to the bonds coupon rate. IV The sensitivity of a bonds price to a change in its yield to maturity is NV resell related to the yield to maturity at which the bond is currently selling. Correct Answer: Question: You have an obligation to pay $148 in f our years and 2 months. In which bond would you invest your $100 to accumulate this amount, with relative certainty, even if the yield d on the bond declines to 9. 5% immediately after you purchase the nod? All bonds pay interest annually and have a tact value of $100. Selected Answer: Correct Answer: Response Feedback: a 6- year; 10% coupon overvalue bond a 5-year; 10% coupon overvalue bond l, II, and I V I 2. 783 years. The duration of a zero- coupon bond decreases with an increase in time to maturity. Decreases. Increases, Response Feedback: The relationship between interest rates and duration is an i inverse one for coupon bonds. When duration = horizon date, one is minimized, or protected, against one interest rate change. The Zero coupon bond has a D = 5 and the 4- year bond has D e 4. Next choice should be the 5-year bond. Despite the change in yield to 9. 5%, the consequent duration = (10/1. 095)/ 100 100 = 4. 2 years months. Therefore select 5 year, 10% coupon bond. 4 years and 2 Online Quiz Questions for Week 5 Topic: Efficient Portfolios Question: Assume an investor has the following utility function, U E(RPR) O_Scoop, where her degree of risk aversion is 2. To maximize her expected utility, she would choose the asset with an expected return of and a standard deviation of returns of respectively. Correct Answer: Question: The variable A in the utility function represents the: Correct Answer: Question: Minimum variance portfolios of n risky securities are portfolios that: Correct Answer: Question: The expected return of a portfolio of risky securities: Correct Answer: Question: An indifference curve locates the risk re turn combinations Of a number Of portfolios that offer the same level of to an investor with a given degree of risk aversion. Correct Answer: hypothetical; utility Is a weighted average of the securities returns Have the smallest standard De aviation Of returns for a given level Of expected return Investors aversion to risk Question: The utility score an investor assigns to a particular pop Tivoli, other things equal, Selected Answer: Correct Answer: Will decrease as the variance of returns decreases none of the above Utility is enhanced by higher expected returns and diminished by higher risk. Question: In the absence of risk- tree lending and borrowing, the optimal risky portfolio (ARP) offers: Correct Answer: The largest utility Question When two risky securities that are not perfectly positively correlated are held in a portfolio, the portfolio standard deviation of returns will be the weight d average of the individual security standard deviations. Selected Answer: Correct Answer: Response Feedback: B or C less than Whenever we use two securities that are less than perfectly positively correlated to form a portfolio, the portfolio standard deviation Of returns Will be less than t he weighted average standard deviation of returns of the constituent securities. This risk reduction is the reason for diversification. Question: The standard deviation of returns of a portfolio of risky securities is: Correct Answer: The square root of the sum of weighted variances and covariant once of returns of the securities Question: Steve is more risk-averse than Edie. On a graph that shows Steve and Edi?s indifference curves, which of the following is true? Correct Answer: Staves indifference curves will have steeper slopes than Dies Question Other things equal, diversification is most effective when: Correct Answer: Securities returns are negatively correlated Question: Efficient portfolios of n risky securities are portfolios that: Correct Answer: Have the largest expected return for a given level of risk Question: A statistic that measures how the returns o f two risky assets moue together is: Correct Answer: C and D Question: When two risky securities that are not perfectly positively correlate d are held in a portfolio, the portfolio standard deviation Of returns Will be the weighted average of the individual security standard deviations. B Orca less than to form a portfolio, the portfolio standard deviation of returns will be less than t Online Quiz Questions for Week 6 Topic: Optimal Portfolios Question: An investors optimal balanced portfolio is the portfolio that: Correct Answer: Question: When using EXCEL to locate the optic mall balanced portfolio, the purpose is to: @When using EXCEL , the objective function is to identify the composition of the balanced portfolio (the allocation of funds between the ARP and the risk free as et) that gives rise to the highest utility, Correct Answer: Question: G even an optimal risky portfolio with expected return to 14% and standard deviation of returns of and a risk free rate of what is the SSL pope of the best feasible capital allocation line? Correct Answer: Question: Suppose your initial wealth is 51000, The risk free asset makes up of your optimal balanced portfolio. Tellers makes up 15% of you our optimal risky portfolio. How much do you invest in Tellers? $150 $210 Amount invested in your optimal risky portfolio = 51000 x 140% 51400; Amount invested in Tellers = $xx = $210 0. 36 Maximize the utility of the balanced portfolio by changing the weight allocated to the optimal risky portfolio Maximizes his utility Question: Other things being equal, when you combine a RI ask free asset With a portfolio Of risky assets, the larger these tankard deviation of return of the portfolio of risky assets. The larger the standard deviation of return of the balanced portfolio. Selected Answer: Correct Answer: Response Feedback: A and B This statement is always true The standard deviation of returns of the balanced portfolio is given by B = yap because the standard deviation of returns of the risk free asset and the variance of returns between the risk tree asset and the portfolio of risky assets are zero. Question: Which of the following statements regarding the capital allocation n line is false? Selected Answer: Correct Answer: Response Feedback: The slope Of the capital allocation line is obtained by dividing the expected return of a portfolio of risky assets by the standard deviation of returns of the portfolio Both A and C are true The capital allocation line shows the risk return combinations of a set of balanced portfolios that combine a risk-free asset With a portfolio Of risky assets in different proportions. Its slope is the reward to variability ratio and measured as the excess portfolio return per unit of (standard deviation) risk. Thus, both A and C are true. Question: The capital allocation line can be described as the: Correct Answer: Investment opportunity set formed with a risky asset and a risk-free asset Question: An investor invests of his wealth in a risky asset with an expected rate of return of 15% and a standard deviation of returns of 20% and 70% in a T- bill that pays His portfolios expected return and standard deviation n of returns are Question: The separation theorem says: Selected Answer: Correct Answer: Response Feedback: Two or more of the above are correct The choice of the optimal risky portfolio is independent of the investors degree of risk aversion The separation theorem States that in the presence Of a risk free asset, the decision regarding the choice of portfolios of risky assets is separate and independent Of the investors degree Of risk aversion. The degree Of risk aversion only affects the choice of balanced portfolios. The more risk averse you are, the less you allocate your capital to the optimal risky portfolio. Question: Which of the following securities would a risk- averse investor always choose as his sky asset in his balanced portfolio, given that a Treasury- bill has a rate of return of 5%? Correct Answer: security C: E(r)- 12%; standard deviation Question: Having a kinked capital allocation line can be a result of: Correct Answer: Question: Which of the following securities would a risk- risky asset in his balanced portfolio, given that a TreasurY bill has a rate of return of Selected Answer: Question: Suppose your initial wealth is 51000 The risk free asset makes up 40% four optimal balanced portfolio. Tellers makes up 15% of your optimal risky portfolio. HOW much do you invest in Tellers? Selected Answer: Correct Answer: Response Feedback: $240 $210 Amount invested in your optimal risky portfolio = 51000 x 140% = 51400; Amount invested in Tellers = $xx 15% = $210 Cannot be determined Security C: E(r) 1 Standard deviation = Security C has the highest reward to variability ratio. Reward to variability ratio (0. 12 0. 05)/0. 1 0. The borrowing rate exceeding the lending rate Question: Your optimal balanced portfolio consists of an optimal risky portfolio w tit expected return of 20% and standard deviation of returns of 10% and a risk; free asset with expected return off%. Your level to risk aversion is 8. What is the proportion of funds allocated to the optimal portfolio of risky assets (your)? Correct Answer: Question: It investors can borrow and lend at the same risk free rate, which one of the following statements is correct? Correct Answer: The capital allocation line sis straight line 200% Question: If the borrowing rate is higher than the lending g rate, which one of the following statements is correct? Investors with different degrees Of risk aversion Will always choose the same portfolio of risky assets Portfolios lying on different regions Of the capital allocation line have different reward to variability ratios If the borrowing rate is higher than the lending rate, this Will result in a kinked capital allocation line, meaning i) an investors degree of risk aversion affects the choice of the ARP, and ii) portfolios that lie on the CAL may have different reward to variability ratios. Question: Which of the following securities would a risk, bill has a rate of return of 5%? Selected Answer: Correct Answer: Response Feedback: Question: Which of the following statements regarding the capital a Location line is false? Selected Answer: Correct Answer: Response Feedback: The capital allocation line is also called the efficient frontier of risky assets n the absence of a risk-free asset Both A and C are true balanced portfolios that combine a risk-free asset with a portfolio of risky assets and C are true. Cannot be determined Security C: 12%; Standard deviation = ratio = (0. 12 0. 05)/0. 1 = 0. 