Plutons, Defined and Explained

Plutons, Defined and Explained A pluton (pronounced PLOO-tonn) is a deep-seated intrusion of igneous rock, a body that made its way into pre-existing rocks in a melted form (magma) several kilometers underground in the Earths crust and then solidified. At that depth, the magma cooled and crystallized very slowly, allowing the mineral grains to grow large and tightly interlocked - typical of plutonic rocks.   Shallower intrusions may be called subvolcanic or hypabyssal intrusions. There are a slew of partial synonyms based on a plutons size and shape, including batholith, diapir, intrusion, laccolith, and stock.   How Pluton Becomes Visible A pluton exposed at the Earths surface has had its overlying rock removed by erosion. It may represent the deep part of a magma chamber that once fed magma to a long-vanished volcano, like Ship Rock in northwestern New Mexico. It may also represent a magma chamber that never reached the surface, like Stone Mountain  in  Georgia.  The only true way to tell the difference is by mapping and analyzing the details of the rocks that are exposed along with the geology of the surrounding area. The Various Types of Plutons Pluton is a general term that covers the whole variety of shapes taken by bodies of magma. That is, plutons are defined by the presence of plutonic rocks. Narrow sheets of magma that form sills and igneous dikes may qualify as plutons if the rock inside them solidified at depth. Other plutons have fatter shapes that have a roof and a floor. This can be easy to see in a pluton that was tilted so that erosion could cut through it at an angle. Otherwise, it may take geophysical techniques to map the plutons three-dimensional shape. A blister-shaped pluton that raised the overlying rocks into a dome may be called a laccolith. A mushroom-shaped pluton may be called a lopolith, and a cylindrical one may be called a bysmalith. These have a conduit of some sort that fed magma into them, usually called a feeder dike (if its flat) or a stock (if its round). There used to be a whole set of names for other pluton shapes, but they arent really much use and have been abandoned. In 1953, Charles B. Hunt made fun of these in USGS Professional Paper 228 by proposing the name cactolith for a cactus-shaped pluton: A cactolith is a quasihorizontal chonolith composed of anastomosing ductoliths whose distal ends curl like a harpolith, thin like a sphenolith, or bulge discordantly like an akmolith or ethmolith. Who said geologists couldnt be funny?   Then there are plutons that have no floor, or at least no evidence of one. Bottomless plutons like these are called stocks if they are smaller than 100 square kilometers in extent, and batholiths if theyre larger.  In the United States, the Idaho, Sierra Nevada, and Peninsular batholiths are the largest. How Plutons Form The formation and fate of plutons is an important, long-standing scientific problem. Magma is less dense than rock and tends to rise as buoyant bodies. Geophysicists call such bodies diapirs (DYE-a-peers); salt domes are another example. Plutons may readily melt their way upward in the lower crust, but they have a hard time reaching the surface through the cold, strong upper crust. It appears that they need help from regional tectonics that pulls the crust apart- the same thing that favors volcanoes at the surface. Thus plutons, and especially batholiths, go along with subduction zones that create arc volcanism. For a few days in 2006, the International Astronomical Union considered giving the name plutons to large bodies in the outer part of the solar system, apparently thinking that it would signify Pluto-like objects. They also considered the term plutinos. The Geological Society of America, among other critics of the proposal, sent a quick protest, and a few days later the IAU decided on its epochal definition of dwarf planet that banished Pluto from the register of planets. (See What Is a Planet?) Edited by Brooks Mitchell

Critical Success Factors (CSF) Analysis

Critical Success Factors (CSF) Analysis Critical Success Factors (CSF) analysis is one of the more difficult strategic management tools to understand, and is even harder to use effectively in real-world management. If properly applied, however, CSF analysis does provide a robust and very practical assessment for strategic planners and can be very effective. As with most management tools, CSF analysis is probably more effective when used together with another, complementary  tool such as SWOT or PEST analysis, because the best use of the CSF analysis is as  a tool for planning and exercising control techniques over processes, rather than as an environmental assessment tool. What Are Critical Success Factors If business and management researchers had an easy answer to that question, perhaps CSF analysis would not be such a challenge to learn to use well. In the most general sense, CSFs are the small number of activities that absolutely must be undertaken effectively for the company to have success. What those specific activities are is a source of confusion, because they are entirely dependent on the unique circumstances of the firm. That has not, however, stopped researchers from trying to develop a definitive, universal list of CSFs that can apply to any company. In a study done about five years ago (K.J. Fryer, J. Antony A. Douglas, â€Å"Critical success factors for continuous improvement in the public sector†, The TQM Magazine, vol. 19, no. 5, 2007), researchers reviewed 29 separate studies on CSFs and interviewed a number of organizations, and came up with a chart that tells us exactly nothing about which success factors are indeed â€Å"critical† (see Table 1): Table 1. CSFs and Their Importance Depending on Business Sector Success Factor Percentage of studies and businesses surveyed which defined the factor as â€Å"Critical,† by business sector: Mixed Sectors Manufacturing Service Public Sector Management commitment 100% 86% 100% 100% Training learning 67% 57% 100% 75% Supplier management 67% 43% 67% 50% Customer management 60% 57% 57% 50% Quality data measurement reporting 47% 14% 33% 50% Corporate quality culture 47% 57% 67% 50% Communication 27% 29% 0% 75% Teamwork 20% 29% 0% 50% Employee empowerment 73% 71% 67% 50% Process Management 47% 29% 33% 75% Organizational structure 47% 57% 100% 50% Product design 27% 29% 0% 25% Ongoing monitoring assessment 20% 14% 0% 50% The problem of choosing appropriate CSFs is immediately apparent; management commitment is an obvious choice, but it seems rather at odds with what we learn in management studies that a factor such as â€Å"Employee empowerment† would be fairly important to many different business sectors, while factors that should complement that – Communication and Teamwork – are not considered very important at all, and somewhat incredibly are apparently completely ignored by service-sector businesses. Wanna know more? Go here: Critical Analysis Writing SWOT Analysis Five Forces Analysis The ADL Matrix and Gap Analysis Buy a Great Paper Online But of course, this single example should be taken with a grain of salt; as they say, your results may vary, and if there is one valuable takeaway  from it, it is the suggestion of success factors that may be considered as a starting point, regardless if they are eventually found to be actually â€Å"critical† or not to a specific organization. It is also important to remember that CSFs are not fixed; they can and probably should change as the circumstances of the business change. For example, other studies have found that it is both common and relatively beneficial for firms facing financial or other crises to shift their CSFs to ones with more short-term effects and change the focus back to a more long-term perspective once the immediate difficulties are resolved. Developing Using the CSF Analysis The interesting thing about using the CSF analysis is that the process of determining what your organization’s critical success factors really are is essentially the whole point. Once the CSFs are identified, steps to see that they are managed properly can be developed using different tools or good old experience and imagination; in many instances, simply identifying what may be a critical success factor and carefully examining why it is indeed â€Å"critical† to the firm suggests the way in which it should be handled. While there are some data management and other analytical tools that can help in selecting CSFs – for example, DEMATEL (Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory) software applications – the majority of the process is good old-fashioned intuition and discussion. But there are a number of conventions that should be followed to give the selection and analysis process the best chance of success. First, CSFs should be assessed in a â€Å"top-down† fashion; the analysis is not one that is ideally-suited for ‘horizontal’ or ‘collaborative’ organizational structures. Success factors should be judged according to the relevance to the business as a whole, then individual business units or departments, then down to the individual level; if at some level the success factor is not â€Å"critical†, then it needs to be reassessed. The reason for this is that the number of CSFs should be kept to an absolute minimum. This prevents conflicts in objectives and processes and helps to prevent a dilution of effort among too many factors. Second, to avoid overlooking any factors that should be considered â€Å"critical†, potential CSFs should be assessed according to the â€Å"five sources of organizational success†, a methodology developed in the early 1980’s by MIT researcher John Rockart. Industry CSFs are conditions and operational circumstances that are common to firms within the same sector. Peer CSFs are critical success factors for one’s competitors; this obviously requires an accurate and detailed competitive analysis to be done as a prerequisite to the CSF analysis. Environmental CSFs are related to the firm’s political, economic, and market environment, and can be identified by  a method such as a PEST analysis. Temporal CSFs are success factors that are only important at particular times – such as in crisis situations as described earlier – and are most likely to change. And finally, Managerial CSFs are success factors relevant to the management of the fir m at different levels; identifying these may seem to run counter to the â€Å"top-down† process, but in reality actually helps to focus it by revealing internal conflicts in objectives.

Short summary of the key industry speakers from the field trip, Essay

Short summary of the key industry speakers from the field trip, drawing conclusions of their overall importance to the developme - Essay Example The Airlines has partnered with the tour operations for catering to the package deals rather than the individual customers because the place is visited mostly for tourism purpose. The company has rendered its services to the government during time of catastrophe of the Tsunami which has provided an additional leverage to popularity of the brand. The company has entered the Chinese market rather than the Singapore market because the market is untapped and there is a lot of scope to enter into alliances with the other Airlines flying to different parts of the world. Since the journeys are longer, the company intends to make the trip an entertaining one and set up sales agencies in China from where the potential customers can be acquired (Fiji Airways, 2013, p. 1). b) A number of areas of consideration are there where the airline intends to improve its services. It includes the frequency of the flights and more accuracy in the timings. The company can add more destinations to its portfo lio which would improve the sales of Fiji Airlines. For the flight services, Fiji Airways would make improvisation of their menu serving a 5 course meal and better wines since the flight timings are longer and the travellers need to be engaged. The Fiji Airways can make the tourism of Fiji popular to the rest of the world with the effective use of the Brand name. Tourism Fiji a) Since Tourism is the main source of income for Fiji Islands, the initiative of the government to promote the Tourism is on various grounds. The Brand Fiji is a composite package of the luxury resorts, the private islands for the tourists, the sun bathed beaches and the adventures that are arranged for the potential customers. Tourism Fiji has attempted at the consolidation of the markets at US, Australia, New Zealand and other places internationally. The country as to move towards a more sustainable tourism by involving more of the local people into the activities through empowerment. The country provides a 4 month Visa option to the customers to encourage their stay in the islands (Official Website of Tourism Fiji, 2013, p.1). b) Tourism Fiji has various challenges lying ahead of it. People only look at the principal islands when they plan their travel but ignore other regions. There are limitations on the facilities that the resorts would provide along with the restrictions on the flexibility of the flights. The government has to continuously invest in the development and up gradation of the facilities in the disaster prone islands. The misperception of the people about the pricing and quality has made several tourists hesitant to opt for the Fiji tour. Since the tourism at the present stage is mostly on the fag ends of the customer continuum, more medium category of tourism facilities has to be arranged so that the number of visitors gets increased. The places which are preferred by the tourists especially the northern parts do not have enough hotel facilities. The establishment of the individual island brands like Denarau have to be encouraged by Tourism Fiji so that they act as catalysts in the tourism development. South Sea Cruises a) Being the leader in the maritime operator services in Fiji this Brand provides the water transportation to various parts of the

Royal Mail Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Royal Mail - Assignment Example Concept of Diversity Management 7 5.1. Royal Mail’s Action to Maintain gender Balance 8 6. Concept of a Competency Framework 8 6.1. Five Competencies of a successful Royal Mail Manager: 8 7. References 10 1. Introduction Global business management is a dynamic process at it always changing with the time. By virtue of global business management organizations across the world are now able to operate in more than one country and able to expand their product and service services to the people across the globe. The global business management process is enterprising as a business leader carries out new innovations for the benefit of the end users. With that they are able to exploit the market as well as able to bring down the production cost to ensure more operating profit for the organizations. According to Adekola & Sergi(2012), globalization was started more than 3000 years ago as the roots of it went back to the formation of state communities in the European countries way back i n the fourteenth century. The rapid expansion was started from the seventeenth century onwards. (Adekola & Sergi, 2012, p.1). In this discussion our main focus is on the management strategies taken by the Royal Mail Chief Executive in order to change to outlooks as well as functioning process of the organization when everyone was considering that Royal Mail might not be able to regain its market position. 2. Definition of Leadership Leadership characteristics of Royal Mail Chief Executive: 2.1. Leadership: Definition and characteristics: The success of any organization has been always dependent on how good the top management is on their decision making, strategy development, motivating people and overall management of the organization itself. According to Dubrin(2012), leadership can be defined as a the principal dynamic force which motivates and coordinates the people of any organization to achieve its objective. (Dubrin, 2012, p.4) According to Weth (2007), leaders have to tolerat e a certain amount of chaos in the organization and also have to effectively solve those. On the other hand, managers are there to ensure that there are stability and control in the organization or in different departments. (Weth, 2007, p.5). According to Gosling, Sutherland, Jones (2012); there are few important theories which are essential in order to understand the specific traits or characteristics that a leader should have. Some of the key theories are trait theories, behaviorist theories, Situational leadership, transformational and contingency theory. According to them, there are several leadership traits which are associated with particular skills. Adapting to the situation, Assertiveness, Decisive, cooperative, energetic, result orientation is few traits to name about (Gosling, Sutherland, Jones, 2012, pp.18-20). 2.2. Leadership characteristics of Royal Mail Chief Executive: Moya Greene was appointed as the CEO of Royal Mail in the year 2010. Before taking the charge of Roy al Mail she has been in charge at Canada Post since 2005. She was the first lady to get appointed in the top most position of Royal Mail. (BBC News, 2010). When she took charge of the organization, Britain’s centuries-old state-owned postal service was over-involved in trouble: it faced a rapid de-growth revenue from letters, a large deficit in pension ; opposition to government proposal for privatization from the staff union, and a most importantly unworkable regulatory framework that prevented the business

Definitions of Tourism Essay Example for Free

Definitions of Tourism Essay Tourism is a booming industry and a driving force in positive economical, ecological, sustainable, social and cultural developments in several countries around the globe. Its complex nature requires sophisticated management in order to reach its full potential. Most people possess an intuitive and basic understanding of tourism, which focuses on an image of people travelling for recreational purposes, however, tourism, goes far beyond this simplistic view. According to Stear (2005), the area of studying tourism has an apparent lack of substance when it comes to defining the basic terms ‘tourism’ and ‘tourist’. Although the concept of tourism itself has been around for many centuries, the academic study of tourism in the tertiary educational sector is a recent development. There is no single definition of tourism to which everyone adheres. Many definitions have been used over the years, some of which are universal and can be applied to any situation, while others fulfil a specific purpose. This essay aims to define who exactly a ‘tourist’ is and what the term ‘tourism’ means through technical and heuristic definitions from articles written by Stear (2005), Dickman (1997), and McIntosh et al (1995). Throughout the essay definitions from organisations such as the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) will also be drawn upon. The ambiguity of two seemingly simple concepts in theory – who a tourist is and what tourism entails will be discussed through a range of academic articles, which will address and highlight the strengths, weaknesses and differences between them. The foci and boundaries of each definition will be determined in order to assess their effectiveness. Whilst each definition is unique in their own right, there are also many similarities, which can be noted. Weaver (2010) states that â€Å"the definition of ‘tourism’ is dependent on the definition of the ‘tourist’ and when defining whom exactly is a ‘tourist’, individuals must simultaneously meet certain spatial, temporal and purposive criteria†, which will be discussed below. First and foremost, Stear (2005) defines tourism as â€Å"†¦Tourism is travel and temporary stay, involving at least one night away from the region of a person’s usual home that is undertaken with the major expectation of satisfying leisure needs that are perceived as being more njoyably able to be satisfied by being at places outside of, and qualitatively different to, the home region † (Stear 2005, pg. 8). Stear also has a clear definition of a tourist, which he refers to as â€Å"†¦ A tourist is a person engaging in activities directly associated with present or future travel and temporary stay that involves at least one night away from the region of their usual home that is undertaken with the major expectation of satisfying leisure needs that are perceived as being more enjoyably able to be satisfied by places outside of, and qualitatively different to, the home region. (Stear 2005, pg. 11) A clear fault of Stear’s heuristic definitions of ‘tourism’ and ‘tourist’ is the limitation or restriction of the time period of â€Å"at least one night away†, in which Stear fails to take into account the temporal element of tourism. The notion of how long, if any time at all, that must be spent away from one’s usual home is an aspect, which is not uniform amongst definitions of tourism. Another weakness of Stear’s definitions is the l imitation of â€Å"the region of a person’s usual home†, which implies that physically moving away from your home would make you a tourist. According to the UNWTO (cited in Weaver, 2010), for an individual to qualify as a tourist â€Å"travel must occur beyond the individual’s ‘usual environment’†. The spatial boundary of tourism as discussed by Weaver (2010) is unclear in this instance as an individual who lives in Sydney but stays in Canberra during the week for work would then be considered a tourist under this definition. Whilst Stear’s (2005) definition states a minimum stay requirement to be considered a tourist, it does not state a maximum timeframe, unlike that of other definitions, which clearly state a maximum period of time before someone loses the title of ‘tourist’. The UNWTO (1995) provides a more technical definition and defines tourism as an individual â€Å"travelling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes. † This definition is broader in scope compared to Stear’s (2005), which specifies that an individual who travels is only a tourist when their travel is â€Å"undertaken with the major expectation of satisfying leisure needs. † The UNWTO definition (cited in Weaver, 2010) is complemented by Dickman’s (1997, pg. 7) who identifies a tourist as â€Å"†¦a visitor who travels to a place utside his/her usual environment for at least one night but no more than six months (domestic) or one year (international) and whose main purpose of visit is other than the exercise of an activity remunerated from within the place visited† and tourism as â€Å"†¦a non-essential activity, or one that is predominantly rela ted to leisure activities† (Dickman, 1997 pg. 7). Compared to Stear’s (2005) definition of tourism, Dickman’s (1997) heuristic definition is very brief and extremely vague as spatial relevance and time period are both not addressed. Furthermore, Dickman’s (1997) definition is limited as it only refers to the activity side of tourism whereas Leiper (2004) discusses a basic tourism system involving the tourist, the generating region, the transit route, the destination and the movement in between. Despite this limitation, a major strength of Dickman’s (1997) definition is that it defines and takes into consideration the differences between domestic and international tourists. This comparison has also been addressed by Weaver (2010) who declares that a domestic tourist is one that travels within their own country of residence, whilst an international tourist travels outside their usual country of residence. The third and final authors McIntosh et al. (1995) describes tourism as â€Å"†¦the entire world industry of travel, hotels, transportations, and all other components, including promotion, that serves the needs and wants of travellers. Tourism today has been given new meaning and is primary a term of economics referring to the industry†. On the other hand, ‘tourist’ is defined as â€Å"†¦a person who travels from place to place for non work reasons by U. N. definition, a tourist is someone who stays for more than one night and less than a year. Business and convention travel is included. This thinking is dominated by balance-of-trade concepts. Military personnel, diplomats, immigrants and resident students are not tourists† (McIntosh et al. , 1995). The heuristic definition above of ‘tourism’ incorporates the industry as a whole, which is a major strength in comparison to the other definitions, hich only take into account the physical act of travelling. The tourism industry is not identifiable as a standard industry but is rather an amalgamation of parts of other conventional industries such as retail, hospitality, accommodation, entertainment and transport (Weaver, 2010). The incorporation of ‘tourism’ as an industry takes on a different approach to defining tourism and makes finding a clarified and universal meaning for ‘tourism’ and ‘tourist’ even more complicated. McIntosh et al. 1995) refer to the tourist in a very specific manner including different types of tourists such as business tourists, which is a strong point, as a tourist can’t be just defined in one aspect. According to Weaver (2010), â€Å"a basic tourist criterion concerns travel purpose which is dominated by three major categories – leisure and recreation, visiting friends and relative and business. † Compared to Stear (2005) and Dickman’s (1997) narrow definitions, McIntosh et al. (1995) have a much broader, flexible view on defining tourism and the tourist. In both definitions of ‘tourist’ Dickman (1997) and McIntosh et al. 1995) describe an individual moving out of their ‘usual environment’, which is considered a key element in the definition. Weaver (2010) supports this definition in his discussion of fulfilling the spatial component in order to be considered a tourist. Whilst this is considered a highly subjective concept, many tourism bodies specify minimum distance thresholds, which â€Å"serve the useful purpose of [differentiating] those who bring outside revenue into the local area from those who circulate revenue internallyâ €  (Weaver, 2010, pg. 22-23). When reviewing the definition by McIntosh et al. 1995), a key downfall is the reference to ‘resident students’ not being considered tourists, which can be questioned. An international student may wish to travel overseas first to experience the culture of the country they plan on studying in, however under this definition, even if they wish to take part in and visit tourist attractions which are recreational and leisure based they aren’t considered tourists. Most people do not intuitively associate study or formal education with tourism however it is considered a qualifying criterion by the UNWTO. In Australia alone, in 2007-08 international students accounted for around 7% of all inbound arrivals (Weaver, 2010, pg. 29). In conclusion, the complicated task of defining two simple terms ‘tourism’ and ‘tourist’ has been made somewhat clearer through the definitions provided by Stear (2005), Dickman (1997) and McIntosh et al. (1995). Whilst all three authors have different perspectives on how to define these terms, they also have a few aspects that seem to cross over. Considering all the definitions by the three authors Stear (2005), Dickman (1997) and McIntosh et al. 1995) it is hard to argue which definition is more just and accurate than the other as they all have their strengths and weaknesses. From the research conducted, Stear’s (2005) definition of a ‘tourist’ is the most flexible and relevant in the context of today’s society however; Dickman’s (1997) definition of ‘tourism’ is most accurate as it incorporates the entire tourism industry and not just the physical act of traveling. Ultimately, ‘tourist’ and ‘tourism’ are indefinable as we all have our own personal views and perspectives on which definitions fit the context of the situation.

Francis Bacon - The Portraits :: Visual Arts Paintings Art

Francis Bacon - The Portraits Francis Bacon was born in Dublin, Ireland to English parents. When F. Bacon grow up and was more independent he then travelled to Berlin were he spent most of his time there. He then moved onto Paris, before returning to London and starting out as an interior designer. Bacon never attended art school; he only began his work in watercolours about 1926 – 27. An exhibition of works by Pablo Picasso inspired him to make his first drawings and paintings. The influence of the biomorphic figures in Picasso’s work is apparent in Bacons first major painting of his mature period ‘Three Studies for Figures’ at the base of a Crucifixion 1944. This painting is also representative of some of Bacon’s methods and subjects. The Portraits influenced me because in my project ‘Journey’s’ I am looking at car crashes and what things lead to car crashes e.g. Drink driving. I wanted to see how drink affects the brain and how the brain reacts to the effects. As Bacon in this particular painting of this, distorted image of a face, I thought this would be a great image to use in my project. Using this image would help me to see what people, who drink drive, see while they are driving. So using this distorted image it showed me how incontrollable people are when drink driving. The image provides strong movement due to the harsh sweeps of paint. In the painting I noticed how Bacon used basic elements to give a distinctive image. He has used a thick paint brush and he probably only did about 15 brush strokes. The composition of the study is life-like and has made sure that he includes every detail of the face. By having the face on an angle and the thick brush strokes it shows me that this person maybe scared or has just seen some object that is distracting him, also it looks like he moved his face with some rapid force. Each of the colours contrasts well and gives a representation of a face. The shapes used in the composition of the painting are mostly round or even sphere shape. Bacon has used a lot of texture in the paint to show the different elements, e.g. the thick white brush stroke represents the cheekbone and the dark stroke for under the chin. The process of the painting that Bacon has gone through were sketching out the outline of the face and the facial features then I imagine he took the brush and with some force started to map out the face while

Final the Relationship Between Hiv and Aids and Poverty Is Synergistic and Symmetrical in Nature

BACHELOR OF SOCIAL SCIENCES HONOURS DEGREE IN DEVELOPMENT STUDIES [BLOCK RELEASE 2. 2]FACULTY : HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCESDEPARTMENT : DEVELOPMENT STUDIES STUDENT ‘NAME : EMMANUEL R MARABUKA STUDENT’ ID NUMBER : L0110064TMODULE NAME : HIV AND AIDS IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA LECTURER :MR D.NYATHIDUE DATE : 01 MARCH 2013EMAIL ADDRESS : [email  protected] com QUESTION : The relationship between HIV and AIDS and Poverty is synergistic and symmetrical in nature†. Comment. [25] | HIV and AIDS are issues of concern worldwide they are associated by many implications which affect negatively in human lives. HIV and AIDS are mainly spread through unprotected sex with an infected person. HIV weakens the antibodies which are responsible for fighting diseases.Therefore once the white blood cells are damaged by virus it cannot resist diseases result a person into many opportunistic infections at this stage a person will have AIDS. Therefore for now HIV and AIDS have no cure yet. Therefore, HIV and AIDS and poverty are synergistic and symmetrical in nature. Meaning to say the impacts of HIV and AIDS and poverty complement each other in destroying human’s well being. Also they have same power or they are parallel in destroying human lives. However this essay seeks to comment on the notion that, the relationship of between HIV and AIDS and poverty is synergistic and symmetrical in nature.According to Mwambete and Justin-Temu (2011) poverty is defined as a state of having little or no money and few or no material possessions. The World Bank defines poverty as â€Å"the inability to attain a minimum standard of living† and produced a â€Å"universal poverty line†, which was â€Å"consumption-based† and comprised of two elements: â€Å"the expenditure necessary to buy a minimum standard of nutrition and other basic necessities and a further amount that varies from country to country, reflecting the cost of participating in everyday l ife of society.Poverty can be caused by unemployment, low education, deprivation and homelessness. Therefore, HIV and poverty reinforce each other, with poor, vulnerable and powerless women being a significant driver of the disease while also bearing the burden of its impact (Scott et al 2011) Poverty, characterized by limited human and monetary resources, is therefore portrayed as a risk factor to HIV/AIDS. Moreover, HIV/AIDS deepens poverty and increases inequalities at every level, household, community, regional and sectoral.Poverty pervades subgroups such as the unemployed and migrants. As a result of the condition of poverty, people become more vulnerable to HIV/AIDS, since these are the people who have less access to the necessary facilities to prevent or treat HIV Scott (2011). This means poor people have less access to HIV/AIDS treatment which increases the progression of AIDS. HIV HIV/AIDS appears to interact strongly with poverty and this interaction increases the depth of vulnerability of those households already vulnerable to shocks (Ganyaza-Twalo and Seager 2005).Poverty is associated with vulnerability to severe diseases like HIV, through its effects on delaying access to health care and inhibiting treatment adherence (Bates et al, cited in Ganyaza-Twalo and Seager 2005). The costs incurred when seeking diagnosis and treatment for HIV/AIDS are common causes of delays in accessing health care especially for the poor. Poor households may not necessarily have the financial resources to seek help from health centres, nor food security to enable members to adhere to their treatment.It should be emphasised that poor people infected with HIV are considerably more likely to become sick and die faster than the non-poor since they are likely to be malnourished, in poor health, and lacking in health attention and medications (FAO 2001). Therefore, lack of resources is significant cause of the delays in accessing health services by poor households which lead them to chronic illness because of HIV and AIDS. The relationship between HIV and AIDS and poverty is seen when HIV compromise health of an individual and because of poverty that individual lack resources to access health thereby leading to chronic illness or death.More so, HIV increase financial constraints to a household already poverty stricken and it increases debts related to health. HIV/AIDS and poverty impact significantly especially on the household and its ability to cope with the epidemic. Household impact is one of the points at which AIDS and poverty demonstrate their intertwined relationship (Piot et al cited Ganyaza-Twalo and Seager 2005). At the household level the HIV-afflicted patient’s labour input gradually diminishes as the patient uccumbs to sickness, and the labour of other household and extended family members is often diverted to care for AIDS patients during this period, the most critical impact being when the patient becomes incapacitated before dea th. De Waal & Whiteside (2003) have found that diversion of labour coupled with the care of children orphaned as a result of the death of their parents to AIDS related diseases further impoverishes the household. The HIV/AIDS epidemic undercuts the ability of the households to cope with shocks. Assets are likely to be liquidated to pay for the costs of care.Sickness and caring for the sick prevent people from migrating to find additional work. In the longer term, poor households may never recover even their initial low standard of living (UNDP 2009). This clearly shows the linkage between HIV/AIDS and poverty at household level because it leave a poor household in chronic poverty such that it will be difficult to come out of it. Like poverty, HIV/AIDS epidemic is affecting the sub-continent of Saharan Africa more severely than any other parts of the world with 63% of global AIDS cases occurring in the region (Mwambete and Justin-Temu 2011).This shows a relationship between HIV/AIDS and poverty in the region because in sub Saharan high Africa there is high poverty as well as HIV prevalence. Jooma, cited in Ganyaza-Twalo and Seager (2005) cited that, the number of Africans living below the poverty line (less than 1 US dollar per day) has almost doubled from 164 million in 1981 to 314 million people today. She further contends that 32 of 47 African countries are among the world’s 48 poorest nations.Therefore, HIV is high in Africa as compared to other continents of the world as well as poverty. However poverty and HIV and AIDS have a close link in diminishing human lives. Poverty and mobility are critical dimensions of vulnerability to HIV transmission (FAO 2001). Therefore, driving force behind migratory movements is poverty. ILO (2005) put forward that, poverty increases the risk of HIV/AIDS when it propels the unemployed into unskilled migratory labour pools in search of temporary and seasonal work, which increases their risk of HIV/AIDS.UNDP (2009) in the same vein eludes that, poverty especially rural poverty, and the absence of access to sustainable livelihoods, are factors in labour mobility of the population including cross border migration and acceleration of the urbanization process, which contributes to create the conditions that sustain HIV transmission. However such situations widens the web of sex networking, and in this way it will facilitate the early rapid spread of HIV. This means that, poverty increases people’s mobility exposing them to infection when they are away from their families.In this way poverty and HIV are synergistic and symmetrical in nature because in this essence, poverty create a migration platform which at the end expose people to HIV infection because of long time away from sexual partners. HIV and AIDS and poverty have strong bi-directional linkages. HIV/AIDS is both a manifestation of poverty conditions that exist, taking hold where livelihoods are unsustainable and the result of the unmi tigated impact of the epidemic on social and economic conditions (ILO 2005).HIV/AIDS is at the same time a cause and an outcome of poverty and poverty is both a cause and an outcome of HIV/AIDS. HIV and AIDS mainly affect the productive age of 15-60. ILO (2005) argues that, HIV/AIDS causes impoverishment when working-age adults in poor households become ill and need treatment and care, because income is lost when the earners are no longer able to work, and expenditures increase due to medical care costs. Therefore, this means HIV reduces household income generation because labour will be diverted to care for the sick person.Unlike other sicknesses, HIV/AIDS does not target the poor. Whereas poverty may increase an individual’s susceptibility to infection by HIV/AIDS and vulnerability to its physical, social, and economic impact, HIV/AIDS itself is not ex ante linked with poverty. In addition HIV and AIDS increase consumption at the expense of production. Moreover, households often expend their savings and lose their assets in order to purchase medical care for sick members. Assets may have to be sold when many households are facing the same need, and such distress sales are often ill-timed and at a loss.This lead to chronic poverty and it directly affect livelihoods. Women are more vulnerable than men to HIV infection because of, biological, cultural, lack of education, inheritance among other factors. In the same vein FAO (2001) alludes that, in many places HIV infection rates are three to five times higher among young women than young men. In addition to Mwambete and Justin-Temu (2011) posits that, fifty-eight percent of all Tanzanian adults living with HIV/AIDS are women. This shows women are most likely to be infected by HIV and AIDS.Scott et al (2011) argues that, gender inequality and poverty deprives women of their ability to fulfil their socially designated responsibilities, and therefore debases them, often forcing them into prostitution which exposes them to HIV infection. Therefore, children raised in poor households face a large risk of achieving a low level of educational attainment and dropping out of school. Girls especially are removed from school as a coping strategy, and also because the girls education is viewed as â€Å"less of a priority†, since it is expected that they will marry and will belong to another family.Women in Tanzania also have severely limited access to education, employment, credit, and transportation as a result northern coastal women—married and unmarried, young and old—are increasingly turning to sex work, exposing them to a high risk of HIV infection (Mwambete and Justin-Temu 2011). This increases poverty in women which expose them in risk behaviour such as commercial sex. This is because if women are denied to access education they will not find employment in a formal to cope with their basic needs also they will be vulnerable to sexual exploitation by men because of p overty.ILO (2005) alludes that, poverty drives girls and women to exchange sex for food, and to resort to sex work for survival when they are excluded from formal sector employment and all other work options are too low-paying to cover their basic needs. Therefore, commercial sex exposes women to infection and it is mostly necessitated by poverty. In this essence a link between HIV and AIDS and poverty is when poverty forces people to enter into risk behaviour in order to gain living.Therefore, poverty create reasons for women to practice commercial sex also because of poverty they can justify themselves for example women in Mkwaja village Tanzania in who were saying they accept that it is now the female burden to provide for their children, they said they risk dying from AIDS for the sake of our children (Mwambete and Justin-Temu 2011). HIV/AIDS and poverty have a link in affecting the food security at both household and national level. Ganyaza-Twalo and Seager (2005) argues that, HIV/AIDS and poverty combined have a debilitating effect on agricultural sector of the poor countries, and more effect in poor households.Therefore, a major impact on agriculture includes the depletion of human capital, diversion of resources from agriculture, and loss of farm and non-farm income, together with other forms of psychological impacts that affect productivity. Since agriculture is the only source of food, reduction of labour cause severe food shortages in HIV and AIDS affected households. Households experiencing food shortages as a result of poverty and effects of HIV/AIDS increase the chances of fast progression of the illness and inevitable death of the ill person.Given that malnutrition is a function of poverty, there is thus a good reason to assume that poverty helped hasten the spread of HIV in sub-Saharan Africa (Nattrass, cited in Ganyaza-Twalo and Seager 2005). Therefore, both HIV and poverty exert tremendous pressure on the household’s ability to provide for the basic needs like food. Poor nutritional status is linked to vulnerability to progression from HIV infection to mortality. Poor nutrition weakens the body’s defence against infection, and infection in turn weakens the efficiency of absorption of nutrients Mwambete and Justin-Temu (2011).HIV is often associated with morbidity leading to labour shortage and loss of income. In the same line UNDP (2009) postulate that, people with chronic illness are often unable to work, therefore, leading to income reduction. They also need care from other household members, thus limiting their productive activities and doubling the loss of income which results in poverty. (Wyss et al cited in UNDP 2009) found that time lost due to illness by people living with HIV was approximately 16 days per month, while uninfected household members spent 8. days on average to care for affected family members, reducing their time for other activities and occupations. This clearly shows that HIV/AIDS divert labour to attend to a sick person. The link between HIV/AIDS and poverty in this essence is that, HIV deepens poverty through income reduction necessitated by labour diverted to attend to the sick person. Also on top of income reduction HIV increases consumption of available resources through medical expenses thereby leading to chronic poverty. UNDP (2009) reveals that, among the poor, up to 47% of income went to coping with the disease.Although the relationship between, poverty and HIV/AIDS are synergistic and symmetrical in reducing people’s wellbeing. There are circumstances which they are not linked for instance in least developed countries a large number and a substantial fraction of public sector personnel with a capital of skills, training, and education, and of experience in management and policy-making – notably in the fields of health and education – are being removed from the labour force as a result of AIDS at a time when the need for their se rvices is greatest for development (ILO 2005).Therefore this shows that, AIDS can affect people regardless of their economic status. Therefore, not only poverty expose people to HIV infection by risk behaviours such as multiple sex partners associated with wealth. More over availability of income may cause individuals to be mobile and being exposed to commercial sex workers. In another study, HIV and education had a negative relationship in urban areas and a positive link in the rural areas (Hargreaves and Glynn cited in Ganyaza-Twalo and Seager 2005).Where a positive link was found, the authors suggested that persons, especially men, with greater levels of education may have more disposable income which, in turn, allows them greater access to travel and increased opportunity for contact with commercial sex workers. The study found that generally the highest prevalence of HIV was found amongst the well off individuals/households, particularly affecting rich women, as opposed to poor er and rural households (Shelton et al cited in Ganyaza-Twalo and Seager 2005).The findings pointed out that wealthier people tend to have the resources which lead to greater and more frequent mobility and expose them to wider sexual networks, encouraging multiple and concurrent relationships. But it was also observed that the wealthier people tend to have greater access to HIV medications that prolong their lives and are more likely to live in urban areas, which have the highest prevalence (Mwambete and Justin-Temu 2011) However, there are, exceptions to the relationship between HIV/AIDS and poverty, in particular in Africa where some countries with very high HIV prevalence rates are also among the richest UNDP (2009).In line with this argument (FAO 2001) alludes that, there are some powerful critiques of the poverty-AIDS argument, which claim that many of the worst affected African countries such as Botswana, Zimbabwe and South Africa are among the most economically developed in t he region, poverty does seem to be a crucial factor in the spread of HIV/AIDS. In conclusion, HIV and AIDS and poverty are related and they complement each other.Therefore, high HIV prevalence is mainly fuelled by poverty which leads into migration and exercise of commercial sex by women to gain a living. Moreover poverty increases the progression of AIDS because of lake of medical services. More impacts of HIV and AIDS are seen in poor households because they cause more health defects as compared to a rich household. One may argue that, poverty creates a platform for people to be infected by HIV and if they are infected poverty further deepens its roots.This is because of liquidation of productive asserts in trying to cope with disease. Although HIV affects all people with and without income, it has great impacts to a poor person. Finally impacts of HIV and AIDS in rich countries and households are not visible because of access to medical facilities. The impacts of HIV and AIDS are mainly visible in poor household who do not have funds to access treatment. Therefore the relationship between HIV and AIDS and poverty are synergistic and symmetrical in nature without compromise.REFERENCES De Waal, A. and Whiteside, A [2003] The New Variant Famine Hypothesis, Commission on HIV/AIDS and Governance in Africa, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia FAO (2001) The Impact of HIV/AIDS on rural households and land issues in Southern and Eastern Africa. Economic and Social Development Department http://www. fao. org/wairdocs/ad696e/ad696e04. htm [Accessed on 12/02/2013] ILO (2005) HIV/AIDS and poverty: the critical connection, Programme on HIV/AIDS and the World of Work www. ilo. rg/aidshttp://www. ilo. org/wcmsp5/groups/public/—ed_protect/—protrav/—ilo_aids/documents/publication/wcms_120468. pdf[Accessed on 12/02/2013] Mwambete, K. D. and Justin-Temu, M. (2011). Poverty, Parasitosis and HIV/AIDS – Major Health Co ncerns in Tanzania, Microbes, Viruses and Parasites in AIDS Process, http://cdn. intechopen. com/pdfs/20651/InTech-poverty_parasitosis_and_hiv_aids_major_health_concerns_in_tanzania. pdf [Accessed on 12/02/2013] Scott, E. Simon, T. , Foucade A. L. , Theodore K. , Gittens-Baynes, K. A. 2011) Poverty, Employment and HIV/AIDS in Trinidad and Tobago Department of Economics The University of the West Indies. International Journal of Business and Social Science Vol. 2 No. 15; THULISILE GANYAZA-TWALO and JOHN SEAGER – HSRC – (2005) Literature Review on Poverty AND HIV/AIDS: Measuring the social and Economic Impacts on Households http://www. wsu. ac. za/hsrc/html/ganyaza-twalo. pdf [Accessed on 12/02/2013] UNDP, (2009). Impact of HIV/AIDS on household vulnerability and poverty in Viet Nam. United Nations Development Programme. Viet Nam. Culture and Information Publishing House. Final the Relationship Between Hiv and Aids and Poverty Is Synergistic and Symmetrical in Nature BACHELOR OF SOCIAL SCIENCES HONOURS DEGREE IN DEVELOPMENT STUDIES [BLOCK RELEASE 2. 2]FACULTY : HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCESDEPARTMENT : DEVELOPMENT STUDIES STUDENT ‘NAME : EMMANUEL R MARABUKA STUDENT’ ID NUMBER : L0110064TMODULE NAME : HIV AND AIDS IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA LECTURER :MR D.NYATHIDUE DATE : 01 MARCH 2013EMAIL ADDRESS : [email  protected] com QUESTION : The relationship between HIV and AIDS and Poverty is synergistic and symmetrical in nature†. Comment. [25] | HIV and AIDS are issues of concern worldwide they are associated by many implications which affect negatively in human lives. HIV and AIDS are mainly spread through unprotected sex with an infected person. HIV weakens the antibodies which are responsible for fighting diseases.Therefore once the white blood cells are damaged by virus it cannot resist diseases result a person into many opportunistic infections at this stage a person will have AIDS. Therefore for now HIV and AIDS have no cure yet. Therefore, HIV and AIDS and poverty are synergistic and symmetrical in nature. Meaning to say the impacts of HIV and AIDS and poverty complement each other in destroying human’s well being. Also they have same power or they are parallel in destroying human lives. However this essay seeks to comment on the notion that, the relationship of between HIV and AIDS and poverty is synergistic and symmetrical in nature.According to Mwambete and Justin-Temu (2011) poverty is defined as a state of having little or no money and few or no material possessions. The World Bank defines poverty as â€Å"the inability to attain a minimum standard of living† and produced a â€Å"universal poverty line†, which was â€Å"consumption-based† and comprised of two elements: â€Å"the expenditure necessary to buy a minimum standard of nutrition and other basic necessities and a further amount that varies from country to country, reflecting the cost of participating in everyday l ife of society.Poverty can be caused by unemployment, low education, deprivation and homelessness. Therefore, HIV and poverty reinforce each other, with poor, vulnerable and powerless women being a significant driver of the disease while also bearing the burden of its impact (Scott et al 2011) Poverty, characterized by limited human and monetary resources, is therefore portrayed as a risk factor to HIV/AIDS. Moreover, HIV/AIDS deepens poverty and increases inequalities at every level, household, community, regional and sectoral.Poverty pervades subgroups such as the unemployed and migrants. As a result of the condition of poverty, people become more vulnerable to HIV/AIDS, since these are the people who have less access to the necessary facilities to prevent or treat HIV Scott (2011). This means poor people have less access to HIV/AIDS treatment which increases the progression of AIDS. HIV HIV/AIDS appears to interact strongly with poverty and this interaction increases the depth of vulnerability of those households already vulnerable to shocks (Ganyaza-Twalo and Seager 2005).Poverty is associated with vulnerability to severe diseases like HIV, through its effects on delaying access to health care and inhibiting treatment adherence (Bates et al, cited in Ganyaza-Twalo and Seager 2005). The costs incurred when seeking diagnosis and treatment for HIV/AIDS are common causes of delays in accessing health care especially for the poor. Poor households may not necessarily have the financial resources to seek help from health centres, nor food security to enable members to adhere to their treatment.It should be emphasised that poor people infected with HIV are considerably more likely to become sick and die faster than the non-poor since they are likely to be malnourished, in poor health, and lacking in health attention and medications (FAO 2001). Therefore, lack of resources is significant cause of the delays in accessing health services by poor households which lead them to chronic illness because of HIV and AIDS. The relationship between HIV and AIDS and poverty is seen when HIV compromise health of an individual and because of poverty that individual lack resources to access health thereby leading to chronic illness or death.More so, HIV increase financial constraints to a household already poverty stricken and it increases debts related to health. HIV/AIDS and poverty impact significantly especially on the household and its ability to cope with the epidemic. Household impact is one of the points at which AIDS and poverty demonstrate their intertwined relationship (Piot et al cited Ganyaza-Twalo and Seager 2005). At the household level the HIV-afflicted patient’s labour input gradually diminishes as the patient uccumbs to sickness, and the labour of other household and extended family members is often diverted to care for AIDS patients during this period, the most critical impact being when the patient becomes incapacitated before dea th. De Waal & Whiteside (2003) have found that diversion of labour coupled with the care of children orphaned as a result of the death of their parents to AIDS related diseases further impoverishes the household. The HIV/AIDS epidemic undercuts the ability of the households to cope with shocks. Assets are likely to be liquidated to pay for the costs of care.Sickness and caring for the sick prevent people from migrating to find additional work. In the longer term, poor households may never recover even their initial low standard of living (UNDP 2009). This clearly shows the linkage between HIV/AIDS and poverty at household level because it leave a poor household in chronic poverty such that it will be difficult to come out of it. Like poverty, HIV/AIDS epidemic is affecting the sub-continent of Saharan Africa more severely than any other parts of the world with 63% of global AIDS cases occurring in the region (Mwambete and Justin-Temu 2011).This shows a relationship between HIV/AIDS and poverty in the region because in sub Saharan high Africa there is high poverty as well as HIV prevalence. Jooma, cited in Ganyaza-Twalo and Seager (2005) cited that, the number of Africans living below the poverty line (less than 1 US dollar per day) has almost doubled from 164 million in 1981 to 314 million people today. She further contends that 32 of 47 African countries are among the world’s 48 poorest nations.Therefore, HIV is high in Africa as compared to other continents of the world as well as poverty. However poverty and HIV and AIDS have a close link in diminishing human lives. Poverty and mobility are critical dimensions of vulnerability to HIV transmission (FAO 2001). Therefore, driving force behind migratory movements is poverty. ILO (2005) put forward that, poverty increases the risk of HIV/AIDS when it propels the unemployed into unskilled migratory labour pools in search of temporary and seasonal work, which increases their risk of HIV/AIDS.UNDP (2009) in the same vein eludes that, poverty especially rural poverty, and the absence of access to sustainable livelihoods, are factors in labour mobility of the population including cross border migration and acceleration of the urbanization process, which contributes to create the conditions that sustain HIV transmission. However such situations widens the web of sex networking, and in this way it will facilitate the early rapid spread of HIV. This means that, poverty increases people’s mobility exposing them to infection when they are away from their families.In this way poverty and HIV are synergistic and symmetrical in nature because in this essence, poverty create a migration platform which at the end expose people to HIV infection because of long time away from sexual partners. HIV and AIDS and poverty have strong bi-directional linkages. HIV/AIDS is both a manifestation of poverty conditions that exist, taking hold where livelihoods are unsustainable and the result of the unmi tigated impact of the epidemic on social and economic conditions (ILO 2005).HIV/AIDS is at the same time a cause and an outcome of poverty and poverty is both a cause and an outcome of HIV/AIDS. HIV and AIDS mainly affect the productive age of 15-60. ILO (2005) argues that, HIV/AIDS causes impoverishment when working-age adults in poor households become ill and need treatment and care, because income is lost when the earners are no longer able to work, and expenditures increase due to medical care costs. Therefore, this means HIV reduces household income generation because labour will be diverted to care for the sick person.Unlike other sicknesses, HIV/AIDS does not target the poor. Whereas poverty may increase an individual’s susceptibility to infection by HIV/AIDS and vulnerability to its physical, social, and economic impact, HIV/AIDS itself is not ex ante linked with poverty. In addition HIV and AIDS increase consumption at the expense of production. Moreover, households often expend their savings and lose their assets in order to purchase medical care for sick members. Assets may have to be sold when many households are facing the same need, and such distress sales are often ill-timed and at a loss.This lead to chronic poverty and it directly affect livelihoods. Women are more vulnerable than men to HIV infection because of, biological, cultural, lack of education, inheritance among other factors. In the same vein FAO (2001) alludes that, in many places HIV infection rates are three to five times higher among young women than young men. In addition to Mwambete and Justin-Temu (2011) posits that, fifty-eight percent of all Tanzanian adults living with HIV/AIDS are women. This shows women are most likely to be infected by HIV and AIDS.Scott et al (2011) argues that, gender inequality and poverty deprives women of their ability to fulfil their socially designated responsibilities, and therefore debases them, often forcing them into prostitution which exposes them to HIV infection. Therefore, children raised in poor households face a large risk of achieving a low level of educational attainment and dropping out of school. Girls especially are removed from school as a coping strategy, and also because the girls education is viewed as â€Å"less of a priority†, since it is expected that they will marry and will belong to another family.Women in Tanzania also have severely limited access to education, employment, credit, and transportation as a result northern coastal women—married and unmarried, young and old—are increasingly turning to sex work, exposing them to a high risk of HIV infection (Mwambete and Justin-Temu 2011). This increases poverty in women which expose them in risk behaviour such as commercial sex. This is because if women are denied to access education they will not find employment in a formal to cope with their basic needs also they will be vulnerable to sexual exploitation by men because of p overty.ILO (2005) alludes that, poverty drives girls and women to exchange sex for food, and to resort to sex work for survival when they are excluded from formal sector employment and all other work options are too low-paying to cover their basic needs. Therefore, commercial sex exposes women to infection and it is mostly necessitated by poverty. In this essence a link between HIV and AIDS and poverty is when poverty forces people to enter into risk behaviour in order to gain living.Therefore, poverty create reasons for women to practice commercial sex also because of poverty they can justify themselves for example women in Mkwaja village Tanzania in who were saying they accept that it is now the female burden to provide for their children, they said they risk dying from AIDS for the sake of our children (Mwambete and Justin-Temu 2011). HIV/AIDS and poverty have a link in affecting the food security at both household and national level. Ganyaza-Twalo and Seager (2005) argues that, HIV/AIDS and poverty combined have a debilitating effect on agricultural sector of the poor countries, and more effect in poor households.Therefore, a major impact on agriculture includes the depletion of human capital, diversion of resources from agriculture, and loss of farm and non-farm income, together with other forms of psychological impacts that affect productivity. Since agriculture is the only source of food, reduction of labour cause severe food shortages in HIV and AIDS affected households. Households experiencing food shortages as a result of poverty and effects of HIV/AIDS increase the chances of fast progression of the illness and inevitable death of the ill person.Given that malnutrition is a function of poverty, there is thus a good reason to assume that poverty helped hasten the spread of HIV in sub-Saharan Africa (Nattrass, cited in Ganyaza-Twalo and Seager 2005). Therefore, both HIV and poverty exert tremendous pressure on the household’s ability to provide for the basic needs like food. Poor nutritional status is linked to vulnerability to progression from HIV infection to mortality. Poor nutrition weakens the body’s defence against infection, and infection in turn weakens the efficiency of absorption of nutrients Mwambete and Justin-Temu (2011).HIV is often associated with morbidity leading to labour shortage and loss of income. In the same line UNDP (2009) postulate that, people with chronic illness are often unable to work, therefore, leading to income reduction. They also need care from other household members, thus limiting their productive activities and doubling the loss of income which results in poverty. (Wyss et al cited in UNDP 2009) found that time lost due to illness by people living with HIV was approximately 16 days per month, while uninfected household members spent 8. days on average to care for affected family members, reducing their time for other activities and occupations. This clearly shows that HIV/AIDS divert labour to attend to a sick person. The link between HIV/AIDS and poverty in this essence is that, HIV deepens poverty through income reduction necessitated by labour diverted to attend to the sick person. Also on top of income reduction HIV increases consumption of available resources through medical expenses thereby leading to chronic poverty. UNDP (2009) reveals that, among the poor, up to 47% of income went to coping with the disease.Although the relationship between, poverty and HIV/AIDS are synergistic and symmetrical in reducing people’s wellbeing. There are circumstances which they are not linked for instance in least developed countries a large number and a substantial fraction of public sector personnel with a capital of skills, training, and education, and of experience in management and policy-making – notably in the fields of health and education – are being removed from the labour force as a result of AIDS at a time when the need for their se rvices is greatest for development (ILO 2005).Therefore this shows that, AIDS can affect people regardless of their economic status. Therefore, not only poverty expose people to HIV infection by risk behaviours such as multiple sex partners associated with wealth. More over availability of income may cause individuals to be mobile and being exposed to commercial sex workers. In another study, HIV and education had a negative relationship in urban areas and a positive link in the rural areas (Hargreaves and Glynn cited in Ganyaza-Twalo and Seager 2005).Where a positive link was found, the authors suggested that persons, especially men, with greater levels of education may have more disposable income which, in turn, allows them greater access to travel and increased opportunity for contact with commercial sex workers. The study found that generally the highest prevalence of HIV was found amongst the well off individuals/households, particularly affecting rich women, as opposed to poor er and rural households (Shelton et al cited in Ganyaza-Twalo and Seager 2005).The findings pointed out that wealthier people tend to have the resources which lead to greater and more frequent mobility and expose them to wider sexual networks, encouraging multiple and concurrent relationships. But it was also observed that the wealthier people tend to have greater access to HIV medications that prolong their lives and are more likely to live in urban areas, which have the highest prevalence (Mwambete and Justin-Temu 2011) However, there are, exceptions to the relationship between HIV/AIDS and poverty, in particular in Africa where some countries with very high HIV prevalence rates are also among the richest UNDP (2009).In line with this argument (FAO 2001) alludes that, there are some powerful critiques of the poverty-AIDS argument, which claim that many of the worst affected African countries such as Botswana, Zimbabwe and South Africa are among the most economically developed in t he region, poverty does seem to be a crucial factor in the spread of HIV/AIDS. In conclusion, HIV and AIDS and poverty are related and they complement each other.Therefore, high HIV prevalence is mainly fuelled by poverty which leads into migration and exercise of commercial sex by women to gain a living. Moreover poverty increases the progression of AIDS because of lake of medical services. More impacts of HIV and AIDS are seen in poor households because they cause more health defects as compared to a rich household. One may argue that, poverty creates a platform for people to be infected by HIV and if they are infected poverty further deepens its roots.This is because of liquidation of productive asserts in trying to cope with disease. Although HIV affects all people with and without income, it has great impacts to a poor person. Finally impacts of HIV and AIDS in rich countries and households are not visible because of access to medical facilities. The impacts of HIV and AIDS are mainly visible in poor household who do not have funds to access treatment. Therefore the relationship between HIV and AIDS and poverty are synergistic and symmetrical in nature without compromise.REFERENCES De Waal, A. and Whiteside, A [2003] The New Variant Famine Hypothesis, Commission on HIV/AIDS and Governance in Africa, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia FAO (2001) The Impact of HIV/AIDS on rural households and land issues in Southern and Eastern Africa. Economic and Social Development Department http://www. fao. org/wairdocs/ad696e/ad696e04. htm [Accessed on 12/02/2013] ILO (2005) HIV/AIDS and poverty: the critical connection, Programme on HIV/AIDS and the World of Work www. ilo. rg/aidshttp://www. ilo. org/wcmsp5/groups/public/—ed_protect/—protrav/—ilo_aids/documents/publication/wcms_120468. pdf[Accessed on 12/02/2013] Mwambete, K. D. and Justin-Temu, M. (2011). Poverty, Parasitosis and HIV/AIDS – Major Health Co ncerns in Tanzania, Microbes, Viruses and Parasites in AIDS Process, http://cdn. intechopen. com/pdfs/20651/InTech-poverty_parasitosis_and_hiv_aids_major_health_concerns_in_tanzania. pdf [Accessed on 12/02/2013] Scott, E. Simon, T. , Foucade A. L. , Theodore K. , Gittens-Baynes, K. A. 2011) Poverty, Employment and HIV/AIDS in Trinidad and Tobago Department of Economics The University of the West Indies. International Journal of Business and Social Science Vol. 2 No. 15; THULISILE GANYAZA-TWALO and JOHN SEAGER – HSRC – (2005) Literature Review on Poverty AND HIV/AIDS: Measuring the social and Economic Impacts on Households http://www. wsu. ac. za/hsrc/html/ganyaza-twalo. pdf [Accessed on 12/02/2013] UNDP, (2009). Impact of HIV/AIDS on household vulnerability and poverty in Viet Nam. United Nations Development Programme. Viet Nam. Culture and Information Publishing House.

Starbucks Facing Brand Culture Devaluation and Massive Layoffs

Starbucks facing brand culture devaluation and massive layoffs To: Howard Schultz, Starbucks From: Yang LU, Aspire CC: Rui DONG Xiaochen DONG Vanessa BAXTER Pushpak BERIWAL Executive summary The aim of this report is to find out the deep-seated reason for this depression of Starbucks and give a recommendation to the firm to deal with it. Furthermore, this report also suggests solutions to dismiss the panic of the staff and remains the excellent performance.The key findings include: Finding 1: The over-expansion made Starbucks’ unique culture of the â€Å"Starbucks experience† devalued and seemed no difference with other fast food restaurants. This caused employees’ less well performance and therefore it lost customers’ loyalty as well. Finding 2:The employees felt dissatisfied with the rewards and treated customers with less effort while the unacceptable massive layoffs made a panic. The recommendations suggested by this report include:Recommendation 1:â⠂¬Å"Decentralization†Ã¢â‚¬â€œ Remove number of outlets away from each other and slow down the pace of opening new stores in the US or concentrate on the unexploited market space in other countries. Recommendation 2:Increasing the compensation given to the members asked to leave and suggesting them do some other suitable jobs. The firm can also make a promise that these employees would be considered first when hiring candidates in the future after the most difficult times. Furthermore, keep the employees’ payment stable and hold some activities inspiring to promote people to tide Starbucks over difficulties together.This report describes the findings after applying theories to analyse the issue which claimed the trouble that Starbucks was facing. For years, Starbucks was famous for its consistent growing and expansion. However, the both share price and sales fell even three times than before since 2008. The â€Å"Starbucks experience† (Michelle, 2007) was widely s upposed to have been diluted and the customers complained that the staff seemed to be less complaisant since they found Starbucks Ubiquitous.A resource from MarketWatch: Global Round-up (2008) reported that Starbucks had been forced to close 600 US stores and axe 12,000 jobs which took almost 7% of its global workforce which had made negative effect on other employees. The aim of the report is to find out the deep-seated reason for this depression and give a recommendation to the firm to deal with it. Furthermore, this report also suggests solutions to dismiss the panic of the staff and remain the performance. Key issues identified by Aspire | Key issue| Champion| | Over-expansion caused Starbucks’ brand devaluation and massive layoffs. | Yang Lu| 2| Starbucks' two non-payment methods of motivating employees. | Rui Dong| 3| Starbucks changed people-oriented culture into profit-oriented culture. | Xiaochen Dong| 4| Kraft foods taking Starbucks to court over the planned termina tion of its contract to distribute Starbucks packaged coffee. | Vanessa Baxter| 5| Starbucks is a very command and control driven company which leads to very little flexibility and decision making power at certain regional stores. Pushpak Beriwal| Justification of key issues over-expansion caused culture devaluation and massive layoffs Fast-forward 20 years, Starbucks had more than 10,000 American outlets till 2008 from only 84 US stores in 1990 (Smale, 2008). This sharply increased number made Starbucks seem to be omnipresent like other fast food stores. As a result, this change took a negative effect that the members in this group feel less proud of their jobs in Starbucks which was famous for its unique culture and therefore had less passion to satisfy the customers.From Schein’s (2004) theory of culture components, Starbucks fell to the basic level of culture instead of the highest one it got before. Starbucks finally cut over 10,000 jobs which were most in the US in the last two years during the reforming and also cut the employees' compensation and holiday (Kiley, 2009). By Maslow’s (1970) â€Å"a hierarchy of needs†, Starbucks could not make staff satisfied by the physiological needs and de-motivated other members. The dissatisfied emotion would reflect on their performance.Findings from analyzing issue over-expansion caused brand devaluation and massive layoffs Starbucks was famous for the unique culture that to give all the customers the relaxed feel and atmosphere as a third place out of home and office which called â€Å"Starbucks experience†. This culture is in the second and near the third level of the â€Å"components of cultures† with espoused beliefs and values and basic underlying assumptions which was identified by Schein (2004).Starbucks published its beliefs and values to make the members love their jobs and enjoy the experience in Starbucks to treat customers with their heart and satisfy them and to attra ct new members or partners to join in the group through the unique brand culture. Guided by market, Yang (2010) has provided evidence that brand culture was aims at achieving the maximization of organizations’ profits obtained and customers’ loyalty by establishing common values which could influence the movements and behavior of the members within a company based on the amalgamation of consumers’ value and company.However, the expansion without limitation made a trouble. Although the purpose at first was to make the â€Å"Starbucks experience† penetrate everywhere through the expansion, the company was making stores feel more like hip neighborhood coffeehouse which deviated from its original intention. Starbucks had lost it focus and made a dilution of the â€Å"Starbucks experience†. For the reason that the worth of a thing is best known by the want of it, the value of the culture and brand image went down.The â€Å"cannibalising† (Smale, 2008) sales between branches only a short distance from each other made employees feel less honored to work in this firm or group and the less enthusiasm to satisfy the customers came as a serious consequence. According to Schein’s (2004) theories on culture components, Starbucks only reached the first level of the components â€Å"artefacts† which observed the decorative style and visible products to survive the situation with ubiquitous competition instead of making the ustomers always come first. The â€Å"Starbucks experience† was viewed same as McDonald's and other fast food stores who also sold coffee through such a market saturation. Organizational culture sees culture comprising a number of variables, the combination of which lead to observable differences between organizations so that a company can have power to compete with others (Barry et al. 2000). To get back what made Starbucks successful Starbucks cut a great number of stores and announced massiv e layoffs for reforming.However, this would make the employees undertake the responsibilities and suffer the pain. At the same time, the sudden occurrence as the adjustment in the contract with the employees is both inevitable and a source of trouble, especially it made employees feel that they expected far more than they got and worse off (Kolb et al. 1991, p. 6). According to the theory â€Å"a hierarchy of needs† which developed by Maslow (1970), individuals experience a range of needs and will be motivated to fulfill need which is most powerful at that time.The first level is physiological needs and if this need is dominant for a person they can satisfy it by having a regular job which can keep consistent. But the employees forced to leave Starbucks could not be satisfied by the basic needs. Furthermore, the firm de-motivated the left members at the same time by cutting the employees' compensation and holiday. Vroom’s (1964) expectancy model theory of motivation ex plicitly recognized that outcomes with high expectations and neutral or even unsatisfied achievements would reduce the amount of effort the staff is going to invest.By understanding Vroom’s theory, the firm would get less contribution from its employees by the lower reward, which would reflect the staffs’ less enthusiasm when treating the customers. This also made every member in the firm feel upset and panicky. When the employees believed that they were not receiving payments commensurate with their performance, effort or ability then they worked less hard (Hauenstein and Lord, 1989), and became more selfish (Harder, 1992) and felt dissatisfied with their jobs in this firm (Carr et al. 1996). ConclusionTo sum up, Starbucks faced the trouble that the unlimited expansion has made its famous experience culture diluted and lost a number of customers’ loyalty. To make the matter worse, a great number of layoff was claimed so that the firm also lost the loyalty of it s members. The main aim of the report is to help Starbucks to revalue the culture and put Starbucks’ unique image back to high position into customers’ heart. In addition, suggestions are given to motivate employees. Culture is the soul of a firm which gives the company power to survive and compete with other business. RecommendationsFor the first finding that the over-expansion made Starbucks devalue the unique culture of the â€Å"Starbucks experience†, a suggestion of â€Å"decentralization† can be given. Remove number of outlets away from each other and slow down the pace of opening new stores in the US or concentrate on the unexploited market space in other countries. The other finding that the employees felt dissatisfied with the rewards and treated customers with less effort while the unacceptable massive layoffs made a panic can be solved by increasing the compensation given to the members asked to leave and suggesting them some other suitable job s.The firm can also make a promise that these employees would be considered first when hiring candidates in the future after the most difficult times. Furthermore, keep the employees’ payment stable and hold some activities inspiring to promote people to tide Starbucks over difficulties together. Reference list MICHELLI, J. A. (2007) The Starbucks experience: 5 principles for turning ordinary into extraordinary. New York: McGraw-Hill MARKETWATCH: GLOBAL ROUND-UP. (2008) Starbucks: hoping store cuts will reinvigorate US business. WWW] MARKETWATCH. Available from: http://ehis. ebscohost. com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer? hid=109&sid=30997753-d45f-4afd-bfc9-6c6be4a48faa%40sessionmgr111&vid=4 [Accessed 30/11/10]. SMALE, W. (2008) Why Starbucks' sales have gone cold. Business reporter, BBC News, 1st Feb. SCHEIN, E. (2004) Organization Culture and Leadership. 3rd ed. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. KILEY, D. (2009) Starbucks Cuts More Stores and Workers Amidst Recession and Lower Ea rnings. Bloomberg Businessweek, 28th Jan. MASLOW, A. 1970) Motivation and Personality. 2nd ed. New York: Harper ;amp; Row. YANG, Y. K. (2010) The Construction of Brand Culture Based on Corporate Culture. International Journal of Business ;amp; Management, Vol. 5 (4), pp. 223-226. BARRY, J. et al. (2000) Organization and management: a critical text. London: Thomson Learning. KOLB, D. , RUBIN, E. and OSLAND, J. (1991) Organizational Psychology. New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall. VROOM, V. H. (1964) Work and Motivation. New York: Wiley. HAUENSTEIN, N. M. and LORD, R. G. 1989) The effects of final offer arbitration on the performance of major league baseball players: a test of equity theory. Human Performance, 2 HARDER, J. W. (1992) Play for pay: effects of inequity in a pay for performance context. Administrative Science Quarterly, 37 CARR, S. C. et al. (1996) Effects of unreasonable pay discrepancies for under and overpayment on double demotivation. Genetic, Social and General Psychol ogy Monograpghs, 122 (4). BELBIN, R. M. (1993) Team Roles at Work. Oxford: Butterworth/Heinemann. Word count: 1332 words

Low Score on the Old SAT Should I Take the New SAT

Low Score on the Old SAT Should I Take the New SAT SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Not so happy with your score on the Old SAT? You might be thinking about retaking the test. Unfortunately for you, the redesigned version of the SAT – in this post, we’ll just call it the â€Å"New SAT† – debuted in March of this year. Which means if you retake the SAT, you’ll be taking a totally redesigned test. So you may be wondering, "Should I take the New SAT?" This post will help you decide if your Old SAT score is really not good enough for the colleges you hope to apply to. Next, we will explain some potential challenges with studying for the New SAT, and help you decide if it’s the right step for you. Don’t sign up for the New SAT before reading this post! Evaluating Your Old SAT Score – Is It Actually Bad? So how do we decide if your Old SAT score is good or bad? First, we’ll briefly run through the national score rankings, and next, compare your score to colleges' SAT score averages. Finally, we will make the call on whether your Old SAT score is good or bad! National SAT Percentile Rankings A percentile ranking is a comparison of your score with every other SAT score, and it shows how much better – or worse – you did than everyone else. For example, if your score is in the 50th percentile, 50% of test takers did better than you, and 50% did worse. If your score is in the 30th percentile, 70% of test takers did better than you, and 30% did worse. If you’re in the 90th percentile, just 10% of test-takers did better than you, and 90% did worse. Percentile rankings are thus an easy way to compare your score with other students’ scores to get a rough sense of how good it is. The average Old SAT score is about a 1500 composite (total) score, which means about a 500 on each section: Critical Reading, Math, and Writing. If you got a 1500 or lower, and you’re aiming to apply to selective colleges, you will most likely need to take the New SAT. The 75th percentile is 1720, or about 570-580 per section. If you’re in the 75th percentile or higher, your SAT score will be competitive at many moderately selective schools. The 90th percentile is 1930, or about 640-650 per section. If you’re in the 90th percentile or higher, your score will be competitive at many selective schools. The 99th percentile is any score 2220 and higher, about 750 or higher per section. If you’re in the 99th percentile or higher, your score will be competitive at nearly all colleges and universities, even schools like the Ivy Leagues, Stanford, and MIT. You can see the complete percentile rankings for each SAT composite score here. Key Tip: If you haven’t already, find the percentile ranking of your Old SAT score, since it will give you a basic sense of whether your score is good or not . For example, if you have your heart set on Stanford University but you have a 50th percentile SAT score, you should definitely take the New SAT. But if you have a 90th percentile SAT score and you're applying to your local state schools, you won't have to worry about the New SAT (unless your local university has a particularly competitive honors program or merit scholarship!). If you fall somewhere in between those two extremes, keep reading to learn how to get the most precise information about your Old SAT score's potential. College Middle 50% Ranges Percentiles are a useful tool for getting a rough sense of how great, or not great, your SAT score is. But the most useful information comes from the colleges you want to apply to. After all, you take the SAT to get into college! Colleges release what are called â€Å"middle 50% ranges† to give students an idea of what kinds of SAT scores they need to be competitive. For example, let’s say a college has an SAT middle 50% range of 1500 to 1700. That means that 25% of admitted students had an SAT score lower than 1500, and 25% of admitted students had an SAT score higher than 1700, but the middle 50% had SAT scores in the range of 1500-1700. In most cases, if your SAT score falls within a school’s middle 50% range, you have a good shot at being admitted there, as long as the rest of your application is strong. If your score is above their ranges, you have a very high chance of admission, and if your score is below, you have a smaller chance. So for a school with a 1500-1700 middle 50% range, an SAT score of 1400 would be weak, a score of 1600 would be on target, and a score of 1800 would be amazing! So while percentiles are helpful, the most useful test of whether your SAT score is good depends on the colleges you want to apply to. To take another example, let’s say we have two students, Student A and Student B. They both got an 1800 on the Old SAT. Student A is applying to their local state university. Since the local state university’s middle 50% range is 1450-1700, Student A’s 1800 is more than high enough and they do not need to take the New SAT! But let’s take Student B. They really want to get into Harvard. Harvard’s middle 50% SAT range is very, very high: 2120 to 2400! Student B's 1800 is quite low and they should definitely take the New SAT. Key Tip: look up the SAT score ranges at the schools you are seriously interested in applying to. This will give you the best data to evaluate your Old SAT score with! In the next section, we will show you how to take those score ranges and decide if your Old SAT score needs to be replaced with a New SAT retake. Deciding If Your Score Is Low Now that you’ve looked up the middle 50% ranges at colleges you’re interested in, you’re ready to decide if your score is too low. Focus on the schools on your list with the highest score ranges as you make this decision, because it will give you the most options. For example, let’s say Student C got an 1800 on the Old SAT, and these are the schools they are most interested in, along with those schools' middle 50% SAT score ranges: UPenn: 2050-2320 Penn State: 1600-1910 Temple University: 1510-1840 While that 1800 SAT score is at the top of Temple’s ranges and comfortably within Penn State’s ranges, it is not high enough to be competitive at Penn. If Student C really wants to go to Penn (and any other highly selective schools) they should take the New SAT. Let’s take another example, Student D. Let’s say Student D wants to go to the same three schools, and scored exactly a 2200 composite on the Old SAT. Their score is well above Penn State and Temple’s ranges, and well within Penn’s. However, since Penn is a highly selective school, to maximize your chances, it’s best to have an SAT score near the top or above the middle 50% range to give yourself the best chance – so in this case, a 2320 or higher. While we would normally advise a 2200 scorer to consider retaking the SAT to get into the 2250+ range, for Student D, it might not be worth the significant time it would take to learn about and study for the New SAT just to get those extra 50 composite points. So unless Student D decides to add an even more competitive school to their list, like Harvard or Stanford, they should not take the New SAT and leave their 2200 composite alone! Key Tip: Arrange your target schools in a list from highest SAT middle 50% range to lowest, like we did above. Next, compare your SAT score to the middle 50% range at the most competitive school on your list. If your score is below their middle 50% range: Definitely take the New SAT. If your score is within their middle 50% range: Take the New SAT if it’s a highly selective school, don’t take it if it’s a moderately selective school or lower. If your score is above their middle 50% range: Don’t take the New SAT. How an Old SAT Score and New SAT Score Will Be Compared by Colleges, and Why This Matters One other factor to take into consideration as you sign up for the New SAT is superscoring. What is superscoring? Superscoring combines your highest section scores from different SAT dates to create the highest possible composite score. Here’s an example: Test 1: 700 Critical Reading, 600 Math, 650 Writing, Composite = 1950 Test 2: 650 Critical Reading, 700 Math, 700 Writing, Composite = 2050 Superscore: 700 Critical Reading 700 Math, 700 Writing, Composite = 2100 Unfortunately, at many colleges, the Old SAT and New SAT won’t be superscored together, which puts you at a disadvantage if you have one Old SAT score and one New SAT score. Here are quotes from just a few college's admission websites about how they are treating Old and New SAT scores: Dartmouth: "...we will consider your highest 'superscored' results from either the current or the redesigned SAT; we will not combine scores from both versions." Johns Hopkins: "We will combine the highest section scores from any test date within the current SAT and any test date within the redesigned SAT, but not across the two tests." Penn: â€Å"Current SAT scores will only be superscored with other current SAT results. Redesigned SAT scores will only be superscored with redesigned SAT test results.† Stanford: "We will superscore the results from the current and redesigned SAT separately." Vanderbilt: "Vanderbilt will not super-score between the existing SAT and the revised SAT, but we will super-score within the same type of SAT.† This is just a handful of schools, but their policies reveal the trend towards not superscoring the Old and New SAT. We have seem some different policies out there, so make sure to look up the superscoring policy between Old and New SAT scores at any colleges you are planning to apply to. But in general, it's safe to assume that for many schools on your list, the Old SAT and the New SAT will be treated as separate entities. For many schools, the New SAT and Old SAT are like apples and oranges: too different to compare. Say that you get these two scores on the Old and New SAT: Test 1 (Old SAT): 700 Critical Reading, 600 Math, 650 Writing, 1950 Composite Test 2 (New SAT): 650 Evidence-Based Reading and Writing, 700 Math, 1350 Composite Even though you got your Math score up to a 700 on the New SAT, it will not be superscored with your old SAT score to make a higher composite. Why does this matter? It means that if you retake the New SAT, you have to work extra hard to make sure both your Math and Reading/Writing scores go up, so that your composite score is decidedly higher on the New SAT and the retake is most helpful to you. If you only increase one section’s score and/or end up with a composite score that is at the same or lower percentile ranking, the retake won’t help you that much. Unlike a retake for the Old SAT, on which you could study the hardest for one section so that your superscore would be strong, you need to work for all-around success on the New SAT. And this won’t necessarily be an easy task, as we’ll see! In short, if you need to take the New SAT, you will have to devote a significant amount of time to studying to make sure your new score is strong! Why the Time Commitment for a New SAT Retake Will Be Higher than an Old SAT Retake Studying for a New SAT retake will be challenging. If you were retaking the Old SAT again, you would be at an advantage, in that you would already be familiar with the test, its timing, topics tested, etc. So when you studied, you could just go straight to your problem areas and work to improve them. For the New SAT, you have to go back to the drawing board – the format and timing have both completely transformed, as well as question types and even content. Prepare to spend plenty of time with your prep books and practice questions. For example, on the old SAT Critical Reading section, you had to study vocabulary words, many that were obscure, to be ready for the sentence completion questions. However, on the new SAT Reading section, there are no more sentence completion questions! That means any obscure vocabulary you crammed into your brain before you took the Old SAT won’t help you here. But you need to be prepared for new question types, including evidence support questions. Evidence support questions are two-part. The first question asks you about something about a passage, and the second question asks you which lines in the passage give you evidence for your answer! These questions are quite tricky, because if you get the first question wrong, you will likely miss the second one, as well. And that is just one of many new question types to expect. (Read a complete breakdown of the New SAT here.) To be ready for the test, you need to put in sufficient study time, especially since, as we explained above, your old SAT score will not be superscored with whatever you get on the New SAT. So exactly how long should you study for? Follow these steps to find out. Find your target SAT score for the Old SAT. Old SAT scores will still be used for middle 50% ranges on college websites for at least another year since the New SAT hasn’t been offered long enough to be factored into college admissions data. Translate your Old SAT target score to a New SAT target score, following the method in this article. Take a New SAT practice test and determine how much you need to improve to reach your target score. Based on the chart below, estimate the numberof hours you will need to study to achieve yourtarget score. I suggest adding on about 5 hours to each estimate to account for learning about the new test. 0-30 Point Improvement: 10 hours 30-70 Point Improvement: 20 hours 70-130 Point Improvement: 40 hours 130-200 Point Improvement: 80 hours 200-330 Point Improvement: 150 hours+ Whatever you do, do not take the New SAT without sufficiently studying for it – if you assume you can just wing it since you’ve already taken the SAT once,you could easily end up with a New SAT score that’s lower than your Old SAT score! For more on studying for the New SAT, see our post on how to study effectively for the redesigned test. Another Possibility: Think About the ACT Since studying for the New SAT is basically preparing for an all-new test, you may want to consider switching to the ACT, since there aremore practice testsand better prep materials available for the older test. The best way to decide whether to jump off the SAT ship would be to take one ACT practice test and one new SAT practice test, and see which test you do the best on and feel the most comfortable with. How will you compare your results? After you take a practice version of both tests, use the table in our post about SAT to ACT score conversion, which uses a 1600 total SAT composite, to see whether your New SAT or ACT score is higher. (Also keep in mind this is an estimation since we do not have any percentile data on the New SAT yet, so if your scores are quite close, read on to learn about differences between the SAT and ACT to help you decide.) The grass may not actually be greener on the other side... Let’s look atan example. Say you take an ACT practice test and a New SAT practice test. These are your composite scores for each: ACT: 28 New SAT: 1100 Using the conversion table, that ACT score would be about a 1260 on the SAT, while that SAT score would be about a 24 on the ACT. The ACT score of 28 is a lot stronger, so it would be wiser to focus on the ACT instead of the SAT – you may be able to get that 28 up to a 30, if not a 33 or higher (99th percentile)! Also be aware of these key differences between the ACT and the New SAT, especially if you get a similar score on both practice tests and aren't sure which test to focus on: Reading: while both reading sections have you read and answer questions about long passages, including a set of paired passages, SAT Reading could be trickier because it will include a passage from classic literature or a US founding document, which contains harder language, and it contains evidence support questions, which we discussed above as one of the trickier additions to the New SAT. Math: ACT Math has far more geometry and trigonometry, is grouped into one big 60-minute section, and you can use a calculator the whole time. SAT Math has less geometry, has a shorter no-calculator section and then a calculator section, and still has some grid-in questions (questions where you fill in the answer rather than choosing from a multiple-choice set). Writing: The ACT and New SAT Writing sections are very similar. They both have a long passage format that has you correct mistakes in grammar and usage. ACT Writing has more questions, which could change your approach, and also contains some big-picture questions, while SAT Writing does not. Science: A major difference between the two tests is that the ACT has a whole science section while the SAT does not. The SAT sort of makes up for this by including charts and data analysis in their other sections, so they’ve rolled some of the ACT science skills into other parts of the test. That said, if you’re really good at reading and understanding charts and data, you might benefit from the ACT since you’ll have a whole section about that. See more on these differences in our post New SAT vs ACT: Full Breakdown. After you’ve compared your performance on the New SAT and ACT practice tests, and learned more about both tests, you can decide which test to focus on. It may be that you actually like the ACT better than the new SAT, in which case it makes more sense to study for it! One additional benefit to taking the ACT and doing well is this: since colleges only require the SAT or the ACT, you wouldn’t even have to send in your mediocre old SAT score, just your ACT score. Furthermore, you would avoid any potential bumps in the road as College Board rolls out the new SAT (longer waits to get your score after the first few tests, confusion at testing centers by proctors used to the Old SAT, etc). So if you've decided your Old SAT score is low and you need to retake the New SAT, make sure to consider the ACT as well. It may turn out to be the better option! Bottom Line: Should I Take the New SAT? So who should take the New SAT (or ACT!), and who should skip it? This is our advice. Take the New SAT if†¦ Your Old SAT score is below the middle 50% ranges for the most competitive school you are applying to. You are applying to a highly selective school and your Old SAT score is within, but not above, their score ranges. You have timeto study extensively! Your retake will not be worth itif you get a comparatively lower score. Don’t take the New SAT if†¦ Your Old SAT score is within or above the middle 50% ranges for the most competitive school you are applying to. You aren't willing to put in the necessary effort to improve. You decide to take the ACT instead. What’s Next? We talked about a few changes between the Old and New SAT in this post, but I recommend reading a complete breakdown of the changes at our complete guide to the New SAT before you decide whether to take the test or not. This will give you even more information to help you tackle the New SAT with confidence. Are you avoiding the ACT because you think colleges don’t think it’s as good as the SAT? Learn exactly what the Ivy League and other top schools think of the ACT. How exactly are colleges dealing with the transition to the New SAT? Read interviews with over 30 colleges about the New SAT, including which version of the test they are accepting, how they are comparing Old and New SAT scores, and more. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points?We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now: