Cheats, Choices & Dumbing Down: A book about exams for pushy parents, streetwise students and tireless teachers

Cheats, Choices & Dumbing Down: A book about exams for pushy parents, streetwise students and tireless teachers

Author: Jerry Jarvis

Publisher: Pukka Publications

Published: 2011-12-31

Total Pages: 186

ISBN-13: 095708420X

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Written by the man whose signature is on millions of exam certificates, Cheats, Choices & Dumbing Down lifts the lid on the UK's complex exams and qualifications system. Whether you're studying for exams, or are a parent, teacher, governor or administrator, this eye-opening book will be a valuable guide. It deals with the main qualifications in the UK, including GCSE, A Level, BTEC, the Diploma, International Baccalaureate, the English Baccalaureate and other vocational and professional qualifications. Read it to find out: How to achieve the best results Whether some subjects are easier than others The truth about 'dumbing down' and educational standards What examiners are looking for - and how they decide what grade to award Why millions of exam questions are marked by non-teachers How to claim an advantage and challenge grades How people cheat - and the consequences of getting caught What the future holds for exams and qualifications


The Circle

The Circle

Author: Dave Eggers

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 2013-10-08

Total Pages: 404

ISBN-13: 0385351402

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INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • A bestselling dystopian novel that tackles surveillance, privacy and the frightening intrusions of technology in our lives—a “compulsively readable parable for the 21st century” (Vanity Fair). When Mae Holland is hired to work for the Circle, the world’s most powerful internet company, she feels she’s been given the opportunity of a lifetime. The Circle, run out of a sprawling California campus, links users’ personal emails, social media, banking, and purchasing with their universal operating system, resulting in one online identity and a new age of civility and transparency. As Mae tours the open-plan office spaces, the towering glass dining facilities, the cozy dorms for those who spend nights at work, she is thrilled with the company’s modernity and activity. There are parties that last through the night, there are famous musicians playing on the lawn, there are athletic activities and clubs and brunches, and even an aquarium of rare fish retrieved from the Marianas Trench by the CEO. Mae can’t believe her luck, her great fortune to work for the most influential company in the world—even as life beyond the campus grows distant, even as a strange encounter with a colleague leaves her shaken, even as her role at the Circle becomes increasingly public. What begins as the captivating story of one woman’s ambition and idealism soon becomes a heart-racing novel of suspense, raising questions about memory, history, privacy, democracy, and the limits of human knowledge.


How I Became a Quant

How I Became a Quant

Author: Richard R. Lindsey

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2011-01-11

Total Pages: 406

ISBN-13: 1118044754

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Praise for How I Became a Quant "Led by two top-notch quants, Richard R. Lindsey and Barry Schachter, How I Became a Quant details the quirky world of quantitative analysis through stories told by some of today's most successful quants. For anyone who might have thought otherwise, there are engaging personalities behind all that number crunching!" --Ira Kawaller, Kawaller & Co. and the Kawaller Fund "A fun and fascinating read. This book tells the story of how academics, physicists, mathematicians, and other scientists became professional investors managing billions." --David A. Krell, President and CEO, International Securities Exchange "How I Became a Quant should be must reading for all students with a quantitative aptitude. It provides fascinating examples of the dynamic career opportunities potentially open to anyone with the skills and passion for quantitative analysis." --Roy D. Henriksson, Chief Investment Officer, Advanced Portfolio Management "Quants"--those who design and implement mathematical models for the pricing of derivatives, assessment of risk, or prediction of market movements--are the backbone of today's investment industry. As the greater volatility of current financial markets has driven investors to seek shelter from increasing uncertainty, the quant revolution has given people the opportunity to avoid unwanted financial risk by literally trading it away, or more specifically, paying someone else to take on the unwanted risk. How I Became a Quant reveals the faces behind the quant revolution, offering you?the?chance to learn firsthand what it's like to be a?quant today. In this fascinating collection of Wall Street war stories, more than two dozen quants detail their roots, roles, and contributions, explaining what they do and how they do it, as well as outlining the sometimes unexpected paths they have followed from the halls of academia to the front lines of an investment revolution.


The Second Self

The Second Self

Author: Sherry Turkle

Publisher: Touchstone

Published: 1984

Total Pages: 372

ISBN-13: 9780671606022

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In The Second Self, Sherry Turkle looks at the computer not as a "tool," but as part of our social and psychological lives; she looks beyond how we use computer games and spreadsheets to explore how the computer affects our awareness of ourselves, of one another, and of our relationship with the world. "Technology," she writes, "catalyzes changes not only in what we do but in how we think." First published in 1984, The Second Self is still essential reading as a primer in the psychology of computation. This twentieth anniversary edition allows us to reconsider two decades of computer culture-to (re)experience what was and is most novel in our new media culture and to view our own contemporary relationship with technology with fresh eyes. Turkle frames this classic work with a new introduction, a new epilogue, and extensive notes added to the original text. Turkle talks to children, college students, engineers, AI scientists, hackers, and personal computer owners-people confronting machines that seem to think and at the same time suggest a new way for us to think-about human thought, emotion, memory, and understanding. Her interviews reveal that we experience computers as being on the border between inanimate and animate, as both an extension of the self and part of the external world. Their special place betwixt and between traditional categories is part of what makes them compelling and evocative. In the introduction to this edition, Turkle quotes a PDA user as saying, "When my Palm crashed, it was like a death. I thought I had lost my mind." Why we think of the workings of a machine in psychological terms-how this happens, and what it means for all of us-is the ever more timely subject of The Second Self. Book jacket.


Out Of Control

Out Of Control

Author: Kevin Kelly

Publisher: Basic Books

Published: 2009-04-30

Total Pages: 666

ISBN-13: 078674703X

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Out of Control chronicles the dawn of a new era in which the machines and systems that drive our economy are so complex and autonomous as to be indistinguishable from living things.


Crossing the Rubicon

Crossing the Rubicon

Author: Michael C. Ruppert

Publisher: New Society Publisher

Published: 2004-09-15

Total Pages: 773

ISBN-13: 1550923188

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The acclaimed investigative reporter and author of Confronting Collapse examines the global forces that led to 9/11 in this provocative exposé. The attacks of September 11, 2001 were accomplished through an amazing orchestration of logistics and personnel. Crossing the Rubicon examines how such a conspiracy was possible through an interdisciplinary analysis of petroleum, geopolitics, narco-traffic, intelligence and militarism—without which 9/11 cannot be understood. In reality, 9/11 and the resulting "War on Terror" are parts of a massive authoritarian response to an emerging economic crisis of unprecedented scale. Peak Oil—the beginning of the end for our industrial civilization—is driving the elites of American power to implement unthinkably draconian measures of repression, warfare and population control. Crossing the Rubicon is more than a story of corruption and greed. It is a map of the perilous terrain through which we are all now making our way.


Substance Use and Abuse

Substance Use and Abuse

Author: Victor N. Shaw

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2002-10-30

Total Pages: 286

ISBN-13: 0313012075

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While the issues of substance use and abuse have been addressed from a variety of perspectives and approaches, the fundamental social issues have not been covered in any systematic way. This book represents the first academic effort to apply major sociological theories to the field of substance use and abuse in order to provide readers with a solid knowledge base from which they may develop more informed ideas about prevention, intervention, treatment, law enforcement, and social reactions to this ubiquitous social problem. Using a systematic framework, Shaw reviews the existing literature, explains key concepts, addresses fundamental issues, and discusses the policy implications for public health, social control, community, and work. This comprehensive sociological treatment of substance use and abuse is essential reading for educators in public policy, sociology, criminology, and deviance. Applying the major sociological theories of anomie, career, conflict, functionalist, rational choice, social control, social disorganization, social learning, social reaction, and subculture perspectives, Shaw provides an important overview of the issues involved with substance use and abuse. By utilizing such an approach, he demonstrates that public views, governmental policies, intervention strategies, and prevention programming can be informed by the different sociological theories. This unique consideration and analysis illustrates that no single view on substance use and abuse is absolute or sacred. Therefore, considering the issues from a variety of sociological perspectives will bring greater understanding to a pervasive social problem that continues to plague American society.


Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing

Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing

Author: Sylvan Barnet

Publisher: Bedford/St. Martin's

Published: 2013-08-23

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781457649974

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PACKAGE THIS TITLE WITH OUR 2016 MLA SUPPLEMENT, Documenting Sources in MLA Style (package ISBN-13: 9781319084370). Get the most recent updates on MLA citation in a convenient, 40-page resource based on The MLA Handbook, 8th Edition, with plenty of models. Browse our catalog or contact your representative for a full listing of updated titles and packages, or to request a custom ISBN. Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing is a compact but complete guide to critical thinking and argumentation. Comprising the text portion of the widely adopted Current Issues and Enduring Questions, it draws on the authors’ dual expertise in effective persuasive writing and comprehensive rhetorical strategies to help students move from critical thinking to argumentative and researched writing. This extraordinarily versatile text includes comprehensive coverage of classic and contemporary approaches to argument, from Aristotelian to Toulmin, to a new chapter on rhetorical analysis of pop culture texts, as well as 35 readings (including e-Pages that allow students to take advantage of working with multimodal arguments on the Web), and a casebook on the state and the individual. This affordable guide can stand alone or supplement a larger anthology of readings.


Bypass

Bypass

Author: Joseph Anthony Amato

Publisher: Purdue University Press

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 9781557531766

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This inquiry into matters of heart, conducted under the shadows of pending surgery, awakens themes of boyhood, education, and marriage and prompt questions about loyalty to a deceased father, connections with immigrant grandparents, loss and rediscovery of faith, and solitude versus community. A medical narrative, the book also chronicles a span of contemporary American life. Throughout Amato's account, the consistent reminder of his upcoming bypass invites readers to reflect on their own lives and selves. This is an intelligent and witty guide to an immensely common operation that nevertheless for each patient constitutes a unique experience-a veritable rite of passage.


And Now My Soul Is Hardened

And Now My Soul Is Hardened

Author: Alan M. Ball

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 1996-11-06

Total Pages: 395

ISBN-13: 0520206940

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Warfare, epidemics, and famine left millions of Soviet children homeless during the 1920s. Many became beggars, prostitutes, and thieves, and were denizens of both secluded underworld haunts and bustling train stations. Alan Ball's study of these abandoned children examines their lives and the strategies the government used to remove them from the streets lest they threaten plans to mold a new socialist generation. The "rehabilitation" of these youths and the results years later are an important lesson in Soviet history.