7 Online Quiz for SIMI Question: As diversification increases, the toot I of a portfolio approaches Question: Which of the following is true regarding RE? Question: Which of the following is correct about the stocks alpha? Selected Answer: Correct Answer: Response Feedback: Question: The index MO del has been estimated for stocks A and g with the following results: RA- 0. 1 + 0. 02 + 1. ARM SMS -0. 20 s(EAI) s 0. 0 The standard deviation of returns of stock A is Correct Answer: Question: The Security Characteristic Line (SSL) Selected Answer: Correct Answer: Response setback: plots the excess return on a security as a function of the excess return on the market. All of the above. The security characteristic line, which plots the excess return of the security as a function of the excess return Of the market allows one to estimate both the alpha and the beta of the security. 0. 2335 under CAMP, alpha is zero at all times under CAMP, the value of alpha is zero when the market is at equilibrium Lender CAMP, the expected (equilibrium) value Of alpha is zero, although alpha could be positive, negative or zero the variance of the market portfolio Question: Analysts may use regression analysis to estimate the market model for a stock. When doing so, the intercept of the regression line is an estimate of . Selected Answer: the a of the asset Correct Answer: Response Feedback: Question: The Security Characteristic Line (SIC_) associated with the single- index model sis plot of Correct Answer: Question: The index model for stock k B has been estimated with the following result: ORB = 0,01 l, RIM ebb If MM 020 and RIB = 0. 50, the standard deviation to returns of stock B is Correct Answer: Question: Which of the following statements are true? Selected Answer: Correct Ensures: Response Feedback: the characteristic line is a regression output of the security market line. It is common to ignore the risk free rate and estimate the market model instead. A is incorrect because SMS shows you the relationship between the return Of a security in relation to its systematic risk (as measured by b) whereas the characteristics line shows the relationship between a stocks excess return to the markets excess return. B is also incorrect because a large alpha could be accompanied by a I-stats Of less than I . 96 (or 2 as per the rule Of thumb), hence making the output insignificantly different from O. RE measures the proportion of variation of the stocks excess return that is explained by the 0. 3111 the securitys excess returns on the vertical axis and the market indexs excess returns on the horizontal axis. None of the above The market model is a regression of total stock returns on total market returns. The intercept is neither b, s nor d, and is not the a to the asset, which is the intercept of the single index model which uses excess returns. As awe. shred.. Markets excess return, not the other way around. Hence C is incorrect. D is correct as practitioners typically use the market model instead of following the single index model strictly. Question: A single- index model uses as a proxy for the systematic risk factor. Correct Answer: Question: As diversification increases, the total variance Of a portfolio approaches . Selected Answer: none of the above Correct Answer: Response setback: Question: Analysts may use regression analysis to estimate the market model for a stock.

Importance of Communication in Making Decision in Organizations

Importance of Communication in Making Decision in Organizations Executive Summary The report entails evaluation of the role of communication in making decisions within an organization. The correlation between decision making and communication is underscored in the background study. Some of the key roles of communication in decision making are identified. The importance of communication in identifying the complexity of the intended decision is underscored.Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on Importance of Communication in Making Decision in Organizations specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More This arises from the fact that some of the decisions that a firm’s management team can make are more complex and can lead to enormous financial loss. Through communication, firms’ management teams are able to identify the involved complexity. The role of communication in solving problems within an organization is underscored. This arises from the fact that problem solving entails effective identification of the problem which is attained via communication. Communication also aids in reducing employee resistance which might during the decision making process. This may result into conflicts within the organization. Communication also aids in the process of a firm undertaking decisions regarding research and development which is vital for a firm’s success. Finally a conclusion of the entire study and a set of recommendations are made. The recommendations made entail some of the ways via which communication in an organization can be enhanced so as to improve decision making. Introduction Background to the study In the process of executing their duties, managers are charged with a number of roles. Some of these roles relate to interpersonal roles, informational roles and decisional roles. The success of an organization is dependent on the effectiveness and efficiency with which the managers undertake their functions. One of the most important roles which m anagers are supposed to undertake is making decisions to guide the organization’s operations. Decision making is paramount in the success of every business. According to Martinsons and Davison (2007, p.287) decision making should be fast considering the fact that opportunities have a short window. Poole and Ahmed (2008, p.6) define decision making as the process of selecting from a number of alternatives based on a comprehensive analysis of the various options. Poole and Ahmed (2008, p.1) consider decision making to be a vital primary process in the operation of an organization. The decisions which the managers undertake are supposed to be independent.Advertising Looking for research paper on business communication? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More In an organizational setting, there are a number of groups which help the organization in conducting various tasks. The basis of these groups may be the various depa rtments. Despite the fact that managers should be independent in making decisions, consideration of the various groups is paramount. There is a strong correlation between communication and decision making (Ellen Almonte, 2009). Explicitly stated, communication has an influence on the decision made. Communication is defined as the dissemination of information from sender to the receiver. For communication to occur, information must be communicated via effective decoding by the receiver. Communication in an organization can be viewed in a number of perspectives one of them being a medium via which group interaction in an organization occurs (Martinsons Davison, 2007, p.287). Alternatively, communication can be considered to be the essence of decision making. This makes communication to be an essential element in the success of an organization. Aim The aim of the report is to analyze the importance of decision making in organizations Scope The report is organized into a number of sec tions. The first section entails evaluation of how communication aids firms’ management teams in the identification of complexity of the decision to be made. The role of communication in enhancing problem solving is identified in the second section. The third section gives an evaluation of the role of communication in reducing resistance as a result of the decisions made. An analysis of the role of communication in enhancing research and development decision is conducted in the fifth section. Finally, a conclusion of the entire study and a set of recommendations are made. Enhances understanding of the degree of complexity of the decision In the operation of an organization, the management teams undertake various functions such as decision making. Lack of communication may limit the management teams’ capacity to make rational decisions. This arises from the complexity of the decision to be implemented.Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on I mportance of Communication in Making Decision in Organizations specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More In addition, the decision to be implemented may involve huge risks which might affect the firm’s operation as a going concern entity. This means that communication must be conducted prior to making any decision. For example, considering the dynamic nature of business environment, it is paramount for firms to develop a high competitive advantage. There are various avenues via which this can be achieved. One of them is formation of mergers and acquisition. The core objective of formation of mergers and acquisition is to attain synergy in the new entity (Cartwright Cooper, 2006). However, there is a high probability of the new entity not attaining the intended synergy. One of the reasons which might result in this is lack of effective communication between the two firms involved. Undertaking a merger and acquisition requires incorporation of a comprehensive collaborative decision making. This will ensure that all the parties involved have similar information regarding the impact of the decision on each firm. In addition, communication prior to implementation of the decision will aid in the determination of the existing degree of fitness between the two firms. Ensuring prior communication prior to implementation of the decision will aid in minimizing chances of the merger failing (Cartwright Cooper, 2006, p.65). This arises from the fact that it will be possible to determine the existence of goal congruency between the two firms. A considerable amount of resources are involved in the process of conducting a merger and acquisition. If there is not sufficient communication, determination of the fit between the two firms may be hindered. Upon implementing such a decision, there is a high probability of the firm failing leading into enormous financial loss. Ensuring communication prior to undertaking such decision enables the firm’s management team in determine the most effective way through which the decision will be implemented. Increases the effectiveness of problem solving In the operation of an organization, there is a probability of conflicts occurring amongst the employees. This arises from the existence of differences between employees. Inevitability of conflicts also arises from the fact that employees interact regularly in their duties (Coombs, 2010, p.340).Advertising Looking for research paper on business communication? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Conflicts may result into increase in the level of stress amongst the employees. This has the effect of reducing the employees’ productivity and hence the firm’s performance. It is the role of a firm’s management team to solve the conflicts amicably. This can only be attained via making an effective decision. When a conflict exists in organizations, there is a high probability of it being suppressed. This worsens the situation by increasing the level of stress amongst the employees. Communication can help the management in understanding the nature of the conflict (Coombs, 2010, p.350). In addition, the degree of certainty regarding the problem is improved. This arises from the fact that the management team is able to obtain numerous facts regarding the problem (Politi Street, 2010). In order to solve the problem, a comprehensive decision making process should be undertaken. The first step entails identification of the existing problem. Problem identification en sures that the decision made will result into a solution of the identified problem (Gibson, Ivancevich, Donnelly Konopaske, 2009, p.36). At this stage, effective communication is paramount in helping the manager identify the problem. There is no need of the decision process progressing if the problem is not well identified. There are a number of alternatives available to the management team in solving the problem. In order to identify the available alternatives, managers are required to gather sufficient amount of information. This will serve in increasing the validity of the decision made. According to Coombs (2010, p.360), conflicts within an organization may affect employees within various departments. Various employees working in different departments have got different ways which they can consider most effective to solve the problem. By ensuring that there is an effective communication between the various groups, it is possible for the management to organize discussions so as to solicit the views of the employees. Despite disagreements arising during the discussion, there is a high probability of the employees cooperating with the decision made since they were given an opportunity to express their views (Joanne, Dulek Hale, 2007, p.68). The resultant effect communicating via group discussions when solving problems in an organization is that the quality of the decision made is high. This increases the effectiveness with which the existing problem is solved. After identification of the various alternatives, the management team should evaluate the alternatives to consider the most effective to consider when making the decision. The model below gives an illustration of the decision making process in an organization. The dynamic nature of external environment has an effect on a firm’s operation and long-term survival. As a result, it has become vital for firms to undertake various changes on their operations so as to align themselves with the externa l environment. Some of the changes to be undertaken are aimed at improving an organization’s operation efficiency. The intended change can either be major or minor. Despite the magnitude of the intended change, it might result into employee resistance. In order to undertake the intended change, a number of decisions have to be made. The change resulting from the decision made by the management team affects the entire organization. Therefore, it is the responsibility of a firm’s management team to ensure that all the members of the various departments cooperate. This makes the implementation process to be efficient by eliminating employee resistance (Richardson, 2008.p.2). The decision to make a change should not be imposed to the subordinate members of the organization. It is important to ensure that all the employees are conversant with the decision to undertake the change prior to its implementation. In addition, the employees should be aware of how the decision to u ndertake the change will affect them. This will increase their commitment in the process of implementing the decision. Therefore, ensuring effective communication within the organization will ensure that the firms’ management team understands the employees’ perception regarding the decision. Enhances research and development Considering the dynamic nature of business environment, conduction of research and development is vital if the firm is to survive as a going concern. The importance of research and development has further been enhanced by the current rate of globalization. This is mainly so for firms which are in very volatile economic sectors such as those which deal with software development. Decisions relating to research and development may emanate internally or externally. According to Hirokawa and Marshall (2008, p.53), creating a rapport between the organization and the various parties involved via communication helps in identification of the necessary resea rch and development. In addition, communication helps in the identification of the changes occurring in the business environment. This arises from the fact that the organization is able to obtain market feedback via communication (Martinsons Davison, 2007). The resultant effect is that the firm is able to undertake modifications to its research and development thus increasing the chances of attaining a high competitive advantage. Conclusion The success of every organization depends on the effectiveness of the decisions made by the firm’s management team. From the analysis, it is evident that the quality of decision made is dependent on the effectiveness of communication within the organization. These sentiments are underscored by Aaron (2006, p. 32) who asserts that despite the vision statement that a firm has, lack of effective communication can result into failure in their attainment. The decisions to be implemented may affect the employees’ negatively thus limiting their productivity. Imposing a decision on the employees which they are not aware of may result into resistance. Through effective organizational communication, the employees become aware of the decision prior to the change. This increases the probability of them cooperating during the implementation process. In addition, communication helps in effective decision making via identification of the existing problem. Problem identification is the first step in the decision making process within an organization. Effective communication increases the degree of certainty with regard to the problem being solved. For example, the existing problem may relate to conflicts between the firm’s employees. Without effective identification of the problem, there is a high probability of the decision made not solving the existing problem. This means that the entire decision making process was a mere waste of time. Through communication, it is possible for the management team to determine the c omplexity of the intended decision with regard to its effect on the employees. The management team may consider involving the employees in finding a more optimal solution by communicating the intended decision. The resultant effect is that the firm is able to identify the appropriateness of the decision via identification of various alternatives. Recommendations In order to ensure that the decision made is effective, it is paramount for firms’ management teams to enhance effective communication. In order to achieve this, firm’s management teams should consider the following recommendations. There should be free flow of information within organizations. This will ensure that all the stakeholders are conversant with the organization’s internal environment. This will culminate into minimization of the probability of resistance occurring. In order to achieve this, firm’s management team should consider incorporating a bottom-up organization style. This will e nsure free flow of information from the employees in the subordinate level to the top management. All the stakeholders to the decision should be involved. This will ensure that a sufficient level of awareness is created thus increasing the probability of participation during the implementation process. In order to ensure effective communication within the organization, firms’ management team should incorporate information technology so as to effectively manage information flow within and without the organization. Firms’ management teams should ensure that the organization has got an effective team dynamics. One of the ways through which this can be attained is by ensuring that there is effective communication within the organization. The resultant effect is that the degree of collaboration in decision making will be improved. Reference List Aaron, S. (2006). Effective communication helps business run more smoothly. Journal  of management. Vol. 4, issue 5, pp. 23-34. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Cartwright, S. Cooper, C. (2006). Managing mergers, acquisitions and strategic  alliances. New Jersey: Butterworth Heinnemann. Coombs, T. (2010). Impact of past crises on current crisis communication: insight from situational crisis communication theory. Journal of business communication. Vol. 412, issue 4, pp. 390-419. Ellen, M. Almonte, R. (2009). Essential of business communication. New York: Cengage Learning. Gibson, J. L., Ivancevich, J. M., Donnelly, J. H., Konopaske, R. (2009). Organizations:  Behavior, structure, processes. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill. Hirokawa, R. Marshall, P. (2008). Communication and group decision making. New York: Sage. Joanne, E., Dulek, R.E. Hale, D. (2007). Crisis response communication challenges: building theory from qualitative data. Journal of Business communication. Vol. 41, issue 3, pp. 112-134. Martinsons, M. Davison, R. (2007). Strategic decision making and support systems: comparing American, Japa nese and Chinese management. Journal of management. Vol. 43, issue 1, pp. 284-300. Amsterdam: Elsevier Communication. Politi, M. Street, R. (2010). The importance of communication in collaborative decision making: facilitating shared mind and the management of uncertainty. International journal of public health and policy. Vol. 3, issue 5, pp. 26-45. Washington: Blackwell Publishers. Poole, M. Ahmed, I. (2008). Decision making process in organizations. Journal of  Communication Studies. Vol. 4, issue 3, pp. 45-54. Richardson, J. (2008). Management of conflict in organizations: effective communication in conflict resolution. Journal of health. Washington: Bnet.

Khan Academy SAT Will Never Be Enough †Heres Why

Khan Academy SAT Will Never Be Enough - Here's Why SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips With the new 2016 SAT, Khan Academy has partnered with the College Board to create a free SAT prep program. All things considered, Khan Academy's SAT prep program is high quality. It's a great introduction to the test and elevates the bar of free SAT materials. Students unable to afford books or prep programs have a useful resource to train for the test. But it's not complete. There's still a lot missing from the Khan Academy SAT program that can prevent you from getting the highest score possible. In this review, you'll understand what exactly is wrong with the Khan SAT program – and why the partnership with the College Board means these problems will never be fixed. If you plan to use the Khan Academy SAT program, this will show you what you're missing. Introduction Here's a one-sentence summary of my stance: Khan Academy could have built a much better SAT prep program, but it's being handcuffed by the demands of the College Board. To fully understand the weaknesses of Khan Academy's SAT program, you have to understand the nature of the partnership between College Board and Khan Academy. To you, the high school student, the College Board may seem like a monolithic giant bent on ruining your life. But the reality is the College Board is a vulnerable group struggling to justify its existence in a shifting education landscape. This is the entire reason for the 2016 SAT redesign. You'll see how Khan Academy's SAT program is a tool used by College Board to further its own agenda. If you're interested in why the College Board is struggling and its strategy to stay alive, then keep reading this from top to bottom. If you just care about hearing the pros and cons of Khan Academy's SAT program, click here to skip down the page. However, if you plan on using Khan Academy for 20 hours or more of prep, I think this article is well worth the 15 minute read, so you know what you're getting out of your studying. Disclaimers Before we start, let's get two things out of the way. First, these opinions are my own. While I know people who are current/former employees of Khan Academy, I'm not privy to any confidential information and didn't consult them for this article. I draw my own conclusions from my knowledge of the testing and education industries. Therefore, any information that isn't public (like the terms of the contract between Khan Academy and College Board) are purely my opinions about what's going on. Second, I co-founded PrepScholar, an education technology company with our own online SAT and ACT prep programs. I'm clearly going to be biased toward thinking that our approach to the SAT is the right way to prep.Having worked with our thousands of students and seen our score improvements, I'm confident that we're on the right track. So take all of what I say with a grain of salt, and make up your own mind. If you don't agree with what I say below, then that's cool. I wish you the best on your SAT studying and hope you get an awesome score. If instead what I say makes sense to you, then you'd probably also like our SAT prep program. It provides a great SAT prep experience onlinewith leading score improvement results. I believe we have the best SAT prep program available, and you'll see from my thinking below why that is. Of course, you don't need to buy an SAT prep program to do great on the test. On this blog, we've published the best SAT resources availableto support millions of students around the world to prep better. But if you could use help organizing your prep and could benefit from an all-inclusive SAT prep program that's effective and easy to use, then check us out. Let's get started. What's Khan Academy? I'll say it upfront and repeat it throughout - Khan Academy is one of my favorite educational organizations. I have a HUGE amount of respect for them. Years ago when I first saw their product and heard of their vision to provide free education to the world, I was blown away. Their approach seems like such an obvious idea in retrospect, but no one was actually doing it at scale. Khan Academy started as a collection of math video lessons featuring Sal Khan. Since then, they've expanded their content dramatically to cover subjects beyond math to include art, economics, and computer science. They've also developed a more sophisticated program that tracks your progress and gives you practice questions. Khan Academy is now used in schools worldwide to supplement teacher teaching as part of a movement called ‘blended learning.' Given Khan's educational reach and tech platform, they were a natural choice for College Board to partner with. On the surface, the program looks great. It's free, slick, and easy to use. But if you peer under the surface, you'll understand why Khan's prep program has fundamental weaknesses, directly attributable to its partnership with the College Board. The College Board's 3 Giant Problems Remember what I said above, about the College Board trying to justify its own existence? Here's why. For decades, the SAT was the major game in town. If you wanted to get into a top college, you had to take the SAT. The ACT was around, but it wasn't as popular. Fast forward to today. The College Board and the SAT have three big problems that threaten their existence: Problem 1: The SAT Doesn't Strongly Correlate With College Success First and foremost, the purpose of the SAT is to differentiate better students from worse students. The higher the score you get, the more likely you'll succeed in college and career – supposedly. Colleges thus use SAT scores to admit the best students they can. The problem is, colleges run analyses on their students and started finding that SAT score often wasn't the best predictor of success – grades and coursework were. Naturally, schools started thinking, "why do we even need the SAT?" This led to a movement to make the SAT/ACT optional. One of the most famous schools doing this is NYU, which allows you to substitute three AP exam scores in lieu of the SAT. If this isn't problem enough†¦ Problem 2: Richer Students Tend to Do Better on the SAT Income inequality is a hot button topic in this country, especially when it comes to education, which is seen as a universal right. Over the past century, colleges have made a huge push to promote diversity and lower inequality where it can. Unfortunately, the higher your family income, the higher your SAT score tends to be. This sounds bad. The first thing people often think when they hear this is, "richer people can afford better SAT prep." This is true, but in reality this is a much more complicated problem with many factors at play. Income affects the type of parents you have, your environment, the resources you can access, how others treat you, and many more factors that sum up to your academic potential. So it's not all the College Board's fault. Regardless, the correlation with income still sounds really bad. If colleges take students with higher SAT score, one can argue they're just admitting richer students – which is counter to most colleges' mission statements. This makes colleges think – "if the SAT doesn't predict college success well†¦AND it correlates with income†¦why in the world are we still using it?" Strike two. And the kicker†¦ Problem 3: The SAT Is Losing Market Share to ACT For decades, the SAT was far more popular than the ACT. No surprise – it had a head start, with the College Board founded in 1899 and the ACT in 1959. Up until 2008, the SAT had always held at least a 20% lead over the ACT in terms of number of test takers. However, in 2012, the tables turned – for the very first time,the ACT had more test takers than the SAT. And in 2015, the gap widened – the ACT had 1.9 million test takers, compared to SAT's 1.7 million. So why the changing in positions? The ACT has always positioned itself as a test of what you learn in school. In contrast, the SAT has always had more of a reputation as an aptitude test, closer to an IQ test. Partly for this reason, many states adopted the ACT as a state-wide standardized test (like Illinois, Michigan, and Utah). This means 100% of all high school juniors in these states take the ACT before graduation – which also means few of them feel they need to take the SAT. You can tell that these are three HUGEproblems. Not only is the ACT gaining ground, colleges overall are questioning the value of tests like the SAT and ACT. If the College Board didn't do anything, the SAT would be obsolete before long. So it implemented its grand strategy – the 2016 SAT redesign, supported by the Khan Academy SAT prep program. The College Board's Grand Strategy Let's get right to it. Here's how the College Board is attacking all three problems above: Strategy 1: To Improve the Correlation With College Success, They Redesigned the SAT The new SAT supposedly better matches the skills needed for college success. It now emphasizes skills you're likely to use in the future, like algebra and grammar in the context of passages. It got rid of skills panned as irrelevant, like obscure vocabulary and tricky math logic questions. It also closely matches the new Common Core curriculum – no surprise, since a contributor to the Common Core (David Coleman) became president of the College Board in 2012. Desired outcome: If the new SAT can better predict student success, then colleges will continue using the SAT as an admissions factor. The College Board will stay alive. Strategy 2:To Reduce Income Inequality, They Partnered With Khan Academy to Produce a Free SAT Prep Program A common criticism of the SAT is that wealthier people can afford test prep or tutors, and this causes inequality. With Khan Academy's free SAT prep program, students who can't afford books or prep programs can now prep for free. This in itself is a great step forward – don't get me wrong. As I'll explain below, the Khan Academy SAT program has a lot to offer and is a solid program. But make no mistake, the College Board KNOWS how much this helps their marketing to colleges and to the public. With this program, they can now go to colleges and say, "we honestly believe our free SAT program is going to reduce inequality. This means when you choose students with higher SAT scores, you can be confident you're NOT biased by income." While the reality of educational inequality is more complicated, this is great PR for College Board. Desired outcome:Ideally, completely levelout the playing field and solve income inequality. Since this is a tough problem and thus unlikely to happen, plan B is to CONVINCEcolleges that the SAT doesn't bias for income, now that Khan Academy is around. This will get colleges to swallow the SAT more easily. Strategy 3: By Gaining Reputation With Colleges and Broadening Their Reach to Students, the SAT Can Compete With the ACT for Market Share The College Board wants more students to take the SAT. The more students who take the SAT, the more it'll be accepted as a default part of life, and the harder it'll be to get rid of.Furthermore, more SAT test-takers means more students who apply to colleges using the SAT, which means it'll be harder for colleges to get rid of their SAT requirement. This is how the College Board will get more students to take the SAT: Push states to adopt the SAT as state-wide standardized testing. The College Board can argue that the SAT is now Common Core aligned, so it'll test what schools are teaching. Furthermore, now that students have Khan Academy to prep for free, states won't feel as bad requiring all students to take the SAT. This competes directly with the ACT's state partnerships – in fact, Illinois and Colorado have already switched from the ACT to the SAT. This is huge – it takes away major market share from the ACT. Use Khan Academy's reach to convert Khan users to prep for the SAT. Khan Academy has a nationwide reach with millions of student users. A lot of students who might not have taken the SAT otherwise can now learn about the SAT and take it. Furthermore, students who start prepping for the SAT first will be more likely to take the SAT rather than the ACT. Promote the SAT among people who wouldn't normally take the SAT or go to college. Now that it has a great free resource in Khan Academy to promote, it can partner with organizations like Boys Girls Clubs of America to reach millions more students. In the chess game that is business strategy, the College Board made some brilliant moves here. By redesigning the test and offering a high quality free resource (Khan Academy), it has legitimate responses to each of its major problems: correlation to college success, income inequality, and ACT competition. Side note: Despite all these efforts, the New SAT still has really bad inequality data 1 year after its introduction. By ethnicity: the average Asian score is 1181 and the average White score is 1118, while the average African American score is 941. There's a whole standard deviation of difference here, which is huge. By income: students who used a fee waiver scored a 978, while those who didn't 1087. By parent education (which is a good signal of income): kids of parents with graduate degrees scored a 1177, compared to 944 from kids of parents with no high school diploma. Maybe it needs more time to play out - it's only been a year. But I'm very skeptical. I think the New 1600 SAT is going to see pretty much exactly the same inequalities the Old 2400 SAT had, because the inequality problem in education is MUCH broader than test design. Why Does College Board's Strategy Matter for Khan Academy SAT? Now what does this have to do with Khan Academy's weaknesses? The critical point, for the purpose of this article, is that Khan Academy is a tool in College Board's strategy. The partnership exists to further College Board's mission and achieve its goals. As a result, you have to see Khan Academy's SAT program as an extension of the College Board. Because Khan Academy SAT is an integral component of College Board's strategy and presentation to colleges, the College Board needs to control the content and messaging in Khan Academy's program. Imagine if the College Board didn't have tight control. Imagine if Khan Academy ran counter to College Board's stated philosophies, like if Khan Academy said, "the SAT is a test that you can exploit to get a higher score." This would destroy College Board's credibility with the people they're trying to impress - colleges and the American public. College Board can't let this happen. The stakes are too high if something goes wrong. So they need to control the Khan Academy program. Thus, Khan Academy SAT is a reflection of College Board -College Board's vision for themselves, College Board's approach to testing, and College Board's insistence on how YOU should prep for the SAT. This is where we run into major problems, because you shouldn't believe many things that the College Board says about SAT - particularly about what it takes to improve your score. Side note: I don't want to sound cynical here or make you think that the College Board has nefarious motives, like a cartoonish villain. I respect what College Board and Khan Academy are doing to help even the playing field and get more kids to get into college. They have good intentions, and the problems they are working on are hard and important. Still, the College Board has an agenda and a strategy to meet its goals. Just because it wants to help more students get into college doesn't preclude it from pulling its levers to achieve its goals. One of these levers is Khan Academy's SAT program. College Board's Stances Will Hurt You So once again - because College Board is so tightly linked to Khan Academy's SAT program, the prep program will be a reflection of College Board's philosophies to the test. Unfortunately, these philosophies don't reflect the reality of how to prep for the test to get the highest SAT score. Here are the most important problems. First, for most of its 100+ years of existence, the College Board has maintained that you can't prep for the SAT. This goes back to the positioning of the SAT as the "scholastic aptitude test" – where aptitude refers to the innate ability you're born with. It's obviously changed its mind by releasing a program with Khan Academy, but, like a giant ship, an institution as old and big as the College Board can't change its course quickly. Second, the College Board never, ever teaches test strategy. By test strategy, I mean test-taking skills that can raise your score even WITHOUT learning more core content like algebra. An example of a test-taking skill is skipping the hardest questions and focusing your time on the easier questions that you're more likely to get correct. Another is developing a reliable formula for the SAT essaythat will work every single time. Yet another is understanding how to approach Reading passages to balance time and accuracy. We know, from experience with thousands of students, that these strategies work. They raise scores. But you will never see score-boosting strategies like these in any official materials from the College Board. Why? Because it directly contradicts one of their fundamental messages – that the SAT predicts academic achievement and career success. As the College Board says, "The new test is more focused on the skills and knowledge at the heart of education."(source)It really wants to push the idea that doing well in school is enough to do well on the SAT, which means the SAT measures your pure academic achievement. So if they EVER suggested that special strategies you DON'T learn in school will improve your score, it will DESTROY this mirage. It will make the test seem like an artificial construct that doesn't predict student success – problem #1 you read about above. Let's say there's a strategy you learn just for the SAT that has no application in the future, in college or in your career as a doctor or as a lawyer or as a writer.It's only really relevant for the SAT and other standardized tests like it. Let's say that strategy improves your score a lot. This would mean your SAT score doesn't accurately predict your future success. This is a BIG problem. This is why College Board will never teach these strategies. And this is also why Khan Academy has none of these strategies. I'll explain this critical weakness below. Before we move on to a full review of the Khan Academy SAT program, I want to share one final unpleasant implication of this partnership. You already know that the College Board is competing with the ACT for market share, and that Khan Academy is a critical tool in this competition.If Khan Academy were to develop a similar free prep program for the ACT, it would be a massive blow to College Board's strategy. That's why Khan Academy will NEVER develop its own ACT program while partnering with College Board.In fact, I suspect College Board contractually prohibitedKhan Academy from developing its own ACT program. To me, this is unfortunate. 1.9 million students took the ACT in 2015, more than the SAT. If Khan Academy created an ACT program, it would double its impact and help a ton of students. But it already signed the deal, and it has its hands tied. Remember what I said above about being cynical? This is one place I'll admit that College Board's strategy builds itself up purely at the expense of students. Because it wants to defeat the ACT, the College Board is willing to place ACT test takers at a disadvantage. And the College Board knows what it's doing – those disadvantaged ACT test takers will switch to the SAT. We've covered a lot. Let's summarize the main points: College Board is fighting irrelevance. Colleges have big problems with the SAT. In response, the College Board implemented a strategy to redesign the SAT and provide a free SAT program with Khan Academy. Because Khan Academy SAT is so important to the strategy, College Board needs to control its content and messaging so it doesn't ruin the strategy. College Board's control means Khan Academy SAT will never be a complete prep program With all that in mind, let's look through the Khan Academy SAT program. Pros and Cons of Khan Academy SAT Program Pros – Where Khan Academy SAT Works As I've said, there's a lot to like about Khan Academy's SAT program, and it's a great start for beginner students. Pro 1: Easy to Use + Clean Design The first thing you'll notice about Khan Academy is how intuitive it is to use, especially compared to most other online prep programs. The onboarding process introduces you to the program and diagnostic, and the features and lessons are laid out simply. It loads quickly and doesn't have obvious bugs. This is a credit to their strong product and design team. Based in Silicon Valley right next to Google headquarters, Khan Academy has access to great talent for building web applications. Tech is a core strength of Khan Academy, and it's safe to say College Board wouldn't be able to build anything close to Khan's SAT program. Pro 2: Organization of Math and Grammar into Skills One of my most important SAT prep philosophies is to dissect the test into individual skills, figure out which skills you're weak in, and drill those skills with practice. This idea is fundamental to the way I designed our SAT program at PrepScholar (read more in my Perfect SAT Score guide). Khan's program uses the same philosophy for the Math section and the grammar section of Writing. Each is split up into individual skills that you can train with practice problems. This makes a giant scary section like Math a lot more approachable. Furthermore, the problems it gives you are customized to your level. Miss more questions, and you'll be dropped a level. Get more questions right, and you'll upgrade your level. We believe in customization at PrepScholar as well, since you grow best when you're challenged at the edge of your ability. Unfortunately, the Khan SAT program doesn't go far enough in its skill division. As of publication date, the Reading section and the rhetorical skills part of Writing are NOT divided into skills. These are important sections, and I'll explain more below. Pro 3: Plugin With PSAT Scores This is the coolest part of Khan Academy's official partnership with the College Board. If you've taken the PSAT, you can connect your College Board account to Khan Academy, which will automatically pull in your test results and customize your prep program. This will add accuracy to your diagnostic and lower the friction to getting started. It's likely that only Khan Academy will have access to this cool feature. College Board doesn't currently allow any other company to connect to their databases and pull student data. Khan Academy has special access because of their official partnership, and giving any other company this access would lessen their competitive advantage. While this feature currently only works with PSAT results, I'm confident in the future Khan Academy will allow you to plug in your SAT results as well. Now, this isn't going to revolutionize your prep or significantly improve the quality of the program. The diagnostic is already mostly good enough. Typically the diagnostic will be even better, as it gives you a broader range of questions and tests your skill right at that moment, not 11 months ago when you took the PSAT. But it still lowers the barrier to people getting started with SAT prep, and that's a good thing. Pro 4: A Lot of Practice Questions, College-Board Approved The last major thing Khan Academy has going for it is a lot of practice questions – over 2,000 as of this writing.As of writing, they have 954 Math questions and 1545 Writing questions, but only 242 Reading questions. So Reading is a major weakness in their content availability right now. Even better, these were reviewed by College Board writers to be accurate. They describe: The College Board works closely with Khan Academy staff at all stages of content creation to ensure that the test questions you see on the Khan Academy website are the same types of questions you will see on the actual SAT. Content writers from Khan Academy collaborate with the writing staff at College Board, who revise multiple drafts of their works." Source Important note: this cuts both ways. Remember what I said about College Board controlling Khan Academy's program? You can see it here: College Board "revises multiple drafts of their works." AKA "doesn't allow anything to get published that they don't like." You'll see why this is a problem below. At PrepScholar, we believe that a lot of practice is important, which is why we're aiming to create 8,000 practice questions for both our SAT and ACT products. To improve our quality, we've also broken down the SATlike I've no other company do (see our UltimateReading, Math, and Writing guides). So far, so good. Khan Academy is easy to use, has a lot of practice questions, and lets you train specific skills in math and grammar. On the surface, this sounds great. But if you dig deeper, you'll notice the major problems with the Khan SAT program as it exists today. Cons – Where Khan Academy SAT Is Weak As I've explained above, the official partnership between College Board and Khan Academy means the College Board has strong control over how the SAT program works. You can imagine College Board telling Khan Academy, "if we're going to put our name on this, it needs to represent how we think, and we need to be able to review everything in the program before it goes out." You can see this right above: "content writers from Khan Academy collaborate with the writing staff at College Board, who revise multiple drafts of their works." This is both a blessing and a curse. The blessing is that the test questions likely will be higher quality and look close to real SAT questions. The curse is that the content HAS to conform to College Board's philosophy, or it won't get published. This extends to everything in the program – how you should get the right answer, how skills are taught, strategies to get a higher score, and more. The result is that Khan Academy's SAT program is how the COLLEGE BOARD wantsyou to prep. This is NOT usually the best way you should prep to get the highest score possible! This is an important distinction. Remember that the College Board has its own agenda – it wants to prove that the SAT tests what you learn in school and skills that are useful for a career. It doesn't want to teach you the exact ways you can raise your SAT score in ways that don't align with College Board philosophy. This is where the biggest failures arise. I'll explain each in detail next. Even worse, while the partnership lasts, it's unlikely many of these problems will be fixed. Con 1: No SAT Test Strategies This is the major problem with Khan Academy's SAT program. At PrepScholar, we know that test-taking strategy is essential to scoring your highest score possible. Strategies like: Skipping the hardest questions to focus on the easier questions you're more likely to get right How to attack SAT Reading passages most effectively to save time Predicting how the SAT tries to trap you into wrong answer choices Alternative strategies to get the right answer for math questions, even if you don't know how to solve them We teach strategies like this in our SAT prep program. If you're like most students, understanding these strategies will raise your score. We've seen this with thousands of students. You'll never find strategies like these on Khan Academy. The reason is fundamental – these strategies apply primarily in artificial testing environments like the SAT, and these strategies exist primarily to raise your SAT score. They aren't that helpful for success in college and in your future career. If the College Board admitted strategies like these existed, they'd also have to admit that the SAT doesn't test pure academic skill - Problem #1 above. They want to maintain that the SAT is all about testing purely what you learned in school. So they'll never allow teaching of these strategies. This is unfortunate, because I bet Sal Khan and the Khan Academy staff know a bunch of useful test strategies they used themselves to excel on the SAT. But they're not allowed to share them. As one example, here's an example of Sal Khan breaking down a Reading passage. In this video, he reads the passage slowly, breaking it down line by line. He wants to make sure you understand every single sentence and how it fits into the passage. In our testing philosophy at PrepScholar, we believe this is the absolute wrong approach to SAT Reading passages. You don't have to understand every line in a passage in detail, and it's a waste of time to do so. Simply put, the reason is that there are only 11 questions per passage, which leaves a ton of details in the passage you just don't have to understand. In fact, this method of detailed reading is why so many students run out of time in the SAT Reading section – they just spend too much time trying to understand every detail. If a student read the passage like Sal Khan does in this video, she'd be at a serious disadvantage, compared to someone who knows better test taking strategies geared to the SAT. Instead, we advise all our students, especially those scoring below a 700, to skim the passage for light understanding, then use the questions to hone in on parts of the passage that are actually important. College Board would NEVER want to teach a strategy like this, because it's too specific to this test. In your future, when you write an English essay in college or prepare a report in your job, you won't use this strategy – instead, you WILL read the material line by line, extracting every detail and leaving no stone unturned. This is just one of many examples of strategies that Khan Academy is lacking. This is my major gripe with the program, and for the reasons above, I doubt they will ever truly fix this in their program. The College Board is just too strongly tied to the Khan SAT program. Con 2: Insufficient Lessons I believe that when you're weak in a skill, engaging with a detailed lesson helps you learn the fundamental content and strategies in a structured way. If you're weak in algebra equations, for example, it'd help to learn the basics of how to isolate x on one side of the equation, to see a range of real SAT questions, and to learn alternative strategies for solving equations. Here's one of many example lessons we've published for free. Khan Academy SAT doesn't have full-fledged lessons like these. Instead, for most skills they feature just example problems worked out. Here's an example for solving linear equations, where Sal Khan works through a sample question: While it's somewhat helpful to see one question worked out, it doesn't go far enough. Most students won't be able to teach themselves strategies from just one example. It's not that easy to extract the general principles from a single question. It's odd for Khan Academy to ignore this, because the rest of Khan Academy is based on this fundamental skill learning. Check out their main Algebra programas an example. So if they believe these fundamental lessons are useful, why didn't they do it for the SAT? Here are a few plausible reasons: They just didn't have time to make high quality lessons. They felt fundamental skills learning was too distracting from SAT prep. Learning algebra fundamentally might take hours, so maybe it's more effective to just focus on doing practice SAT questions. However, the SAT is supposed to be all about fundamental skills, so this doesn't seem consistent. The College Board controlled Khan Academy's lessons to focus on question solving rather than teaching. Maybe it was too hard to agree on how to teach the fundamental skills, or Khan Academy wanted to teach too much test strategy. If it's the last option, then it's unlikely Khan Academy will ever fix this problem because it's baked into their partnership. This brings us to a related weakness of Khan Academy SAT†¦ Con 3: Doesn't Integrate With the Rest of Khan Academy A natural solution to weak SAT lessons is to integrate the main Khan Academy program, which is excellent and features hundreds (if not thousands) of hours of instruction. For example, for algebra I would love to see them link to the main Khan Academy algebra lesson, which has great fundamental content. They don't, however. Aside from the header at the top of the page, it's hard to tell that any other Khan Academy program exists. There aren't any links from the SAT program to the main Khan Academy program. Once again, it's possible College Board forbade Khan Academy from more tightly integrating the two products. There's too much of a chance the other Khan Academy programs contain messages that the College Board doesn't agree with – and so it's safer just to prohibit it altogether. This is a big loss, since most of Khan Academy is excellent. Granted, it's not focused on the SAT, so it's not likely the most efficient way to study. But it'd still be a big help for someone who wants more detailed help on skills. Then again, it's possible Khan Academy just doesn't think this is a good idea, or it didn't have enough time to implement this. On a variant of Hanlon's razor, I might say, "never assume bad intentions when lack of time is explanation enough." Con 4: Bad Skill Splits for Reading and Writing I mentioned above in the Pros that Khan Academy SAT did a good job splitting up Math into individual skills. This makes training your weaknesses a lot easier. They really missed the mark on the Reading section and the rhetorical skills section of Writing. For Reading, for example, they separate the training by the subject matter of the passage: I find this a completely unhelpful classification. You don't approach literature passages differently from history passages. In fact, they contain very similar types of questions. At PrepScholar, we use a more useful classification of Reading skills: Big Picture Reading Closely Inferences Words and Phrases in Context Citing Textual Evidence Perspective Analyzing Word Choice Analyzing Text Structure Analyzing Multiple Texts Analyzing Quantitative Information These skills are defined by the type of question and the actual reasoning you would use to answer it. Just like how a geometry question should be approached differently from an algebra question, an Inferences question is very different from a "Words in Context" question. Similarly, for Writing, some of their non-grammatical skills - what the SAT calls "expression of ideas" and what we call "rhetorical skills" - are divided poorly. This is a problem because rhetorical skills make up the majority (55%) of the Writing section. Here, Khan Academy breaks down into the type of passage once again: At PrepScholar, we classify them like this: Logical sequence Focus Proposition Support Transitions Because the College Board defines individual skills themselves, I imagine this problem is mainly a time limitation. It's possible Khan Academy will fix this in the future. Con 5: Weak, Unhelpful Question Explanations In our experience, when a student misses a question, they need coaching from "first principle" – what is EVERY logical step from when you first read the question to the last step of getting the right answer? In contrast, most test prep companies use simple answer explanations. They'll explain why each answer choice is correct or incorrect, but they won't explain the logical steps starting from when you first read the question and make sense of it. Unfortunately, Khan Academy uses the simple answer explanation for most of their questions. They'll explain why a correct answer choice is correct and a wrong answer choice is wrong, but often this isn't helpful to figuring out where you actually made the mistake. Here's an example question from Khan Academy: This explanation is super unhelpful to someone who misses the question. Answers A-C, which are all incorrect, are all explained in an unhelpful way. Each of the answer explanations can be paraphrased as, "the author doesn't say this," which is another way of saying, "the answer is wrong because it's wrong." If you missed this question, these answer explanations wouldn't help you get to the right answer. Answer D, which is correct, has an explanation that basically paraphrases the answer choice. In other words, it's saying "the answer choice is correct because it's correct." If you actually missed this question, these answer choices don't really help you figure out WHY you missed the question and HOW to repair this in the future. In contrast, at PrepScholar we believe inattacking explanations from first principle. Here's an example explanation for this question: The question is asking for the central claim of the passage, so we're looking for the author's main point. As you've read before in our strategies, you should come up with an answer in your mind before reading the answer choices and getting biased. As you skim the passage, you should get a sense of Ben Franklin's main points. Here's the main point of each paragraph: people tend to think they're infallible, or perfectly right in their beliefs. I'm old and I know better. even though the Constitution is flawed, we need to pass it because this country needs one. We won't be able to make a better one because we all have our own opinions. I don't believe we can come up with a better Constitution, and promoting the faults of the Constitution is going to weaken our nation. We all need to approve this unanimously, go back to our constituents, and promote the Constitution in solidarity. So, without looking at the answer choices, the central claim is something like, "we need to pass the Constitution now because we can't create a better one, and we need to be unified." With that in mind, let's go through the answer choices and see what we can eliminate and why. A. "the Constitution will have to suffice until it is proven to be inadequate." This is negative in tone and implies that the Constitution may fail at some point. Franklin nevergoes this far into the future. He's focused on the now – the Constitution can't be improved any further now, and we need to pass it. This is incorrect. B. "the objections to the Constitution are trivial and should be disregarded by the Assembly." The key problem here is "trivial," or unimportant. Franklin never dismisses the objections of his colleagues to be unimportant. In fact, he has his own objections: "I agree to this Constitution with all its faults, if they are such" (lines 19-20). His key point is that DESPITE the faults, the Constitution is as good as it will be, and they need to pass it. Thus B is incorrect and a classic example of an answer choice being wrong because of a single word – in this case, "trivial." C. "the objections to the Constitution can be dismissed unless they are unanimous." This seems tempting because it uses an important word from the passage: "unanimous." This is a classic wrong answer trap for students who don't read closely and grasp for answer choices that seem familiar. But in the passage, Franklin uses unanimous to assert that the Assembly should be united. He doesn't say that objections can still apply if they are unanimous. He doesn't suggest any situation in which the Constitution should be dismissed at all – he wants to push this thing through, today. So C is incorrect. D. "the Constitution is adequate and should be passed without objection." We've ruled out A-C up to this point, so hopefully D fits. And it does – it matches our central claim when reading the passage. Franklin strongly states that he doubts "whether any other Convention we can obtain may be able to make a better Constitution" (lines 27-28). He then suggests, "we shall act heartily and unanimously in recommending this Constitution" (lines 52-53). This is the best answer choice. If you got this question wrong, compare your thought process to this explanation. Where did you go wrong? Did you misinterpret the passage? Did you get tricked by one of the wrong answer choices? Did you mistakenly find something wrong with choice D? Step through your reasoning to find where you can improve for the future. In our opinion, this is a complete explanation. It guides the student step-by-step through solving the question. It discusses what the question is expecting from first reading, what kind of answer the student should be formulating, whether to rule each answer choice in or out, and settling on a final answer. Importantly, it also tells the student specifically why a wrong answer choice is wrong, and how it fits into a pattern of wrong answer choices. It then steps the student through analyzing her own mistakes to learn for the future. Granted, it's a lot more expensive for us to produce, since it takes a lot of time to write and we hire only people who have truly mastered the test. But we view every question as a learning opportunity. If you miss a question, you NEED to understand how to solve the question from first reading. Khan Academy doesn't have full explanations. It's possible College Board requested that they write simple, dumbed-down explanations – after all, their official SAT Study guide worked exactly like this. But it's also possible Khan Academy doesn't have the time to write better explanations. Con 6: No Essay Feedback This is a simple drawback – with Khan Academy, you can't submit your essays for grading. They'll ask you to score your own essay using the standard rubric. There are two reasons for this: Automated computer graders are bad. The worst ones use simple algorithms based on easy-to-cheat metrics like sentence length and word size. You can get a high score for writing a gibberish essay. It's possible to build a better automated grader based on machine learning, and Khan Academy is well equipped to do this, but it's not easy and will take time to get it right. Human graders are expensive. Since Khan Academy SAT is a free program, they can't afford to hire human graders to grade thousands of essays each month. To improve your essay score, it's important to understand your weaknesses and practice writing to overcome them. You can certainly teach this to yourself, using guides like ours. At PrepScholar we've built in expert essay grading as part of our program. You'll get customized feedback on how your essay can improve with examples to follow. We've had a lot of success improving essay scores with this model. It's more expensive for us to provide, we believe in the results. Con 7: A Host of Smaller Problems In using Khan Academy, there are a bunch of other problems that make the experience unpleasant or ineffective. To prevent this guide from getting even longer, I won't write a detailed section for each, but here are the gists: Most Sections Are Untimed In Khan Academy SAT, most of the quizzes are untimed. You have an infinite amount of time to work on each question or passage. The only exceptions are preset timed quizzes and full-length practice tests. I get what they're doing – they want you to focus on building your fundamental skills first, then get faster as you get more competent. Personally, I don't agree with this approach. Timing is a constant threat in the SAT. While building fundamental skills is important, by giving yourself infinite time all the time, you develop bad habits. In fact, time management is one of the biggest and most common problems facing SAT test takers. Take the Reading section as an example. There are 65 minutes, 5 passages, and 52 questions. This roughly means you need to get through 1 passage and its 10-11 questions within 12 minutes. We recommend that students spend no more than 5 minutes skimming the passage to get a brief understanding, then taking 40-60 seconds per question. Without time pressure, you might practice taking 10 minutes to read the passage, as Sal Khan does in his training videos. On the real test, this would leave you with barely any time to answer the questions. The result, I'm afraid, is that many students will be surprised by the time pressures of the test and have no idea how to deal with it – because due to Con #1, College Board will NOT support test-taking strategies on time management. Can't Review Previous Questions When I finished a quiz or a set of questions, I couldn't find a way to review those questions after exiting. I'd like a way to see my previously missed questions to review them and learn from my mistakes. It Erroneously Emphasizes All Skills Equally On Khan Academy, all skills are more or less treated equally. For example, all 40+ skills in the Math section have about 20 questions associated with them, so you'd spend equal time working on all the skills. We know, however, there are MASSIVEimbalancesin how important skills are. At the extreme, "solving single variable equations" takes up 12.5% of the test, and "function notation" takes up just 0.43% of the test. This is a massive 30x difference in importance, but you wouldn't know it from Khan Academy. This can mean students using Khan Academy emphasize the wrong skills and waste a lot of time studying things that aren't important. But College Board is unlikely to change this, since it would appear too much as "teaching to the test" rather than learning important fundamental skills. Con 8: Khan Academy Is Spread Thin Here's the final con, which isn't strictly a problem with the program but does suggest problems about its growth moving forward. Khan Academy is a really important organization with a big impact. It has dozens of subjects to teach like computer programming, is building partnerships with institutions like the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and has an exciting vision to provide free education worldwide. The SAT is just a small component of what Khan Academy does. As a result, I doubt they have enough manpower to build the product to its full potential. This means problems will take longer to resolve, and even possibly that the product loses steam if the partnership fades. Furthermore, given that Khan Academy relies primarily on donors to fund itself, I wouldn't be surprised if they downplayed the SAT product's importance in their organizational reports. Standardized testing has gotten more controversial (see College Board's 3 Big Problems above), and it'd be odd for Khan Academy to come out in favor of more testing. Otherwise donors might think, "wait, I'm giving you millions of dollars so you can help College Board perpetuate standardized testing" I Wish Things Were Different All told, I really admireKhan's mission to provide free education, and I respect College Board for taking a step in the right direction. It's an improvement over the old situation, where you had to buy a $25 book just to get access to 10 practice tests. However, this product is not enough to achieve College Board's goals. The way the program works now, students who seek better prep programs will be able to achieve higher scores. There will still be an achievement gap between people who prep for the test intelligently, and people who don't. In this partnership, I think Khan Academy got the short end of the stick. College Board needed Khan Academy more than Khan Academy needed College Board. Without Khan Academy, College Board wouldn't be able to put out a good product. They just don't have the technical talent to build something good. And without a good free product, College Board's strategy would be crippled. But in my opinion, Khan Academy didn't need College Board all that much. Khan Academy already had a strong school presence because of its main program. If they'd produced an SAT program independently, they would have a ton of eager users. Moreover, without the College Board partnership, they could have built an ACT program and reached double the students. They'd also have much more control over how the SAT program works, which means more test strategy and better content. This is unfortunate because Khan Academy is all about social impact, and I believe they reduced their impact dramatically through this partnership. I wonder if they feel the same way. In case you want to review any part of this article, here's a set of quick links: What is Khan Academy? College Board's 3 Giant Problems The College Board's Grand Strategy Why Does the Strategy Matter for Khan Academy SAT? College Board's Stances Will Hurt You Pros and Cons of Khan Academy SAT Con #1: No SAT Test Strategies Con #2: Insufficient Lessons Con #3: Doesn't Integrate with the Rest of Khan Academy Con #4: Bad Skill Splits for Reading and Writing Con #5: Weak, Unhelpful Question Explanations Con #6: No Essay Feedback Con #7: A Host of Smaller Problems Con #8: Khan Academy is Spread Thin What Does All This Mean For You? I know we've covered a lot. We've discussed the College Board's major problems, its strategy involving Khan Academy, and the major strengths and weaknesses of Khan Academy's SAT program. So should you use Khan Academy SAT to study? I think it's great for a few types of students: if you're new to the SAT and want an introduction to the test if you plan to study around 10 hours for the SAT, and aren't that interested in improving your scoreto its fullest potential if you're a self-motivated studier, and all you need are math and grammar questions split up by skill In contrast, if you care a lot about your score, are willing to work hard, and want to improve your SAT score to the highest possible, then Khan Academy won't be enough for you. If you just trust Khan Academy to do all the work for you, you'll be at a huge disadvantage compared to other test takers. So whatshould you do? First, it helps to know what you're missing. If you liked this article, you'll enjoy some of our best guides: How to Get a Perfect SAT Score, by a Perfect Scorer How to Get an 800 in: SAT Reading SAT Math SAT Writing What's a Good SAT Score? If you do decide to use Khan Academy, we have a guide specifically focused on exactly which of its resources to use to get the most out of your SAT prep. Next, you need to decide how you're going to study. As I always say, you do NOT need an SAT prep program to do well on the test. If you're self motivated and love studying by books, check out my recommendation for Best SAT Prep Books. But if you want an all-in-one program that customizes to your learning, teaches you test strategy, and packages everything into a great learning experience, I still believe PrepScholar is the best prep program available. Check us out here: