Wednesday, October 30, 2019

How the internet has changed world culture Essay - 2

How the internet has changed world culture - Essay Example In the modern world, people are always coming up with new innovations in reference to technology. To understand the impact of the internet on various aspects of our culture, it is important to define culture. Culture is peoples way of life. It includes collective and common principles and ideals, notions, and traditional relic that defines a group of people passed across generations. Computers and the internet have changed our education system. Due to the easy access of information, people are able to advance in terms of education. The internet has also impacted on trade and industry. The internet gives people a platform through which they can advertise and promote their products. People therefore get clients or customers through the various social sites. This has significantly improved the financial conditions of many individuals (Bradley and Carvey 104). Through the internet, people are able to research and comprehend the cultural values and traditions practised by other communities. This has made work easier. In other words, people used to travel for long distances to research and learn other cultures. The internet has changed the way people communicate and relate with each other. In the past, people used to have a physical meeting in order to socialise. Today, this trend has changed since people can easily catch up through the many social sites facilitated by the internet. People can socialise today using mobile phones and personal computers. In fact every gadget of communication today has been computerised. It is easy to find people socialising via the internet like friends but in real sense they have never met. Communication and interaction in homes has also changed as a result of computers and the internet. Today children do not find time to connect with parents and other people in their lives because computers have occupied their free time (Bradley and Carvey 104). On the other hand, people have forgotten their cultural values as a

Monday, October 28, 2019

Haleeb Relaunch Report Essay Example for Free

Haleeb Relaunch Report Essay Current Size, Growth and Profitability: Recently, Haleeb Foods has reached a turnover of Rs. 9. 2 Billion in the year 2009. It was a loss, though, as Haleeb Foods has been experiencing a slump since 2-3 years due to internal management and quality issues. Competition may pose a threat because the company will have to maintain its leadership in an expanding market so that it doesn’t lose its market share to its competitors. For Haleeb it might be difficult to maintain its market hare in a market where the loyalties exist for such brands as Nestle and Olper’s. These brands have been in the milk industry and have left a mark in the minds of consumers in terms of quality. Competition seems to be getting tougher as a result of new players entering the dairy market. Haleeb’s primary competitors are Nestle milk pack and Olper’s milk. The Secondary competitors are Nirala, Halla, Good milk and Gourmet milk. Primary Competitors: Prema: Prema milk fresh, pure and nourishing, straight from our own state-of-the-art dairy farms. With the combination of natural vitamins, minerals, and a great creamy taste, Prema milk provides truly natural milk, with all the essential nutrients needed for healthy bodies and bones, including rotein, calcium, riboflavin and vitamin A. As an all purpose milk, Prema milk is perfect for the whole family for drinking, cooking, as well as a tasty tea whitener. Prema has a market share of 20%. Olper’s: Launched on March 20, 2006, Olper’s milk is EFL’s standardized and homogenized pure UHT (Ultra heat treated) milk with 3. 5 % fat and 8. 9 % solid non-fats. It is EFL’s premier brand, and the choice of quality-conscious consumers who only go for the best. It is available in easy-to-open, 6-layered Tetra Pak Brick Aseptic red packaging and comes with a 3 months shelf life. Olper’s has a market share of 20%. Nestle Milk Pack: Pure, rich and delicious NESTLE MILKPAK standardized UHT milk benefits from Nestle’s expertise in bringing you the very best life has to offer and benefits from 140 years of consumer trust. It comes in four convenient packages and provides a nutritious value to its consumers by educating them about the advantages of milk. They provide valuable information on the packaging and advertise how Nestle milk provides all the essential nutrients. In another words they keep in track of the changing trends and the change in consumer preferences. The market share for Nestle milk pack is 30%. Secondary Competitors: Nurpur, Nirala, Good milk and Gourmet milk altogether comprise of about 10. 5% of the total market share. SWOT ANALYSIS Strengths: * Ultra-Modern technology: Haleeb Foods is using a high-tech modern UHT plant known as â€Å"Tubular Heat Exchange System† in which there are closed pipes of hot and cold water which treat the milk at the time. In this process, the milk is first revolved around the hot pipe which raises the temperature to about 140*C to kill bacteria and other germs and then around the cold pipe which lowers the temperature to around 2-3*C. This process gives the milk its natural thickness and taste. Whereas its competitors use â€Å"Heat Injection System† in which steam is injected into the milk to kill the bacteria and then cooled down The Brand â€Å"Haleeb†: Haleeb is one of the oldest UHT Milk providers of Pakistan and has developed its name through out the country. Every person, whether it be a child or an adult or an elderly, knows about this name and would prefer buying Haleeb Milk rather than any other new ones. It is using the ‘corporate brand strategy’ i. e. making use of the corporate image to affect customer purchase decisions. Examples are Haleeb yoghurt, Haleeb butter, Haleeb milk. Here what is important is not only the reputation of the company but also the concept of customer loyalty to the brand. * Owning the color â€Å"Blue†: Haleeb from the very beginning has identified and associated itself with the color Blue. Every time a person enters a grocery shop and sees a blue pack on the milk shelf, he/she instantly recalls the brand as Haleeb which gives it a competitive edge over its competitors such as Olper’s or Ollwell or Nestle. * High Quality Milk: Haleeb has always provided the best quality milk as it claims â€Å"SAB SE GHARA DOODH (THICKEST MILK)†. Whenever this statement is either displayed or heard somewhere, it instantly associates itself with Haleeb. * Rigorous Quality controls: Haleeb undertakes 21 rigorous quality control tests on every portion of the milk to ensure it is the best out there. Efficient Research and Development department: Haleeb often conducts researches to find out the requirements of the consumers before and even after the launch of a certain product which helps them in making changes to their products according to the consumers’ preferences. * Diversified Brand Portfolio: Haleeb, over the time period, has diversified itself into many products other than milk such as juices, ghee, butter, cheese, low fat milk, etc which gives it a competitive edge and helps it to grow even further and increases its profitability. Weaknesses: * Marketing (Advertisements): Haleeb seldom advertises its products which is a big weakness as its competitors spend a huge amount on TVC’s, Radio spots, etc. The only commercial Haleeb use, is for its milk which is quite old fashioned and doesn’t match up with the requirements of the consumers now days. Considering the competitors like Olper’s and Nestle Milk pack, their TVC,s are seen over and over again during prime times along with bill boards in every heavy traffic street. Awareness of these brands is much more as compared to Haleeb. Packaging: Haleeb, since its beginning, has been using the same packaging which has resulted as a bad sign for the company. Haleeb needs to revamp its packaging keeping consumer wants and perceptions in mind. Over the years customers are accustomed to changes as this is the era of fast transformation and anyone who does not keep up with the times will loose. Therefore Haleeb should step out of its comfort zone and co me up with a new packaging for milk with sharper colors, fancier logos and convenient packs for easy accessible usage. Haleeb is dependent upon Tetra Pak for the packaging of its entire dairy products. Tetra Pak is the only option available to Haleeb for packaging because it is having monopoly in the packaging sector in Pakistan. Due to this reason, Tetra Pak can charge them higher and it could increase the production costs. There is a bargaining power of suppliers. * Demand-Supply Imbalance: The demand for milk is not being completely fulfilled by Haleeb as it is a processor of milk rather than a producer. OPPORTUNITIES: * Increased funding by Government: Government has decided to increase farmers’ funding. This is an opportunity for Haleeb because previously due to weather conditions and other reasons there was lots of wastage of milk but now that can be reduced as farmers will be better able to store milk for longer time periods. * Awareness: Growing dissatisfaction with loose milk and increasing awareness about health and hygiene issues have led to increased processed milk consumption. People are becoming more health conscious as education is increasing in villages. The population is becoming aware of the diseases associated with loose milk coming from unreliable sources. The increase in knowledge has also created awareness for nutritional value in any content of food or drink. Nestle unlike Haleeb has used this opportunity to provide consumers with an additional proved reason to buy packaged milk. Haleeb should pursue this opportunity. * Third largest producer of milk: Pakistan is the Third largest producer of milk in the world with a total production of 32 billion liter of milk a year, whose value is more than that of the combined value of wheat and cotton, from a total herd size of 50 million milch animals (buffaloes and cows). Livestock accounts for 46. 8 percent of agricultural value added and about 10. 8 percent of the GDP. Milk is the largest commodity from the livestock sector accounting for 51 percent of the total value of the sector. Due to the steps taken by the government and private sector, country’s annual milk production is expected to grow at an additional 3 billion liters in the next few years. This is quite an opportunity for ENGRO foods as there is lot of growth in this part of the sector. Threats: * Competition: Competition may pose a threat because the company will have to maintain its leadership in an expanding market so that it doesn’t lose its market share to its competitors. Competition seems to be getting tougher as a result of new players entering the dairy market such as Olper’s, Ollwell, Gourmet, etc. Competition is a very important threat because in order for you to excel, you have to be well aware of the next move that your opponent will take. The idea is to prevent losing your potential customers as well as those who were loyal to you. Haleeb milk cannot afford to give their loyal customers a reason to prefer another brand.

Saturday, October 26, 2019

Bob Marley Essay -- Art

Bob Marley Clemson University There are hundreds of thousands of people screaming for you on stage. The Prime Minister and leader of the opposition sit in the arena. Many thought this was a sight that would never be seen, but it was just the sight Bob Marley had in front of him at the One Love Peace Concert in Kingston Jamaica (April, 1978). This was his first appearance back in Jamaica in 14 years, an amazing show culminating with Bob joining the hands of opposing political figures onstage, and holding them firmly together. A hero and an icon while living, Bob Marley continues to influence people 25 years after his death (African Service News). His music and lyrics worked as the rhetoric of the Rastafarian movement against oppression, exploitation and racism in Jamaica. Using metaphors to describe the hardships of the political fights of Jamaicans and Africans Marley established himself as the spokesman of a race and culture. The Rastafari religion, the heart of Bob’s music, based itself in belief of ‘Jah,’ which was a metaphor for a god of goodness and love. Jah was the force fighting against the oppression from ‘Babylon,’ the destructive force. Metaphors of oppression and freedom, such as chains and birds, depict social problems and ways of liberation (Jensen). Many of Marley’s lyrics included these references and therefore fell into the latitude of acceptance, explained in Muzafer Sherif’s studies on Social Judgment Theory (Griffin), of his Rastafari listeners. When Marley spoke of things that were in the latitude of acceptance of his audience, his words impacted them listeners incredibly. â€Å"If you get down and quarrel everyday/You're saying prayers to the devil, I say/ Why not help one another on the way/ Make it much easier/ Jah love, Jah love, protect us† Positive Vibrations. Marley strived to increase awareness among the people of Jamaica, but his popularity didn’t end there. His music spread through the hearts of Europeans, Africans, and Americans. Lyrics and music work together to offer messages comprised of both theoretical and emotional content through the constructs of virtual experience (lyrics) and virtual time (music). Both virtual experience and virtual time must exist for music to function rhetorically (Sellnow). However it can sometimes work out otherwise. In fact, it was the bass heavy style of Bob Marley’s new age r... ... when it hits you feel no pain. So hit me with music, hit me with music now, brutalize me with music† Bob Marley Feb. 6, 1945 – May 11, 1981 Bibliography Bob Marley Continues to Touch People's Hearts 20 Years After. (August 7, 2002) Africa News Service, p1008219u1157 Griffin, E. (2003). A first look at communication theory. 4th ed. Boston, MA: McGraw Hill. Hakanen, E.A., Wells, A., Ying, L.L.S., (1999). Music choice for emotional use and management by Hong Kong adolescents. Asian Journal of Communication. 9 (1), 72-85. King, Stephen, Jensen, Richard (1995). Bob Marley's "Redemption Song": the rhetoric of reggae and Rastafari. Journal of Popular Culture, v29 n3 p17(20) Napier, Kristine. (Nov-Dec 1997) Antidotes to pop culture poison. Policy Review, n86 p12(3) Sellnow, Deanna D. (1999). Music as persuasion: Refuting hegemonic Masculinity in "He Thinks He'll Keep Her". Women's Studies in Communication. 22 (1, Spring), 66-84. Sellnow, Deanna, and Sellnow, Timothy. (2001). The "illusion of life" rhetorical perspective: An integrated approach to the study of music as communication. Critical Studies in Media Communication. 18 (4, December), 395-415.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Make Friends and Get a Social Life

A fairly common social issue people have is that they're not sure how to make friends and put together a social life for themselves. There are quite a few ways someone can find themselves in this situation: They've moved to a new city and don't know very many people yet. They've been in a long term relationship and have let their social life wither. Their old friends have slowly been dropping out of the picture (moving away, busy with work or a new family, etc. ) and haven't been replaced by new ones.A large chunk of their social circle disappeared overnight, like everyone graduated from university and most of their friends moved out of the city. They feel like they've grown apart from their current friends and want to make entirely new ones. In the past they were happy being alone a lot of the time, but now they want to be around people more often. They never really knew how to make friends and have always wished their social lives were better. They've recently made a big lifestyle change such as deciding not to drink anymore, and need to develop a new social circle that's more suited to it.Below are my thoughts on how to make friends. I'll cover a basic structure first, then go into some attitudes and principles towards the whole thing that I think are important. I've noticed people who are already good at making friends naturally tend to do most of the things I outline below without thinking about it. Bare bones guide on how to make friends Here are the basic steps to making friends. It seems simplistic, but there can be a lot to each point. People who struggle with their social lives often stumble on one or more of them as well. 1. Find some potential friendsTo make friends you first have to find some possible candidates. There are two main ways to do this: Draw on your current contacts This won't apply to people who have just moved to a new area and don't know anyone, but often you'll already have the seeds of a social life around you. You don't necessaril y have to go out and meet ten strangers to have one. It's often easier to turn existing contacts into full-fledged friends than it is to meet new ones. There are probably a handful of people you already know who could end up becoming part of a new social circle.I'm talking about people like: Acquaintances you're friendly with when you run into each other, but who you never see otherwise. People at work or in your classes who you get along with. Friends of people you know who you've gotten along with in the past. Someone who has shown an interest in being your friend but you never really took up the offer. People you very occasionally hang out with, who you could see more often. Friends you've gradually lost contact with who you could call up again. For some people, cousins who are close to your age. Meet some new peopleGetting more out of your current relationships can go a long way, but it doesn't always work. Sometimes you're at a point where you need to meet entirely new people. Not having easy access to potential new friends is a big barrier for many people in creating a social circle. I go into more detail here: How To Meet People. Overall, I'd say the easiest things to do are: Being in a situation where lots of potential friends are around, and you naturally have to get to know them through your day-to-day interactions. Work and school are the two big ones. Meeting one or two good people and then getting to know all their friends.If you hang out with fifteen people, you shouldn't have to have met them all individually. Being into hobbies or communities where you'll naturally meet a lot of people, ones you already have something common with and a built-in activity/conversation opportunity to do with them. Overall, meeting new people may require making an effort to pull out of your day-to-day routine. If most of your hobbies are solitary you might also need to add some more people-oriented ones to the mix. Also, the easiest way to naturally meet a lot of p eople is just to live a full, interesting life and run into lots of potential friends as a side effect.Once you're in a situation with some prospective friends around, you need to strike up conversations and try to get to know them. You won't form a connection with everyone you interact with, but if you chat to enough people you'll find you like and get along pretty well with some of them. Once you've done that you could say you're now at the Friendly Acquaintance stage, or that they're context-specific contacts (e. g. , work â€Å"friends†). If you have trouble with successfully meeting, chatting to, and getting to know people, you may want to check out the site's sections on shyness, fears, and insecurity and on making conversation. . Invite potential friends to do something with you Once you've met those people you seem to be clicking with with, ask them to hang out and do something outside of the situation you met them in. This is the most important step in my experience. You can meet all the people you want, and they can think you're great, but if you don't take any actions to do something with them in the future, then you won't form many new relationships. People will stay as the guy you talk to in class, or the girl you chat to at work in the break room. This seems basic, but lonelier people often hit a wall here.There may be someone they joke around with at work, or chat to in one of their classes, but they won't take the step of inviting them out and taking the relationship to the next level, and beyond the acquaintance stage. If you're on the shyer side, you might be a little hesitant to invite people out. While it is a little scary at first, and there is some risk of rejection, it's fairly easy to get used to. It's not nearly as bad as asking someone out on a date, for example. Depending on how you met them, you may invite someone to hang out fairly quickly or wait a few weeks.For example, if a friend brings one of their buddies along to have drinks with you one day, and you spent four hours together and hit it off right from the start, you may be totally comfortable asking them to hang out again right away. On the other hand, if you seem to mesh with someone at your job, you may only be able to have short conversations here and there over a month before you feel like they'd be someone worth knowing better. If you're not sure how to ask someone to do something with you, you could check out this article: Examples Of Various Ways To Invite People To Hang Out Make a habit of getting people's contact informationIt's a good idea to get into the habit of getting people's contact info fairly early. You may meet someone interesting, but you can never assume you're going to see them around again any time soon. Ask for their phone number or email address, or see if they're on Facebook. That way if an opportunity to get together comes up, they'll be easy to reach. Also, if they have your info, then they can get a hold of you if th ey want to invite you to something. Have a basic grasp of how to make plans To hang out with someone you've got to plan it. Sometimes the process is straight forward.You ask them if they want do something, they agree, and you set a time and place. At other times trying to nail down a plan can be tedious and unpredictable, especially when more than one other person is involved. It helps to accept that this is just an area where there's always going to be an amount of uncertainty, and you can't control everything. If inviting people out and arranging plans all seems like a big hassle, it also probably feels that way for everyone else at times. They shouldn't always have to step up and organize things for you. Do some of the lifting yourself when you need to.More details here: Advice On Making Plans With People Do your best to accept every invitation Of course, making your own plans is important, but if someone asks you to hang out, then that's even better. If someone invites you to do something, then you should go. Why turn down a free chance to get out there with people? When you've got more friends and different options competing for your time you can be more choosy. If you're more of a shy or solitary person it's easy to mull over the invitation and rationalize that it won't be that fun and that you don't want to go.Ignore those thoughts and go anyways. You never can be sure how fun something will be until you show up and see how it is for yourself. Sometimes you'll have to inconvenience yourself for the sake of your social life. You may get invited to a movie you don't particularly want to see, or someone might call you up on Friday evening as you're about to go to bed, asking if you want to go out. Whenever you have two or more people in the equation, you're going to have to compromise sometimes. Again, just being out there outweighs these minor annoyances.Another thing to consider is that many people will stop inviting someone out to things if they decline too often. They may have nothing against the person, but the next time they're planning an event will think, â€Å"Paul never comes out when I ask him, so no point in letting him know this time really. † 3. Once you've got some budding friendships, keep in touch, keep hanging out, and let the relationship grow It's one thing to hang out with someone once, or only occasionally. You could consider them a friend of sorts at that point.For that particular person maybe that's all you need in a relationship with them, someone you're casually friendly with and who you see every now and then. However, for someone to became a closer, more regular friend you need hang out fairly often, keep in touch, enjoy good times together, and get to know each other on a deeper level. You won't have the compatibility to do this with everyone, but over time you should be able to build a tighter relationship with some of the people you meet. I talk about developing friendships way more in this artic le: How To Grow And Deepen New Friendships Once you know some people, build on this foundationOnce you've made a regular friend or two you've also got a good base to work from. If you're not super social in nature, one or two good buddies may be all you need to be happy. At the very least, if you were feeling lonely and desperate before, having a relationship or two should be enough to take those feelings away. Sooner or later you'll end up meeting your friend's friends. If you hit it off with them then you can start hanging out with them as well. You could also become a member of the whole group with time. You can also continue to meet entirely new people.Having friends will make this easier as they'll do things like invite you to parties or keep you company in places where there are new people to potentially meet. 4. Repeat the above steps more often to make more friends If you join one new club, hit it off with three people there, and end up hanging out with two of them long term , then you've made two new friends. If you stop there then that's all you'll have. If week after week you're coming up with new ways to meet people, and then following up and attending lots of get togethers, then you'll have a pile of friends and acquaintances eventually. It's up to you when you feel like stopping.There's no law that says everyone has to have dozens of people in their social circle either. Many people are perfectly happy only having a few really close relationships. If you only have a couple of friends and decide you want more though, you can always get out there again. General principles on making friends Above I outlined a basic structure of Meet People > Hang Out With Them > Keep Hanging Out > Repeat. Now I'll go into some broader concepts that apply to making friends as a whole. I think the points below are just as important as the stuff I've covered already, if not more so. If you want social life, you've got to make it happen for yourself A huge, core principl e when it comes to building a social life is: Take Initiative. It's a big mistake to passively wait for other people to do the work of befriending you. It's great if it happens, but don't count on it. If you want to get a group of friends, assume you'll have to put in all the effort. If you want to do something on the weekend, don't sit around and hope someone calls you. Get in touch with various people and put something together yourself, or find out what they're doing and see if you can come along. Don't worry too much about seeming desperate or needy.Take the attitude that it's about you and you'll do what needs to be done to make some friends. Who cares if a handful of people think you're a bit too eager along the way if it all eventually works out? It's a lot like dating or trying to find a new job. What you get out of these things depends a lot on how much you put into them. Don't take it personally if people seem indifferent to you Other people are often harmlessly thoughtles s and preoccupied in the sense that they'd be happy if they hung out with you, but they wouldn't think to ask you themselves. Sometimes you have to take an interest in them before you appear on their radar.Similarly, some people are more lax and laid back than you'd like about returning your emails or calls. They're not consciously trying to reject you, they're just a little more loosey-goosey about that stuff than most. Don't feel making friends is super tricky If you're inexperienced with making friends, you may see the process as being more drawn-out and complex than it really is. Often all you have to do to make a friend is meet someone you naturally click with and hang around with them enough. You also don't have to know them for months before applying the ‘friend' label to them.One characteristic of more social people is that they'll throw the word friend around pretty loosely when describing their relationships with people. But it almost becomes a self-fulfilling prophe cy in a way. Sure, if you've just met someone it may not be a deep, intimate relationship, but you can still hang out with them and have a good time. Don't be overly picky about who you hang out with at first Your initial goal should just be to get some sort of social life going. So hang out with whoever you get along with and who seems interested in doing things with you.The first people you meet may not be your 100% ideal friends. The benefits of just being out there as opposed to moping around at home outweigh this. At the very least, it's easier to make further friends when you've already got a few. Also, if you're forming your first-ever group of friends, you probably don't totally know what you like or want in other people. You have to see what different types of people are like in a friend capacity firsthand. As a general rule, if you more-or-less get along with someone, actually become friends with them first, and then decide if want to be friends.If you're picky, you can co me up with reasons not to befriend just about anyone ahead of time. But when you're already hanging out with someone, and you've skipped over your pickiness, you often find you like their company, even if they wouldn't have been good ‘on paper' in your mind beforehand. I also give this advice because studies show lonely people tend to be more negative about others in general. Less naturally outgoing types can also be more picky about who they choose to spend their time with. If you naturally tend to be down on everyone you meet, you need to make an effort to consciously override these feelings.Plus, don't have an unrealistic self-image that demands you can only hang out with a certain caliber of people. Be realistic about yourself and your circumstances. If you don't totally like yourself, you may also be averse to hanging around people who you see as too similar to you, as it can act as a mirror that reflects your shortcomings back at you. This may be justified if you have so me irksome traits and understandably want to avoid others who have them, but often you may be turning away legitimately good people who just happen to have some characteristics that hurt your pride a little. Be persistent nd try not to get discouraged by setbacks too easily Sometimes you'll join a club or be introduced to your friend's friends and hope to meet a bunch of great new people. Then you get there and the experience is disappointing. You may feel like you don't click with anyone, or like they're ignoring you in favor of making in-jokes with each other. Give these groups a few more tries, often you're limited in how much you'll connect with others on the first meeting. You may warm up to each other before long. If someone refuses your invitation because they're busy or not sure if they can make it out then don't give up.Try again another time. Don't automatically jump to the conclusion that they hate you and you're fundamentally unlikable. Assume the best. Also, even the ac t of making an invitation sends the message that you like someone and want to hang out with them. They may be unable to meet that one time, but now see you as someone they could possibly have fun with in the future. When you meet potential friends be realistic about your importance in their lives and how long it may take to become buddies with them. They probably already have a social circle and their world won't end if it doesn't work out with you.As such, don't get too discouraged if they're not knocking down the door to hang out with you a day after you met them. They may be busy and your plans may not pan out for another few weeks. Sometimes it just won't work out with someone. You'll get along at the time, and they may express an interest in hanging out in the future, but for whatever reason things don't materialize. They may be too busy, already have enough friends, or they don't think you're a good enough match for them. It happens to everyone and is nothing to get too down a bout.Keep the bigger picture in mind and continue meeting people. The whole ‘taking initiative and don't give up too easily' thing can be a missing piece of the puzzle for people, but sometimes it still seems that no one is interested in you. You may want to check this out: When People Don't Seem Interested In Being Friends With You Be patient In the right situations you can build a new social life really quickly, like if you've just moved to a new city to go to college, or if you join the right club or team and instantly click with everyone there.At other times it takes longer for things to develop, but stick with it. It may take a while before you get a chance to meet some people you're compatible with. After that, it may be a few months before you're consistently hanging around with each other. It may be a year or more before you feel like you're really, really friends with them. It often takes time to go from having no plans, to having plans with the same person every thir d weekend, to having plans with a variety of people three times a week.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Schools Drug Testings

Drugs like marijuana have a major impact on our younger generation. Parents for Accountability (2003) states that, â€Å"most drug use begins in the pre-teen and teenage years, the year’s most crucial in the maturation process. † A student’s behavior, motivation, and accountability are all limited when using marijuana. Principal Warner (2013) said â€Å"he believes the mandatory drug testing rule gives students a strong reason to refuse drugs. † These drug testing will encourage students to think twice before saying â€Å"yes† to the drug.I believe that random drug testings should be enforced in schools. School drug testing should be enforced because of the behavioral problems that come along with drug abuse. Marijuana causes different side effects, but most commonly are; laziness, hunger, poor memory, poor coordination, loss of control, poor social behavior, and learning dysfunctions. All of these side effects affect a person’s behavior. â⠂¬Å"I'm 16 years old, and I've been smoking every day for about 3-4 months.I can say that I am considerably less social (although this may not be weed related, many factors come into play on this one) and slightly more paranoid† (Knight, 2009). Knight was set apart from her social life because of the marijuana she had been smoking, now she’ll never know of the people could have become close with. Behavior plays an important role in learning environment because a student cannot function properly under the influence; students that are under the influence have the tendency to act different among peers, and in or out of certain situations, it affects their way of thinking.Narconon Drug Prevention & Education (2013) states, students that smoke marijuana get lower grades and are less likely to graduate high school, due to the learning dysfunction they came across while smoking marijuana. Since the use of marijuana is proven to affect a student’s behavior, drug testings should be enforced in schools. Marijuana also affects a student’s motivation, which is another reason why drug testings should be enforced. â€Å"Smoking a lot of weed can really amplify your mood and emotions, including laziness† (Terence Tensen, 2011).Smoking marijuana causes students to become lazy; laziness affects a student in so many ways because it kills their drive to do anything. Students become less willing to do their homework, study, and participate in extra-curricular activities including; football, baseball, soccer, softball, basketball, dances, and any clubs available on their campus. Without participating in some type of extra-curriculum students have a harder time getting accepted into universities and even some community colleges.After being rejected numeral times people start to shut down, they tend to give up and things they once wanted at a certain time or place. When a student then has nothing else to aim for, because their motivation was lost, t hey turn to drugs. These drug testings are going to stop students from coming to school under the influence, which then is going to keep the student that are motivated to stay motivated and be the best that they can be, without the distractions of the ones who are not so motivated, and feel they have better things to do.A student’s accountability is affected when using drugs; this causes students to be less dependable. An undependable student is a student that is kind of pushed behind because they are untrustworthy. Nobody likes to be the person no one trusts, and drug use causes you to be that person. Drug Free America Foundation (2014) agrees that â€Å"Students who take leadership roles in the school community are role models and should be drug free. † These students that appear to be role models should live up to their appearances.Foundation of a drug free world (2013) states, â€Å"the drug, marijuana causes students to be less coordinated, shortens memory, lazin ess, unsociable, and has loss of control† everything people don’t see in a leader. You are supposed to be able to depend on a student leader, especially when that person is all you have to look up to. When you see that one person you admire, fall short, it literally breaks a person down, to prevent this from happening these drug tests are going to make sure the students don’t deal with the regret of disappointments. I believe that random drug testings should be enforced in schools.School districts should enforce random drugs to help students in the long run. We are losing students to drugs, and drugged students are leading others. If we enforce these random drug tests schools will have more control over their students. These tests are going to not only help the students but a school as a whole. More students will be in school, which makes the school money. Disciplinary actions won’t be as frequent, because student’s behavior will be more on point, a nd students will be getting the education they need to move on to higher their education once out of school, with less of a struggle.Peer pressured students, won’t feel the need to say â€Å"yes† because they’ll have a solid reason to say â€Å"no. † Drug testing offers no harm to the student, only gives them an opportunity to notice their wrong and get help. When someone recognizes a problem, they tend to acknowledge it more frequently. A mother posted on a blog that her 17 year old son had a problem, she stated â€Å"He tells us he is not addicted but acting the way he is only proves he is† Feelinghelpless, (2012). When a student becomes addicted to a drug they deny they have a problem.When drug testing will soon become frequently failed, a student will have no choice to admit to their wrongs and seek help. Another parent states â€Å"I may not be able to change his mind about drugs but I have the choice not to help him with those choices. I can 't do anything about all the drugs out there†¦ but I do have control over what happens in my home! † Strgazr (2012). It’s proven that a child is raised on the raising of his or hers household. When parents lay down the rules, children will listen; they need structure so they don’t tumble.We cannot blame schools alone for the drug testings because if every child was raised to obey by the rules, drug testings wouldn’t be so necessary. Discipline is â€Å"teaching a child to behave in an agreeable way, allowing a child the freedom to learn from his mistakes and experience the consequences of his decisions, effective discipline is helping, teaching, and learning† Valya, T. (2009). Discipline is exactly what these drug testings are, they teach, help, and enforce a rule that needs to be obeyed. I believe drug testings should be enforced in schools.

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

What is a Good ACT Aspire Score For a Freshman

What is a Good ACT Aspire Score For a Freshman SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips It’s tempting to compare the ACT Aspire test to the PSAT, but in reality they are quite different in their goals and purpose. The PSAT is meant to be practice for the real SAT, and doing well on it can qualify you for theNational Merit Scholarship. On the other hand, the ACT Aspire is a test for 3rd to 10th gradersthat is meant todetermine whether students are measuring up toCommon Core standards. Just like the real ACT, the ACT Aspire covers English, Math, Reading, Science, and Writing. But the format of this test, the structure of the questions, and the way the test is scored are all very different from the ACT. So how do you know what ACT Aspire score you should aim for in your freshman year of high school? Or if you already got your results, how can you tell where you stand compared to your peers? In this article, I’ll talk about how the ACT Aspire is scored, give you some different ways to think about what a good ACT Aspire score is for a 9th grader, and demonstrate several tools to use when thinking about your specific score. How is the ACT Aspire Test Scored? Scoring is slightly different for the different grades that take this test, so I will speak specifically about how ACT Aspire is scored when you take in high school. Right now,scores can range between 400 and 460 for each subject, depending on your grade level. This means that while the lowest possible score is 400 no matter what grade you're in, the maximum possible score goes up with each year that you take the test. In 10th grade, the last year the ACT Aspire is given, the maximum score is 460. In grades 8–10, your results will include a composite score, which is just the average of the scores you got on the English, Math, Reading, and Science sections of the test. Meanwhile, the Writing section is scored separately. Your results will also come with a few other measurements: one for language arts, one for STEM, and one that evaluations your reading comprehension. To get a sense of what all of this will look like, you can check out a sample score report. What’s a Good Freshman Score on ACT Aspire? What you consider a good score depends very much on what your goal for that score is. I will go through some possibilities of what the ACT Aspire score can show you, and discuss what constitutes a good score in each of those cases. Comparing Yourself to Yourself Because ACT Aspire is given to everyone from 3rd graders to 10th graders, after a few years, you will be able to see how well you’re doing on this test compared to all the other times you’ve taken it. The idea is that in each subject area, your scores should increase from year to year. So part of figuring out a good freshman score is tracking your progress to make sure that you are improving from one year to the next. At the same time, your scores should also be hitting the benchmarks set out by ACT. The benchmarks are basically the minimum scores that you need to get to show that you are performing at grade level. The point of these minimum scores is to show you, your teachers, and your parents whether you are on track for college readiness, and whether there are specific subjects where you could benefit from academic support. Here is a table of the ACT Aspire benchmarks for each subject: So for example, this table shows that on the math portion of the ACT Aspire, you can get a score anywhere between 400 and 460. If you get at least 428 as a freshman, you’re considered to be learningat grade level. Comparing Yourself to YourPeers Another thing that nation-wide tests like the ACT Aspire are supposed to do is give you a sense of where how your level ofacademic preparation compares to your peers. ACT Aspire publishes data about how students taking the test scored, so we can go through the data to see how you can tell where you stand when compared toother 9th graders who took the test at the same time as you. Some have it easier than others when comparing themselves to their peers. Using Composite Scores for Comparison One way to see how you stack up is through your composite score – the average of yourindividual subject scores (minus Writing). This number is a very quick way to see your relative ranking overall, without taking into consideration whether you are better or worse that some subjects than others. Here isthe range of composite scores for 8th, 9th, and 10th graders from the last year the ACT Aspire was administered: Grade Min 25% Rank 50% Rank 75% Rank 90% Rank 95% Rank Max 8 406 414 418 423 428 432 435 9 408 414 418 423 430 435 438 10 409 415 419 426 433 438 440 This table gives us a breakdown ofhow students scoredon the test.The "Min" and "Max" columns show the lowest and highest scores earned on this test. The "% Rank" columns show the score you'd need to reachthe given percentile, i.e. the score at which you'd be scoringhigher than that percent of other students. So, for example, 9th graders earned composite scores anywhere between 408 and 438 (that’s the minimum and maximum score columns). If you got at least 414, you did better than 25% of the 9th graders taking the test, which would put you in the 25th percentile of scorers. Meanwhile, if you got a 435, you fall into the top 5%, since you scored better than 95% of students. What can we learn from this table? For 9th graders, 418 was the medianscore - 49% of students did better, and 50% did worse. What's a good freshman composite score for ACT Aspire? Let’s assume that a good score is roughly at or above the 75th percentile – meaning, scoring higher than 75% of your peers. This means that a good composite score for the ACT Aspire for freshmen is 423 or higher. The mix everything together approach: great for paella, less useful for test scores. Using Individual Test Sections forComparison The composite score is a good tool for very quick analysis. But another, probably more useful, way of comparing yourself to your peers is to dive into each section of the test individually. Not only is this a more precise ranking system, but it also helps you figure out which subjects are your strengths, and which you need to work on more, or maybe even get some outside help. Now, let's investigate the test sections one by one. We can look at exactly what percentile you fall into depending on yourscore. ACT Aspire 9th Grade English Percentiles Score % Rank Score % Rank Score % Rank Score % Rank 400 1 415 13 430 57 445 96 401 1 416 15 431 61 446 97 402 1 417 16 432 65 447 98 403 1 418 19 433 68 448 99 404 1 419 22 434 71 449 99 405 1 420 25 435 74 450 99 406 1 421 28 436 77 451 99 407 2 422 30 437 80 452 99 408 2 423 33 438 82 453 99 409 3 424 37 439 84 454 99 410 4 425 40 440 87 455 99 411 5 426 43 441 89 456 100 412 7 427 47 442 91 413 8 428 50 443 93 414 10 429 54 444 94 One thing to look at right away is that you don’t need to get all the questions right in order to fall into the top 1% of students. Although the exact number will change slightly from year to year, on this version of the ACT Aspire anyone who got above 448 on the English section did better than 99% of test takers. The benchmark English section score of 426 would put you at the 43rd percentile, meaning you scored better than 43% of your peers. Keeping our assumption that a good score on this test is on or above the 75th percentile, we can see that getting 435 or higher puts you in at least the 74th percentile, making this a good score. ACT Aspire 9th Grade ReadingPercentiles Score % Rank Score % Rank Score % Rank Score % Rank 400 1 411 11 422 57 433 95 401 1 412 15 423 61 434 97 402 1 413 16 424 62 435 99 403 1 414 21 425 66 436 99 404 1 415 26 426 71 437 99 405 1 416 30 427 75 438 99 406 1 417 34 428 80 439 99 407 2 418 39 429 84 440 99 408 4 419 43 430 89 441 99 409 4 420 47 431 89 442 100 410 8 421 52 432 92 You can see a similar thing about the Reading section results – quite a few of the top scores would put you in the top 1% of people taking the test. Also, notice how big a difference in the percentile rankings just one point makes. If you earned 428, you are in the top 20%, but if you earned 429, you are in the top 16%. The Reading benchmark that ACT, Inc. determined is 425, or better than 66% of test takers. A good score on the Reading section – a score around the 75th percentile – is 427. ACT Aspire 9th Grade MathPercentiles Score % Rank Score % Rank Score % Rank Score %Rank 400 1 416 18 432 82 448 99 401 1 417 23 433 84 449 99 402 1 418 28 434 88 450 99 403 1 419 32 435 90 451 99 404 1 420 37 436 92 452 99 405 1 421 39 437 93 453 99 406 1 422 44 438 95 454 99 407 1 423 49 439 96 455 99 408 1 424 53 440 97 456 99 409 2 425 58 441 98 457 99 410 2 426 61 442 98 458 99 411 4 427 65 443 99 459 99 412 6 428 69 444 99 460 100 413 8 429 72 445 99 414 11 430 75 446 99 415 14 431 79 447 99 The math section yielded a really very big spread people in the top percentile – anyone who scored above 443 did better than 99% of their peers. The ACT Aspire benchmark for this section is 428, or the 69th percentile. Meanwhile, a good score in the 75th percentile is 430. ACT Aspire 9th Grade SciencePercentiles Score % Rank Score % Rank Score % Rank Score % Rank 400 1 413 7 426 59 439 97 401 1 414 11 427 63 440 98 402 1 415 16 428 67 441 99 403 1 416 17 429 70 442 99 404 1 417 22 430 76 443 99 405 1 418 24 431 79 444 99 406 1 419 29 432 82 445 99 407 1 420 35 433 84 446 99 408 2 421 40 434 87 447 99 409 2 422 45 435 91 448 99 410 4 423 46 436 92 449 100 411 4 424 50 437 94 412 7 425 54 438 96 The benchmark for ACT Aspire Science is 430, which the same as the good score we’ve been discussing, since it falls into the 76th percentile of test takers Incidentally, if you’ve been following along with the visual data presentation in these tables, you’re actually getting in somegood practice for both the ACT Aspire Science section and the real ACT Science section as well! ACT Aspire 9th Grade WritingPercentiles Score % Rank Score % Rank Score % Rank Score % Rank 408 1 419 26 430 76 441 99 409 1 420 31 431 76 442 99 410 5 421 31 432 88 443 99 411 5 422 35 433 88 444 99 412 7 423 35 434 95 445 99 413 7 424 47 435 95 446 99 414 9 425 47 436 96 447 99 415 9 426 65 437 96 448 100 416 13 427 65 438 97 417 13 428 71 439 97 418 26 429 71 440 99 The Writing section is scored separately and a little bit differently from the rest of the ACT Aspire sections. For one thing, you can see here that the lowest score on this section isn’t 400 like it is for all the other sections, but 408. Here, the benchmark score from ACT is 428, or better than 71% of everyone taking the test in that year. Meanwhile, a good score on Writing is at least 430, which is in the 76th percentile. Does the ACT Aspire Predict Your Future ACT Score? One of the reasons you may be wondering how well you did on theACT Aspire is that you want some kind of assurance or prediction that you’ll do well on the real ACT when you take it junior or senior year. The truth is thatACT Aspire is not a particularly great predictor of your future accomplishments– at least as far as your ACT scores are concerned.But this is actually fantastic news! First of all, it means that the ACT Aspire really does what it’s supposed to do – it shows you where you are now and where you need to improve. And second,it means that dramatic improvement is possible because, as a freshman, you have 2 or even 3 years in which to do it! The ACT Aspire is the weathervane of tests: it's really good at telling you what's happening now, but not really able to predict the future. How ACT Aspire and ACT Scores Compare ACT published a spreadsheet with score data on 50 10th grade students – what they got on each ACT Aspire section, and what they went on to get on the actual ACT when they took it in 11th grade. While it's true that this data is about sophomores rather than freshman, it's still useful to check out what it can tell us. The spreadsheet itself is rather unwieldy, so I've created a couple of graphs to more easily point out the salient bits of information. First, let's talk about the overall trends that the ACT's data shows. In general, the higher your score on the ACT Aspire, the more likely you are to get a higher score on the real ACT itself. Here is a graph that shows this tendency by taking individual scores and smoothing them out into trendlines: However, this is only part of the story. Another way to parse this data is to look more closely at an individual subject. For example, here is a scatterplot graph of a piece of the same data, comparing how 10th gradersdid on Aspire Math and how they ended up doing on ACT Math. The way the scatterplotgraph works is this: Each blue diamond point representsone student Ifyou gostraight down from the diamond, you can see what this student got on ACT Aspire Math If you gostraight left, you can see what this same student got onACTMath: What can we learn from this more zoomed-in approach? On the one hand, as the scores from Aspire Math increase (x-axis), the scores on ACT Math also tend to get somewhat higher as a group (y-axis). In other words, the swarm of diamonds goes upward as we go from left to right. This what accounts for the way the Math trendline appears on the graph above this one. On the other hand,we can see that your Aspire score is by no means destiny, no matter where in the score range students fall. For example, the 3 students who got434 on ACT Aspire Math (just above the sophomore "good" score in the 72nd percentile), ended up getting ACT scores between17 (approximately in the bottom 30%) to 26 (approximately in the top 15%). What Does This Mean in Terms of a Good Score? I think the best way to think about your scores if you’re worried about eventually taking the ACT is to: First, make sure you’re meeting your 9th grade benchmarks. That’s a pretty good indicator that you’re on track with your learning. Next, think about your ACT Aspire section scores. If there is one section (or several sections) that you are scoring significantly worse in, then this is the time to get extra help with these academic subjects. Should You Study For the ACT Aspire? It’s certainly a very good idea to get some exposure to the test itself. In order for any test to be an accurate reflection of your knowledge and abilities, you shouldn’t be penalized just for being unfamiliar with the test’s format and structure. To that end, you should definitely read ourdetailed breakdown of what the ACT Aspire is like and the kinds of questions you’ll face on it. You should also get a sense of what taking the ACT Aspire will be like from their sample questions and computer test simulator. Go to theACT Aspire exemplar page, where you’ll find a link to the simulator and login information for all test sections and grade levels. But honestly, beyond getting a basic sense of what you’ll see on test day, I don’t think it makes a lot of sense to study for the ACT Aspire. For one thing, this isn’t like the PSAT – no scholarships or awards are resting on the score you get. Also, the point of the test is to see whether you are where you should be in your learning. If you study specifically for the test, you could throw off these results – which would be a problem if you actually need help in a specific test area. Finally, the ACT Aspire isn’t just a diagnostic test for individual students. It’s also supposed to measure how each classroom is doing as a whole. Imagine, for example, that the ACT Aspire results come back and every single kid in your class bombed the Writing section. This will tell your teacher and school administrators that they really need to beef up the school’s writing program. And this in turn will benefit you down the road, when you learn how to write college-level work. If you are really very worried about your future testing results, you’re better off justtaking a practice ACT instead. It’ll more accurately show you how you’d score if you took the ACT now. One possible thing to do instead of studying for the ACT Aspire. The Bottom Line The ACT Aspire tests the same 5 sections as the ACT, but is structured, formatted, and scored very differently. You’ll get scores for each of the sections individually, as well as a composite score that averages English, Reading, Math, and Science. What is a good ACT Aspire score depends on what you are trying to determine. A good score for personal progress is a score that’s higher than your previous score and one that meets ACT Aspire benchmarks. A good score when comparing yourself to your peers is around the 75th percentile – the actual number is different for each ACT Aspire section. ACT Aspire is not very good at predicting ACT scores. Instead, it shows you subject areas where you need extra help. There is no need to study for the ACT Aspire, though it would be a good idea to get familiar with the test format by checking out their sample questions. What’s Next? Should you start preparing for the ACT as a 9th grader? We have some advice. Did you take me up on my suggestion to try out a practice ACT test? Now, read aboutwhat your score 9th grade ACT score means. Thinking about taking the PSAT as a 9th grader as well? Check out ourguide to the pros and cons of this decision and our discussion onwhat is a good PSAT score for a freshman. Want to improve your ACT score by 4+ points? Download our free guide to the top 5 strategies you need in your prep to improve your ACT score dramatically.

Monday, October 21, 2019

CAR

CAR My parents have had a beautiful red 1991 firebird since it was brand new. They have always kept it stored for the winters to keep it from rusting and not only that, it doesn't drive well through snow and on the ice. Ever since I was around the age of 14, I begged my dad to let me have it when I get my driver's license. He was pretty much "Ok"  about the idea but my mom was like "No way! That's my car!"  I knew with my dad, I would definitely get my way, only because I have always been daddy's girl.Of course, the day I get my license the car was mine. I drove it to school the next day and parked away from all the other vehicles so no one would crash into it. Everywhere I drove it I got compliments on it and people would be asking me so many questions about it.Rocko in the Rocko's Modern Life comic book series

Sunday, October 20, 2019

How Many Questions Can You Miss for a Perfect ACT Score

How Many Questions Can You Miss for a Perfect ACT Score SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Lots of students strive for that perfect 36 ACT composite score. You might think you need a completely perfect test, but that's not the case. You have some leeway in how many questions you can miss and still get a 36. In this article, I'll explain my research into official ACT grading scales, and I'll tell you how many questions you can get wrong and still get that 36. How Is the ACT Scored? To understand how many questions you can get wrong and still get a perfect score, you need to understand how the ACT is scored. For a more in-depth explanation, check out our other article: How is the ACT Scored? In brief, the ACT is made up 4 sections: Math (60 questions), Reading (40 questions), Science (40 questions) and English (75 questions) plus Writing (1 Essay). The essay is not factored into your overall composite score, so I am not going to discuss it further in this article. If you're curious about the essay, read our other article: How to Write an ACT Essay: Step by Step Example. Unlike the SAT, you do NOT get points deducted for wrong answers, so it is to your advantage to bubble in any questions you can’t answer since you won’t be penalized for wrong answers.For each section, you are givena raw score, which is simply the number of questions you answered correctly, and then that raw score is converted into a scaled score. The raw score to scaled score conversion varies each ACT test date, but the ACT provides a table in their Preparing for the ACT guide that estimates how each section’s raw scores will be converted into scaled scores. Here it is: Once you have the scaled scores for each section, you simply add the 4 section scores together and divide by 4 (aka averaging) and then you have your composite score.If your score ends up with a decimal, it is rounded. i.e. if it is a 35.4, it is rounded to 35, and if it is 35.5, it is rounded to 36. Now let's get back to the original question. How Many Questions Can You Miss and Still Get a Perfect 36 Composite Score? The answer is a little complex (and I will explain it further), but you can typically get between 0 and 2 questions wrong in total across all four sections.The reason the answer is more complex is that the scoring for each section of the test is different, and the scoring for each section varies by test date (as you can see in the chart above and as I will explain further below). If you want to get a 36, you need to get a 36 on at least 2 of the sections.Here are the breakdowns: (36+36+36+36) / 4 = 36 (36+36+36+35) / 4 = 35.75 (rounds up to 36) (36+36+35+35) / 4 = 35.5 (rounds up to 36) (36+36+36+34) / 4 = 35.5 (rounds up to 36) NOTE: you cannot get a 33 on any individual sectionif you want to get a composite score of 36. As I said, the scoring of each section varies by test date. So, to give you a better idea of the typical number of questions you can get wrong for a 36 in each section, Ihave analyzed 5 different ACT score charts: Section Test 1 Test 2 Test 3 Test 4 Test 5 English 0 0 0 0 0 Math 0 0 0 0-1 0 Reading 0 0-2 0 0 0 Science 0 0 0 0 0 You can see that to get a 36 in English, Reading, Math or Science, youtypically need to get 0 wrong. Occasionally, a test will allow 1 or 2 mistakes, but that is a rarity, so you should plan for 0 wrong to get a 36 in any of the sections. Since you can get up to two 35s on individual sections (if you get 36s on the other sections, as I showed above), I have also analyzed the same tests for thenumber of questions you can get wrong for a 35 in each section: Section Test 1 Test 2 Test 3 Test 4 Test 5 English 1 1-2 1-2 1-2 2-3 Math 1 1-2 1 2-3 1-2 Reading 1 3 1 1 1 Science N/A* N/A* 1 1 1 *Science sections labeled N/A means you are not able to score a 35 on those tests in the Science section. 1 question wrong drops you to a 34 in Science on those tests. Since the scoring varies so much between test dates for each section, to be safe, you should aim to get at most 1 wrong in any section to get a 35. While you may, in fact, end up being able to get more wrong, you cannot be sure have harsh or easy your test grading will be and should plan for harsher grading. Since you can get up to one 34 on an individual section (if you get 36s on the other sections, as I showed above), I have also analyzed the same tests for thenumber of questions you can get wrong for a 34 in each section: Section Test 1 Test 2 Test 3 Test 4 Test 5 English 2 3-4 3-4 3-4 4 Math 2 3-4 2 4-5 3 Reading 2 4 2 2 2 Science 1 1 N/A* 2 2 *The science section labeled N/A means you are not able to score a 34 on that test in the Science section. 2 questions wrong drops you to a 33 in Science on that test. If you are aiming to get a 34 on 1 section and 36 on the rest to get a 36 composite score, you should aim for at most 2 wrong on that section. As I said before, while the scoring varies, and you could technically have gotten up to 4-5 wrong on certain sections on certain test dates to get a 34 on that section, you need to plan for the worst case scenario, so plan that you will get a 34 if you get 2 wrong. Any way you calculate it, you can miss or skip a maximum of 2 questions to get a 36 composite score.That's not a lot, so if you're hoping for a perfect score, you will need a lot of practice. What Does This Mean If You're Aiming for a 36? For the whole test, you need to have the pacing down and make sure you can finish.You cannot afford to miss or skip many questions, so first and foremost make sure the timing will not be a problem for you. You should determine which sections are your strongest and weakest.For example, if you are excellent in Math, Science, and Reading and weaker in English, focus on getting the Math, Science, and Reading close to perfect to get a 36, so you can afford to miss or skip 3 or 4 in English and get a 34. What's Next? Need help preparing for the ACT? Check out guides to the ACT Reading, Math, English, and Science sections.Taking the ACT very soon? Read our guide to cramming for the test. Not sure where you want to go to college? Check out our guide to finding your target school.Also, figure out yourtarget ACT score. Thinking about getting a job while in high school? Check out our guide to the 8 best jobs for teensand learn how to find yours! Want to improve your ACT score by 4 points? Check out our best-in-class online ACT prep classes. We guarantee your money back if you don't improve your ACT score by 4 points or more. Our classes are entirely online, and they're taught by ACT experts. If you liked this article, you'll love our classes. Along with expert-led classes, you'll get personalized homework with thousands of practice problems organized by individual skills so you learn most effectively. We'll also give you a step-by-step, custom program to follow so you'll never be confused about what to study next. Try it risk-free today:

Saturday, October 19, 2019

Is abortion illegal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Is abortion illegal - Essay Example In spite of the fact of morality, a woman has the right to privacy and choice to abort her fetus. The populaces that hold a "pro-life" approach argue that a woman who has an abortion is killing a child. The "pro-choice" viewpoint holds this is not the case. A fetus is not up till now a baby. It does not have the criteria consequent from the understanding of living human beings. "Nations around the world have adopted laws that protect women's right to choose abortion."1 "Life and Liberty for Women is not afraid or ashamed to speak of and defend a woman's right to have an abortion through the second trimester of pregnancy."2 "Abortion is every woman's right"3 "The Central Issue in the abortion debate is the humanity of the fetus. No other consideration is decisive. Indeed the opponents of abortion rest their entire case on a single argument: If the fetus is a human being, then abortion is murder."4 The statement "Abortion is every woman's right" is significant to the study since Abortion is a right, and all rights are utter so cannot be "balanced" away. Therefore, a pregnant woman, like all other persons, has the right to find out her own fate and the fate of her body, to decide what comprises her own best concern and private happiness and to work for its achievement, so long as she respects the same rights in others. "Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers pledged support in 1989 for a constitutional amendment banni

Friday, October 18, 2019

Effects of Lack of Diversity on the Impartiality of the Judicial Essay

Effects of Lack of Diversity on the Impartiality of the Judicial Officers - Essay Example This is echoed by Article 6, paragraph 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Such a right to an independent and impartial tribunal contains both objective and subjective elements. The objective element entails separation of powers within the constitutional structure of the country. The subjective element entails avoidance by the tribunal of any semblance of dependence. Consequently, the members of the tribunal should avoid any act, attitude or comment which may lead to doubts among litigants as to the independence of the tribunal. Such avoidance is also part of the necessary impartiality of the judiciary.1 The Judiciary in England and Wales as It Is It has been observed that a judiciary that does not reflect society‘s diversity will ultimately lose the confidence of that society. Such is the replication of England‘s judiciary which has earned the decription of â€Å"pale, male and stale† to mean a white, male-dominated bench. This is backed by the fact that women and ethnic minorities are barely represented in the judiciary despite relentless efforts for more diversity in judicial appointments. For instance, Baroness Brenda Hale is the only female justice out of the 12 places in the Supreme Court of England.2 In similar breath, Rabinder Singh became the first Sikh, a non-white, to be appointed a High Court judge of England and Wales.3 This is happening in the midst of heated debates as to how and when to strike a balance between diversity and judicial selections based on merit. Such is the argument of the President of the Supreme Court, Lord Phillips, who favours judicial appointments based on merit over diversification. However, this school of thought has faced strong opposition with some arguing that merit is a non-issue or better yet an excuse not to effect judicial diversity speedily.4 Consequently, the lone-rangers in the judiciary such as Hale have called for more women and ethnic minority judges in the courts. She further terms the lack of diversity on the Bench to be a constitutional issue. While addressing the House of Lords Constitution Committee, Hale argued that judicial officers would approach issues differently based on their background, and that a lack of diversity could also change the substantive results of cases. Therefore, as such resistance to diversity among judges is considered to be misguided. She in turn suggests that some cases require diversity of perspectives and life experiences in order to get the best results. A case in point is in child-birth and rape matters where she suggests that the gender of justices would matter in how the cases are determined. Challenges of Independence and Impartiality of the Judiciary Judges are subjected to various kinds of pressure aimed at compromising their ability to dispense justice in an impartial and independent manner. For instance, the independence and impartiality of the judiciary is compromised when they are appointed by the Executive or Legisl ature or even where they are elected. This is further exacerbated by lack of tenure where they are employed on temporary contracts and are poorly paid thus they become susceptible to corruption they may also be publicly be criticised by the other arms of government in order to

Controlling Organized Crime Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Controlling Organized Crime - Research Paper Example It is believed that gang related crimes are most common in these areas due to the affiliation people have with people of the same race and ethnic background. This is partly true. Crime can be organized by any people that have the motive to carry it out. It could be out of desperation or just the need to have fun. This paper will review some of the reasons why there is so much organized crime on the rise and the steps that are being taken to curb these crimes. The rate at which organized crime has risen in the past decade has been alarming. It is so alarming that it has the heads of states calling for the recruiting of more law enforcers to help control the chaos that these criminals bring to the streets. Crime has risen to a level that any crime can happen in the middle of the day, in the presence of the public and even law enforcers. However, criminals still manage to get away. It has largely been attributed to the laxity in law enforcers to combat these criminals but, they are not the only ones to blame (Mastrofski, 2012). The public has a part to play to. Identifying friends and acquaintances who participate in crime has been a problem. There are very many problems that are presented by organized crime. There are always victims when it involves a crime that takes place. These victims are unwilling participants in whatever happens to them so it cannot be equated to crimes such as prostitution where the parties are always willing. These are the seller and the buyer. These victims fall prey to the organized crime. They end up carrying the trauma and stigma for a long time afterwards. Society is the first to suffer in the event these crimes are organized from where they reside (Public Safety Canada, 2006). The people are often threatened if they dare say anything to law enforcers. It is therefore a continuous process since the kids growing in that community end up being recruited into these gangs. There are many relationships that are established in and around o rganized crimes. The members in these gangs are affiliated to each other through their ethnic backgrounds and cultures (Stephens, 1996). The minority groups, for example the African-Americans and Latin Americans, stick to their own. This provides a basis for trust among these groups due to their ethnicity. The involvement of other cultures and ethnic groups in such groups is based on friendships that have existed for a long time and trust is no longer an issue. There are certain legal limitations that prevent law enforcers from doing their job effectively. There are many loopholes in the systems that have the law enforcers pushed on the back-burner. This, therefore, prevents them from doing their job effectively. Some jurisdictions have laws that make it hard for law enforcers to apprehend and persecute criminals (Public Safety Canada, 2006). Their morale is thus lowered since they see no need to apprehend criminals who will later on be free on the streets committing the same crimes they were arrested for. Also, the strict rules that govern a state ensure that wrong-doers can get away with certain crimes if they are careful and avoid much risk. The law enforcement agencies could be criticised for letting the rise in crime cases continue. If the laws of another jurisdiction were written in a way to allow law enforcement to carry out investigations, then the efforts they place on organized crime would start bearing fruit (Public Safety Ca

Thursday, October 17, 2019

Behavioral Psychology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Behavioral Psychology - Essay Example John B. Watson founded the school of behavioral psychology in hopes that it would make psychology as academically respected as other sciences such as chemistry and physiology were. He moved away from the introspective methods of psychology which were popular at the time, and moved towards a more scientific, observable approach. He believed that the behavior of humans and animals were comparable, and therefore, most behavioral experiments used animals such as rats as subjects and then generalized the findings to humans. Watson believed that all behavior could be explained by what was called "classical conditioning" (Watson, 1999). The idea behind classical conditioning is that one could pair a stimulus that causes a response or reflex with an unrelated stimulus. Over time, the unrelated stimulus alone should cause the response or reflex. An example of this would the famous experiment conducted by Ivan Pavlov. Pavlov noticed that when he set food out for his dogs, they would salivate. He then paired the setting out of food with ringing a bell. Over time, the dogs salivated to the ringing bell alone, without the setting out of food. ... While he agreed that the behaviors of animals and humans are comparable and that psychology should focus of observable behavior, Skinner did believe that there is such thing as the mind. The only reason he chose to study observations over the mind is because observations can be objectively measured in a scientific way whereas the mind cannot (Boeree, 2006). Skinner also differs from Watson in that he believes that changes in behavior can be attributed to reinforcers, whereas Watson attributes change in behavior to associations between events. Skinner referred to this theory of behavior as "operant conditioning" which maintains that "the behavior is followed by a consequence, and the nature of the consequence modifies the organism's tendency to repeat the behavior in the future" (Boeree, 2006, p. 2). Depending on the type of reinforcer, the likelihood of the behavior can be increased or decreased. For example, if a child is given praise every time he says "please", he will likely cont inue to say "please". This is an example of positive reinforcement, which increases the likelihood of a behavior. At the same time, punishment decreases the likelihood of a behavior. For example, if a child is put in time out every time he pushes his sister, then he should begin to push his sister less and less. Skinner also believed that once a reinforcer is taken away, then the behavior should occur less and less. This belief led Skinner to believe that there was no such thing as free will. He explained that people behave badly because that behavior is rewarded in some way and that people behave well because that behavior is rewarded in some way. On the other hand, Edward C. Tolman had a different set of views than Watson and Skinner. While Tolman shied away

Comparative Design Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 1

Comparative Design - Essay Example enefits spread over three categories affecting customers’ services and users, the service design program, as well as the entire institution involved in the design project. A product of 1946, the classic and styling oven has cooking efficiency. A classic cooker limited secures ovens from Rayburn in the UK. The cookers are reliable with new options still applicable to date. Currently, the supplier undertakes reconditioning duties and installs new parts fully. In a style that Mark Newson adopted, Rayburn ovens of 1946 have attractive colours running on smooth lines. The design developed a classic design blending precisely with various styles those chores in the kitchen demand. It cuts across from traditional through to modern aspects. The oven comes out in various designs and sizes that clients can choose from guided by their needs. Surprisingly, a Rayburn oven carries more responsibilities besides being a cooker. The oven is extremely resourceful. The Rayburn oven developed in 1946 is sustainable as well as self-sufficient. Mark Newson introduced extraordinary creativity constituting one of the most exciting designs in the world. He applied the creativity in developing domestic appliances such as ovens. Mark Newson is the established designer at Smeg products whose work is comparable to dynamic artworks. He represents the essence of the philosophy at Smeg. At Smeg, employees believe in technology with style. The style applied by Newson in designing his ovens comes through the soft lines applicable in environmental friendly manner. Differentiated use of colour and energetic application characterises ovens designed by Mark Newson. Surfaces are stainless steel products or have glassy features. Ovens are available in prolific FP610.The ovens come in a spectacular ray of colours. The colours range from white and black finishes, stainless steel through to bright shades of yellow, blue, as well as green. Mark Newson, the designer, o ften has a special way of having

Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Behavioral Psychology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Behavioral Psychology - Essay Example John B. Watson founded the school of behavioral psychology in hopes that it would make psychology as academically respected as other sciences such as chemistry and physiology were. He moved away from the introspective methods of psychology which were popular at the time, and moved towards a more scientific, observable approach. He believed that the behavior of humans and animals were comparable, and therefore, most behavioral experiments used animals such as rats as subjects and then generalized the findings to humans. Watson believed that all behavior could be explained by what was called "classical conditioning" (Watson, 1999). The idea behind classical conditioning is that one could pair a stimulus that causes a response or reflex with an unrelated stimulus. Over time, the unrelated stimulus alone should cause the response or reflex. An example of this would the famous experiment conducted by Ivan Pavlov. Pavlov noticed that when he set food out for his dogs, they would salivate. He then paired the setting out of food with ringing a bell. Over time, the dogs salivated to the ringing bell alone, without the setting out of food. ... While he agreed that the behaviors of animals and humans are comparable and that psychology should focus of observable behavior, Skinner did believe that there is such thing as the mind. The only reason he chose to study observations over the mind is because observations can be objectively measured in a scientific way whereas the mind cannot (Boeree, 2006). Skinner also differs from Watson in that he believes that changes in behavior can be attributed to reinforcers, whereas Watson attributes change in behavior to associations between events. Skinner referred to this theory of behavior as "operant conditioning" which maintains that "the behavior is followed by a consequence, and the nature of the consequence modifies the organism's tendency to repeat the behavior in the future" (Boeree, 2006, p. 2). Depending on the type of reinforcer, the likelihood of the behavior can be increased or decreased. For example, if a child is given praise every time he says "please", he will likely cont inue to say "please". This is an example of positive reinforcement, which increases the likelihood of a behavior. At the same time, punishment decreases the likelihood of a behavior. For example, if a child is put in time out every time he pushes his sister, then he should begin to push his sister less and less. Skinner also believed that once a reinforcer is taken away, then the behavior should occur less and less. This belief led Skinner to believe that there was no such thing as free will. He explained that people behave badly because that behavior is rewarded in some way and that people behave well because that behavior is rewarded in some way. On the other hand, Edward C. Tolman had a different set of views than Watson and Skinner. While Tolman shied away

Tuesday, October 15, 2019

The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show - Essay Example The paper "The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show" explores the Fashion Show of Victoria Secret. People who are always attracted to Victoria's Secret Fashion Show are the middle class. One of the reasons as to why it is believed that Victoria's Secret Fashion Show can target both is that they are always entertaining. Victoria’s Secret knows exactly how they can be able to attract both men and women to their fashion shows. Aspects such as sparkling runway, unique fashion creations, and performances by artists are ways through which these fashion shows have been able to become irresistible to men. While men go to the show to watch the gorgeous models, women would go with the aim of catching up with some of the trends in fashion. The main objective of Victoria's Secret Fashion Show is to market products that are produced by Victoria’s Secrets. The company is well aware of the fact that the targeted market is always keen on fashion, fashion show is a way through which they can be able to showcase women of their new products so that they can enhance awareness or individual products and the brand at large. Through the use of some of the popular fashion models, the company is able to enhance the demand or their products. This is a more interactive way of advertising products as it has been observed to enhance brand loyalty. Even the men who are not always keen on fashion, especially women fashion can be introduced to the world of lingerie and nightwear because they will definitely be exposed some products.

Introduction to Cross-Cultural Psychology Essay Example for Free

Introduction to Cross-Cultural Psychology Essay Having culture as a field of psychology makes sense because culture plays a significant role in everyday life. Culture allows someone to define who they are how they survive. Expressions of who one is can be done in many ways, by behavior, appearance, and language. Without culture, one’s human nature would rely on instinct to remain alive. Culture is a product of one’s environment. How important culture is and how culture influences oneself and others will be discussed in this paper. Examining various types of relationships as it pertains to culture and cross cultural psychology will also be deliberated. Critical thinking and the role it plays in cross cultural psychology and the use of scientific method will also be covered. Definition of Cultural and Cross-Cultural Psychology There are many avenues when looking at what culture stands for, but for most there is an agreement that culture is passed down from one generation to the next, there is a strong influence of molding one’s behavior, and that culture is learned. One’s environment is based on the culture that he or she is subjected to. Culture influences humans in many ways that is what makes humans human. Culture separates individuals from any other species and affords one the opportunity to use instinct and cultural knowledge to survive. Culture is woven into one’s fabric of daily life, and aids in how one interacts with others. By definition psychology is the study of performance and human behavior, so when tying to define one’s actions, it is imperative that incorporating one’s culture into the equation. See more: how to start an essay The behaviors of a person can be directly related to the environment or various biological factors, but, behavior can not be solely answered by just those two things without examining the social cultural conditions which impact that person’s behavior. Cultural psychology looks for the connection between psychology and one’s culture. By looking at this link the correlation between culture and behavior is recognized. Acknowledging this permits that cognitive operations are the variable in culture and oneself based on the environment that he or she is surrounded by (Segal, Dasen, Berry Poortinga, 1999). Culture can bring people together as well as separate others. Cross-cultural psychology is a newer specialty in the field. This field does not just focus on one specific culture when attempting to clarify the actions of someone’s behavior. Rather it views many different cultures that could be affected a person. It is imperative to know not to confuse race, ethnicity and society with culture. They do offer a look at a person’s individualism but it is different than one’s culture. A society consists of people where a culture is a common interest shared by persons with in a group that lead to a given behavior. To understand human behavior, viewing other approaches like sociological, cultural mixtures, integrative approach, eco-cultural and evolutionary all help in understanding how a human’s behavior could fluctuate based on. For example, when looking at the evolutionary approach views the biological factors contributing to the behavior over the eco-cultural approach views the environment (Shiraev Levy, 2010). The Relationship between Cultural and Cross-Cultural Psychology There are two different disciplines, anthropology and philosophy, that overlap in cultural psychology. Then reviewing other disciplines there is a wider viewpoint when researching various actions that others do. The purpose of cultural psychology is to unearth how someone’s culture affects behavior as well as how the connection is generated. Human energy cannot be the only factory determining one’s predisposition. Cultural psychology interprets that one’s mind should not be viewed as separate when explaining behavior. However, cross culture psychology relates to not only history and anthropology but also similarities and differences between histories. Regardless, both disciplines take into account culture so their foundations are close. The difference occurs because cultural psychology is interested in the relationship with culture someone has versus cross-cultural being interested in comparison on cultures (Shiraev Levy, 2010). The Role of Critical Thinking in Cross-Cultural Psychology Using critical thinking the right way, there are many ways that critical thinking that be a benefit. Life can be complex and complicated to understand. Critical thinking provides someone the ability to steer through life with a certainty. This being said, critical thinking is learned, not n inherited trait. Being able to think hypothetically, decrypt puzzles, synchronizing thoughts and communicating all require critical thinking. Using critical thinking means that one asks questions that will ultimately solve problems. If someone is unqualified or unskilled, it is possible they will not develop to full potential. By developing the critical thinking skill, this means that one could grow and learn. The use of language, patience when making important decisions, and ability to organize (Hunter, 2009). All of those that were mentioned are influences in cross-cultural psychology. Language can lead to discrimination for example. The way words are translated can be confused because of the way that it is understood. Translating word for word could lead to an incorrect translation. Understanding that any language can be translated into other meanings causing traumatization or inspiring depending on the interpretation. The research is another part of cross-cultural psychology that is attached to critical thinking. Research that is conducted without bias, emotion, choosing right from wrong, and accepting validity and reliability of that research is a form of critical thinking. It is normal for there to be comparisons made when linking groups or cultures. Here are a few instances how critical thinking and cross-cultural psychology are intertwined. Without a critical thinking understanding how culture affects behavior could form the wrong impression (Segal, Dasen, Berry Poortinga, 1999). Methodology Associated with Cross-Cultural Research Research is a critical part of cross cultural psychology. Without having research the only information about cross-cultural psychology would be assumptions. Psychologists who focus their studies on cross cultural psychologists are intrigued with the commonalities between cultures. As psychologists explain, foretell and manage various behaviors of those they observe they do so because humans are consumed with the interactions he or she has with others resulting in behaviors. Generating research is done by scientific investigation. Cross cultural psychology research is subdivided into quantitative and qualitative research. Quantitative research is done through observation by mode, median and mean. Qualitative research is nconditioned settings or a natural setting. This method is picked when the variables are impossible to gather because the tools are not available. There are two different strategies that are also available to use; the application orientated and comparativist strategy. The data collected by these strategies can be done through systematic or random sampling (Shiraev Levy, 2010). â€Å"Observation (naturalistic and laboratory), survey (direct and indirect), experimental studies (independent and dependent variables), content-analysis, psychobiography, meta-analysis, focus-group method† (Shiraev Levy, 2010, pp. 5-40) are all available to psychologists who are interested in cross cultural insestigations. When using cross cultural psychology hindrances could occur. Language could create problems when completing research consequently ensuring correct translation is of the utmost importance. Investigators should be able to decipher a specific method as realistically as possible. Attention should also be paid when associating two phenomena and also avoid biases at all times (Shiraev Levy, 2010). Conclusion Since culture plays a vital role in one’s life, it is critical to recognize that it is what causes one’s behavior. Culture is manmade and appears all of the time without much thought. It is important for one to be a successful psychologist that there is a clear understanding of both cultural and cross cultural psychology and how it effects the individual as well as his or her environment. Because of cultural psychology one can trace the connection between culture and psychology and eventually behavior. Viewing various parallels in cultural psychology can help see the differences as well as similarities between cultures and how it impacts one’s actions. Without it, there will always be a mystery surrounding humanity.

Monday, October 14, 2019

Weak Form Efficient Market Hypothesis For Emerging Markets

Weak Form Efficient Market Hypothesis For Emerging Markets Literature Review The issue of market efficiency in emerging markets is of great significance for both foreign investors and policy makers in emerging economies. This project devotes large efforts to produce a thorough and in-depth literature review for this area. This topic is to be investigated from these aspects: theoretical foundation, methodologies of tests and empirical results. Firstly, traditional efficient market hypothesis (Fama, 1970; Makiel, 1973) and behavior finance theories developed in recent decades (Barbris, 1998; Shleifer, 2000) have formed two main schools of thought for the issue of market efficiency. Secondly, the evolution for a series of methodologies is important for testing market efficiency. Thirdly, the empirical evidence is reviewed by consideration three major factors: trade volume and non-linear behavior, structural breaks and market evolution through time. Finally, it also reflects some important policy implications for emerging markets. Many empirical studies have been widely carried to investigate the weak-form efficient market hypothesis for emerging markets, and the results are mixed. Generally, most of emerging markets are found to be inefficient. But for some countries, such as Istanbul, Egypt and Jordan, after correcting for institutional characteristics and trading conditions, such as thin trading and the presence of non-linearity, equity markets are found to be efficient. When structure break factors are taken into account, market efficiency is powerfully rejected for countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Greece and India. There is also evidence showing that initially emerging markets are inefficient, but over time they are moving toward to be more efficient, such as in Estonian, Lithuanian and Russia duo to economic liberalization policies. These results reflect some important policy implications. Infrequent trading and illiquidity of capital markets negatively affects market efficiency, so economic policy makers should devote efforts to minimize the institutional restriction and barriers on capital flow in the financial markets and to impose strict disclosure requirements, so that investors can easily access to high quality and reliable information. Improving liquidity of capital markets can provide lower borrowing costs for investors and greater opportunities for investment diversification with lower systematic risks. In addition, equity market liberalization is important to help achieving market development. It can reduce cost of capital and increase capital productivity with better capital allocation. Introduction: Due to the increasing globalization of financial markets, fast economic growth and adoption of financial liberalization policies for equity markets in emerging economies, it is widely indicated that equity investment in emerging economies can provide superior returns. Past decades have witnessed spectacular growth in both size and relative importance of emerging equity markets. The market capitalization of emerging market economies accounts for twelve percent of world market capitalization and has more than doubled, growing from less than $2 trillion in 1995 to $5 trillion in 2006 (Nally, 2010). By 2015, it is estimated that the combined GDP of emerging-market economies will surpass that of the top 20 developed economies (ibid). In addition, emerging market returns are weakly correlated with returns in developed markets, so international diversification with these emerging equities can give lower portfolio risks (Levy Sarnat, 1970). The potential high rates of returns and diversific ation benefits has attracted large number of foreign fund investors, so the investigation on whether emerging markets function efficiently is significantly important. By knowing degree of market efficiency, economy policy makers and regulators can gain insights to develop right institutional and regulatory frameworks to allocate scare resources efficiently, form favourable investment condition and obtain further economic growth. Therefore, this essay is going to investigate the weak-form market efficiency in emerging markets. The efficient market hypothesis by Fama (1970), Random Walk module by Makiel (1973) and behaviour finance theories are directed related to this issue and form the theoretical foundations. Section 1 will critically give the theoretical review based on the two schools of thought that are EMH and behaviour finance theories. Section 2 will give a brief review of methodologies adopted in literature review. Section 3 will give empirical review of the weak-form EMH for emerging markets. Section 4 will indicate some brief policy implications for emerging economies and section 5 is the conclusion with some directions for further research. Theoretic Review of EMH VS Behaviour Finance Efficient Market Hypothesis Fama (1970) defines an efficient financial market as one in which security prices always instantaneously and fully reflect all available information. No investors can earn expected abnormal return by analysing past known information. Market efficiency is attained by two key forces: investor rationality and arbitrage activities (Fama, 1970). EMH assumes that investors are rational and can process information correctly and efficiently. Although some investors are irrational and may overact or underact to new information, these judgement errors are independent and random, hence can cancel out each other without affecting prices (Fama, 1998). Therefore, on average, the whole market is efficient. In addition, since numerous profit-maximizing investors are competing to analyse, value and trade securities based on all available information to exploit arbitrage opportunities, on aggregate level, security prices are adjusted quickly to reflect the effect of new information (Fama, 1998). Secur ity prices are driven close to intrinsic values. Expected returns implicit in the current price of a security should reflect its underlying risk, and higher returns are earned only as compensations for bearing higher risk. There are two main modules that explain EMH: fair-game model and random walk model (RWM). The fair-game model is expressed as: Zj,t+1 =rj,t+1-E(rj,t+1à ¯Ã‚ ½Ã…“à Ã‚ ¤t), E(Zj,t+1à ¯Ã‚ ½Ã…“à Ã‚ ¤t)=0 (Copeland, Weston Shastri, 2005). Information in à Ã‚ ¤t is fully utilized to determine equilibrium expected returns. On average, the expected return on an asset E(rj,t+1à ¯Ã‚ ½Ã…“à Ã‚ ¤t) equals its actual return (rj,t+1), so that no expected abnormal return can be gained from past information. RWM gives much stronger condition for EMH. It assumes that successive price changes have a same normal distribution and are independent. Its logic is that because new information is unpredictable and reaches market randomly, so under EMH, the resulting security price changes must be also unpredictable and random (Malkiel, 1973; Malkiel, 2003). No profit can be made from past information. There are three sub-hypotheses of EMH depending on the level of available information set (Fa ma, 1991). Firstly, market is weak-form efficient when prices reflect all security market information such as historical prices. Secondly, market is semistrong-form efficient when prices reflect all public information such as corporate news and financial statements. Thirdly, market is strong-form efficient when prices reflect all public and private information. Behaviour Finance Theories Figure1: Conceptual Framework of Behaviour Finance Source: Shleifer (2000) However, behaviour finance challenges EMH because it argues that psychological biases lead to investor irrationality and limits to arbitrage impede exploitation of mispricing opportunities (Shleifer, 2002). Psychological bias results into systematic overreaction or underreacion among investors. Many behaviour finance theories have been successfully developed to explain some market anomalies. Conservatism biases lead people adjust slowly to new information and hence the underreaction to new information leads to short-run momentum, while representativeness heuristic makes investors believe that past good stock performance will continue and people overreact to information (Barberis, Shleifer Vishny, 1998). Additionally, overconfidence causes investors to overestimate the precision of their own analyses and to neglect public signals (Daniel, Hirshleifer Subrahmanyam, 1998). Under positive (negative) private signal (which is shown in following graph), informed investors overreact and se curity is overpriced (underpriced). When public information becomes available, biased self-attribution causes security to be even more overpriced (underpriced). Eventually, public information proves initial investment judgement is wrong, so price is driven back to intrinsic value (Daniel et al, 1998). It explains that overconfidence leads to short-run return momentum and price correction leads to long-run return reversal. Figure 2: Overconfidence and Self-attributed bias Source: Daniel, Hirshleifer Subrahmanyam (1998) Moreover, classification is a human natural instinct to process information (Barberis Shleifer, 2003). Investors naturally classify stocks by styles, so styles returns are highly positive correlated. There are two kinds of investors: style switchers and fundamental traders. Style switchers are unsophisticated investors and chase investment styles based on past relative stock performance. When there is good news about stock X (shown following graph), they will drain funds away from less attractive style Y. It will push up stock Xs price, even higher than its intrinsic value, but further reduce stock Ys price. However, fundamental traders recognize stock Y is underpriced (Barberis et al, 2003). They arbitrage away mispricing opportunities and drive overpriced stocks back toward intrinsic value. Figure 3: Switchers and Fundamental Traders Source: Barberis Shleifer, (2003) On the other hand, limits to arbitrage may obstruct information to be impounded into prices, duo to the fundamental risk and implementation costs. Noise trader risk would prevent rational investors from arbitraging (Delong, Summer Waldmann, 1990). Pessimistic noise trader drive price below intrinsic value, arbitrageurs can buy the asset, but bear risk of further deviation from the intrinsic value when noise traders become even more pessimistic and price goes down even further (Delong et al, 1990). Arbitrageurs usually have short horizon and must liquidate before price recovers, so they will incur loss. The agency problems between professionals and investors also affect arbitrage (Shleifer Vishny, 1997), so not all mispricing would be arbitraged away to lead market become efficient. However, Fama (1998) argues that behaviour finance theories do well only on the anomalies they are specially designed to explain and cannot be generalized to the entire market. Rubinstein (2001) also argues that investor overconfidence would make market à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“hyper-rationalà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬?. Methodologies Adopted to Test the Weak-form EMH Empirical researches on testing weak-form EMH can be divided into three broad categories. Firstly, they tests security return independence. If time-series pattern of security returns shows insignificant (significant) autocorrelations, then weak-form EMH holds (is rejected) (Copeland, Weston Shastri, 2005). Secondly, they test return momentum effect. If portfolio of stocks with higher returns in the short past continues to earn higher abnormal returns in the subsequent short term, then short-run past returns contain information that could predict future returns, so EMH will not hold (Copeland et al, 2005). Thirdly, they test technical trading rules. If no trading rules that consistently derive abnormal profits can be found, then weak-form EMH holds. A series of research methodologies have been developed to exam the EMH. The runs test is non-parametric, which is used to determine whether successive prices changes are independent. Unit root tests involve three different methods to test the null hypothesis of a unit root: the Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) test (1979), the Phillips-Peron (PP) test (1988) and the Kwiatkowski, Phillioh, Achmidt and Shin (KPSS) test (1992). Multiple variance ratio (MVR) tests are adopted to detect autocorrelation and heteroskedasticity in returns (Chow Denning, 1993). Empirical Results of Weak-form EMH for Emerging Markets The research results for testing weak-form efficiency on the emerging markets are mixed. World Bank study reports significant market inefficiency for 19 emerging equity markets (Claessens, Dasgupta Glen, 1995). Latin American emerging markets of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico are weak-form EMH (Urrutia, 1995), but under the variance ratio test, RWH is rejected (Ojah Karemera, 1999). Under ADF test, EMH is also generally supported for six Latin American stock markets (Choundhry, 1997). For the emerging markets in Asia, major Asian markets are weak-form inefficient, such as Korea and Taiwan (Cheung, Wong Ho, 1993), Singpore and Thiland (Huang, 1995), but some find it is efficient for Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan (Chan, Gup Pan, 1992). When the observed index levels are used, both RWH and EMH are rejected for three equity markets of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Bahrain after adjusting for infrequent trading , but when the corrected true indices are used, RWH is accepted (Abraha m et al, 2002). RWH is rejected in five Middle Eastern emerging markets, Jordan, Morocco, Egypt, Israel, and Turkey (Omran and Farrar, 2001). Weak-form efficiency is rejected for Saudi and Palestinian financial market and inefficiency might be due to delay in operations and high transaction cost, thinness of trading and illiquidity in the market (Nourredine Kababa, 1998; Award Daraghma, 2009). Many researches find that emerging markets are becoming more efficient due to the liberalization policies. Istanbul stock exchange was inefficient in the early times but it becomes more efficient as the country started liberalization and deregulation (Antonios, Ergul Holmes, 1997). 4.1 Thin Trading and Non-linearity It is argued that such mixed evidences of the weak-form EMH in emerging markets are only reliable if the methodologies adopted take accounts for the institutional characteristics and trading conditions of the markets, such as thin trading and the presence of non-linearity (Antoniou, Ergul Holmes, 1997). Ignoring these factors may lead to statistical illusions regarding efficiency. The conventional tests of efficiency based on linear model have been developed to test markets with high levels of liquidity, sophisticated investors with access to reliable information and few institutional impediments (Antoniou, Ergul Holmes, 1997). Therefore they are not suitable for testing EMH for emerging markets with characteristics of thin trading, low liquidity and less well informed investors with access to unreliable information. Thin trading will bring serious serial correlation (Fisher, 1996), so the observed dependence does not necessarily represent serial correlation among securities return s. In addition, prices responds to information in a non-linear behavior especially during the early development stages of emerging markets (Schatzberg Reiber, 1992), so if the return generating process is non-linear but a linear model is used to test efficiency, then EMH may be wrongly accepted. This is because non-linear systems such as à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“chaoticà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? ones look very similar to a random walk (Savit, 1988). However, the conventional tests cannot recognize this problem. There are several reasons for the existence of non-linear reaction of price to information in emerging markets. Transaction costs are high, information is relatively not reliable and market is illiquid or there are restrictions on trading (Stoll Whaley, 1990). As a result, investors do not always respond instantaneously to the information, which contradicts the assumptions of investor rationality and linear response of price. Scheinkman and LeBaron (1989) and Peters (1991) also empirically support th e non-linearity of stock returns. A number of studies have researched the impact of thin trading (Fisher, 1966; Dimson, 1979; Cohen, 1978; Lo Mackinlay, 1990). Many empirical studies also have taken account of the non-linearity in price series and remove the impact of thin trading by the AR (1) model proposed by Miller (1994). Antoniou, Ergul and Holmes (1997) find that there is apparent predictability of stock returns for Istanbul stock market, but after considering the impact of thin trading, the random walk hypothesis is accepted and the market is informationally efficient for 1990 onwards. Abuzarour (2005) examines the effect of non-trading on market efficiency for three emerging Arabian equity markets: Jordan, Egypt and Palestine using the variance ratio test and the run test during the period of 1992 and 2004. Both random walk hypothesis and weak form efficiency are rejected when the observed index levels are used. However, when the indices are corrected by the Miller, Muthuswamy and Whaley methodologies (1994 ) to take account for thin trading, weak-form EMH is accepted for Egypt and Jordan stock market but it is still rejected for Palestine. All these empirical researches suggest that markets become more efficient when trading volume is high, information is much reliable and institutional frameworks are appropriate. 4.2 Structural Breaks Research on efficiency for emerging markets should not only take account for institutional characteristics and trading conditions, but also should take account for the structural breaks in the underlying series that arise from the liberalization. Ignoring structural breaks can lead to wrong inference that these indices are following random walks. Many emerging countries are liberalizing their financial markets with various degrees (IFC, 1997) and such structure changes would have affected their equity markets (Bekaert et al, 2002; Henry 2000). For instance, huge shocks occurred for equity index level for Greece, Malaysia and Philippines in late 1980s and early 1990s, which are around the same year of their market liberalization. As Perron (1989) have demonstrated that traditional standard tests for RWH in stock prices have low power against the alternative hypothesis in small samples, and the problem is especially serious when structural changes are involved. Thus failure to consider these breaking points may wrongly support the RWH. Therefore, many empirical researches try to incorporate the structural breaks factor by more powerful test methods, such as the Zivot- Andrew sequential test (Zivot Andrew, 1992). Chaudhuri and Wu (2001) adopt both the standard ADF test and Zivot- Andrew sequential method to test the EMH in seventeen emerging markets: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Greece, India, Jordan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, Venezuela, and Zimbabwe. Results for the ADF test without breaks to each series tend to show non-rejection of the RWH. However, results for the Zivot- Andrew test with structural breaks show that RWH can be powerfully rejected at the one percent significant level in ten markets: Argentina, Brazil, Greece, India, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Philippines, Taiwan and Zimbabwe (Chaudhuri Wu, 2001). 4.3 Market Evolution Although structural breaks have been taken into account in many researches, it is argued that standard techniques are still not fit to test the weak-form EHM for emerging market, because they are not able to evaluate the evolving efficiency in emerging markets. It is also argued that methods such as a time varying parameter model and Kalman Filter technique not only can indicate the movement of stock returns from inefficiency to efficiency, but also can measure the timing of the movement towards full efficiency(Rockinger Urga, 2000; Zalewska-Mitura Hall, 1999). It is generally agreed that emerging markets are evolving from inefficiency to efficiency with the higher disclosure degree of firm practices, high trading volume and lower institutional barriers to trade (Cornelius, 1994). According to Laurence (1986), the methods of OLS or GMM test market efficiency over the whole period and hardly capture the tendency towards efficiency, so under these methods, early inefficiency would wr ongly lead to the conclusion that there are profit opportunities based on the past asset price movement. In addition, the variance of the error process in the conventional test models is not constant over time, so if this changing variance structure is omitted and has a serial correlation property, then market efficiency would be incorrectly rejected (Hall Urga, G2002). Hall and Urga (2002) deal with these problems by using the Kalman Filter and combing the time varying parameter model with a standard GARCH-M model (generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity in mean). They apply this procedure to the two indexes of Russian stock market from 1995 to 2000. And find that with regard to RTS index (Russian Trading System), the market is initially inefficient and it takes about two and a half years to become efficient, while for the ASPGEN Index (Skate Press Agency General), the market is still predictable. There is evidence of a tendency towards being efficient. Kvedaras and Basdevant (2002) also investigate the market efficiency in the three Baltic States: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania by using the time-varying variance ratio statistic robust to heteroscedasticity based on time-varying autocorrelations. They find a clear trajectory to weak-form efficiency in the Estonian and Lithuanian capital markets. Its relatively small inefficiency ca n be explained by transaction costs and information acquiring costs (Grossman and Stiglitz, 1980). In the Latvian market, it is inefficient even at the very end of the analyzed period. Policy Implications These results have some important implications for developing effective institutional and regulatory frameworks. Since infrequent trading negatively affects market efficiency and liquidity in emerging markets, economic policy makers should pay attention to minimize the institutional restriction and barriers on capital flow in the financial markets, impose strict disclosure requirements and ensure that investors can easily access to high quality and reliable information. Improving liquidity of capital markets can provide lower borrowing costs for investors and greater opportunities for investment diversification with lower systematic risks. In addition, equity market liberalization is important to help achieving market development. It can reduce cost of capital and increase capital productivity with better capital allocation. Conclusion 6.1 Short Summary In conclusion, as two main schools of thought in modern financial theories, there is a hot debate between efficient market hypothesis and behaviour finance. EMH asserts that financial markets are informationally efficient and equity stock prices instantaneously and fully reflect all known information. While behaviour finance argues that psychological biases lead to investor irrationality and limits to arbitrage impede exploitation of mispricing opportunities, so market is not efficient. There are wide empirical researches on the issue of market efficiency in emerging markets with mixed results. It is generally found that most of emerging markets are still inefficient, but after correcting for institutional characteristics and trading conditions, such as thin trading and the presence of non-linearity, some researches find that equity markets are efficient for some countries such as for Istanbul, Egypt and Jordan. When structure break factors are taken into account, market efficiency i s powerfully rejected for most emerging countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Greece and India. There are also some evidence shows that duo to economic liberalization policies, many emerging markets are moving towards more efficiency such as Estonian, Lithuanian and Russia. 6.2 Limitations of Empirical Researches and Proposed Further Research However, there are some limitations involved in these empirical researches. Some researches ignore whether the distribution is normal or not. Others using equally weighted indices may bias the results. The possible auto-correlation might be due to the noise traders but doesnt imply return predictability (Cuthberston, 1996). Most of these studies focus on the test of time series of equity return to investigate EMH, but don not investigate the momentum effect or the profitability of technical trading to earn abnormal return. Therefore, further research can be extended in several dimensions. Firstly, it suggests trying to combine the tests of momentum effect or technical trading rules with the time series tests to make more robust conclusions. Secondly, since most of researches focus on traditional EMH, it can consider the factors of investor behaviour, such as psychologies bias and limits to arbitrage to do further in-depth testing of EMH. Finally, further researches for more novel and accurate methodologies of testing EMH are significantly essential. Weak Form Efficient Market Hypothesis For Emerging Markets Weak Form Efficient Market Hypothesis For Emerging Markets Literature Review The issue of market efficiency in emerging markets is of great significance for both foreign investors and policy makers in emerging economies. This project devotes large efforts to produce a thorough and in-depth literature review for this area. This topic is to be investigated from these aspects: theoretical foundation, methodologies of tests and empirical results. Firstly, traditional efficient market hypothesis (Fama, 1970; Makiel, 1973) and behavior finance theories developed in recent decades (Barbris, 1998; Shleifer, 2000) have formed two main schools of thought for the issue of market efficiency. Secondly, the evolution for a series of methodologies is important for testing market efficiency. Thirdly, the empirical evidence is reviewed by consideration three major factors: trade volume and non-linear behavior, structural breaks and market evolution through time. Finally, it also reflects some important policy implications for emerging markets. Many empirical studies have been widely carried to investigate the weak-form efficient market hypothesis for emerging markets, and the results are mixed. Generally, most of emerging markets are found to be inefficient. But for some countries, such as Istanbul, Egypt and Jordan, after correcting for institutional characteristics and trading conditions, such as thin trading and the presence of non-linearity, equity markets are found to be efficient. When structure break factors are taken into account, market efficiency is powerfully rejected for countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Greece and India. There is also evidence showing that initially emerging markets are inefficient, but over time they are moving toward to be more efficient, such as in Estonian, Lithuanian and Russia duo to economic liberalization policies. These results reflect some important policy implications. Infrequent trading and illiquidity of capital markets negatively affects market efficiency, so economic policy makers should devote efforts to minimize the institutional restriction and barriers on capital flow in the financial markets and to impose strict disclosure requirements, so that investors can easily access to high quality and reliable information. Improving liquidity of capital markets can provide lower borrowing costs for investors and greater opportunities for investment diversification with lower systematic risks. In addition, equity market liberalization is important to help achieving market development. It can reduce cost of capital and increase capital productivity with better capital allocation. Introduction: Due to the increasing globalization of financial markets, fast economic growth and adoption of financial liberalization policies for equity markets in emerging economies, it is widely indicated that equity investment in emerging economies can provide superior returns. Past decades have witnessed spectacular growth in both size and relative importance of emerging equity markets. The market capitalization of emerging market economies accounts for twelve percent of world market capitalization and has more than doubled, growing from less than $2 trillion in 1995 to $5 trillion in 2006 (Nally, 2010). By 2015, it is estimated that the combined GDP of emerging-market economies will surpass that of the top 20 developed economies (ibid). In addition, emerging market returns are weakly correlated with returns in developed markets, so international diversification with these emerging equities can give lower portfolio risks (Levy Sarnat, 1970). The potential high rates of returns and diversific ation benefits has attracted large number of foreign fund investors, so the investigation on whether emerging markets function efficiently is significantly important. By knowing degree of market efficiency, economy policy makers and regulators can gain insights to develop right institutional and regulatory frameworks to allocate scare resources efficiently, form favourable investment condition and obtain further economic growth. Therefore, this essay is going to investigate the weak-form market efficiency in emerging markets. The efficient market hypothesis by Fama (1970), Random Walk module by Makiel (1973) and behaviour finance theories are directed related to this issue and form the theoretical foundations. Section 1 will critically give the theoretical review based on the two schools of thought that are EMH and behaviour finance theories. Section 2 will give a brief review of methodologies adopted in literature review. Section 3 will give empirical review of the weak-form EMH for emerging markets. Section 4 will indicate some brief policy implications for emerging economies and section 5 is the conclusion with some directions for further research. Theoretic Review of EMH VS Behaviour Finance Efficient Market Hypothesis Fama (1970) defines an efficient financial market as one in which security prices always instantaneously and fully reflect all available information. No investors can earn expected abnormal return by analysing past known information. Market efficiency is attained by two key forces: investor rationality and arbitrage activities (Fama, 1970). EMH assumes that investors are rational and can process information correctly and efficiently. Although some investors are irrational and may overact or underact to new information, these judgement errors are independent and random, hence can cancel out each other without affecting prices (Fama, 1998). Therefore, on average, the whole market is efficient. In addition, since numerous profit-maximizing investors are competing to analyse, value and trade securities based on all available information to exploit arbitrage opportunities, on aggregate level, security prices are adjusted quickly to reflect the effect of new information (Fama, 1998). Secur ity prices are driven close to intrinsic values. Expected returns implicit in the current price of a security should reflect its underlying risk, and higher returns are earned only as compensations for bearing higher risk. There are two main modules that explain EMH: fair-game model and random walk model (RWM). The fair-game model is expressed as: Zj,t+1 =rj,t+1-E(rj,t+1à ¯Ã‚ ½Ã…“à Ã‚ ¤t), E(Zj,t+1à ¯Ã‚ ½Ã…“à Ã‚ ¤t)=0 (Copeland, Weston Shastri, 2005). Information in à Ã‚ ¤t is fully utilized to determine equilibrium expected returns. On average, the expected return on an asset E(rj,t+1à ¯Ã‚ ½Ã…“à Ã‚ ¤t) equals its actual return (rj,t+1), so that no expected abnormal return can be gained from past information. RWM gives much stronger condition for EMH. It assumes that successive price changes have a same normal distribution and are independent. Its logic is that because new information is unpredictable and reaches market randomly, so under EMH, the resulting security price changes must be also unpredictable and random (Malkiel, 1973; Malkiel, 2003). No profit can be made from past information. There are three sub-hypotheses of EMH depending on the level of available information set (Fa ma, 1991). Firstly, market is weak-form efficient when prices reflect all security market information such as historical prices. Secondly, market is semistrong-form efficient when prices reflect all public information such as corporate news and financial statements. Thirdly, market is strong-form efficient when prices reflect all public and private information. Behaviour Finance Theories Figure1: Conceptual Framework of Behaviour Finance Source: Shleifer (2000) However, behaviour finance challenges EMH because it argues that psychological biases lead to investor irrationality and limits to arbitrage impede exploitation of mispricing opportunities (Shleifer, 2002). Psychological bias results into systematic overreaction or underreacion among investors. Many behaviour finance theories have been successfully developed to explain some market anomalies. Conservatism biases lead people adjust slowly to new information and hence the underreaction to new information leads to short-run momentum, while representativeness heuristic makes investors believe that past good stock performance will continue and people overreact to information (Barberis, Shleifer Vishny, 1998). Additionally, overconfidence causes investors to overestimate the precision of their own analyses and to neglect public signals (Daniel, Hirshleifer Subrahmanyam, 1998). Under positive (negative) private signal (which is shown in following graph), informed investors overreact and se curity is overpriced (underpriced). When public information becomes available, biased self-attribution causes security to be even more overpriced (underpriced). Eventually, public information proves initial investment judgement is wrong, so price is driven back to intrinsic value (Daniel et al, 1998). It explains that overconfidence leads to short-run return momentum and price correction leads to long-run return reversal. Figure 2: Overconfidence and Self-attributed bias Source: Daniel, Hirshleifer Subrahmanyam (1998) Moreover, classification is a human natural instinct to process information (Barberis Shleifer, 2003). Investors naturally classify stocks by styles, so styles returns are highly positive correlated. There are two kinds of investors: style switchers and fundamental traders. Style switchers are unsophisticated investors and chase investment styles based on past relative stock performance. When there is good news about stock X (shown following graph), they will drain funds away from less attractive style Y. It will push up stock Xs price, even higher than its intrinsic value, but further reduce stock Ys price. However, fundamental traders recognize stock Y is underpriced (Barberis et al, 2003). They arbitrage away mispricing opportunities and drive overpriced stocks back toward intrinsic value. Figure 3: Switchers and Fundamental Traders Source: Barberis Shleifer, (2003) On the other hand, limits to arbitrage may obstruct information to be impounded into prices, duo to the fundamental risk and implementation costs. Noise trader risk would prevent rational investors from arbitraging (Delong, Summer Waldmann, 1990). Pessimistic noise trader drive price below intrinsic value, arbitrageurs can buy the asset, but bear risk of further deviation from the intrinsic value when noise traders become even more pessimistic and price goes down even further (Delong et al, 1990). Arbitrageurs usually have short horizon and must liquidate before price recovers, so they will incur loss. The agency problems between professionals and investors also affect arbitrage (Shleifer Vishny, 1997), so not all mispricing would be arbitraged away to lead market become efficient. However, Fama (1998) argues that behaviour finance theories do well only on the anomalies they are specially designed to explain and cannot be generalized to the entire market. Rubinstein (2001) also argues that investor overconfidence would make market à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“hyper-rationalà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬?. Methodologies Adopted to Test the Weak-form EMH Empirical researches on testing weak-form EMH can be divided into three broad categories. Firstly, they tests security return independence. If time-series pattern of security returns shows insignificant (significant) autocorrelations, then weak-form EMH holds (is rejected) (Copeland, Weston Shastri, 2005). Secondly, they test return momentum effect. If portfolio of stocks with higher returns in the short past continues to earn higher abnormal returns in the subsequent short term, then short-run past returns contain information that could predict future returns, so EMH will not hold (Copeland et al, 2005). Thirdly, they test technical trading rules. If no trading rules that consistently derive abnormal profits can be found, then weak-form EMH holds. A series of research methodologies have been developed to exam the EMH. The runs test is non-parametric, which is used to determine whether successive prices changes are independent. Unit root tests involve three different methods to test the null hypothesis of a unit root: the Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) test (1979), the Phillips-Peron (PP) test (1988) and the Kwiatkowski, Phillioh, Achmidt and Shin (KPSS) test (1992). Multiple variance ratio (MVR) tests are adopted to detect autocorrelation and heteroskedasticity in returns (Chow Denning, 1993). Empirical Results of Weak-form EMH for Emerging Markets The research results for testing weak-form efficiency on the emerging markets are mixed. World Bank study reports significant market inefficiency for 19 emerging equity markets (Claessens, Dasgupta Glen, 1995). Latin American emerging markets of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico are weak-form EMH (Urrutia, 1995), but under the variance ratio test, RWH is rejected (Ojah Karemera, 1999). Under ADF test, EMH is also generally supported for six Latin American stock markets (Choundhry, 1997). For the emerging markets in Asia, major Asian markets are weak-form inefficient, such as Korea and Taiwan (Cheung, Wong Ho, 1993), Singpore and Thiland (Huang, 1995), but some find it is efficient for Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan (Chan, Gup Pan, 1992). When the observed index levels are used, both RWH and EMH are rejected for three equity markets of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Bahrain after adjusting for infrequent trading , but when the corrected true indices are used, RWH is accepted (Abraha m et al, 2002). RWH is rejected in five Middle Eastern emerging markets, Jordan, Morocco, Egypt, Israel, and Turkey (Omran and Farrar, 2001). Weak-form efficiency is rejected for Saudi and Palestinian financial market and inefficiency might be due to delay in operations and high transaction cost, thinness of trading and illiquidity in the market (Nourredine Kababa, 1998; Award Daraghma, 2009). Many researches find that emerging markets are becoming more efficient due to the liberalization policies. Istanbul stock exchange was inefficient in the early times but it becomes more efficient as the country started liberalization and deregulation (Antonios, Ergul Holmes, 1997). 4.1 Thin Trading and Non-linearity It is argued that such mixed evidences of the weak-form EMH in emerging markets are only reliable if the methodologies adopted take accounts for the institutional characteristics and trading conditions of the markets, such as thin trading and the presence of non-linearity (Antoniou, Ergul Holmes, 1997). Ignoring these factors may lead to statistical illusions regarding efficiency. The conventional tests of efficiency based on linear model have been developed to test markets with high levels of liquidity, sophisticated investors with access to reliable information and few institutional impediments (Antoniou, Ergul Holmes, 1997). Therefore they are not suitable for testing EMH for emerging markets with characteristics of thin trading, low liquidity and less well informed investors with access to unreliable information. Thin trading will bring serious serial correlation (Fisher, 1996), so the observed dependence does not necessarily represent serial correlation among securities return s. In addition, prices responds to information in a non-linear behavior especially during the early development stages of emerging markets (Schatzberg Reiber, 1992), so if the return generating process is non-linear but a linear model is used to test efficiency, then EMH may be wrongly accepted. This is because non-linear systems such as à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“chaoticà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? ones look very similar to a random walk (Savit, 1988). However, the conventional tests cannot recognize this problem. There are several reasons for the existence of non-linear reaction of price to information in emerging markets. Transaction costs are high, information is relatively not reliable and market is illiquid or there are restrictions on trading (Stoll Whaley, 1990). As a result, investors do not always respond instantaneously to the information, which contradicts the assumptions of investor rationality and linear response of price. Scheinkman and LeBaron (1989) and Peters (1991) also empirically support th e non-linearity of stock returns. A number of studies have researched the impact of thin trading (Fisher, 1966; Dimson, 1979; Cohen, 1978; Lo Mackinlay, 1990). Many empirical studies also have taken account of the non-linearity in price series and remove the impact of thin trading by the AR (1) model proposed by Miller (1994). Antoniou, Ergul and Holmes (1997) find that there is apparent predictability of stock returns for Istanbul stock market, but after considering the impact of thin trading, the random walk hypothesis is accepted and the market is informationally efficient for 1990 onwards. Abuzarour (2005) examines the effect of non-trading on market efficiency for three emerging Arabian equity markets: Jordan, Egypt and Palestine using the variance ratio test and the run test during the period of 1992 and 2004. Both random walk hypothesis and weak form efficiency are rejected when the observed index levels are used. However, when the indices are corrected by the Miller, Muthuswamy and Whaley methodologies (1994 ) to take account for thin trading, weak-form EMH is accepted for Egypt and Jordan stock market but it is still rejected for Palestine. All these empirical researches suggest that markets become more efficient when trading volume is high, information is much reliable and institutional frameworks are appropriate. 4.2 Structural Breaks Research on efficiency for emerging markets should not only take account for institutional characteristics and trading conditions, but also should take account for the structural breaks in the underlying series that arise from the liberalization. Ignoring structural breaks can lead to wrong inference that these indices are following random walks. Many emerging countries are liberalizing their financial markets with various degrees (IFC, 1997) and such structure changes would have affected their equity markets (Bekaert et al, 2002; Henry 2000). For instance, huge shocks occurred for equity index level for Greece, Malaysia and Philippines in late 1980s and early 1990s, which are around the same year of their market liberalization. As Perron (1989) have demonstrated that traditional standard tests for RWH in stock prices have low power against the alternative hypothesis in small samples, and the problem is especially serious when structural changes are involved. Thus failure to consider these breaking points may wrongly support the RWH. Therefore, many empirical researches try to incorporate the structural breaks factor by more powerful test methods, such as the Zivot- Andrew sequential test (Zivot Andrew, 1992). Chaudhuri and Wu (2001) adopt both the standard ADF test and Zivot- Andrew sequential method to test the EMH in seventeen emerging markets: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Greece, India, Jordan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, Venezuela, and Zimbabwe. Results for the ADF test without breaks to each series tend to show non-rejection of the RWH. However, results for the Zivot- Andrew test with structural breaks show that RWH can be powerfully rejected at the one percent significant level in ten markets: Argentina, Brazil, Greece, India, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Philippines, Taiwan and Zimbabwe (Chaudhuri Wu, 2001). 4.3 Market Evolution Although structural breaks have been taken into account in many researches, it is argued that standard techniques are still not fit to test the weak-form EHM for emerging market, because they are not able to evaluate the evolving efficiency in emerging markets. It is also argued that methods such as a time varying parameter model and Kalman Filter technique not only can indicate the movement of stock returns from inefficiency to efficiency, but also can measure the timing of the movement towards full efficiency(Rockinger Urga, 2000; Zalewska-Mitura Hall, 1999). It is generally agreed that emerging markets are evolving from inefficiency to efficiency with the higher disclosure degree of firm practices, high trading volume and lower institutional barriers to trade (Cornelius, 1994). According to Laurence (1986), the methods of OLS or GMM test market efficiency over the whole period and hardly capture the tendency towards efficiency, so under these methods, early inefficiency would wr ongly lead to the conclusion that there are profit opportunities based on the past asset price movement. In addition, the variance of the error process in the conventional test models is not constant over time, so if this changing variance structure is omitted and has a serial correlation property, then market efficiency would be incorrectly rejected (Hall Urga, G2002). Hall and Urga (2002) deal with these problems by using the Kalman Filter and combing the time varying parameter model with a standard GARCH-M model (generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity in mean). They apply this procedure to the two indexes of Russian stock market from 1995 to 2000. And find that with regard to RTS index (Russian Trading System), the market is initially inefficient and it takes about two and a half years to become efficient, while for the ASPGEN Index (Skate Press Agency General), the market is still predictable. There is evidence of a tendency towards being efficient. Kvedaras and Basdevant (2002) also investigate the market efficiency in the three Baltic States: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania by using the time-varying variance ratio statistic robust to heteroscedasticity based on time-varying autocorrelations. They find a clear trajectory to weak-form efficiency in the Estonian and Lithuanian capital markets. Its relatively small inefficiency ca n be explained by transaction costs and information acquiring costs (Grossman and Stiglitz, 1980). In the Latvian market, it is inefficient even at the very end of the analyzed period. Policy Implications These results have some important implications for developing effective institutional and regulatory frameworks. Since infrequent trading negatively affects market efficiency and liquidity in emerging markets, economic policy makers should pay attention to minimize the institutional restriction and barriers on capital flow in the financial markets, impose strict disclosure requirements and ensure that investors can easily access to high quality and reliable information. Improving liquidity of capital markets can provide lower borrowing costs for investors and greater opportunities for investment diversification with lower systematic risks. In addition, equity market liberalization is important to help achieving market development. It can reduce cost of capital and increase capital productivity with better capital allocation. Conclusion 6.1 Short Summary In conclusion, as two main schools of thought in modern financial theories, there is a hot debate between efficient market hypothesis and behaviour finance. EMH asserts that financial markets are informationally efficient and equity stock prices instantaneously and fully reflect all known information. While behaviour finance argues that psychological biases lead to investor irrationality and limits to arbitrage impede exploitation of mispricing opportunities, so market is not efficient. There are wide empirical researches on the issue of market efficiency in emerging markets with mixed results. It is generally found that most of emerging markets are still inefficient, but after correcting for institutional characteristics and trading conditions, such as thin trading and the presence of non-linearity, some researches find that equity markets are efficient for some countries such as for Istanbul, Egypt and Jordan. When structure break factors are taken into account, market efficiency i s powerfully rejected for most emerging countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Greece and India. There are also some evidence shows that duo to economic liberalization policies, many emerging markets are moving towards more efficiency such as Estonian, Lithuanian and Russia. 6.2 Limitations of Empirical Researches and Proposed Further Research However, there are some limitations involved in these empirical researches. Some researches ignore whether the distribution is normal or not. Others using equally weighted indices may bias the results. The possible auto-correlation might be due to the noise traders but doesnt imply return predictability (Cuthberston, 1996). Most of these studies focus on the test of time series of equity return to investigate EMH, but don not investigate the momentum effect or the profitability of technical trading to earn abnormal return. Therefore, further research can be extended in several dimensions. Firstly, it suggests trying to combine the tests of momentum effect or technical trading rules with the time series tests to make more robust conclusions. Secondly, since most of researches focus on traditional EMH, it can consider the factors of investor behaviour, such as psychologies bias and limits to arbitrage to do further in-depth testing of EMH. Finally, further researches for more novel and accurate methodologies of testing EMH are significantly essential.