Iwo Jima essays

Iwo Jima essays Iwo Jima was one of the greatest land battles in World War II. It cost the Americans thousands of lives because of poorly planned techniques by the sergeants and generals of the Navy and Marines. It is located in the Volcano Islands off the coast of Japan. The battle lasted 26 days, and the island was secured ten days later. It was one of the most costly battles in World War II. Iwo Jima is an inactive volcanic island located 660 miles south of Tokyo, Japan (Josephy 93). Its name means sulphur island (Paull 1). It is eight square miles (Iwo 1) and in the shape of a pork chop. Iwos southern tip is composed of an inactive volcano, Mount Suribachi, the highest point of the island (Josephy 93). The land is made of coarse black sand and jagged rock, and the air smelled of rotten eggs from the sulphur emissions. The water circling the island is twelve feet deep only two feet away from the shore. This made it difficult for the Marines to get on the island from boats (Paull 1). Iwo Jima is only two miles wide and four miles long (Josephy 93). The Americans were to fit 70,000 Marines on this tiny island, and would fight 22,000 Japanese soldiers. It took the Marines 36 days to travel four miles on Iwo (Iwo 1). The Americans began bombing on December 8th. They did this to reduce the number of casualties when the troops came on land. The air raids lasted a total of 72 days (Bradly 135). The Navy Bombardments from offshore were to last ten days requested by the Marine generals. The Navy did not comply with this. They were to give them only three days of bombardments, then the Marines were to invade. The shelling took place on February 16th through February 18th. On February 16th bombarding was cut short because of a heavy cloud cover. February 17th was the only complete day of shelling. On February 18th the bombing was cut short because of heavy rains. It was now time for the Marines to move in (Bradly 144-145). ...

Where to Find the Best SAT Writing Practice Tests

Where to Find the Best SAT Writing Practice Tests SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips As you study for SAT Writing, you’ll need some sample tests to practice your new skills on. Resist the temptation to just start trying random questions, however. It’s vital that you only use practice tests that will actually help you improve, and those can be a bit tricky to find. In this post, I'll explain why you shouldstick to accurate practice tests, what makes for a good practice test, how to use them in your SAT writing prep, and where to find the best practice SATs. Keep in mind that although the general advice in this article applies to every standardized test, it only includes links to materialsfor the current SAT.For more info on how to study for the new SAT, try this full guide. Feature Image: Dennis Skley/Flickr 4 Reasons to Stick to Accurate Practice Tests For the most part, you should focus on practicing with official SAT writing tests.SAT writing questionshave their own logic and style, whichyou'll only become accustomed toby studying the actual test. In a perfect world, you couldalsosupplement the official tests with extrapractice materials designed to help you study specific concepts. Unfortunately, the majority ofunofficial SATpractice materials, including those made bywell-knowncompanies like Kaplan and Princeton Review, aren't true towhat's actually on the test. (Here at PrepScholar, we believe our program is an exception, but you don't need to take my word on that. Read the rest of this guide and then give it a try- for free!- yourself.) Using badpractice materials is awaste of valuable SAT studytime and can evenhurt your progress. Below, I've expanded on keyreasons not to use inaccuratepractice materials. #1: They Don't Coverthe Right Concepts SAT writingquestions only test a handfulof topics, butmost non-official practice tests either ask about concepts that aren't on the real test or skip some of the key ideas that are. Even when unofficial materialsdo stay focusedon the same concepts as the real SAT writing section, they generallydon't do soin the same ways. For example,a bad test might ask you about the difference between "who" and "whom," a concept that isn't covered on the real SAT writing section, or have Identifying Sentence Error questions that count style issues as errors or ask about punctuation, neither of whichwould ever happen on a real test. If you're using inaccurate tests, you're learning to take the test the wrong way- to look for errors you won't see on the real thing- instead of getting accustomed to the styleof question you'll actually see on theSAT writingsection. #2:Big Picture Strategies Won't Apply to Them One of the most important parts of studying for SAT writing is learning how to effectively approach the questions. If a practice test doesn't allow you to practice those big picture strategies, it probably isn't worth your time. Someof the worstpractice materials include questions that usedifferent formatsthan those onSAT writing. This change may not seem important, since you can still practicethe SAT writing grammar concepts. However,SAT writing isn't a regular grammar test, and succeeding on it is just as much about understanding how to attack the test as it is about knowing the rules. Make sure to use differently formatted questions sparingly, if at all. #3: They Don't Employthe SameLogic asSAT WritingQuestions I briefly mentioned this idea above, but it is really, reallyimportant: SAT writing questions follow specific patterns and the best way to learn them is to study official SAT writing tests. As such, even the best unofficial tests can't replacereal SATs in your prep plan. #4: TheyCanConvince You that You're Much Better (or Worse) at SAT Writing than You Actually Are A lot of unofficial tests feature questions that areeither considerablyeasier or markedlyharder than those on the actual SAT writing section. If you practice oneasier tests, you're likelyto end up thinking that you're moreprepared than you are and then panicking when faced with real questions. If you'reusing harder tests, on the other hand, you're likely to become discouraged because the tests feel impossible (sometimes they are!). In neither case do you get a good sense of what the material on the official SATis like, which is one of the main reasons topractice the SAT in the first place. You would never see this question on a real SAT, but you might on a bad practice test. Image: Duncan Hull/Flickr 3 Key Qualities to Look for in SAT Writing Practice Material Now thatwe've established some of the problems with bad study materials, let's go overwhat tolook for in goodSAT writingpractice materials. As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, the best approach is tostart with real SATs. Luckily, the College Boardhas released a total of 14official tests, which shouldbe enough to cover at least 40 hours ofstudying. (I'll go over where to find these tests, as well as other official SAT writing practice questions,below.) If you do find yourself in need of further study material, however, there arethree questionsyou need to ask yourself as you evaluatepotential practice materials. #1: Do the Questions Havethe SameFormats as Those on SAT Writing? The first step to evaluating practice materials isglancingover them and making sure they look the same as real SAT writing sections. Are the three different types of questions (Improving Sentences, Identifying Sentence Errors, and Improving Paragraphs) all represented? Doeseachtypelook the way it should? You'll likely be amazed by how many practice tests don't pass this basic screening. Make sure not to use materials that don't look right- they'll certainlybe off in other ways as well. #2: Does ItTest the Same Concepts as the Real SATWriting Section? This question can be very difficult to answer because it requires you to fullyunderstand what's actually on the SAT. This is one of the reasons thatyou should only turn to unofficial tests if you've already used up the majority of the materials available from the College Board. However, if you do need to find some more SAT writing practice, I recommend working through 10 of each type of SAT writing question (or just one passage for Improving Paragraphs) and trying tosee if anything jumps out at you as obviously unlike areal SAT writing section. Are there questions on topics you've never seen on the official tests? Or are there topics clearly missing? Do the explanations clearly lay out why the correctanswer is the only one that works? #3: Isthe TestRoughly asDifficult as the SAT? This problem is another issue that can be challengingto resolvewithout investing a lot of time into materials that may or may not be helpful. After testing some of the questions(as I recommendabove),compare how many you missed on the unofficial testswith youraverage from an official test. Is the numbermuch higher? Much lower? If so, think about why- is it fluke or are you doing measurably better or worse on the unofficial questions?If you suspect the unofficial practice materials differ significantly from official ones, don't usethem. The Best Waysto Use SAT WritingPractice Tests toPrep What you're using SAT writing practice for will depend on whatkind of prep program you're doing(independent, with a tutor, throughan online program), but there are three main types of SAT writingpractice: taking full tests, analyzing sections, and drilling withquestions. I've outlined some general advice on how to effectively practice forSAT writingbelow. Take at Least 3 Full Practice Tests One of the most important parts of studying for the SATis building up the endurance to stay focusedfor a three-hour test,andthe only way to do thatis bypracticing. No matter what type ofstudy program you use, you musttake at least three full practice SATswhere you closely simulate testing conditions: timing yourself, sitting in a quiet room, turningoff your phone, and taking only the SAT-allowed breaks. Make sure to use official SATsfor these full practice tests.The point of the exercise is to mimic the experience of test day as closely as possible, which is only possible with a real test. Analyzethe Questions Anotherreason to primarily useofficial SAT practice testsis that theirquestions have a unique style and logic. Therefore, it can be veryuseful to carefully pickapart real SAT writingquestions and think abouthow they work. When analyzing a question, ask yourself the following questions. What ideais the question testing? How are the wrong answers wrong? Are there traps meant to trick you into picking an incorrectanswer,and, if so,how canyou avoid them? The deeperyour understanding of how SAT writingquestions are built, the easier, and quicker,answering them becomes. You can also check outour post on reviewing your mistakesfor more tips on how to effectively analyze questions. Practice Both With and Without a Timer Although moving quickly through the questionsis an important part of succeeding on the SAT, you shouldn't focus only on timed practice- doing so will keepyou from getting the most out of your SAT writing practice. Afteryou’ve taken a full practice test and set a baseline, it’s better to start with untimed practice and work up to doing timed sections. That way ,at the beginning, you canfocus on gaining a deep understanding ofthe structure and style of SAT writing, which will then help you approach the timed questions more confidently. Know when and when not to use a timer. The Best SAT WritingPractice Tests I've said it before and I'll say it again:use official SAT writing practice testswhenever possible. To help with that, I've curated a list of everywhere you can obtainofficial SAT writingpractice materials- for free and for sale- and explainedthe best ways to use them. Free Official Tests There are a number of full-length official tests available online. These are great for taking as complete tests, but can certainly be used for other purposes as well. Most Recent SAT Practice Test On its website, the College Board offers a free practice test (broken) that anyone can download and take.You can even input your answers on the College Board site, and it will grade the test for you. (Otherwise make sure to download them here. [broken]) This test is great to use as your baseline test because there are full answer explanations available on the College Board website, as well as helpful explanation videos for some of the questions on Khan Academy. More Free Official Tests In addition to the most recent free PDF, there are some older officialSATs available through the links below. Official SAT Practice Test 2013-14(answers) Official SAT Practice Test 2007-08(answers) Official SAT Practice Test 2004-05(answers) Extra Free Official Practice In addition to the full length tests, you can find extra SAT writing practice questions in the following places. College Board Website The College Board offers some extra writing practice questions as well as the full tests:Identifying Sentence Errors (broken), Improving Sentences (broken), andImproving Paragraphs (broken).These aren'tas good for simulating the actual test, but they can help you get a general sense of the questions and style, especially since they include explanations. Khan Academy Online education non-profit Khan Academy has partnered with the College Board to create official studymaterials for the redesigned SAT, but they also have some greatpractice questions for the current version of the test. If you sign up for a free account you can access more official Identifying Sentence Erros and Improving Sentences questions (unfortunately there are none for Improving Paragraphs). The questions include explanations. Official SAT Writing Tests for Sale Finally, there are also some realSATs for sale, in the form ofThe Official SAT Study Guide,which includes 10 more official tests. The book is currently available for $11.81 on Amazon, so it's an excellent value. The book itself doesn't include full answer explanations, but they are available on the College Board website. You canlikely check the bookout of the library as well, but if you do so, make sure that it doesn't include other students' notes and keep in mind that you may not be able to access the online explanations. What's Next? If you still want more sources of SAT writing practice, check out our guide to the best SAT writing books (coming soon). Make sure that you know how to study effectively with these key tips(coming soon). Finally, brush up on your big picture strategies for Identifying Sentence Errors, Improving Sentences, and Improving Paragraphs. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points? Check out our best-in-class online SAT prep program. We guarantee your money back if you don't improve your SAT score by 160 points or more. Our program is entirely online, and it customizes what you study to your strengths and weaknesses. If you liked this Writing and grammar lesson, you'll love our program.Along with more detailed lessons, you'll get thousands ofpractice problems organized by individual skills so you learn most effectively. We'll also give you a step-by-step program to follow so you'll never be confused about what to study next. Check out our 5-day free trial: