My son, 5th grade, was evaluated by the school recently. I have a question on the KTEA-3 written expression scoring. Is the second part of the booklet (the essay part) evaluated/scored for punctuation, capitalization, spelling, complex sentences, smooth transitions,meaningful content, verb tense and subject verb agreement? Or just getting thoughts and meaningful content on the page?

This is a trip report of my recent two month long visit to Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina. I find these progress reports pretty motivating to read from other people so hoping this will be the same for someone else!
My Spanish journey before going on the trip: I did a few months of Spanish classes in 2017, then dropped it completely until starting with DS in July 2022. Before going on this trip in January I’d done 500 hours, pretty much exclusively on DS itself. I think important for context is that I have passed the C1 exam for French, and was raised pretty much bilingual in another language my whole life. I think French helps a huge amount with understanding Spanish vocabulary and grammar structure. I forgot everything I learned in 2017, but I’m sure that it was in the back of my head somewhere and helped with my DS journey as well. I also visited Spain for a week last year and had a few conversations there with native speakers. I’m just providing this context to help those who have a bad tendency to compare themselves to others, we all bring different things to learning Spanish that help us go faster or slower, but we will all get there in the end :)
How the trip went Spanish-wise:
Listening: I was so happy that I’d put in the time with DS before going on this trip. I was able to understand the vast majority of what I heard, to the extent that I was able to go on tours that were exclusively in Spanish and understand 90%. I had been worried about the Chilean and Argentinian accents, so had focused more on listening to those the month before I left. Thanks to Agustina, Tomás and Lorena I was pleasantly surprised that I didn’t have much problem with them, although of course it varied from person to person (and honestly Tomás requires me to concentrate a lot lol - although I do love how hilariously casual some of his videos are, like the ones where he lies on his bed).
Speaking: I was able to ask any questions I needed to, like ordering in restaurants or asking about bus times. It made the trip so much easier than it would have been otherwise.
I will now admit that I broke from DS orthodoxy by doing the Language Transfer podcast while I was in South America, to learn the building blocks of grammar. The reason I did this was that I knew I’d end up speaking to people in Spanish, and I thought it was better to know the grammar so that I wouldn’t end up making bad habits stick by speaking before I have enough input to speak correctly (I think Pablo mentions this in one of his videos as a reason that some people have bad grammar despite spending a long time learning languages). I think it was the correct decision given the circumstances, but it definitely does make me hesitate a bit now while speaking to think about conjugating verbs, and also sometimes now when I’m listening I get a little hung up on identifying grammar, which I’m trying to reduce. When I went to Spain last year I had no idea about grammar and just spoke, but honestly I have no idea if what I say now is more or less correct than then.
I made several friends who only spoke Spanish, so I spent a fair amount of time speaking. I was pretty comfortable speaking about most topics (including trying to explain my country’s war of independence, which my Chilean friend insisted he understood, although I’m not convinced I expressed it well tbh…). Of course there were some words I didn’t know, and also some words I knew from Spanish Spanish that weren’t understood in other countries. My accent isn’t good at all (but is comprehensible), but I do think it’s improving a little. I’d mainly focused on the Spanish accent before this, so started the trip doing the lispy z/c, but had dropped this by the end. The main things I had problems expressing were hypothetical things like would’ve/should’ve/could’ve, and using the subjunctive in all the right places, but other tenses were broadly ok. Overall I was able to have good conversations, with lots of room for improvement. Spanish speakers are very encouraging, with lots of them complimenting on me on my Spanish even though it’s definitely clear I’m still learning, so there’s definitely no reason to be afraid to speak if you want to.
Reading: I didn’t do any reading before going on this trip. I’m sure other people have had this, but I was so shocked by how some things were spelled! For example, ‘hoja’ starting with a ‘h’ blew my mind, as did ‘o sea’ and ‘ni siquiera’ being separate words rather than one word. I could read things in museums and understand at least the gist, but I found it very tiring to do. Since coming back I’ve started reading graded readers, and am looking forward to continuing that part of the journey.
Overall, I am so pleased that this trip went as well as it did Spanish wise, and the time I spent on Dreaming Spanish definitely enriched my experience of the trip hugely. I only wish I could’ve gone after spending more time getting input, but I could only get the time off work now. Comparing my Spanish to my French, I think my speaking and listening abilities are amazing in Spanish after two years when I think about how I spent like 8 years learning French to get to a level only a bit above this… it definitely gives me a lot of faith in this method! I personally agree with some comments I’ve seen that a lot of the people who are not feeling confident about their conversation skills at the 1500 mark probably overestimate how comfortable most people feel speaking a second language that they have haven’t spent thousands and thousands of hours with (and are better than they think they are) but again we all experience a language learning journey differently.
As a postscript, I recently met a handsome Colombian man who barely spoke English, and after spending hours speaking to him in Spanish we ended up kissing, so thank you to Dreaming Spanish for that haha. A true language learning milestone to be able to pull in another language …

I was just listening to the discussion about tests from the ‘no topic left need’ episode and it brought up a memory about a test I took in high school
In high school I had to take Spanish and I really enjoyed the class mainly because the teacher was a funny and chill dude. During our final year we did two mock exams and then a 3 final exams. One on reading, writing and then the dreaded speaking exam
In the two mock tests I managed to get a grade 6 but I knew the speaking exam was usually what brought everyone’s averages down. I sat the reading and writing exams and they went about as well as the mocks did
I prepared well for the speaking exam. Wrote out the answers to the questions and practised speaking them. I had all the verb structures and usages needed to get a level 6 (future and past tenses). We had a session in class where we the teacher looked through our prepared answers, made some corrections and then pointed out any mistakes or things missing
I did the speaking exam and left it feeling really confident. I tripped up a couple of sections where I had to remember a sentence but overall fine
Got the results back a couple of weeks later and I got… a 4. This had subsequently lowered my average to a high level 5 and not a 6. I was shook. I spoke with the teacher privately after class and he said it was because I had only used one future tense verb. You can’t get a level 5 without using at least 2 and level 6 requirement is 2 past tense verbs (which I did have)
This couldn’t be right. I had made sure I met all the criteria. I went back through my prepared sentences and then I saw it. My second future tense verb usage, crossed out in the teacher’s red ink pen. When he had done the review he had noted that the usage was correct but not necessary for the sentence to work. Neither of us at the time realised that meant I needed to add another future verb somewhere to make up for it
I pointed this out to him and he felt really bad but said at this point his hands were tied. That was the last year I ever took Spanish (I wouldn’t have taken even if I got a level 6) so in hindsight it didn’t make a difference but it left a bitter feeling with me for a while

We are pleased to announce the publication of a new article on our website: https://atheism-vs-islam.com.
Your feedback is highly appreciated. Thanks.
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Islamic preachers assert: claim that the following verse of the Quran confirms that the miracle of moon splitting indeed happened.

The Quran confirms that the moon splitting incident indeed happened.
Quran 54:1
ٱقۡتَرَبَتِ ٱلسَّاعَةُ وَٱنشَقَّ ٱلۡقَمَرُ
The Hour (of Judgment) is nigh, and the moon is cleft asunder (Translation by Yusuf Ali)
The grammar that is used for وَٱنشَقَّ (cleft asunder) is "perfect verb فعل ماض" (See the CorpusQuran Website for grammar) which means this incident has already happened in the past.

And we respond to this claim as under:
Firstly: The verse talks about the splitting of the moon in the FUTURE
The correct understanding of this verse is:

• This verse does not tell about any 'past' incident where the moon has already been split.
• But this verse is figuratively talking about the 'FUTURE', where the Hour WILL come.
• And when the hour will come, only at that time the moon will also split.
• And the moon will not split into TWO EQUAL parts (as it allegedly happened according to Ahadith), but it will split into MANY parts.

Muslim translator M. A. S. Abdel Haleem wrote in the footnote of this verse (link):

The Arabic uses the past tense, as if that Day were already here, to help the readelistener imagine how it will be. Some traditional commentators hold the view that this describes an actual event at the time of the Prophet, but it clearly refers to the end of the world.

There are traditional Muslim Scholars, who also mentioned the same:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splitting_of_the_Moon Al-Raghib al-Isfahani, Al-Mawardi and Al-Zamakhshari in their commentaries, in addition to mentioning the miracle, also note that the second half of verse 54:1 can be read as "and the moon will be cleaved", referring to one of the signs of the Islamic end of times.

For example, look at this verse, where the same grammar of "perfect verb فعل ماض" is used (please see the same CorpusQuran Website for grammar):

Quran 55:37: فَإِذَا ٱنشَقَّتِ ٱلسَّمَآءُ When the sky is rent asunder (Translation by Yusuf Ali)

We can see that the sky has not been asunder in the past, but the Quran is telling about a future event in this verse.
Secondly: The moon will not split into Two Equal parts, but into MANY parts
Islamic literature claims that Muhammad split the moon into two equal parts.
However, the word وَٱنشَقَّ does not mean here "splitting into TWO Equal Parts", but it is used in the meaning of "Total Destruction" i.e. to "split asundecleft asunder into MANY Parts".
For example:

Quran 55:37: فَإِذَا ٱنشَقَّتِ ٱلسَّمَآءُ And when the heaven splitteth asunder

This does not mean that heaven will split asunder into TWO Equal Parts, but it means total destruction. Similarly:

Quran 50:44: یَوۡمَ تَشَقَّقُ الۡاَرۡضُ On the day when the earth splitteth asunder from them

Again, this does not mean that the Earth will split into Two Equal Parts, but it means total destruction.
Thirdly: The Quran Bears Witness to Muhammad/Allah's Failure to Present a SINGLE Miracle to the Pagans/Jews
Islamic preachers present the following tradition:

Sahih al-Bukhari, 3868:
Narrated Anas bin Malik: The people of Mecca asked Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) to show them a miracle. So he showed them the moon split in two halves between which they saw the Hira' mountain. More References: Bukhari:3637 Bukhari:3870 Muslim:2800a Muslim:2802a Tirmidhi:2182

These are undoubtedly fabricated traditions and falsehoods propagated by Muslim transmitters of Ahadith.
Fortunately, the Quran itself documents the persistent demand of the Pagans/Jews, who repeatedly asked Muhammad/Allah to provide any sign or miracle as evidence of Muhammad's prophethood. However, Muhammad/Allah failed to produce a single sign or miracle. Instead of demonstrating any miraculous signs, the Quran offered various EXCUSES for Muhammad's inability to do so. These Quranic Excuses included:

1. Muhammad's inability to perform miracles while he is only a human.
2. Allah's decision not to send miracles to Muhammad at this time, as previous nations had rejected the miracles of earlier prophets.
3. Allah does not show any miracle to the pagans as He has already DECIDED that the pagans would not get guidance.
4. Muhammad's refusal to perform miracles for the Jews due to the sins of their forefathers.
5. The absence of the predicted miracle of the sky falling on the Meccans, is attributed to Muhammad's presence among them and Allah didn't want Muhammad to be hurt due to any divine punishment.

Dear Reader, please contemplate these questions:

1. If the people of Mecca indeed saw the splitting of the moon, why then they were demanding Muhammad to bring a miracle as proof of his prophethood?
2. And why didn't Allah/Muhammad not simply refer to the incident of the splitting of the moon as proof of Muhammad's prophethood?"

However, the Quran consistently offered numerous explanations without ever using the alleged incident of the moon splitting to address the pagans' challenge to provide a miracle. Not only the Quran, but the entire Hadith literature is also devoid of any instance where Muhammad used this alleged miracle of splitting the moon in response to the pagans' demand for a miracle.
Let us see the details about these Quranic Excuses here to understand it.

The 1st Quranic Excuse: Muhammad cannot show a Miracle while he is only a human

This incident occurred in Mecca. Muhammad used to threaten the Meccans, warning them to believe in his prophethood or face the consequences, claiming that his Allah would make the sky fall upon them in fragments.

Quran 17:90-93: And they (the polytheists of Quraish) say, "... Or you make the sky fall upon us in fragments AS YOU HAVE (previously) CLAIMED ...

Actually, the pagan Meccans not only accepted this challenge by Muhammad but also extended it and asked Muhammad to show other miracles too and they would believe in his prophethood.
However, Muhammad/Allah failed to deliver on this promise.
Therefore, Muhammad was forced to come up with an EXCUSE for his failure to fulfil his promise and show any miracle. And he made the following excuse:

Quran 17:90-93: And they (the polytheists of Quraish) say, "We will not believe you until you break open for us from the ground a spring. Or [until] you have a garden of palm trees and grapes and make rivers gush forth within them in force [and abundance] Or you make the sky fall upon us in fragments as you have (previously) claimed or you bring Allah and the angels before [us] Or you have a house of ornament [i.e., gold] or you ascend into the sky. And [even then], we will not believe in your ascension until you bring down to us a book we may read." Say: "Glory to my Lord. (I cannot do it while) I am only man and a messenger."

The writer of the Quran (i.e., Muhammad himself) attempted to justify his failure to perform miracles by claiming that he was merely a messenger and could not perform miracles.
However, the pagan Meccans had issued this challenge not only to Muhammad but also to Muhammad's god (i.e., Allah was already automatically included in this challenge). They believed that if Allah truly existed, He should have demonstrated a miracle to them.
Moreover, it was Muhammad/Allah who promised that the sky would fall upon them if they didn't believe in Muhammad's prophethood. Yet, both Muhammad and his Allah failed to fulfill their promise.
Furthermore, if Muhammad's lack of miracles was due to his role as a mere messenger, why did previous prophets demonstrate miracles to validate their prophethood? For instance:

• Jesus spoke as an infant in the cradle, gave life to birds made of clay, Cured the blind and the leper and gave life to the dead by God’s permission (Quran 5:110 and 3:49).
• Moses received nine miracles, including his staff transforming into a dragon, his hand becoming radiant, the plague of locusts/lice, the swarm of frogs, and the parting of the sea for the Children of Israel (Quran 17:101).
• Solomon comprehended the language of animals and birds and controlled jinn and winds (Quran 27:16-17, 34:12-13),
• while Joseph interpreted dreams and predicted future events (Quran 12:46-47, 40:51-52).

And the Meccans were correct in their demand. Even the Quran mentioned their argument:

Quran 21:5: So let him bring us a sign just as the previous [messengers] were sent [with miracles]."

So, if the earlier prophets were able to demonstrate miracles despite being humans, why then Muhammad could not?
And then the Quran claims that Allah does not change his PRACTICE (i.e. Sunnah):

Quran 17:77: This has been Our Way with the Messengers whom We sent before you. You will find no change in our Practice (i.e. the Sunnah of Allah). Quran 48:23: [This is] the established practice of Allah which has occurred before. And never will you find in the Practice of Allah any change. Quran 35:43: But you will never find in the practice of Allah any change, and you will never find in the practice of Allah any alteration.

The Quran presents a contradiction regarding the expectation of miracles from prophets. In one instance, it suggests that prophets are not required to display miracles as evidence of their prophethood, yet in another, it describes earlier prophets performing miracles to prove their legitimacy. This raises a question: Why did earlier prophets show miracles to disbelievers, but Muhammad and his Allah refused to do so?
The answer lies in the fact that the Quran recounts fictional tales of earlier prophets' miracles, which cannot be verified since they took place in the distant past. Conversely, when it came to Muhammad and his Allah, they were expected to perform miracles in real-time, right before the very eyes of the Kuffar Meccans who challenged them. However, they failed to deliver on these expectations.
PS:
This Excuse in the Quranic Verse also challenges those so-called Sahih Islamic Traditions (Ahadith) which claim that Muhammad showed Meccans the miracle of the splitting of the moon. Had Muhammad really split the moon, then he would have presented it to the Kuffar Meccans as proof of his prophethood.

The 2nd Quranic Excuse: Allah would not send a miracle to Muhammad this time while nations of earlier prophets denied the miracles of earlier prophets

This incident also happened in Mecca.

Quran 17:58-59: وَإِن مِّن قَرْيَةٍ إِلَّا نَحْنُ مُهْلِكُوهَا قَبْلَ يَوْمِ ٱلْقِيَٰمَةِ أَوْ مُعَذِّبُوهَا عَذَابًا شَدِيدًا ۚ كَانَ ذَٰلِكَ فِى ٱلْكِتَٰبِ مَسْطُورًا وَمَا مَنَعَنَآ أَن نُّرْسِلَ بِٱلْءَايَٰتِ إِلَّآ أَن كَذَّبَ بِهَا ٱلْأَوَّلُونَ ۚ There is not a population but We shall destroy it before the Day of Judgment or punish it with a dreadful Penalty: that is written in the (eternal) Record. And We REFRAIN from sending the signs (now in front of Kuffar Meccans), only because the men of former generations treated them as false.

Meccans repeatedly asked Muhammad for a miracle, but he always offered new excuses for not delivering one. Earlier Muhammad claimed he could not perform any miracle while he was only a human being. But that excuse was shaky as the challenge was not limited to Muhammad only, but his god (i.e. Allah) was also automatically included in that challenge.
Thus, Muhammad was forced to change his excuse. This time, he came up with a new excuse that Allah had ceased sending new miracles/signs since earlier people rejected them.
In simpler terms, Allah's practice (i.e. Sunnah of Allah ) supposedly changed when earlier people denied the signs. However, this contradicts the Quranic CLAIM that Allah's Sunnah never changes.
As they say, where there's a contradiction, there's a lie.
Furthermore, it's worth noting that there's also a flaw in Verse 58:

Quran 17:58: There is not a population but We shall destroy it before the Day of Judgment or punish it with a dreadful Penalty: that is written in the (eternal) Record.

Muhammad recounted various tales in the Quran about ancient prophets like Thamud, 'Aad and Saleh etc., describing how their communities were destroyed by Allah. Muhammad presumed that nobody could fact-check his accounts by journeying into the past. However, he made a critical error.
The problem lies in the fact that, according to the Quran, Jesus also performed miracles in front of the Jews and Romans. He spoke as an infant in the cradle, gave life to birds made of clay, cured the blind and the leper, and even brought the dead back to life, all by God's permission (Quran 5:110 and 3:49). Yet, neither the Jews nor the Romans believed in him. Despite this, neither the Jews nor the Romans of Jesus's era were destroyed (which again goes against the Quranic Promise of Destruction).
The incident of Jesus took place in the recent past, making it feasible to verify its authenticity through historical records. Thus, this claim in the Quran has been exposed as a lie.

The 3rd Excuse: Muhammad shouldn't ask Allah for a Miracle while Allah had misguided the Pagans

Furthermore, the previous two excuses naturally failed to satisfy people regarding Muhammad's/Allah's inability to show any miracle. They continued to ask Muhammad to bring a miracle as proof of his prophethood. To deflect their demand, Muhammad introduced another excuse:

• He (Muhammad) cannot ask Allah for any miracle because Allah does not want the pagans to be guided.
• And if he (Muhammad) persists in asking Allah for a miracle, then Allah will punish him, and he (Muhammad) will be among the ignorant.

Quran 6:35: وَإِن كَانَ كَبُرَ عَلَيْكَ إِعْرَاضُهُمْ فَإِنِ ٱسْتَطَعْتَ أَن تَبْتَغِىَ نَفَقًا فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ أَوْ سُلَّمًا فِى ٱلسَّمَآءِ فَتَأْتِيَهُم بِـَٔايَةٍ ۚ وَلَوْ شَآءَ ٱللَّهُ لَجَمَعَهُمْ عَلَى ٱلْهُدَىٰ ۚ فَلَا تَكُونَنَّ مِنَ ٱلْجَٰهِلِينَ If you (O Muhammad) find rejection by the unbelievers so unbearable, then seek a tunnel into the ground or a ladder into the sky in order to bring them a SIGN, but [remember that], had God willed it, He would have guided all of them. Do not be among the ignorant (by asking a SIGN from Allah).

Once more, this verse serves as evidence that no miracle was shown to the Meccan disbelievers by Muhammad/Allah.

The 4th Quranic Excuse: Muhammad will not show the miracle to the Jews while their forefathers sinned

This incident happened just after Muhammad's migration to Medina when he had to prove his prophethood to the Jews of Medina.
The Bible contains several passages that highlight the phenomenon of divine acceptance of a person's sacrificial offering through the appearance of a mysterious fire that consumes the offering. These instances can be found in verses such as Judges 6:20-21, 13:19-20, and 2 Chronicles 7:1-2.
Actually, Muhammad had already made a mistake, and he had also previously confirmed this method of the miracle of fire in the Quran 5:27, in the story of Adam and his sons, where a fire appeared and consumed the offering of one son who sacrificed a sheep.

Quran 5:27: Recite to them the truth of the story of the two sons of Adam. Behold! they each presented a sacrifice (to Allah): It was accepted from one, but not from the other.

Tafsir Tabari, under verse 5:27 (link):

It was narrated from as-Suddi, in his narration from Abu Maalik and from Abu Saalih from Ibn ‘Abbaas, and from Murrah from Ibn Mas‘ood, and from some of the companions of the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him): ... Habeel (Abel) offered a fat lamb as his offering, while Qabeel (Cain) presented a sheaf of corn but secretly took out and consumed a large portion of the corn. Subsequently, fire descended from the heavens and consumed Habeel's offering, while Qabeel's offering remained untouched and unaccepted. In response, Qabeel became enraged and threatened to kill Habeel, vowing that he would not allow him to marry his sister. Grade: Sahih (Albani)

Consequently, when Muhammad asserted his prophethood, the Jews asked him to provide proof through the manifestation of a miracle, specifically the fire consuming his offering.
Muhammad found himself unable to dismiss this demand outright, as he already acknowledged it in the story of Adam in the Quran.
However, Muhammad resorted to a different approach, offering a new excuse. He accepted the validity of the miracle involving the fire accepting the offering, but he refused to showcase this miracle. He justified his inability to show this miracle by accusing the Jews of Medina that their forefathers sinned by killing previous prophets

Quran 3:183: They (the Jews) said: "Allah took our promise not to believe in any messenger unless He showed us a sacrifice consumed by Fire (From heaven)." Say: "There came to you messengers before me, with clear Signs and even with what ye ask for: why then did ye slay them, if ye speak the truth?"

However, this excuse by the writer of the Quran does not hold up under scrutiny for several reasons.
Firstly, it is unjust to punish individuals for the sins of their ancestors. In this case, the writer of the Quran is essentially claiming to hold the Jews of his time accountable for the actions of their forefathers. This contradicts the concept of divine justice, which does not attribute guilt based on lineage.
Secondly, the Jews of Muhammad's era maintained a strong belief in their own holy scriptures, which also indicated that the proof of prophethood involved successfully passing the miracle test. It is understandable that they would request the same evidence from Muhammad and, upon his failure to provide it, reject his claims. This rejection cannot be seen as their fault, as they were simply following the principles outlined in their own religious texts.
Ironically, when the Jewish holy books seemingly predicted the arrival of Muhammad (according to Muslim claims), Muhammad expected the Jews to adhere to their own scriptures. However, when those same holy books instructed them to seek the miracle of fire as a validation of prophethood, Muhammad wanted them to abandon that requirement. This double standard raises questions about consistency and fairness.
Thirdly, the writer of the Quran contradicts his own claims within the text. The Quran repeatedly asserts that the practices of Allah remain unchanging. Yet, in this instance, Muhammad is deviating from that principle by rejecting the miracle of fire as a valid proof of prophethood.

Quran 48:23: [This is] the established way of Allah which has occurred before. And never will you find in the practice of Allah any change. Quran 35:43: But you will never find in the practice of Allah any change, and you will never find in the practice of Allah any alteration.

Since Muhammad was unable to perform the miracle of fire in front of the Jews, a sudden shift occurred in the ways of Allah to accommodate his inability to demonstrate miracles.
Fourthly, it is worth noting that compared to the ancestors of the Jews, the ancestors of the pagan Meccans (Mushrikeen) did not have a history of killing prophets. However, Muhammad didn't show any miracle to them too by making other excuses.
Muhammad got so much exposure in this incident, that despite all his struggles to make the Jews of Medina happy in the beginning (by adopting many Biblical laws in Islamic Sharia), not even 10 Jews of Medina believed in him and converted to Islam;

Sahih Bukhari, 3941: The Prophet said: "Had only ten Jews believe me, all the Jews would definitely have believed me."

The 5th Quranic Excuse: The Miracle of the Sky Falling on the Meccans Did Not Occur due to Muhammad's Presence Among Them

This incident happened later in Medina after Muhammad had also failed to show the miracle of fire to the Jews.

Quran 8:32: And when they [Meccans] said, "O Allah, if this should be the truth from You, then rain down upon us stones from the sky or bring us a painful punishment." But Allah did not punish them while you, [O Muhammad], was among them, and Allah would not punish them while they sought forgiveness.

This verse was revealed in Medina after the Battle of Badr (in the 2nd Hijri Year), in which Muhammad got victory against the Meccan pagans.
Is it not strange and ridiculous that AFTER MANY MANY YEARS, Allah remembered to tell the reason why He didn't let the sky fall on Meccan pagans? During the 13 years of the Meccan life of Muhammad, the pagans were constantly demanding and challenging Muhammad/Allah to fulfil their promise, but Allah uttered not a single word.
Two more pertinent questions arise from this narrative:

• Firstly, why did Allah not choose to punish the Meccans with the miracle of the falling sky during Muhammad's absence or just after his migration to Medina? Due to no divine punishment, the Meccan pagans succeeded in waging wars against Muhammad, even killing many Muslims and even breaking the teeth of Muhammad in the Battle of Uhud. But despite breaking the teeth of Muhammad, and despite Muhammad's absence among them, still no sky fell on them.
• Secondly, the Meccans did not solely request the miracle of punishment; rather, they sought any miraculous manifestation (even without any punishment), similar to those experienced by the previous prophets, that could substantiate Muhammad's claim to prophethood.

Please see the following verse again where they are also asking Muhammad for any miracle (even without punishment), and they were ready to believe in his prophethood.
Quran 17:90-93:

And they (the polytheists of Quraish) say, "We will not believe you until (1) you break open for us from the ground a spring. (2) Or [until] you have a garden of palm trees and grapes and make rivers gush forth within them in force [and abundance] Or you make the SKY FALL UPON US IN FRAGMENTS AS YOU HAVE CLAIMED (3) or you bring Allah and the angels before [us] (4) Or you have a house of ornament [i.e., gold] (5) or you ascend into the sky. And [even then], we will not believe in your ascension until you bring down to us a book we may read." Say: "Glory to my Lord. (I cannot do it while) I am only man and a messenger."

Thus, Muhammad along with his Allah failed to show even any simple miracle without any punishment, as it happened in the cases of previous prophets.

Islamic Apologists: The 2nd verse of Surah 54 makes clear that indeed the incident of the splitting of the moon happened

The first 2 verses of Surah 54 are as under:

54:1 The Hour has come near, and the moon has split54:2 And if they see a miracle, they turn away and say, "Same old magic!"

Islamic apologists claim that the 2nd verse is proof that indeed the 1st verse is talking about the past incident of the splitting of the moon.
Response:
Absolutely not. It says that whenever the disbelievers see a sign, they pass it off as magic. It is very consistent with the future tense interpretation of the moon split. It's a warning to the kuffar that they should accept whenever a prophet comes with signs before judgement day seals their fate.

• The second verse in Arabic is clearly in the present tense.
• To report an event such as a miracle occurring in the past that includes onlookers, the onlookers’ actions should also be in the past. But here they are in the present.
• It clearly refers to the continuous GENERAL BEHAVIOUR of non-believers denying Allah’s warnings and signs.

If the 2nd verse was indeed for any past incident, then it should have also been in the past tense, and it should have looked like this:
The Original VersesThey Should Have Been54:1 The Hour has come near, and the moon has split54:2 And if they see a miracle, they turn away and say, "Same old magic!"54:1 The Hour has come near, and the moon has split54:2 And when they saw the miracle, they turned away and said, "Same old magic!"

Islamic Apologist: God shows miracles by His Will and on His time per His Wisdom

An Islamic apologist wrote:

Concluding that "Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) not showing a miracle on demand must mean he had an inability to show miracles" by itself is an "argument from silence" or "negative proof fallacy." It fails to consider that there may be other reasons for those miracles not being shown at those times, the most ultimate being that God shows miracles by His Will and on His time per His Wisdom, not just by the mere demands of humans. Humans don't rush God. But God later showed miracles when the time was right, indeed.

Response:
If Allah had himself presented this excuse in the Quran (i.e. Allah will show the miracle to pagans at the time of his choice), then there would have been absolutely no problem. But not showing the miracle at all is the problem.
And then coming up with different lame excuses for his complete failure to show miracles is again a problem.
Firstly, Muhammad/Allah started the game of threatening about miraculously falling the sky on the Meccans if they didn't believe in the prophethood of Muhammad:

Quran 17:90-93: And they (the polytheists of Quraish) say, ... you make the SKY FALL UPON US IN FRAGMENTS AS YOU HAVE (previously) CLAIMED

Not only did the Meccans accept this challenge by Muhammad/Allah, but they also added to it and asked Muhammad to perform even other small miracles. However, Muhammad/Allah failed to fulfil their promise of the sky falling on them. This means Muhammad/Allah didn't show the miracle at all. This is not equal to the claim of the Islamic apologist (i.e. Allah showing a miracle at a time of his own choice).
Moreover, the Quran presented the excuse that Allah stopped sending the signs/miracles to the Kuffar of the era of Muhammad while earlier kuffar Nations didn't take a lesson from signs/miracles (Quran 17:58-59). This excuse is again not equal to the claim of the Islamic apologist (i.e. Allah showing a miracle at a time of his own choice).
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The Direct link to this article on our website:
https://atheism-vs-islam.com/index.php/hoaxes-of-the-quranic-miracles-and-predictions/263
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My second trimester starts in less than a week now and I'm so stressed about it I can't even enjoy the last of my winter break. I really had a tough time first semester, even though on the surface everything went right for me. I made a few friends (acquaintances.... we just get lunch together sometimes), I got straight As (at fucking Northwestern University no less), I've joined a few clubs with some great people, and I took a bunch of classes I was really interested and still... it just sucked.
I feel like I spend all of my time every day on busywork. I know Northwestern is a super high-quality school (god im so fucking tired of how stuck up they are this fucking school oh my god), but none of the classes I took were even hard. To be fair, I didn't take anything like Bio or Chem - but I don't want to do science. I took a lot of writing/analysis classes & french bc im planning on majoring in comp lit, which is an exciting major to me - I love writing & I love learning languages. But none of the classes challenged me or made me feel like I was actually learning in any way. Yeah, I learned a new french verb tense and I wrote some essays, but really what it felt like was I sat down at my desk in the morning, zoned out and did homework for a while, and then suddenly it was dinnertime. every. single. day. The only class I feel I actually got something useful out of was my video game analysis class, which I went to office hours for basically every week and wrote extra essays and was friends with the professor and stuff. Every other class was just busywork. Honestly, I'm kind of mad I got all As bc god knows I just checked the boxes and moved on in some of those classes! and sure, that's all you need to do, but what is the point of taking these classes and dedicating so much time to them if it doesn't get me anywhere personally??? I spend 10 hours a week for a number on my transcript? I'm not LEARNING ANYTHING!!
I like to do a lot of stuff with my free time - I'm a writer, I create & edit my own videos, I draw/paint, as well as teaching myself Japanese, reading, playing games.... and I didn't have time to do any of that the way I wanted to. I just spent the vast majority of every single day doing some goddamn reading or discussion post & I wasn't able to do the things I actually care about.... and that fucking sucks. All of that stuff is more fulfilling to me and feels more important than any of my classes were - and I feel like I'm learning more too! but noooo "respond to 3 people on canvas......" I told myself that if college was anything like the full IB program did (no free time, constantly in "survival mode," dont feel fulfilled or happy, just trying to get through to the next week), I would drop out.... and here I am and its exactly like that and I can't commit to transferring.
Also im spending 80,000 fucking dollars a year to go to this dumbass stuck up school with boring classes and busywork. WHAT AM I DOING. I literally asked my parents "why am i spending so much to go to a school with mid classes" and they said 'for the name on your diploma." which is. correct. but so awful its so ughhhh.
I've had such a wonderful break - I've completed so many projects, including editing a movie-length game show, completing like 8 paintings, 2-3 books, seeing all my old friends all the time (and getting to actually be myself with them). I've started volunteering at my local museum teaching kids about trains, which is SO much fun & I love all the people there. I've finally picked up my viola again (which I'm not allowed to even play at college bc you have to be a music major to access the practice rooms.... 80k a year for THIS???)..... idk i just cant really deal with the idea of going back to the way things were. I haven't cried once since I got home a month ago, and I cried at school basically every other day. And I just accepted that as normal. I dont want to do that again.
But I don't know where I go from here. Any college "easier" than Northwestern is just going to be stupidly easy, and feels like admitting defeat.... "ohhh they just couldnt cut it at northwesternn... how sad...." Any college with a similar level of challenge might just have the same fucking issues and I don't know how to tell whether they would or not! and I don't even know how to begin to break it to my parents that I hate college.... I mentioned to them once that I needed to slack off more, in the sense that if I spent 30 minutes on each page of each reading I would go insane.... and the looks I got from across the dining room table were so disappointed. They're great, and they would support me wanting to transfer, but I don't know how they'd feel about this reason and it just... feels like admitting defeat. I got the highest grades of my whole graduating class - I'm supposed to be good at this shit... and I AM! but it doesnt even matter i just hate it.
TL:DR: I spend all my time every day on stupid things I don't care about, which makes me hate college. Nothing challenges me or forces me to learn and I never have time to do things I actually care about. Stressed to hell and back about having to do another trimester bc I don't want to go through that again.

...and I did it without the help of:-any private (human) teacher-any in-class lesson-any proper speaking partner-any textbook.
So since I was accused of lying by multiple people, I actually went back and found a conversation I had with the redditor u/1Fnn4 about the exam 2 months ago on another post I shared here. Here it is. My exam was supposed to be on Dec. 20th, but GI removed that date for god knows why so I was left with no choice but to enter the exam on Dec. 1st. That's pretty much all I can do for proof. I'm just a guy online and I can't really prove something like this. Maybe I AM lying, though. Who knows? Here's how I did it (or what I made up), my fully, down to the breath, laid out plan anyways.
I would like to write my experience here, in case there are other people out there in a similar situation like me and need a bit of motivation and inspiration for their studies. I tried to make this as detailed and include as much info about my journey as possible, so it's going to be long. I squeezed every single drop of sense out of the information we are given by Goethe Institut about this exam and its structure, to pass it in such a short time with minimal study.
And once again, these are MY experiences and opinions, take them all with a grain of salt for yourself.

Let's get some facts about me (which affected the outcome) out of the way first.

• Grades?: L 97 / H 93 / SCHR 86 / SPR 75.
• Why?: Officiality.
• When?: From roughly the beginning of August to the literal end of November, with my exam being on December 1st.
• Is what I did ideal?: No. Right out of the gate, no. I studied FOR the exam, not to learn the language properly (yet). Lots of stress. Lots of uncertainities. More about that later.
• Am I good enough to fulfill CEFR standarts?: If the standart we are talking about is "Can deal with situations that come up and make a presentation about a topic that's familiar", I guess so. I mean, that's essentially what the Sprechen part of this exam is about, but even that has some "tricks".
• How was my relationship with German before?: High school classes, closest one being 2017, although last time I took it serious was in 2013, solely because our teacher was hot. Other than that, Rammstein. Only listening, very occasionally checking lyrics and their meanings. Their rawness is too good to care for what they mean. So, before the start of August, pretty much all I knew was dedie/das.****AN EDIT HERE: People seem to make too much meaning out of these "lessons". This post isn't about Turkish schooling system so I'll keep it brief. Basically, if a teacher is lazy, they can sit through all lessons, give students passing grades and keep their jobs because students are also fine with passing AND sleeping during the class, so no official is informed. German has no effect in university entrance exam and not everyone aged 13-17 are interested in German, absolutely no one was in my school. When I said I took it serious the first year, which was 10 YEARS AGO, all I did was not sleep through the class, take some notes and stare at the teacher for 40 minutes a week. I didn't study what I wrote down or passed with good grades. All I could speak before August was "Mein Name ist ..." and that is because it's somewhat similar to English. I couldn't even say "Ich heiße ..." because I didn't know the verb. I learned in a week in August more than what 4 years of school (didn't) taught me.
• My background with other languages: I'm a Turkish native and know English at I'd say native level too. I never needed to get my English tested, to be honest. German is my first language with articles and whatnot, so I'm still struggling with that aspect of German but having 2 languages in my pocket helps me with comparing concepts (meanings of words, sentence structure etc.) to get a better grasp of what I'm looking at. I must also say that I didn't really learn English. I started taking English lessons in school when I was 5, when I was barely able to speak my own language, later continuing my journey with a series that my sister forced me to watch, and that later became a passion of mine until a few years ago, Doctor Who, and my interest in hobbies that had no Turkish resources whatsoever. English kind of came to me along with my native language, despite no one in my family or daily life speaks English. Regardless, I progressed the two hand in hand, in a way, so I consider learning German to be my first proper, willing language learning experience.
• Which books did I use?: None for grammar or vocabulary. All I used was B1 Neu 15 Übungsprüfungen for exam specific studies. These are really good to test yourself and do show the level you are on somewhat accurately. I say somewhat, because I did better than any other Hören test I solved before the exam and slightly better on other modules.
• Well, what were your resources then?: Youtube, Anki and ChatGPT are the backbones for grammar, vocabulary and corrections. DeepL, this subreddit, verbformen, podcasts and Google searches are almost just as important.
  • Youtube: For somewhat structured lessons. I almost only watched YourGermanTeacher Grammar playlists from A1.1 to B1.1.
  • Anki: Vocabulary. I had like 800ish words left in B1 word list that I couldn't get to learn before the exam. There are readily made decks available online. I would look up the meaning of almost every single word, try to say the English examples out loud in German before revealing them, delete the words which are engraved in my brain, modify the cards with simple notes that help me remember the word easier, etc. Basically whatever works for you.
  • ChatGPT: This is your private teacher if you don't have a real one. Couldn't have possibly done it without ChatGPT. It is UNRELIABLE, das kommt nicht in Frage, but you can still use it to correct your Schreiben texts (or simply if you think of a sentence and want to figure out if it's correct or not) sentence by sentence, with a command like "Don't alter my sentence and don't suggest a better one. I just want you to tell me if it's grammatically correct and provide an English translation, with breakdown of corrections if there's any". Get creative with the commands, it's your personal teacher slave. When it starts to get a bit too funky with the sentences it corrects, I found that starting a new chat solves the "issue". Don't type in whole paragraphs. In my experience, finding out if the sentences you CAN form are correct is a much better way to study FOR THE EXAM if you have such a short time like I did. You can always make yourself clearer, use a better verb, a more fitting synonym of a word, whatever the hell you can think of, and GPT will suggest these if you put in whole paragraphs. This might be better if you are studying to better your German overall, rather than to pass an exam, but on such a short notice, I found that it was risky to alter my current way of thinking in German. I had to make do, and typing in one or a few sentences for GPT to correct at once was a better way to go.
  • This subreddit: For extremely specific informations that didn't directly help me with my exam, but helped me keep my curiosity flame alive AND for extremely easy stuff that isn't on anywhere else because they are so simple that no one bothers writing anything about it unless somebody asks.People here are the GOAT. Natives brainstorming about the weirdest fucking language things while us mere mortals from any other country than the Great-3 gaze at their mighty collission of knowledge and witness them settling down after furious discussions, as they whisper these ancient words to our screens: "It's regional." Ausgezeichnet.
  • Some Google searches: For things like verb comparisons.
  • Slow German Podcast with Annik Rubens: For hearing comprehension. Only listening like half an hour on my way to the gym, 4 days per week, helped me tremendously with my Hören exercises. In fact, when I stopped going to the gym in the last 2 weeks to prepare for the exam, my correct Hören answers dropped back. I sped up the podcasts as I started understanding more and more. When I could listen to an episode at around %80-85 understanding, I sped it up by a notch. I was listening to it on x1.4 speed on the exam day, which is just a tiny bit faster than how they usually speak in Hören dialogues.
  • Rammstein: When I was bored of podcasts, I would listen to them. 2 birds with one stone! It's also easier to learn words when they come from something you can easily remember and love. Hell, in one of my Schreiben ÜP, the topic was tattoos. Lyrics from "Tattoo" did help me with that lol
• Study structure?: I finished YourGermanTeacher playlists at around the beginning of October, I guess. Only studying grammar was absolutely not a good idea, so I started using Anki seriously at around that time too. After about 3ish weeks, I applied for the exam and had 3 weeks to do exam-specific studies, like finding Redemittels, solving Übungsprüfungen, looking for tips online, researching about the exam, stressing the fuck out of my mind and borderline going depressive etc. I would study how much ever I could in a day. This was my sole focus, yet if I were to crunch all the time I studied with a deep focus, I'd say it was around 3-4 hours on average per day, some days 6-7 hours, some days 1-2 hours due to other stuff in life. Until those last 3 weeks. Then, I would say 1-2 hours more per day.

Now onto exam and module specific parts

• OVERALL
  • My exam was on paper, not on a computer like how some institutes do it. I like to underline what I read and take notes. This came in handy with especially the Hören part (see below). Only downside I would say is with Schreiben as writing takes time and you can't redo an earlier section of your text if you wanted to, so you need to take safe steps as you create your text structure.
  • First and foremost, disregard the given Arbeitszeit on any part of the exam. They mean nothing. How much a part will take is totally dependent on you. Find your own way of starting with the modules except obviously the Hören part.
  • Bring your own blue or black pen and a normal watch (not smart), in case they don't display the time left.
  • You are only given a sheet of paper for the Schreiben part to practice on. For Sprechen, you only have the booklet.
  • *I guess* they allowed us to go to the toilet during the exam one person at a time. One guy did, but not sure if he had finished his exam by then, or if you are allowed to go without handing in your paper. Just hold yourself for an hour, don't get diarrhea and you will be fine.
  • We were offered water from the fountain with paper cups.
  • If you happen to write something wrong, you can just cross over it on Schreiben part.
  • For others, they should demonstrate how you should do it before the exam starts, but you basically put a cross in the box you want to pick and if you'd like to undo it, you fill it completely and cross the other one. So you can only change your option once. Just pick answers on your booklet and only at the end start marking your answers on Antwortbogen.
  • Don't mind how there is almost no selection a or b or c through the whole exam, or how 4 questions consecutively have Falsch. It happens. In my exam on the Lesen part, there were almost no a's, maybe 1 or 2, but rather an overload of c's. So, I don't suggest that you do it, but if you're absolutely clueless, you can just mark everything as c, or Falsch or Richtig, whatever blows your horn, and can still manage to get some points. That goes with Hören too. When I was unsure about the answers when I first started practicing Hören, I would do all F or R and I would get a few correct answers out of that part. This should be your last resort.
• LESEN: Thinking about it, I actually did nothing specific for this. I did Nico's Weg B1 exercises but only like the first 10-12 tasks (there are around 77 of them). The long text at the end of every task helped a bit. Other than that, I believe practicing other parts of the exam with Übungsprüfungen helped me understand what's written. I finished this part in around 30-35 minutes out of 65 you're given. Now I must say that I didn't understand everything written IN THE QUESTION TEXTS. Being able to notice some keywords here and there and UNDERSTANDING THE OPTIONS AS COMPLETE AS POSSIBLE, is the key. Notice the difference here. This was the easiest part of the exam and my correct answers in Übungsprüfungen were around 25/29, occasionally doing as bad as 22/23.
  • For the first part, I would read a few lines and then check the question to see if I have the answer already.
  • Second part, I would just read the whole text and then see if I can find the answers. If not, re-reading it is easier and faster for the second time, thus finding the answers also become easier.
  • Third part, which I think is a really tricky yet fun one, I would write what could be a match and only if I'm sure it's a correct match, I would cross out that ad. Helps keep your mind clear and not waste time checking the same ads over and over again. Make sure to read the introduction to this part as it can contain time info, which can be crucial for finding the right answer.
  • Fourth part, EASY. Can't remember a time I made a mistake on this part. You don't have to understand exactly what that person thinks. Just find out if it's a negative or a positive approach relative to the question. You need 4J/3N or 3J/4N answers. If it's not one or the other, you did something wrong. This is the only part of the exam with symmetrical option ratio.o Fifth part, I believe is the hardest. Not only questions are not always in order, most of the time you can't find the exact sentence that happens to be the answer. Text in this part is also written in a somewhat serious manner and they use a lot of synonyms, so extra attention is required.
• HÖREN: Hardest part of the exam if you ask me. You don't know when you will be given the answers: it can be 3 answers in 3 seconds, or an answer every 15 or so seconds. You also probably don't know how the sound system is at the Goethe Institute in which you'll be taking the exam. If you practiced your hearing ONLY with your $200 ANC headphones/earbuds, it's probably game over for you there.
  • I re-wrote the questions with a few keywords in my native language and didn't read the German ones after each part started. This way you don't have to look out for synonyms, rather you just need to catch if something close to what you wrote is said or not. Start writing as soon as you are allowed to open the booklet and don't stop when you aren't expecting an answer to a question. Give more attention to parts you can only listen to once (2nd and 3rd), because, well, once you miss something it's gone forever.
  • You can also write the numbers in text. That helps tremendously when there are multiple years with close numbers like, for example, 1847 and 1874.
  • Speed up whatever it is that you listen to when you study, once it gets easier for you to understand. This helps especially with the last part of Hören, where guests that discuss a topic can interrupt each other and speak quickly and furiously. You need to keep up with the topic even if things get fast.
  • I suggest you do your exercises with the worst possible speakerS you can find. Multiple of them. Do it with heavy bassy speaker, do it with speaker that has no bass at all. Use your headphones to listen to podcasts when you commute or whatever. Where I took the exam, it was a Smart TV speaker. Heavy bass. On the last part, I confused 2 womens voices. Luckily it seems I figured it out correctly on my second go.
  • If you missed a question, forget about it and focus on the next one.
  • Don't pick an answer right when you think it is the answer. Leave a mark on it and keep on listening. Don't miss your focus. I don't know how many answers I got wrong while studying solely because of this impatience I have.
• SCHREIBEN: Practice practice practice. No other way around, especially with this part. All 3 parts took me almost exactly 60 minutes. I had to get it done in 58 minutes in the exam though, because the examiner didn't quite allow 60 minutes. Didn't make a fuss about it as I was already done, but yeah. If you don't have anyone to check your texts, to see if they are good enough to pass the exam, check the performance examples given in Goethe's example exam PDF. Here is a text of mine with a few obvious errors. I believe I did somewhat better in the exam, but something around the lines of this will be enough for you to pass, even if it's with %60 grade. You don't have to go full Kant. Check how the grading works, again, in Goethe's example exam PDF, and do the B1 Neu topics. You'll be good to go. Make ChatGPT correct your sentences but don't believe it %100. It's a good rule of thumb but no where near fully reliable. One thing I was particularly bad at was past tenses of the verbs. Luckily I didn't have to explain something that happened in the past in the exam, like my birthday celebration or whatever. This was one of the uncertainities that I mentioned earlier. My performance was heavily dependent on what was going to come in front of me. I wrote a few lines on the practice sheet and when I liked where the text was going and thought I could create a good flow from there for all the bullet points, I transferred my text to the answer sheet.
  • I started with Teil 3, formal/half formal letter. This usually took me around 10 minutes to complete. Out of the way right from the start.
  • Then Teil 1, informal letter. This is the one I struggle with the most, it usually took me 30 minutes, because you have to mention the topics you're given AND keep a flow of the topic.
  • Lastly, Teil 2, writing your opinion on a given topic. This is the part you can go nuts with your knowledge. All they say is "Write your opinion now, around 80 words". You have a river here. Long as you make it flow, you can either go round and around and make it into a spiral, or take it as far as it can reach. You can make use of your Redemittels. I went as far as to writing a saying I saw in this subreddit, which is "Was Hänschen nicht lernt, lernt Hans nimmer mehr". Display your knowledge here. You can go the opposite way of the text you were given, or agree with it. Whatever you like.
  • Now, I don't know why 14 points were deducted from me. I did go over the given word count and was almost sure I mentioned all the topics that I should, but oh well.
• SPRECHEN: By far the most awful part of my exam, as points show. I stuttered a lot, about %30 of my speaking, I'd say. Realised after the exam I got the articles of most words wrong and that I could definitely made myself more clear, but you only get 15 minutes and with all the stress of the exam, it is acceptable. Anyways, as I said, I didn't have a proper speaker partner too, so I practiced with my wife who is A1. Preparing your presentation introduction and closure beforehand is vital. They are parts of the exam that give you points so it makes NO SENSE to go there without a prepared text for these parts. With 2 Goethe example exams and 15 B1 Neu Übungsprüfungen, you have access to a total of 34 topics. Do them all. Topics that both me and my partner got were topics I already made a presentation about in my studies. Same with Planen, in fact, the exact same topic that we discussed with my partner right before the exam. As for how I studied:
  • For Teil 1, I allowed my wife 15 minutes for JUST Planen, while I prepared for both Planen and Präsentation, like how you're supposed to do it in the exam itself. She could use GPT, DeepL, whatever it takes to be prepared and then we did our planning. My partner downright sucked, was not prepared at all for the exam, didn't know what to do. I had to pull her in the right direction when we did our planing. So you have to be kind of prepared for unpreparedness too. If your partner is, however, a more knowledgable person, lucky you, because when you're stuck, you can be carried on. For my case, practices we made with my wife, BEFORE I let her use internet as she was preparing, helped.
  • For Teil 2, I recorded myself to check if I looked at paper too much. You can write down your whole presentation down there but if you read it straight from there, that's not gonna get you a lot of points. I'm not saying "write keywords only" as it can be tough to form sentences on the go with all the stress you are under when two examiners look into your eye, rather have an understanding of your own presentation and just get a glimpse for every sentence you wrote down there.
  • For Teil 3, for asking and reacting, I asked my wife questions about the topics she chose and I tried to be as fast as possible with the come up for questions. For getting asked, I allowed her to ask in whatever language she preferred and gave an answer. In the exam however, as I said, my partner was downright awful and I understood literally nothing. She would pause between every word for 2-3 seconds. So I couldn't quite react the way I prepared and asked a rather simple question, with minimal reaction. This might be the cause for some of the 25 point deduction, along with me almost missing the presentation topic. If I could do it again, I definitely would've said something about her presentation being awful and me not understanding anything. Oh well.

Final Thoughts

Studying to learn a language and studying for a language exam are 2 absolutely different things. First one is supposed to be fun, interesting and refreshing; yet the latter is stress inducing and considerably boring, althought is more structured and easier to get done. First one in the long run will get you probably better results in both daily life AND the exams than the latter, because sky is the limit with your learning journey. Latter however, is practically useless in daily life unless it's demanded by authorities and success can be achieved with a dedicated study.How is this so? Simple. Exams are structured. Institutions have to provide you the said structure, they have to draw the base line for you to understand what is eligible to pass it and what is not. You know how it goes. What you don't know is, what goes the way it goes. I by no means mastered A1.1, A1.2, A2.1 and so on, could have possibly failed some modules if some topics were not familiar to me or if the dude speaking in Hören had a heavy accent. These are the uncertainities I was talking about. It was like a gamble and I got lucky with my hand. But still, if %50 were uncertainities, the other %50 were structured, absolutely certain things that you can prepare yourself for.Daily life, on the other hand, is not structured like how exams are. You are %100 unprepared. You have to pull words from the back of your mind in a milisecond to react to a question. Doing exam-specific work doesn't give you these traits.So, if you need this certificate for official reasons, or any language certificate at all, go for it, period. But I see people in this subreddit saying "after 9 months of learning German I want to take the test and see my level" and I think that's really unneccesary to do that, if this is the sole reason. If you regardless want to see how well you would do, just solve the example exams. Go check out IELTS threads and see English natives saying they were "unprepared for the written part". These exams are %50 about preparation that has no practical use in your daily life. That means %50 wasted time if you study towards an exam, that could be better spent learning the language itself, or %50 less potential you see in yourself after the results if you haven't studied. If I talked with someone fluent in German on Tandem for these 3 weeks instead of studying towards the exam, I believe I would have more self confidence in German today, but I probably would have failed the Sprechen part.I will absolutely have more fun learning German from now on, with the set goal now being a greater good: being confident in German. I can spend my time watching shows, reading things, finding a Tandem partner to practice speaking, without the stress of "this isn't useful for the structure of the exam" but with the relief of "I'm doing something in German, no matter what it is".
If you read this far, and have questions, drop 'em below. I'll try to answer them. I couldn't find such a detailed examination of the exam itself so I hope this will be useful for someone.

Hi everyone,
This is my first post on this subreddit. I've debated filing a Borrower's Defense application for a few years, but I have never gone though with it. The loans taken out for this school have already been paid (it was from my Freshman year as an undergrad), but I truly feel I was lied to in many ways. And if the loans have already been paid, I'm not even sure there's a case to be made. I know this post is pretty dense, and I am so sorry, but I thought it might be best if I provided as much context as I could.
Without going into all of the drama, I really had to fight just to attend college. Both of my parents are college dropouts (no judgement, I know it's not for everyone), but at the same time, they did not see the value of higher education in general. I wanted to be a biologist since elementary school, and I planned to pursue biology in college. My parents felt I didn't really need college for that, but in the end, they allowed me to attend, as long as I went to their school of choice. They did not put any money aside for a college fund, so loans were our only route.
The mom of one of my high school friends went to Sweet Briar College, and she always painted it as the ideal college. It is a small women's college in VA, the total student body is usually under 1000; the average graduating class was normally under 100, the drop out/transfer rate was extremely high (hindsight is always 20/20). My mom immediately warmed to the idea because naturally, I would do nothing but party and do drugs anywhere else (I had a VERY cloistered upbringing). To be clear: I was a book worm and nerd.
When I went to visit the college in person, I had a meeting with the head of the Biology Dept. I sat in on one of her genetics lectures, and we discussed my options, should I decide to attend. I really apologize if this comes across as vain, but between my HS grades, placing first in the state science fair, making it to the semi-finals of the Biology Olympiad (as a solo participant), and crushing the AP and SATs, she said I would be able to skip intro bio and go straight to genetics. I was thrilled at that prospect, I mean, that's why I took all the AP tests, right?
As I mentioned, with my parents it was either SBC or nothing, so I went. The first week was enough of a red flag. I'm not sure if this is standard across the board for colleges, but if I had to play one more infantile game of "rhyme your name with an adjective and we'll all sing songs about each other" I was gonna puke (I am more of a Tomboy, and an introvert to boot). I finally started ghosting these activities and hit the books. Then SBC had me take a series of entrance exams to gauge what course level we should be in. They already placed me in Sophomore/Junior classes with respect to math and chemistry. I was also debating a double-major with French, so I had to take an entrance exam. We were allotted 3 hrs, I finished it in 25 mins. I tested into advanced french lit, junior level.
When it came to biology, however, the same department head said she felt "it would be too difficult" to start genetics. She wanted me to take Intro to Biology II, but ONLY the lab section. WTF. I am not exaggerating when I say the lab portion was literally a repeat of all the AP bio labs. It was a complete waste of time. They did not even have enough biology profs to advise each student; I was assigned to someone in environmental economics. He did not really provide much advice at al. Going into the second semester, I tried again for genetics, but the department head said no, you need something more introductory, what. the. hell. There was a professor in the bio dept. known for being tough. He taught comparative animal morphology, and I really wanted to take it - I tended to do well with his teaching style anyway. The dept. head said no, but at the time, we had to submit physical sheets to the registrar. I filled out the Dept. Head's course preferences in pencil, then changed them before I submitted it officially. I also took Geology, but I wasn't allowed to take the lab section? Seriously, their class set-up was WEIRD. I never encountered anything like SBC since.
I did well in morphology, and I asked the prof if he would take me on as an advisee (and I wanted to work in his lab asap). The school foolishly only allowed juniors and seniors to work as research assistants, which is a bad model, in my opinion. Every other college I attended encouraged students to get hand's on research experience as soon as possible. He informed me that he was leaving to teach at another college, and more or less suggested I leave, and I did.
Going back to high school for a moment, my parents wanted me to go to SBC, but they allowed me to apply to other schools. Basically, they wanted to see which school offered the best financial package. I was accepted to Gettysburg College, which was one of my top picks, but SBC was cheaper. After the debacle of SBC, I finally convinced my parents to let me transfer to Gettysburg. That was a mistake, and it exposed how watered down the courses were at SBC (with the exception of morphology). First of all, I had asked Gettysburg if my SBC credits would transfer over without issue, they said yes. When I finally arrived with other transfers, we received a spreadsheet informing us that all of our transfer credits were only worth about .75 of a "G-burg credit/class" as they called it. So I was in a worse position that would extend my time in undergrad. I think my first bio class was cell biology. Holy shit, I was not prepared. The prof regularly assigned peer-reviewed articles in addition to our textbook reading (I had never been assigned one before). I was in way over my head - they had not done any of that at SBC. I did not do well. I tried asking for help, but they had a sink or swim approach.
I was still continuing French, which had always been one of my easier classes. I loved it, and it came very naturally to me. In advanced courses, no English is spoken, fine. I had been used to that since my senior year in HS. What I was NOT prepared for was that the advanced grammar (French has like 21 verb tenses) taught at SBC were completely wrong. The lowest score I had ever received on a French assignment was high 80s, and I was looking at 60s and 70s. I met with the professor, and she explained that I had been "taught poorly" in my other college classes. So, not only was I struggling in my primary field, but also in subjects that usually brought joy. I had a mental breakdown and ultimately dropped out; I truly felt like maybe I didn't belong in the sciences at all. That everything up until Gettysburg had been a fluke. I'll never forget going to one of my professors to explain I was struggling, he told me I was a mental case, needed to be medicated, and I was NOT Gettysburg stock. Nice guy.
I lived/worked at home for about a year, and I decided to finish at the University of New England (UNE), which was about 2 hours from home. It did take me a little longer to finish, but I got my groove back and FINALLY felt at home. I was taken on as a research assistant, and even published in a scientific journal. From there, I went on to earn my PhD, and I am currently a postdoc. I now recognize that SBC is a joke of a school. They water down classes and do not provide science students with the materials and experiences needed to thrive in their field. I am still friends with a few of the people I met at SBC, to my knowledge, I am the only one who managed to pursue my terminal degree or even stay in my field.
Here's the bit that makes the situation a little sticky: the professor who taught morphology at SBC, we stayed in touch. He told me one of his former academic colleagues was looking for graduate students. That's basically what got me into my PhD program. He gave so few positive recommendations, that my grad advisor accepted me before we even interviewed formally. Would that completely negate any Borrower's defense argument, if there's one to be made in the first place? I certainly had to take on more debt to finish my undergrad degree due to SBC (and Gettysburg, to an extent), and the education quality was a joke, aside from that Morphology class. The school was actually going to close in 2015 years ago due to dwindling admissions. They unfortunately pulled through because they were able to sell some of the school's art collection to help keep the doors open (from what I remember). Here's a link if anyone is interested: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/03/04/sweet-briar-college-will-shut-down
OH! And one more thing. When I finally made it to UNE, I had to take a few courses that SBC actually decided I was allowed to skip. They put me right into inorganic chem II instead of I, which was odd because I did not even take an AP class for chem, and inorganic was one of my weaknesses. So again, I had to shell out more money due to SBC's negligence.
That is my story. As I mentioned, maybe I don't have a case at all. I will say that I am in a bad position loan wise since I had to extend my time in college by about 2 years, and I graduated right into the 2008 recession. My last year at UNE had to be financed by private loans.....10/10 would not recommend.
Any thoughts would be appreciated. I would just ask that people be constructive and kind. The last time I posted something similar to a separate group, I received a deluge of "you're an idiot" and "your loans, your problem", "why are you complaining", etc.
Also, regarding evidence. I'm afraid I do not have much with respect to emails/correspondence. I can certainly request transcripts to support some of the claims. I have a feeling this may be a lost cause.
Thank you.

9.11.23 write up 351 hours
I will try to keep my write up short.
I returned yesterday from a 7 day trip to Spain with 3 in Madrid and 4 in Barcelona. Before arriving in Spain I did 2 1 hour classes with a Colombian lady I found on Italki. I estimate that I have actually done less than 10 hours of attempts at talking before those 2 lessons.
During the lessons I asked about my pronunciation and she said it was okay I was just having trouble trying to formulate difficult ideas into cohesive content.
Arriving in Spain was crazy. I haven't been to a Spanish speaking country with any Spanish language abilities and it was cool to hear the announcements over speakers in Spanish and people walking around speaking Spanish. If I was standing next to a conversation and focusing on it for longer than 10 seconds I was able to follow the gist 60% or higher. I was constantly identifying singular words and phrases out of peoples speech just walking near them.
Speaking wise I was definitely where the level 4 (300+) hours description says “If you really want to start having conversations with people it's recommended that you don't try to actively practice grammar or vocabulary, but rather speak in single words or simple sentences that come to mind easily.” I believe this is absolutely the case. I was able to ask simple open ended conversations which allowed many conversations with taxi drivers and other people to continue. The main thing I said was “yo entiendo mucho pero hablar como un niño” (I understand a lot but speak like a kid). I got some good reactions out of that phrase but people were still willing to speak with me. Pronunciation wise my Colombian Italki professor says that I sound okay and she understands every word that I say.
When talking with people in situations like in a taxi when you ask a question you already have an idea what the response will be which makes full speed native so much easier to understand.
We had a private driver to get to Toledo from Madrid and I was talking with him a bit in Spanish and then he said that he wanted to practice his english as well so I was talking with him in both. I spoke to him at beginner speed with beginner style grammar and rephrasing and when he did not understand me I switched to Spanish to reask the question or say my statement as best I can.
I believe in many ways that english is very generous to non native accents, for example he say that if his daughter gets good grades he will get her a dog (half this sentence was said in Spanish). He pronounced dog horribly it was like the G in spanish like in the word Gente if said with force (people). Do guuuuuuuuhhhh. Yet I was able to understand him and honestly I credit DS and this acquisition's focus on being able to hear the syllables and comparing the sounds to that in English and being patient and understanding that he was sharing an awesome experience with me with his english.
One thing which I was constantly doing was reviewing the sentiment of a sentence I was trying to what was implied by my usage of certain words. Really cool to apply the spanish into situations.
Learning a language as well through the extensive auditory side without any written input was very helpful as well in understanding in English what a low english level spanish person was trying to say. Many sayings they said were very direct spanish to english translations “I explain you this” and more I cant think of now but easy to understand.
Understanding other accents was important in Spain as well. Many people from latin america. For example we had a tour guide behind us who had a smooth argentinian accent with the shooooos and I was able to understand him pretty well and it was cool to hear him talking with his mostly Spain Spanish speaking clients who corrected him on some words he used for certain things or they conversed about what he would call something.
Contextual learning was another awesome part. It was raining really bad in Madrid and we were looking to get umbrellas and there was a guy on the street selling “paraguas” . I believe I have that word completely acquired from hearing it once because I was ready to learn that word at that moment. Another example is the elevator opened and a very spanish looking guy asked me “subes” (going up) and pointed upwards and I said “no a baja” (no it down? Something like that) and pointed down , all those words are immediately cemented in my mind now because I was open to the experience and engaged in it.
Reading. This was pretty awesome. I was able to read some art museum wall plaques well. We went to a museum that had quotes on the wall and I translated them reasonably well for my mother. Reading menus was alot easier even though we always asked for the English version. Street signs and hearing proper names of things in Spanish was a cool thing as well. Usually in english I am not that good at remembering proper names of places or things but with the Spanish I was doing a very good job, really awesome to hear about Gaudi’s house casa Batllo then see it in person a few minutes later and read that word and hear tour guides saying it around you.
Pretty cool. I am planning on doing a 1 hour italki lesson a month going forward with my 135+ minutes of spanish a day. Just to keep the speaking going, I'm already having significant Spanish thoughts. I may as well utilize them. It's cool to have a lesson where she is speaking to me in high speed spanish and I understand it and then I misuse past tense singular and she says oh you mean habla and I say okay and then it kinda just sticks in there without me needing to think about. I of course misuse it massively and dont conjugate it correctly with the other verb endings but whatever.
I will get to 600 hours by february and when I get there I plan on speaking extensively, reading and writing a lot as well.
Acquisition gets the language into your soul. I miss all the spanish around me and am already planning my next trip to el mundo hispanohablante (the spanish speaking world)

If you are looking for a free elective, or trying to meet the required minimum load, why not consider taking a course on introductory Farsi (Persian)? Let me relate my experience under Prof. Zahra Ameri:
Rough coverage (A1 in the CEFR Scale):

• Reading and writing Persian script
• Greetings and Self Introductions
• Where I'm from, Who's who in my family
• What I'm studying, Occupations
• Counting from 1-10, and then beyond
• Asking questions - What, Where, Who, Yes/No Questions
• Personal and Demonstrative Pronouns
• Adjectives and Possessive forms (suffix "-e")
• Basic verb conjugations (mostly present tense) - (First, Second, Third Person) x (Singular, Plural)
• Adverbs of Time - Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow

Pros:

• Farsi is closer to English/French/Latin than to Arabic - If you already have experience learning European languages, then Farsi wouldn't be too huge of a leap. Likewise, if you're starting from scratch, I think Persyan 10 is an underrated substitute for the more in demand Language electives when it comes to getting a grasp of learning how to learn foreign vocab and grammar. Also, even though Arabic and Farsi are vastly different from each other, Persyan 10 is a good introductory course to learn how to read and write Arabic characters.
• Considerate and reasonable instructor - In my time in UP I have not heard of an instructor use more positive reinforcement than Zahra khanom. Every session hindi kayo mauubusan ng "I appreciate you in this class" or "Thank you for doing a good job" even for the simplest of tasks. Ma'am is open to communication, acknowledges effort, understands student difficulties, and gives feedback. She does a great job at cultivating a safe space for committing mistakes, which is a must especially for language courses.
• "Unoable" - just comply with course requirements, attend synchronous sessions and participate. It's easy to get a high grade. Assessments consist a mix of writing exercises, recorded monologues and dialogues, and in-class Q&A (super basic, almost like 1+1 = ? provided that you were paying attention in class). This is a language class - expect to read, write, speak, and listen. Lots of opportunity to work with your classmates too: maintain a class dictionary, share flash cards and notes, etc. - you're all in this together.

Challenges:

• Fully Synchronous and Remote (last semester) - almost all sessions were synchronous and as far as I know there were no recordings available for asynchronous consumption. Depending on the learning mode next semester, it is possible na ganito ulit yung setup. If you're joining this class, make sure you could attend most sessions and that you're in a comfortable-enough position (e.g. own a good device with strong connection to the internet) to recite and participate. You won't get much from this course if you're a lurker or prone to absenteeism.
• Geographical Differences and Class Disruptions - Not sure about the next, but last semester Ma'am taught the class remotely from Iran. When the Iranian government shut down the internet due to the protests, we also had to suspend our classes. Just be ready to be flexible, since should it be necessary, Ma'am would ask for make-up classes outside the course schedule. Sometimes Ma'am is also unaware of Philippine Holidays and Reading Breaks, so best that the class reminds her. Last semester, we had our last session way beyond the scheduled day of final classes based on the academic calendar. Essential that you communicate with each other on what works best for everyone.

Other considerations:

• Mode of Communication with Instructor - for classes, we used an Iranian substitute for Zoom - Bellmeet (no need to download). It could take some time to get used to the platform. Outside of class, communications and submissions are done via WhatsApp (we never used UVLe).
• Learning Farsi in a US-dominated Internet - finding resources on Farsi, using Google translate and English-Farsi dictionaries are a bit more challenging, but for an introductory course this should not be too big of a problem. Anyway, the instructor would provide for most of the learning material.

Hi - here is my code for a 2 option mad libs game and a 3rd option to say good bye. When I select "1" it works, but when I select "2", I still get option 1. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you!
print() print()
def my_trip_to_disney(): print() print()
def My_Story_of_the_Prep(): print() print()
def menu(): print("Welcome to James' Mad Libs Game") print("Main Menu") print("1. My trip to Disney") print("2. My Story of the Prep") print("3. Exit")
menu() option = int(input("Enter your selection:"))
if option == 1: my_trip_to_disney() elif option == 2: My_Story_of_the_Prep() elif option == 3: print("Goodbye") print() print() print() print()

this function will print everything out

first madlib that will talk about a trip to disney

def my_trip_to_disney(): print("***********") print("My Trip to Disney:") print("***********") print("") # it will now ask the user for the following things to create the mablib m1_noun1 = input("Give me a name: ") m1_noun2 = input("Give me a number: ") m1_noun3 = input("Give me a vehicle: ") m1_adj1 = input("Give me an adjective: ") m1_adj2 = input("Give me an adjective: ") m1_verb1 = input("Give me an ing verb: ") m1_noun4 = input("Give me an animal: ") m1_adj3 = input("Give me an adjective: ") m1_verb2 = input("Give me a past tense verb: ") m1_adj4 = input("Give me an adjective: ") m1_noun5 = input("Give me a noun: ") m1_noun6 = input("Give me a name: ") m1_verb3 = input("Give me a past tense verb: ") m1_verb4 = input("Give me a past tense verb: ") m1_noun7 = input("Give me a place: ") m1_verb5 = input("Give me a verb: ") print ("Last month I traveled to Disney with " + m1_noun1 + ".") print ("We traveled for " + m1_noun2 + " hours by " + m1_noun3 + ".") print ("Finally we arrived and it was very " + m1_adj1 + ".") print ("There were " + m1_adj2 + " people " + m1_verb1 + " everywhere.") print ("There were also people dressed up in " +m1_noun4+ " costumes.") print ("I wish it had been more " +m1_adj3+ " but we " +m1_verb2+ " anyway.") print ("We also went on a " +m1_adj4+ " ride called Magic " +m1_noun5+ ".") print (m1_noun6+ " nearly fell off a ride and had to be " +m1_verb3+ ".") print ("Later, we went to the hotel and " +m1_verb4+ ".") print ("Next year, I want to go to " +m1_noun7+ " where we can go " +m1_verb5+ ".") my_trip_to_disney()
print() print()

second madlib

def My_Story_of_the_Prep(): print("***********") print("My Story of the Prep:") print("***********") print("") m1_noun1 = input("Give me a name:") m1_noun2 = input("Give me a school subject:") m1_adj1 = input("Give me an adjective:") m1_adj2 = input("Give me an adjective:") m1_noun3 = input("Give me a number:") m1_noun4 = input("Give me a place:") m1_noun5 = input("Give me a job:")

print("There once was a boy named " + m1_noun1 + " who went to St Augustine.") print("His favorite class freshman year was " + m1_noun2 + ".") print("What he liked about physics so much was all the " + m1_adj1 + " labs and activities they did.") print("Even though it was a " + m1_adj2 + " class he had a lot of fun in it.") print("His grade at the end of the semester was a " + m1_noun3 + ".") print("He plans to go to " + m1_noun4 + " and later in life become a " + m1_noun5 + ".") 

My_Story_of_the_Prep() print() print()
press_enter = input("Press Enter to continue.")

I’m reading through a graded reader, and I’ve seen verb+なくなる in some form a few times now.
First it was 住めなくならない, which has the conditional of 住む, so not able to reside/live. I assume it then is turned to 住めない, not able to reside. Then くなる is throwing me off. なる is to become, but the く…. Idk what it’s purpose is or if くなる is a new word I don’t know and can’t find in a dictionary.
The second one is the same, except not conditional. 話さなくなりました。 Talking it out, I can go from 話す→話し-(then conjugate、話します for example) or go to 話せる, but that’s conditional. So it’s something about not talking in past tense. That’s all I got.
Every source I clicked on online to only talks about conjugating adjectives with なくなる.
So what exactly is なくなる, what does it mean and how do I use it?

• What Is a Process Essay?
• How to Start a Process Essay
• How to Flesh out the Process Essay Outline
• Introduction
• Body Paragraphs
• Conclusion
• Post-writing Editing and Proofreading
• Practical Writing Process Tips
• Types of Process Essays
• Ideas for Writing a Process Essay
• Not Up to Writing a Process Essay?

You’ve done argumentative and persuasive pieces, wove creative narratives, and bared your soul in personal papers. But now you’re facing a new challenge–the process essay. It is not the most challenging writing assignment, nor the most time-consuming or confusing. But if you’ve never done it before, it’s easy to lose points for missing the subtle details that make this essay stand out among others. To avoid pitfalls and score the highest mark on process writing, read on and follow our advice.

What Is a Process Essay?

A process essay is exactly what the name implies–a paper that details a process. You’ve seen this type of writing in every blog post with a title starting with “How to…”. In fact, this post you’re reading is also an example of this writing type.
What makes process essays different from other writing assignments?

• Only one outline makes sense. You must explain each step of the procedure to make it understandable and readable.
• Research may be minimal. If you choose a topic you’re familiar with, you can find helpful sources and complete the assignment fast.
• Hard writing style decisions are necessary. You can either write your essay in a passive voice or use second-person writing (i.e., you). Professors hate both options, so you must choose the lesser of two evils and get approval before you start writing.
• No persuasion is necessary. There can exist many ways to perform the process, but you only need to describe yours and present it as the only viable option without expanding your argumentation.
• Attention to detail is critical. You have to assume the reader has no prior knowledge of the process, so your essay must include all relevant details to make the goal achievable for the reader.

Do not treat this assignment lightly. The writing process develops multiple soft skills, including analytical and critical thinking, prioritization, instruction, communication, and more.

How to Start a Process Essay

Writing is merely a fraction of the work that goes into an essay. So before you let procrastination take hold and put off this assignment, take care of the prewriting steps instead. They won’t trigger writer’s block and instead help you deal with the fear of the blank page and save your time in the long run. We recommend three prewriting activities before you tackle the outline:

1. Establish specific requirements. To score a high mark, you need to meet many requirements, including the word count, number of sources, formatting style, topic relevance, etc. If any instructions are unclear, talk to your professor or TA. Ideally, you need a grading rubric to direct your writing, so try to get it from your instructor.
2. Choose the process essay topic. The prompt may not include the exact wording, but it usually holds action verbs (detail, explain, describe) and keywords you need to account for when developing your topic. Check out the suggested reading list if you’re at a loss where to start your search for a good idea.
3. Find sources and research. Instead of looking for supporting evidence for your argument, with a process analysis essay, you need to find the best way to do something. Unless you’re an expert in the field, you’ll need at least a handful of relevant and credible references. Remember to use in-text citations and add the sources to the reference list, formatted according to the required style.

How to Flesh out the Process Essay Outline

Like most academic assignments, process essays work best with a straightforward three-part structure comprising introduction, body, and conclusion.

Introduction

The opening of the process paper serves two goals: introduce the topic and explain its relevance. The hook and thesis statement are two mandatory parts of the essay introduction, although you may include some background information to flesh out the first passage. But avoid spelling out every step of the process in your thesis statement. Instead, highlight the importance of the topic for you and the reader. You can further emphasize relevance by describing the positive implications of fulfilling the actions. For example, hint that living on a budget can enable college students to travel abroad.

Body Paragraphs

There’s usually only one logical way to order the body paragraphs, which makes writing a process essay easy. Each step of the process should have its dedicated section, though involved actions may take two or more passages. Choose the desired level of detail for each stage based on your essay word count, and keep the descriptions consistent. In the end, the body paragraphs without the introduction and conclusion should read like an instruction manual or a tutorial.

Conclusion

The final paragraph is a brief reiteration of the topic’s relevance (your thesis statement) combined with the highlights of the body paragraphs. You don’t need to rewrite the whole process essay in the conclusion, but you can emphasize that completing the described steps can help the reader achieve their goals. Suggestions for further application or other processes can serve as a memorable parting thought.

Post-writing Editing and Proofreading

A short break after the process essay is finished will make the post-writing routine smoother. First, reread the paper out loud and look for unreadable sentences, repetitions, illogical constructs, etc. Once you delete redundancies, remember to replace them with valuable information to keep up with the word count. Next, use Grammarly, ProWritingAid, or other proofreading software to eliminate errors and typos and add missing commas. Finally, format the essay according to style requirements and double-check your in-text citations and reference list to prevent unintentional plagiarism.

Practical Writing Process Tips

We’ve gone over how to write a process essay introduction, body, and conclusion. Now let’s zoom in on the little things that can make your writing even better:

1. Check out a solid process essay example before writing. Pay attention to the writing style and steal word choice and phrasing to enhance your piece.
2. Be generous with transitions. Include transitional phrases between steps to highlight the logical order and help the readers keep track of separate stages.
3. Keep your paper consistent. Establish the terms early and use them throughout the essay. The same applies to verb tenses. If you choose the present tense, use it consistently in describing every step.
4. Use simple words for clear meaning. Technical jargon and smart terms stolen from a thesaurus are more likely to confuse the reader than impress them.
5. Add visual aids to your paper, if possible. Creating an infographic or a timeline can help readers better grasp your explanation, so use these tools if the professor allows it.

Types of Process Essays

Although most professors will not specify the exact types of process essays they want you to write, you will easily tell the difference using our guide:

• Directional essays. With these papers, you aim to explain the process to ensure the reader can perform the step-by-step instructions to achieve the desired result. For example, a recipe is a type of directional writing, as anyone can cook a meal by following instructions.
• Informational essays. In this type of process paper, you explain how something is done without expecting the reader to achieve the results. For example, someone may read a piece about building a space shuttle without expecting to complete a similar project.

Ideas for Writing a Process Essay

Most professors specify essay requirements, but some allow you to choose a process essay topic. If you’re that lucky, try to balance passion with realism. So pick an idea that excites you and the one you can confidently research within the deadline. Below you’ll find our shortlist of ten inspiring informational and directional ideas:

1. How to plan your college term to submit every assignment on time
2. How to live on a budget on campus
3. How do self-driving cars work?
4. How to develop healthy eating habits
5. How to pay off student loans within five years of graduation
6. How to build good sleeping habits in college
7. How to write an impressive resume and CV
8. How do photovoltaic panels produce electricity?
9. How to balance classes, work, and social life
10. How are smartphone cameras made?

Remember to pick a title that aligns with your class and curriculum. If you’re unsure about your choice, ask your TA or professor for approval and keep a couple of backup options at the ready in case your first choice gets rejected.

Not up to Writing a Process Essay?

At first glance, describing a process seems like the easiest thing. After all, it’s like giving unsolicited advice. But if your topic is expansive and complex, research can take more time than you have on your hands. Instead of risking your grade because of a simple process essay, get professional writing help. Our writers’ expertise spans dozens of classes and topics, and they can complete your assignment within a few short hours, giving you plenty of time for preview, revisions, and submission.
Don’t hesitate to get this paper out of the way. Order your paper today or contact the support team to learn more.

• What Is a Descriptive Essay and Why Is It Important for Students?
• What Is the Difference Between a Descriptive Essay and a Narrative Essay?
• How to Start a Descriptive Essay Like a Pro?
• Descriptive Essay Writing: Craft Your Outline First
• Top Descriptive Essay Tips for Modern Students
• Five Good Descriptive Essay Topics for Everyone
• Still Afraid to Take the First Step? Then We Are Ready to Lend You a Helping Hand!

Has your professor assigned you a descriptive essay? Surely you felt cold on your back and goosebumps on your hands. Of course, such a reaction is possible if you encounter such an assignment for the first time. But there is no need to panic: you will surely cope with all the details and instructions. In addition, this guide will allow you to choose the shortest path to high grades. Here's what you need to know to cope with such an essay.

What Is a Descriptive Essay and Why Is It Important for Students?

Typically, a descriptive essay gives a vivid, detailed description of something. Most of the time, it's about a place or object, but your professor might ask you to focus on something abstract. The main feature of such an assignment is the creative component and the need to look for the right words while describing something. In addition, you need to convey a memorable image of whatever you are describing to the reader. That is why such an essay is important for students.

What Is the Difference Between a Descriptive Essay and a Narrative Essay?

On the other hand, this question seems non-obvious because both types of assignments allow you to write more personally and creatively than other kinds of essays. On the other hand, there are a few key differences that you should be aware of. First, a narrative essay aims to tell a complete story, considering certain nuances or factors. But writing descriptive essays will require you to take a completely different approach. Such a paper conveys an intense description of a particular place, object, or concept. As you can see, in the second situation, your goals come down to a detailed description of something and not creating a complete story.

How to Start a Descriptive Essay Like a Pro?

Do not forget that descriptive writing is a process that directly depends on your topic. You must analyze the object, person, event, or something else in as much detail as possible. You need to start with important nuances that describe the relevance of your research. And do not forget that your thesis should be the key idea for all subsequent paragraphs. However, let's start in order.

Descriptive Essay Writing: Craft Your Outline First

Your outline is the key element and "framework" for your essay, so try to put all the points together. Please note that the logical structure is consistent with all academic instructions. You may even want to write a couple of sentences for each part to make it easier to organize the information.

Introduction

Your intro is the key paragraph describing the purpose of your paper. Start with important nuances relevant to your topic. Then, concentrate on creating a solid thesis statement because this is a springboard for a further writing activity. You should also create a clear transition that will allow you to jump to the main paragraphs.

Body Paragraphs

All descriptive essays have at least three paragraphs. Try to divide the description of important things for your topic into several parts. Describe each feature in paragraphs, and don't forget about smooth transitions between ideas and statements. In other words, put here everything you find during the research according to your instructions.

Conclusion

The final paragraph should summarize the work done and emphasize the relevance of your findings. Perhaps you should also describe the possible ideas and goals the academic community can achieve if they continue to explore your topic in a new way.

Polishing Your Paper

This stage is extremely important for all students, without exception. Check the grammar and spelling as well as the correctness of your sentences. In addition, you should use tenses correctly and formulate descriptions of things without jargon. Finally, Polish your paper, and you will reduce the risk of low grades.

Top Descriptive Essay Tips for Modern Students

What to do if descriptive writing makes you panic and unwilling to follow your professor's instructions? Don't worry: the devil isn't as scary as you think. Here are the top tips to help you handle stress and craft your paper.

Use Figurative Language

Figurative language gives your writing its creative edge and makes your description unique. Use metaphors and similes that use words in non-literal ways to create a memorable effect. This approach will allow you to describe most of the relevant nuances of your assignment. In addition, you do not have to think long about how to formulate any proposal.

Use Your Senses

Don't be afraid to use sensory details, which will allow you to describe the visual parameters of something as well as smell, sound, touch, and taste. This approach is extremely important for your essay. Here is an example that will allow you to grasp the essence and get to work.

I saw knight's gloves in the museum. The inside material is calfskin. The outer layer is metal flakes fastened with rivets. I saw rust and abrasions in the place of the bends. Most likely, the metal looks deformed due to blows in battle.

As you can see, this example shows in which direction you should move. However, nothing prevents you from describing other important aspects of an object, natural phenomenon, or event.

Choose the Right Words

Your describing process should always begin with carefully selecting the right words. Use adverbs, verbs, and even nouns wisely, and avoid cliches. Try to describe what you see in as much detail as possible and avoid using phrases like "hot as a flame" or "cold as an arctic current." Surely you can think of an alternative.

Five Good Descriptive Essay Topics for Everyone

Writing a descriptive essay can be tricky, especially if you don't pick a good idea. Here are the topics that will help you get started faster and look forward to a good result.

1. Describe the strangest person you ever met
2. Describe a spooky or haunted place.
3. Describe a piece of art
4. Describe a happy memory.
5. Describe an object used in your favorite sport or hobby.

As you can see, many descriptive essays will stop being boring if you choose a good topic. Concentrate on objects, events, or things that interest you, and you will see how things will go smoothly.

Still Afraid to Take the First Step? Then We Are Ready to Lend You a Helping Hand!

Sometimes even a detailed guide may not be enough, especially if you are afraid to take the first step. Our company is ready to lend you a helping hand and craft even a tricky assignment. Any descriptive essay is not a problem since we have a team of qualified experts with Masters' and Ph.D. degrees. You need to give us instructions, and we will create an academic masterpiece!

Unmissed Lean Resume Guide:

A few years ago, I embarked on my own job search journey and was bombarded with a sea of terrible advice. It was like swimming in a lake of conflicting opinions, irrelevant tips, and downright bizarre focuses. After a while, I began to gather the nuggets of wisdom and compile them into this very guide.
A resume has two crucial missions: to make your case and overcome obstacles standing between you and that dream job.
Mission 1: Making Your Case
Imagine your resume as a skillful lawyer presenting arguments in a legal case, fighting to prove your innocence... um, I mean, hireability. "Ladies and gentlemen of the hiring court, we present to you these three pieces of evidence, including testimonials from former managers, glowing performance records, and a confession stating, 'They're the best darn worker I've ever seen!' Your honor, the verdict is crystal clear... this candidate is THE ONE!"
Mission 2: Overcoming the Obstacles
There is a lot going on in the hiring process that is behind the scenes. You don’t see it, but it is important. First off, the resume needs to get past the Applicant Tracking System (ATS). Then, it must tic the boxes of the reviewers (the 7-second guys). Finally, it must impress the hiring team who will *finally* ask you in for an interview.
The Unmissed Resume is designed to get you through obstacles and make your case for you. It's streamlined, ATS-friendly, and structured to lead reviewers on a journey through your qualifications. I have distilled the essential elements of an effective resume into this concise guide.
A few quick caveats:

1. There is no universal standard for resumes. Ask ten HR managers, and you'll get eleven answers. We all have our quirks and preferences. So, if you feel strongly about showcasing your skills a certain way, go for it. You do you!
2. This guide is primarily intended for job seekers in North America, Australia, India, and good chunks of Europe. But hold on—each country has its own rules. In Japan, grab a standard form from the corner store. In Europe and the Middle East, photos and personal details may still be expected. When in doubt, turn to our trusty companion, Google!
3. Certain industries have their own secret format codes. Law, Academia, Research, Medicine—they prefer a CV. Performing arts and government? They're in their own template world. Before taking action, do a quick reconnaissance mission to ensure your resume aligns with industry expectations.
4. Finally, while the advice here is general, most of it is quite useful for any resume-like document. Focusing your bullets, emphasizing achievement, and culling extraneous information, all is useful advice.

The basic template:

NAME
Phone Email LinkedIn Portfolio City, State
SUMMARY
(300-350 characters)
​
EXPERIENCE
Company, Location
Position date - date

• [verb][job duty from ad] by [metrics, time, tools]
• [verb][job duty from ad] by [metrics, time, tools]
• [verb][job duty from ad] by [metrics, time, tools]

​
Company, Location
Promoted Position date - date
Starting Position date - date
[verb][job duty from ad] by [metrics, time, tools]
[verb][job duty from ad] by [metrics, time, tools]
​
Company, Location
Position date - date

• [verb][job duty from ad] by [metrics, time, tools]

​
EDUCATION
Degree — University (anticipated) award date
​
OTHER SECTIONS
(Anything else relevant that you have space for)
​

CONTACT INFORMATION

• Name: Your name deserves the spotlight! Make it stand out by using a font size that's 2 times larger than the rest of your text. Go big or go home!
• Phone: Choose the phone that you'll actually answer—your trusty cell phone usually does the trick.
• Voicemail: Hold up! Before you hit the job market, check your voicemail message. "Whaaazzuuup?" might've been a hit with your high school buddies, but it won't impress your future boss. Keep it professional, my friend.
• Hyperlinked Phone Numbers: Want to impress the hiring manager with a simple tap? Hyperlink your phone number in Word using "tel:1234567890". One-touch dialing? That's next-level cool.
• Email: Say goodbye to cringeworthy email addresses like "Khorne666@" or "PrestonsMommy285@". Opt for a professional address. If needed, create a fresh Gmail account. First.Last@gmail is usually a good choice.
• Hyperlinked Email: Let's make it easy for employers to reach you. Hyperlink your email address using "mailto:[you@isp.com](mailto:you@isp.com)". When they tap, their email program will pop up. Smooth, right?
• LinkedIn: You better have a LinkedIn profile! It's a must for modern job seekers. Don't forget to hyperlink it too.
• Portfolios: If you're in the arts or programming field, linking to your portfolio is a power move.
• Personal Social Media and Blogs: Keep 'em personal and separate. Don't include them unless you managed an employer's account or website. And if you did, include it as an experience bullet, not up top.
• Location: Generally, city and state aren't necessary, but if you've moved around a lot or are planning to relocate, it can be helpful to include.

PROFILE

Your profile is your golden opportunity to make a memorable impression. Keep it snappy and captivating with this handy template:

• "X+ years’ experience in [field]”: You don’t need details at this point. You are just saying that you have experience. Sometimes it’s useful to double up “5+ years as a baker and 4+ years in marketing” would be great for someone doing ads for the local baker.
• Most impressive professional success: Highlight your biggest achievement that's relevant to the job. Let them see your brilliance.
• Another impressive professional success: Don't stop at one! Share another significant accomplishment that showcases your skills and capabilities. If they are looking for something in particular (like being fluent in a language, or familiarity with a system or toolset), you can swap out for that instead.
• Humanizing element: Time to add a touch of personality! Share something unique about yourself that makes you more than just a professional. Are you a champion jigsaw puzzler? A sixth-degree black belt in Shotokan Karate? Or maybe you're an amateur welder and metal artist? This helps reviewers “hook on” to your resume… important after reading through hundreds of similar applicants.
• "Excited to apply skills and experience to the [position] role at [organization]": Wrap it up with a bow of enthusiasm. Let them know you're thrilled to bring your talents and expertise to the specific position at their organization.

EXPERIENCE

Your employment history is the meat of your resume, where all the important stuff lives. But it is also scanned and needs to put the right information front and center.

• Reverse Chronological Order: Start with your most recent position and work your way backward. If you held multiple positions at the same company, list them in reverse chronological order as well.
• Skip the Obvious: We all know a janitor mops, a teacher teaches, and a mechanic fixes cars. What we really want to know is if YOU are any good at your job.
• Crisp and Concise: Bullets should be short and snappy, like a burst of energy. Aim for 60 to 180 characters in length.
• Lead with the Punch: Don’t bury your result. These are scanned… if you don’t put a success in the first 4-5 words, it might as well not exist.
• Lead with the Punch II: Likewise, don't hide your big guns. For every job, put your biggest, most important, most impressive, or just neatest bullet FIRST.
• Tone: Active verbs, past tense. Professional. Compact. Snappy.
• Impact: What changed or improved while you were there? Numbers are the easy way to show this, but not the only one.

Take a look at my Better Bullet Builder for more help building bullets.

EDUCATION

Degree — University (anticipated) [Month, Year]
You don’t need bullets for your degree, but sometimes it makes a difference. For recent graduates, it can help sell you. Here are the ones I recommend:

• Minor(s): Got any cool minors that are relevant to the job? Let them know about your extra skills!
• Honors: Highlight any academic achievements that set you apart. Dean's list regular? Graduated with Cum Laude honors? Top 10% of your class? Share those shiny achievements!
• Grants/Scholarships/Awards: If you received notable grants, scholarships, or awards that demonstrate your exceptional academic performance or recognition, include them. Prestigious scholarships like the Rhodes Scholarship or Fulbright Scholarship leave a lasting impression.
• Foreign Studies: Did you participate in any study abroad programs or have international academic experiences? These experiences showcase your adaptability, cultural awareness, and global perspective, making them impressive additions.
• Extracurriculars: While it's generally not necessary to include extracurricular activities, exceptions can be made if they are directly relevant to the job you're applying for. For example, if you're seeking a role in journalism and have experience working for the school newspaper, it's worth mentioning.
• GPA: Once you've graduated, your GPA becomes unimportant. Don’t bother. If you have exceptional grades, you likely have an honor you can put in instead.
• Classes taken: Unless Bill Gates himself taught you coding tricks, the specific courses you took won't make hiring managers swoon. Nobody has ever shouted “This guy took Writing 302? HIRE IMMEDIATELY!”

Additional Sections

Congratulations! Your resume is starting to look good. However, you may still find that it's not long enough or could benefit from additional sections. Here are some ideas:

Volunteer Work

This is one of those odd sections. Sometimes it's a shining star, while other times it's just a background extra.

• Treat your volunteer work with the same respect as your paid experience. Format it just like a regular job in the Experience section. After all, experience is experience, whether you earned a paycheck or a warm fuzzy feeling.
• Separate or Integrate? Should you blend your volunteer work with your other experience, or separate it out like a gated community? There are arguments for both. Ultimately, it’s up to you.
• If you have gaps, volunteer work can help fill those. If you are transitioning to a new field, volunteer work can help show you have experience. In some fields like Social Justice, volunteer work is almost as required as paid positions, and they’d look askance at an applicant who had none. In other fields, they could care less.

Professional Development

This section is all about showcasing your professional growth and continued learning. Here are some ideas to include:

• Professional Certifications: Things like a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), or Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN). Even state Licenses like State Licensed Plumber or Carpenter. If you are applying for a professional driver’s job (like a truck driver), you can list your CDL. Even a first aid certificate can make a surprising impact.
  • WARNING: Many online organizations issue "Certificates of Completion". EdX, Udemy, Corsea... These are not certifications and are generally listed under classes.
• Publications: Dependent on the field. But most people like to hire the guy who literally wrote the book on the subject. If you have professionally published (not self-published) articles or books, you can list them here.
• Articles and Talks: Including articles, podcasts, blogs, and of course, any professional articles or books you’ve done. Make sure to provide the title, the name of the publication or media outlet, the date of publication, and a summary of the content (in bullet point format!)
  • Pro tip: When selecting which articles or podcasts to include on your resume, choose ones that are relevant to the job or organization you are applying to. For example, if you are applying to a human rights organization that focuses on issues related to refugees, they probably aren’t very interested in your podcast about the Green Bay Packers.
• Classes: While not always necessary, classes can demonstrate your commitment to continuous learning. They show you've been productive instead of perfecting your gaming skills. Keep it concise, mentioning the class and the school/institution where you took it.

Projects

Project sections are never about what you did. They are almost always about the problem you were solving, and what the outcomes were. Follow the STAR Method: share the Situation, the Task at hand, the Action you took, and the Result you obtained. Weave them together into a paragraph that tells a compelling story. Extra points for time metrics, tools used, and unexpected triumphs. A solid project tale never fails to impress!

Languages

Unless it's explicitly required or you're a multilingual maestro, skip the separate language section. Instead, sprinkle mentions of your language skills throughout your resume. When listing your languages on your resume, be sure to indicate your proficiency level.
You don't have to list English (or the language of your resume) as a separate entry, though. We assume you've got that one covered!

Remove These From Your Resume Right Now

• OBJECTIVE STATEMENTS – Hiring managers don't want to know what you want; they want to know what you can do for their company.
• REFERENCES – Never include them on your resume, not even a sly "References available upon request." Of course, they're available—don't waste precious space stating the obvious. Instead, create a separate document with at least two (three is better) references who have graciously given their permission. Remember to provide their role, company/organization, and email for easy reference.
• SALARY – Another holdover from the old days, don’t include your expected salary, or “salary negotiable”. Do not include your salaries from past jobs either.
• HOBBIES, CLUBS, or INTERESTS – These sections have no place on a resume and might even harm your chances. However, there's a tiny exception—say you're applying to a job that involves presentations, and you're a member of the local Toastmasters club. Or maybe you're an avid mountain climber applying to a sporting goods store. In such cases, a relevant hobby might make the cut.
• SKILLS – I am not a fan of skills sections. Instead, I suggest incorporating your skills into your bullet points. But if you must have a skills section, keep it short (6-10 skills) and ultra-specific. You don't just know "computers"; you're a "CCNA" wizard. You're not a mere "cook"; you're a "sous chef in 4-star restaurants." Be precise like a ninja throwing stars.
• Icons, images, charts, or tables – Bid adieu to visual gimmicks. These can confuse the ATS and become a not-so-fun reason for rejection. Keep your resume clean and straightforward, no pictures, no icons, no emojis.
• Headers and Footers – Another thing that can confuse or be left out by the ATS.
• Multiple columns – These too can cause trouble with the ATS. Don't let formatting foibles be your downfall. Stick to a single-column layout.

General Advice

• Choose Your Tool: Microsoft Word or a plain text editor are your trusty companions for resume creation. Avoid the temptation of using Canva and focus on the classic options.
• Editing: Get this thing through as many people and bots as you can. You’d be surprised at what slips through, or what different people or tools pick up on.
  • Take your newly finished resume, and run it through ChatGPT. Don’t blindly accept what it spits out, but you might be impressed and incorporate some of the suggestions.
  • Ask ChatGPT to revise the resume, keeping the tone friendly and for an 8th-grade reading level.
  • Take your resume and paste it into Hemingway. You are looking for complex sentences, general reading level, and anything else it points out. Break up the complex sentences (you can use ChatGPT or WordTune to help this)
  • Reword passive statements (is, was, were) to active.
  • Remove adverbs (almost everything ending in -ly)
  • Remove all personal and possessive pronouns (I, you, he, she, we, they, me, him, her, his, them, hers, their, it, our, mine, yours...).
  • Delete all articles (a, an, the).
  • Rewrite your present-tense verbs (-ing, -s, -es) in past-tense (-ed). That includes your current job.
  • Numbers ("twelve") should be replaced with digits ("12"). Exception: if the number is a single digit (1, 5, 9, not 10, 32, or 198), then spell it out (One, five, nine...).
• Your resume should ideally fit on one page, but don't fret if it spills over to two. Keep it concise and compelling.
• Single line spacing. Use one size of font, and usually only one font. 11pt or 12pt. Headings can be one size bigger (though not needed). Use Times New Roman, Calibri, or Arial. Cambria, Garamond, Georgia, Gill Sans, and Helvetica are also okay. NEVER Comic Sans or Bleeding Cowboys. See my Font Guide. Also, avoid colored text or highlighting. There is a bit of room for people in design, but you are generally worried more about the computer reading things.
• Personal Info: Do not include date of birth, gender, race, religion, or marital status. Do not include a photograph. Again, this depends on country, but for the USA, UK, Ireland, Australia, and India, it’s not expected (and can get you rejected in the US). Other countries may expect it, but even then, it is going away. Do some research on what the country expects.
• Invest more time in fewer applications and customize your resume accordingly.
• Once you're done, convert your resume to a PDF document before sending it via email. It preserves your formatting and ensures a professional presentation.
• The Unmissed Final Polish guide.
• The accompanying cover letter.
• ChatGPT and other tools

Good luck! Feel free to DM me any questions you might have.

<< TL;DR AT THE BOTTOM >>
My apologies for the wall of text below. I wish to include as many details as possible, so that I may learn as much as I can from people with similar stories.
Just like every other kid in school, I grew up learning about plural and singular, verb tenses and parts of speech. However, while I did manage to write this way for a while, the way I wrote things subtly started to shift when I was in 4th grade or so.
The change was very slow and subtle, so much that I can't exactly recall when it started, but as cheesy as it may sound, my hands literally just started to write on their own. I just naturally knew when a word was written correctly, just like I knew when it was not. When reading something with mistakes, -- often the works of my peers -- a misspelled word would make the entire sentence feel off. It just vividly felt like something was wrong, and reading the sentence two or more times eventually revealed where the error was. It took me a while to find out I was the only one in my classes to write this way, and paying attention to it revealed that I was somehow writing from memory. I was just writing things and instinctively knew if something had correct spelling or not.
Honestly? It felt like I was cheating.
This "method" proved to not only be incredibly effective, but to also require very minimal mental effort on my part, since all the work was made without even thinking about it. Even today I don't know how exactly it worked, but my mind could just unconsciously compare the words I was reading with mental images I had of the same words. Once again, this did not require even the slightest mental work, as if my brain was constantly registering and memorizing words and their associated contexts, and then compared these mental images to whatever I was writing or reading. I had extremely high scores in whatever had writing at its core, and I didn't have to do the slightest work for it.
A few years later, around my second year of secondary school (something like 8th grade in the US), self-awareness started to settle in and with it came social problems. That prompted me to meet up with a pedopsychiatrist who diagnosed me not only with social anxiety, but also Asperger's syndrome.
About a year ago, I met purely by accident a coworker I shared a terrifying amount of similarities with. Among them were : crippling pickiness when it comes to food, very easily uncomfortable with clothes, unnaturally annoyed by certain sounds, and of course, a writing method that revolves around instinct and memory. Needless to say, this coworker was also diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome several years prior.
Following this, I met several psychologists, such as the ones available at my college or the private one I have monthly meetings with. I talked to them about it ; None could really answer me with certainty, but all of them mentioned photographic memory not being unheard of among individuals with ASD (Even if I really don't feel like I have one. I forget most things just as fast as anyone else).
To people who read this far down, have you ever heard of a writing method similar to mine? Or perhaps, similar instances that aren't writing-related?
​
TL;DR : I write in a way that revolves more around instinct than reasoning. I don't use grammar tools such as parts of speech, but rather, whenever there's a mistake in a sentence, reading it just feels like there's something wrong. I can somehow clearly see whenever something is correctly spelled or not, and I have no idea why or how.

Hi all,
I’m currently taking the second part of Latin 1 (in middle school). Next year, in 9th grade, I’m taking Latin 3 Honors (skipping Latin 2). Does anyone know what concepts I should work on before then? For reference, things that I know/can do are active and passive indicative verbs (all tenses), all 5 declensions, imperatives (and negative imperatives), present, perfect, and future infinitives (active and passive), participles (present active, perfect passive, and perfect active), subjunctives (we haven’t done passive, so just active), gerundives, and anything else in CLC up to stage 26.

Wisconsin’s Scott Walker Signs Bills Stripping Powers From Incoming Governor - The New York Times
The departing Republican governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker, signed into law measures limiting the power of the incoming Democratic governor, Tony Evers. Evers called the move “not reflective of this last election.”
Dec. 14, 2018 • Jim Matthews/The Green Bay Press-Gazette, via Associated Press
By Mitch Smith and Monica Davey
Dec. 14, 2018
FOX CROSSING, Wis. — Gov. Scott Walker made a national name for himself in the Republican Party by cutting the power of public sector unions eight years ago, only weeks after he swept into office in Wisconsin. On Friday, he signed legislation to cut the power of the Democrat who defeated him, a final act of a tumultuous tenure that moved Wisconsin firmly to the right.
The response from Democrats was swift and furious.
Tony Evers, the Democrat who beat Mr. Walker in a hard-fought election last month, said the departing governor “chose to ignore and override the will of the people.” Liberal groups, including one led by Eric H. Holder Jr., a former United States attorney general, pledged to sue. Senator Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin sent her Democratic supporters an email calling the move “a craven partisan attack on democracy” and soliciting donations to her “Vote ’Em Out Fund.”
The tactic by Mr. Walker and his allies came as part of an increasingly fractious struggle over power in the states, following a model set in North Carolina, where Republicans in 2016 tried to restrict the power of the governor after a Democrat was elected.
Similar scenarios were playing out elsewhere. In New Jersey, Democrats were seeking to make Republicans a permanent minority by, in essence, writing gerrymandering into the State Constitution. In Michigan, Republicans this week were contemplating limits on incoming Democrats, and the outgoing governor, Rick Snyder, on Friday signed bills scaling back a minimum-wage increase and a paidsick-leave measure that had been slated for statewide votes until Republicans intervened.
Mr. Walker’s move in Wisconsin will solidify some of the policies that made him a hero to many conservatives nationally and, for a brief time, a leading presidential candidate in 2016. But participating in what many Democrats consider a legally dubious power grab also cemented another widely held view: that Mr. Walker has been a bruising partisan willing to break precedent and ignore protests for political gain.
“The last eight years have been very much characterized by the view of, ʻWe’ve got the power, we’re going to do what we want, and anybody else — that’s too bad,’” said James E. Doyle, Mr. Walker’s Democratic predecessor as governor, who called the last-minute bills “unseemly.”
The new laws will curb the authority of Mr. Evers in the rule-making process and give lawmakers, not the new governor, most appointments on an economic development board until next summer.
The measures also will limit early voting, allow legislators to intervene in some lawsuits and limit the power of Josh Kaul, the incoming attorney general.
In addition, the new laws prevent Mr. Kaul and Mr. Evers from withdrawing the state from a lawsuit challenging the Affordable Care Act, and further codify policies passed by the Republicans, including a work requirement for people on Medicaid and a voter ID law.
During a bill-signing ceremony in Green Bay on Friday, Mr. Walker played down the significance of the reforms. He described all the attention paid to them as “hype and hysteria.” And he held up a large poster of a diagram with “SAME POWERS” in red letters, in which he ticked off prerogatives that his successor still gets to have, like vetoing bills.
Mr. Walker insisted he had been gracious and helpful to Mr. Evers since the election narrowly thwarted Mr. Walker’s hopes for a third term. “We have been very purposeful in wanting to make sure that this next governor has a good transition,” said Mr. Walker, who added that he had allowed the governor-elect to tour the executive mansion and provided office space for his staff.
And Mr. Walker seemed eager, as he has repeatedly in recent weeks, to define how his eight years in office should be remembered.
“To me, that’s the legacy: It’s the fact that Wisconsin is working,” Mr. Walker told reporters. “These bills don’t change that legacy. And these bills don’t fundamentally change the power of not just the next governor but any governor thereafter.”
The Republicans’ push to extend their hold before Democrats take office in Wisconsin comes as part of a broader power struggle as divided government returns to Midwestern states where Republicans had complete control for years. But it also risked energizing Democrats ahead of a 2020 presidential election in which both parties will battle for the Midwest, as well as shaping how people remember Mr. Walker, 51, who leaves the governor’s job on Jan. 7 having spent most of his adult life in elected office.
“What didn’t he do?” said State Senator Fred Risser, a Democrat who was first elected to the Legislature in 1956. “He reversed the progressive, innovative state we used to be proud of.”
From the moment Mr. Walker took office in Wisconsin, he was upending it.
Mr. Walker, a former legislator and county executive who then was little known outside of the Milwaukee area, won a crucial advantage when he became governor in 2011: Voters not only flipped the governor’s seat to Republican, but also both chambers of the Legislature.
Despite fierce protests, the Republican legislation that aims to diminish the power of the incoming Democratic governor and attorney general, was signed into law by the outgoing Republican governor, Scott Walker. Dec. 4, 2018 • Lauren Justice for The New York Times
Results came immediately. Within weeks, Mr. Walker announced the plan that would define his tenure. He wanted to shrink collective bargaining rights for most public sector workers in a state with deep roots in the labor movement.
...
end of article
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William Barr Supported Pardons In An Earlier D.C. 'Witch Hunt'_ Iran-Contra _ NPR
npr
January 14, 2019 · 5:01 AM ET
Heard on Morning Edition
CARRIE JOHNSON
Then-Attorney General William Barr, left, with President George H.W. Bush. Barr supported Bush's pardons for six people caught up in the Iran-Contra scandal, which is resonating today.
This won't be the first time that William Barr, President Trump's nominee to become attorney general, will be involved with what's been called a "witch hunt."
Barr, who is scheduled to go before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday for his confirmation hearings, ran the Justice Department once before, under President George H.W. Bush.
Back then, the all-consuming, years-long scandal was called Iran-Contra. On Dec. 24, 1992, it ended when Bush pardoned six people who had been caught up in it.
"The Constitution is quite clear on the powers of the president and sometimes the president has to make a very difficult call," Bush said then. "That's what I've done."
Then-Attorney General Barr supported the president's decision in the Iran-Contra case, which gave clemency to people who had been officials in the administration of President Ronald Reagan, including former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger. He had been set to go on trial to face charges about lying to Congress.
To the man who led the Iran-Contra investigation, however, the pardons represented a miscarriage of justice.
"It demonstrates that powerful people with powerful allies can commit serious crimes in high office, deliberately abusing the public trust without consequences," said Lawrence Walsh, the independent prosecutor in the case, at the time of the pardons.
Barr said later that he believed Bush had made the right decision and that he felt people in the case had been treated unfairly.
"The big ones — obviously, the Iran-Contra ones — I certainly did not oppose any of them," Barr said as part of the Presidential Oral History Program of the Miller Center at the University of Virginia.
...
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Why the Children Fleeing Central America Will Not Stop Coming _ The Nation
At the root of the border crisis is a wave of violence that the United States helped to create.
By Óscar Martínez
JULY 30,2014
Editor's note: This article was translated from Spanish by Daniela Maria Ugaz and John Washington.
On Friday, June 11, David de la O disappeared. He was walking home from school in rural Santa Cruz Michapa, a small city in El Salvador about an hour’s drive from San Salvador, the nation’s capital. David’s family searched for him all night, without success. The next morning, his remains were found buried in an abandoned field outside town. He had been stabbed four times in the torso; his head, arms and legs had been severed. David was only 11 years old. In fourth grade, he had been learning long division and multiplication and practicing verb tenses. With no leads to go on, the police speculated that David was killed and dismembered by gang members because he refused to join their ranks. (He went to school in an area controlled by one gang and lived in a neighborhood dominated by another.)
David’s murder wasn’t widely reported in the country. It was yet another incident of violence—a terrible one, but one of many. The day before David was killed, two other teenagers, 15 and 16, had their throats slit and were dumped in another abandoned field on the outskirts of the capital.
To avoid becoming the victims of gang violence, tens of thousands of children like David have fled El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras for the United States. As their numbers skyrocket, lawmakers in Washington have sought to “repatriate” these refugees as quickly as possible. The Obama administration initially sought to change the 2008 Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act to allow the 52,000 or so child migrants who have arrived on US soil in the last nine months to be deported without going before an immigration judge. (Under the TVPRA, unaccompanied minors from countries that do not share a border with the United States are handed over to the Department of Health and Human Services, then go before an immigration court that will determine their fate; those hailing from Mexico, on the other hand, can accept “voluntary deportation” and return immediately.) The White House has since backed off this proposal and has instead asked Congress for $3.7 billion to ramp up enforcement and hire more judges to expedite the removal process.
Republicans in the House of Representatives—including the GOP’s standard-bearer on immigration issues, Ted Cruz—continue to press for the TVPRA to be changed.
Little consideration has been given to the violence that children from these countries face upon returning home. But those who doubt that their lives are at risk are either deeply misinformed or, more likely, turning a blind eye to the epidemic of violence for the sake of political expedience.
In the northern triangle of Central America, children are not only being killed, but brutally so—stabbed to death, cut into pieces, tortured.
But the violence in El Salvador, as in neighboring Guatemala and Honduras, has been going on for years. When President George W. Bush signed the TVPRA into law in 2008, there were fifty-two murders per 100,000 people in El Salvador. The number shot up to seventy-one in 2009 before plateauing at sixty-five. Then, thanks in part to a truce between the government and the gangs, it dropped sharply in 2012. That year, the Salvadoran government transferred thirty leaders of the two biggest gangs in the country, the 18th Street Gang and the Mara Salvatrucha, from maximum-security prisons to gang-segregated minimum-security prisons where inmates are allowed conjugal visits and visits from their children. As a result, in 2012 and 2013, the murder rate fell to around forty per 100,000. But the truce has been slowly falling apart as police have employed more aggressive tactics to deal with the still-rampant violence. This year, El Salvador has typically seen at least eight people murdered every day.
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Why isn't the KKK designated as a terrorist organization — Hopes&Fears — flow Politics
Anonymous dropped the names of over 1000 alleged members of the KKK today, we asked experts to explain the various reasons why the Ku Klux Klan isn't designated as a terrorist organization.
Rhett Jones November 5
Anonymous dropped a list of more than 1,000 alleged members of the Ku Klux Klan today and there are worries that vigilantes might take justice into their own hands, as well as concerns that the unvetted information might prove to be false. But what if the list turns out to be legitimate? Association with a U.S. hate group is not illegal, and despite terrorizing minorities, gays, Jews and Catholics for over a century—committing atrocities designed to induce a state of terror among the public—the Klan is not designated as a terrorist organization. Why is that?
If, say, an American citizen were a known affiliate of al-Qaeda, they would stand to face some serious legal consequences. Why is an often violent hate group allowed to hold parades and recruit out in the open? Professor Randolph Michael McLaughlin of Pace University specializes in civil rights and has successfully faced the KKK in court. He tells Hopes&Fears, “The term ‘terrorist’ has been overused only in connection with Muslim extreme groups who have committed acts of terror. To my knowledge, it has never been used to designate homegrown American groups that terrorize minority groups.”
That turns out to be true. Homegrown “terrorist groups” simply don’t get designated the same way as a member of ISIS. And while hate crime laws have stiffened the penalties that a domestic terrorist group might face, it would be extremely difficult to label a domestic group as terrorists. We spoke with Mark Pitcavage of the Anti-Defamation League about the numerous reasons why this is the case.
There are a number of different reasons the Klan is not designated as a terrorist organization. Let's take a look at them one by one.
Domestic extremist groups are not designated as terrorist organizations.
I am simplifying a bit, but basically the only ways that the United States "designates" any groups or movements as terrorist organizations are through the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), and, to a lesser degree, through Executive Order 13224 (designed to impede terrorist funding). The INA allows the State Department to designate groups as international terrorist organizations; there are also other related provisions in the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 1988 and 1989. Other laws allow the State Department to designate state sponsors of terrorism. Thus for the U.S. even to be able to designate a domestic extremist group as a terrorist organization, a new law would have to be passed to authorize that. For reasons below, such a law might be difficult to withstand constitutional scrutiny.
The term "Ku Klux Klan," as commonly used, misleadingly implies both a unity and a history that does not, in fact, exist.
Rather, the "Ku Klux Klan" should be thought of not as a specific hate group, but as a type of hate group, like neo-Nazi groups or racist skinhead groups.
The original Ku Klux Klan, formed in the 1860s, was the largest and most violent domestic terrorist organization that the U.S. has ever known. It only lasted about 10 years, though. In the 1910s, a fraternal organizer, inspired by the movie The Birth of a Nation, which glorified the Klan, decided to restart the Ku Klux Klan. This new organization spread quickly, across the entire country, and at its peak in the early 1920s had millions of members. However, though racist (and now anti-Semitic and anti-Catholic) and sometimes producing violence, overall it was a much more mainstream organization than the original Klan. Beginning in the late 1920s, this second Ku Klux Klan rapidly declined because of scandal and mismanagement, and formally ended in 1944. Thus 1944, was actually the last time there was a single "Ku Klux Klan" in the United States.
In the 1950s, however, the "Klan" began to rise again, primarily in the South rather than nationwide, as the most extreme example of opposition to the Civil Rights Movement. It was not a unitary Klan this time around. Rather, a number of completely independent Klan groups of varying sizes developed in different areas and regions. Many of these Klan groups were very violent, committing hate crimes and acts of terrorism. Not every single Klan group was necessarily violent, though. This "era" of the Klan ended sometime in the early 1970s as it became obvious that they had failed in stopping desegregation and the groups began to decline and fall apart. None of the groups of this era have lasted to the present day.
From the late 1970s to the present day, we have had the post-Civil Rights era "Klan" (Klan members themselves often divide the history of the Klan into five or even six eras, but those extra distinctions are largely meaningless).
Again, we are not talking about a unitary Klan, but a constantly changing myriad of dozens of Ku Klux Klan groups of varying sizes. It so happens that just this week we (ADL) updated our inventory of Ku Klux Klan groups active today and we currently track 46 different Ku Klux Klan groups (you may see different numbers from the Southern Poverty Law Center; that is because they count each alleged chapter of a Klan group as a separate "group," whereas we do not, because many of the alleged Klaverns are impossible to confirm).
Of these 46 Klan groups, there are many with whom we cannot trace a connection to any criminal activity. I think you can see how difficult it would be to categorize the "Ku Klux Klan" as a terrorist group, when, in fact, there are nearly four dozen different "Klans" active today, including many with no significant connections to violence. Moreover, even the ones with which there may be some sort of association with criminal activity generally have not ordered or organized such violence.
Terrorist organizations find it extremely hard to exist in the United States, and domestic extremist violence, including terrorism, is not very group-oriented.
When one looks at the history of organized terrorism--i.e., terrorist groups—one finds that they tend to exist only in certain circumstances. I am once more simplifying, but basically: one finds lasting formal organizations that are committed to using violence as a primary tactic to achieve their political, social, religious or other goals only when they exist in an environment that prohibits effective law enforcement and counterterrorist measures.
For the most part, these circumstances are one or more of the following:
However, in the United States, none of these circumstances currently apply. The rule of law is strong throughout the entire country. As a result, terrorist groups find it extremely difficult to survive in the United States. The number of organized groups that formed as terrorist groups in the U.S. and managed to survive for any length of time is very small in recent decades. Among white supremacists, perhaps the most notable is The Order, sometimes known as the Silent Brotherhood, which operated as a terrorist group from 1983-1985. Note that within just a few years, the federal government was able to take this group down in its entirety. Most such groups do not last anywhere near that long and, in fact, are typically caught before they can carry out their first violent act.
Sometimes there is an exception to this. When a major new extremist movement emerges, it can take law enforcement some time to begin to understand the movement, its goals, and tactics, and to gather criminal intelligence about it, and finally to develop tactics to successfully combat it. This sort of gap in the early 1970s allowed the leftist Weather Underground to successfully engage in a number of terrorist bombings. Eventually, however, law enforcement catches up, begins to develop informants, understands how to do undercover work in that particular movement, etc. But these are exceptions.
But generally extremist groups in the U.S., particularly formal organized ones, do not form for the purpose of committing violence—even if violence may subsequently emerge from such groups. For most extremist movements, most of the actions by groups and individuals associated with those extreme movements consists of non-violent activities (propaganda, recruitment, etc.) that would actually be protected by the Constitution. This is in contrast to a group like Al Qaeda which exists largely for the purpose of committing violence. This is another factor that would make it difficult to declare any domestic extremist group as a terrorist group.
So what does domestic terrorism in the U.S. look like? Essentially, regardless of whether we are talking about left-wing extremists, white supremacists, right-wing anti-government extremists, or domestic Muslim extremists, domestic terrorism and extremist violence in the U.S. usually tends to take one or more of these forms:
So, to get back to the Ku Klux Klan, when we look at the violence committed in recent years that has some sort of Klan-related association, we don’t usually see Klan groups as groups organizing and committing violent acts, the way we might have seen in the early 1960s (or late 1860s). Rather, we tend to find an individual (or more than one person) striking off on their own to commit a violent act.
Because of this, it might be difficult to designate as a terrorist organization even a Klan group that has some violence associated with it, if it were not possible to prove that the group organized, ordered, or condoned the violent act in question.
If you put all of these things together, you can see why formally declaring the Ku Klux Klan collectively, or one or more of its individual Klan groups, as a terrorist group would be both difficult and problematical. This would apply to most other extremist groups in the U.S. as well, of course.
A better approach, which is essentially the approach law enforcement takes in the U.S., is to concentrate on the violence (in terms of prevention or in terms of apprehension of suspects), whether it comes from an individual, an informal cell, or an organized group. I should note, too, as there is no real law in the U.S. against “domestic terrorism” (other than an odd narrow exception called “animal enterprise terrorism”), designating a group as terrorist would have no impact on the criminal prosecution of one of their members beyond whatever else they were charged with. In contrast, for white supremacist related crimes at least, federal and state hate crimes laws actually can provide additional charges and/or harsher penalties.
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Why Are Americans So Easy to Manipulate and Control Alternet
Shoppers, students, workers and voters are all seen the same way: as passive, conditionable objects.
By Bruce E. Levine / AlterNet
November 3, 2014
What a fascinating thing! Total control of a living organism! — psychologist B.F. Skinner
The corporatization of society requires a population that accepts control by authorities, and so when psychologists and psychiatrists began providing techniques that could control people, the corporatocracy embraced mental health professionals.
In psychologist B.F. Skinner’s best-selling book Beyond Freedom and Dignity (1971), he argued that freedom and dignity are illusions that hinder the science of behavior modification, which he claimed could create a better-organized and happier society.
During the height of Skinner’s fame in the 1970s, it was obvious to anti-authoritarians such as Noam Chomsky (“The Case Against B.F. Skinner”) and Lewis Mumord that Skinner’s worldview—a society ruled by benevolent control freaks—was antithetical to democracy. In Skinner’s novel Walden Two (1948), his behaviorist hero states, “We do not take history seriously,” to which Lewis Mumford retorted, “And no wonder: if man knew no history, the Skinners would govern the world, as Skinner himself has modestly proposed in his behaviorist utopia.”
As a psychology student during that era, I remember being embarrassed by the silence of most psychologists about the political ramifications of Skinner and behavior modification.
In the mid-1970s, as an intern on a locked ward in a state psychiatric hospital, I first experienced one of behavior modification’s staple techniques, the “token economy.” And that’s where I also discovered that anti-authoritarians try their best to resist behavior modification. George was a severely depressed anti-authoritarian who refused to talk to staff, but for some reason, chose me to shoot pool with. My boss, a clinical psychologist, spotted my interaction with George, and told me that I should give him a token—a cigarette—to reward his “prosocial behavior.” I fought it, trying to explain that I was 20 and George was 50, and this would be humiliating. But my boss subtly threatened to kick me off the ward. So, I asked George what I should do.
George, fighting the zombifying effects of his heavy medication, grinned and said, “We'll win. Let me have the cigarette.” In full view of staff, George took the cigarette and then placed it into the shirt pocket of another patient, and then looked at the staff shaking his head in contempt.
Unlike Skinner, George was not “beyond freedom and dignity.” Anti-authoritarians such as George—who don’t take seriously the rewards and punishments of control-freak authorities—deprive authoritarian ideologies such as behavior modification from total domination.
Behavior Modification Techniques Excite Authoritarians
If you have taken introductory psychology, you probably have heard of Ivan Pavlov’s “classical conditioning” and B.F. Skinner's “operant conditioning.”
An example of Pavlov's classical conditioning? A dog hears a bell at the same time he receives food; then the bell is sounded without the food and still elicits a salivating dog. Pair a scantily clad attractive woman with some crappy beer, and condition men to sexually salivate to the sight of the crappy beer and buy it. The advertising industry has been using classical conditioning for quite some time.
Skinner's operant conditioning? Rewards, like money, are “positive reinforcements”; the removal of rewards are “negative reinforcements”; and punishments, such as electric shocks, are labeled in fact as "punishments." Operant conditioning pervades the classroom, the workplace and mental health treatment.
Skinner was heavily influenced by the book Behaviorism (1924) by John B. Watson. Watson achieved some fame in the early 1900s by advocating a mechanical, rigid, affectionless manner in child rearing. He confidently asserted that he could take any healthy infant, and given complete control of the infant’s world, train him for any profession. When Watson was in his early 40s, he quit university life and began a new career in advertising at J. Walter Thompson.
Behaviorism and consumerism, two ideologies that achieved tremendous power in the 20th century, are cut from the same cloth. The shopper, the student, the worker, and the voter are all seen by consumerism and behaviorism the same way: passive, conditionable objects.
Who are Easiest to Manipulate?
Those who rise to power in the corporatocracy are control freaks, addicted to the buzz of power over other human beings, and so it is natural for such authorities to have become excited by behavior modification.
Alfie Kohn, in Punished by Rewards (1993), documents with copious research how behavior modification works best on dependent, powerless, infantilized, bored, and institutionalized people. And so for authorities who get a buzz from controlling others, this creates a terrifying incentive to construct a society that creates dependent, powerless, infantilized, bored, and institutionalized people.
Many of the most successful applications of behavior modification have involved laboratory animals, children, or institutionalized adults. According to management theorists Richard Hackman and Greg Oldham in Work Redesign (1980), “Individuals in each of these groups are necessarily dependent on powerful others for many of the things they most want and need, and their behavior usually can be shaped with relative ease.”
Similarly, researcher Paul Thorne reports in the journal International Management (“Fitting Rewards,” 1990) that in order to get people to behave in a particular way, they must be “needy enough so that rewards reinforce the desired behavior.”
It is also easiest to condition people who dislike what they are doing. Rewards work best for those who are alienated from their work, according to researcher Morton Deutsch (Distributive Justice, 1985). This helps explain why attention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)-labeled kids perform as well as so-called “normals” on boring schoolwork when paid for it (see Thomas Armstrong’s The Myth of the A.D.D. Child, 1995). Correlatively, Kohn offers research showing that rewards are least effective when people are doing something that isn’t boring.
In a review of the literature on the harmful effects of rewards, researcher Kenneth McGraw concluded that rewards will have a detrimental effect on performance under two conditions: “first, when the task is interesting enough for the subjects that the offer of incentives is a superfluous source of motivation; second, when the solution to the task is open-ended enough that the steps leading to a solution are not immediately obvious.”
Kohn also reports that at least 10 studies show rewards work best on simplistic and predictable tasks. How about more demanding ones? In research on preschoolers (working for toys), older children (working for grades) and adults (working for money), all avoided challenging tasks. The bigger the reward, the easier the task that is chosen; while without rewards, human beings are more likely to accept a challenge.
So, there is an insidious incentive for control-freaks in society—be they psychologists, teachers, advertisers, managers, or other authorities who use behavior modification. Specifically, for controllers to experience the most control and gain a “power buzz,” their subjects need to be infantilized, dependent, alienated, and bored.
The Anti-Democratic Nature of Behavior Modification
Behavior modification is fundamentally a means of controlling people and thus for Kohn, “by its nature inimical to democracy, critical questioning, and the free exchange of ideas among equal participants.”
For Skinner, all behavior is externally controlled, and we don’t truly have freedom and choice. Behaviorists see freedom, choice, and intrinsic motivations as illusory, or what Skinner called “phantoms.” Back in the 1970s, Noam Chomsky exposed Skinner’s unscientific view of science, specifically Skinner’s view that science should be prohibited from examining internal states and intrinsic forces.
In democracy, citizens are free to think for themselves and explore, and are motivated by very real—not phantom—intrinsic forces, including curiosity and a desire for justice, community, and solidarity.
What is also scary about behaviorists is that their external controls can destroy intrinsic forces of our humanity that are necessary for a democratic society. Researcher Mark Lepper was able to diminish young children’s intrinsic joy of drawing with Magic Markers by awarding them personalized certificates for coloring with a Magic Marker. Even a single, one-time reward for doing something enjoyable can kill interest in it for weeks.
Behavior modification can also destroy our intrinsic desire for compassion, which is necessary for a democratic society. Kohn offers several studies showing “children whose parents believe in using rewards to motivate them are less cooperative and generous [children] than their peers.” Children of mothers who relied on tangible rewards were less likely than other children to care and share at home.
How, in a democratic society, do children become ethical and caring adults? They need a history of being cared about, taken seriously, and respected, which they can model and reciprocate.
Today, the mental health profession has gone beyond behavioral technologies of control. It now diagnoses noncompliant toddlers with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, and pediatric bipolar disorder and attempts to control them with heavily sedating drugs. While Big Pharma directly profits from drug prescribing, the entire corporatocracy benefits from the mental health profession’s legitimization of conditioning and controlling.
Bruce E. Levine is a practicing clinical psychologist. His latest book is Get Up, Stand Up: Uniting Populists, Energizing the Defeated, and Battling the Corporate Elite.

(I am Italian so schools work differently)
I don’t hate myself; I am intelligent, fairly good-looking (a bit short and wish I had less body hair but I am slim with big eyes) and I know how to listen to people.
However I fucking hate my life, in elementary and middle school (6-13 yo) I was bullied and excluded by everyone all whilst always changing sport which resulted in a lack of friendships, self esteem and definitely made me into an extreme introvert that doesn’t even know how to approach people.
I spent a year in a hard lyceum but failed miserably as I never learnt to study( in middle school my class was so chaotic that I got high grades just for being silent and listen to the professors) and in that period I met a great girl with whom I never formed a relationship with (along with the rest of the class) because I was an asshole.
I changed to a relatively easy lyceum that has nothing to do with me and aside from french I am still not studying shit all whilst having better grades than most of my classmates (as I said, I am smart) but even here I am still lonely; the class is composed by mostly females and at 19 I am still timid and I really don’t know how to make friends; I spent here almost 5 years in complete loneliness, I tried becoming more of an extrovert during my third year but Covid happened and stopped me from making friends (forget messaging them, I am an introvert and they still ain’t my friends).
I had another crush but her friend did everything she could to stop me and her from becoming more until I just said to said friend to stop but then again, covid happened and me and my crush only met 2 years later, needless to say, she had a boyfriend (I had some crushes but all of them short-lived)
By the end of my 4th year I met my first high school crush and noticed I still was that timid, lonely nerd and tried to change but the only friendships I still seemed to be able to maintain were my sister’s friends (not hard, she is doing 99% of the job here; I just have to not be an asshole) and as the school restarted I met Dina, a girl from theatre whom I considered very kind hearted and pleasant even tho intelligence and awareness aren’t her strength.
I also started developing feelings for a classmate, Emma, a very smart, kind and good-looking girl and she also started flirting with me (tho, I didn’t realize as she still was acting in a far more intimate way with her best friend, a guy; I realized it recently as she is now acting more like a friend, she stopped showing so munch of her tits with a low neckline and doesn’t get as close physically)
I stopped this because I discovered that she was smoking weed (she said she will stop once school is over but all of her friends do it so I doubt it, she already said she was gonna stop smoking cigarettes the tear before) and that she just broke up with her bf (I know people do it and use the other ones as tolls) and I started bonding a lot with Diana instead whilst me and Emma remained just friends.
Me and her got very close in the span of a month and a half and had a date which resulted in her staying at my place with my family, sleeping at my house and remaining the whole Sunday.
She had a breakdown in the evening die to her own life being a mess and I consoled her, hugged her, kissed her cheeks and, in the heat of the moment, moved in for a kiss but she said she saw me more like a brother after we kissed (and this was my first and only kiss ladies and gentlemen).
Sole months pass and Diana (now my best friend despite some fights) comes to my place for the second time saying she has to study however as I greet her at the station she doesn’t return my hug (even tho for us is normal by now as well as kisses on the cheeks) and asked if I had lunch since she hadn’t had one.
I make her some eggs but as we are having a conversation she is just scrolling through instagram and we get to the studying.
At this point, I am starting to feel a little too used which kinda pisses me off. We take a break, have a laugh and she starts “imitating my laugh” which was definitely not amusing, especially since I don’t laugh a lot either. We returned to studying and I ask her some questions and give her one of the answers but she just leashes at me because she has an exam and has to study; she takes her phone saying she’ll study by herself and I get called by my parents.
I explain to them the situation with her, we silently agree to dine fast and then get her home asap as the situation is getting tense and I remain with them.
We dine and she was playing at the sims with my sister; we go to her place and I try to not degenerate the situation by explaining to her I already had a bit of a tiring week but with no results.
We don’t speak much online on whatsapp and I go to a two-day school trip with ours and another class; not particularly fun but Emma was there.
In the evening we students have a party with alcoholics (I am the most resistance to alcohol of the group) and some smoke weed (tho not me).
In the beginning a gorgeus girl looks at me flirtatiously and clearly likes me when we talk but she has to go soon for smth (idk) and I kept drinking.
I drank 1 glass of gin and soda and then 5 glasses of pure gin in about an hour before she showed up again and at this point I go to my own room because I feel the alcohol (as a smart person, even tho I love the taste of alcohol I am horrified at the thought of not being able to think properly) and once I return an hour later she is gone.
I am still pretty drunk but still more self-conscious than most and I stay in that room with Emma and two of our classmates, one of them drunk af.
We get in the beds, I am still fully clothed and share the same bed with Emma and we started watching “dark shadows” on her phone tho she quickly changes it to “community” due to it being to complex to her.
Now, at this point I am tired, drunk and horny so I slowly put a hand slightly under Emma’s back near her tit and she soon moved and went in the same bed as the sober classmate (we chatted earlier, I asked her why she moved as I had foggy memories and asked if I did anything; she said it was only because she had develop a stronger friendship with the other guy and even then it wasn’t ideal for her)
I stay in the bed and quickly fall asleep still clothed; the next day me and Emma barely talk to each other and whilst the cute girl from the other class still smiles at me we don’t talk much as I am not very good at making conversation and she doesn’t really seem to respond to me; the fact that they kept dividing us didn’t help.
This brings us to today; I had theatre. We did improvisation and twice and the theme is disco (you know how everyone else at least had a good time there once? Not me no, I went there twice when I was 13/14 and hated it) and the second time I just have to go the bathroom and I cry there due to my loneliness since (I hope) no one can hear me there
I also and met Diana who believes I made a joke about her being an orphan when she was with me last week and when I say I had a bit of a bad day the other day too she says “so? I have tons of them! Do you see me always crying and complaining?” to which I just shrugged since the honest answer would be “yes”.
And this brings me here, had another small cry (2 today and I genuinely don’t know the precise number of this week, probably around 5 or 6) and spent more than an hour on this post. I am 19, virgin (and could have checked off that one 2 days ago if I didn’t like alcohol so much), my only kiss was a non consensual one and I am losing two of my best (and more seen as well) friends in the span of one week.
Next Saturday I also have to go to the theatre and the group is me, 2 families and Diana; I have no clue on how that one will go.
Also, if you want to complain to me about the hand thing with Emma, I know that was wrong but please, keep in mind my state in that moment; same goes with the forced kiss; I am not gonna say I am some sort of innocent little soul but the loneliness is driving me mad.
Also sorry for any grammatical mistakes or use of the wrong period in the verbs but it is a long text written with many breaks and some tears aside from being in a secondary language
Tl;dr: I was bullied, not know how to make friends and messed up big time every time I tried to be extrovert; all of this is taking a tool on me

“For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.” (Romans 2:12-16)
“As I teach and preach the word of God, certain questions inevitably are raised. Among those most frequently asked is: What about those who have never heard the gospel? How do they stand before God? Will God grade them on a curve? Will God judge them in comparison to a moderated standard of morality? Will God measure them by others in their culture? If they are religious and sincere, can that gain them acceptance with God?
Inevitably, as I talk to unbelievers, these same questions seem to always be present. Today’s study in Romans will be helpful for us, because it will equip us to better interact with to others about those who have never heard the gospel. Romans 2:12-16 is the signature text in the Bible on this controversial subject. We are going to use these verses to walk through the book of Romans, seeing how God deals with those who have never heard the gospel
The testimony of Scripture is clear that all unconverted people are under the wrath of God. Paul writes, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness” (Romans 1:18). This is true, not only of those who have heard the gospel and rejected it, but of those who have never heard the gospel. They are deservedly under the wrath of God. The verb “is revealed” is in the present tense. This means that at this very moment, wherever an unbeliever is on the earth – whether he has heard the gospel or not – he is already under divine wrath. Every person is either a believer in Christ, or under divine wrath. There is not another category in which someone could find themselves. There is no middle ground.
All people have received general revelation from God, which makes them without excuse before Him. Paul makes this very clear, “because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them” (Romans 1:19). God has revealed Himself to every person on earth with general revelation, which gives the definite knowledge that God exists. General revelation also tells us something about what God is like. “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse” (Romans 1:20). Every person on earth, whether they have heard the gospel or not, is directly accountable to God, being without excuse. They know that there is a God, whether they admit it or not.
Any critically thinking person can look at creation and realize that there must be a Creator. This is proven by the simple truism, “Out of nothing, nothing comes.” If there is something created, that presupposes and necessitates that there was an original first cause, an uncreated entity. That uncreated entity is none other than God Himself.
The Creator’s thumbprints are all over what He has made. Anyone can look around at creation and clearly see what God is like. Creation testifies that God is awesome. He is powerful. He is orderly. He is perfect. We have already talked about this, but we need to remind ourselves, as we begin our investigation of Romans 2:12-16, that all unbelievers everywhere are under divine wrath because of their sin.
With this as a backdrop, let us consider the case that Paul makes against those who are without the Law. That is, they have never heard the truth of the gospel. What can be said about them?
I. They Have Sinned Without the Law (2:12a)
First, this passage tells us that even those without the Law have sinned. It is crystal clear, “For all who have sinned without the Law will also perish” (verse 12). Those who have never heard the gospel are not innocent. Neither are they found to be righteous before God. They are sinners who have rebelled against God, and who are in defiance against Him. Like those who have heard the gospel and have refused it, they nevertheless have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
“Sin” (hamartia) means ‘to miss the mark.’ It is the idea of an archer aiming his bow and arrow at a target, firing it, but missing the mark. This is what sin is. It is failing to hit the mark of God’s perfect holiness with one’s life. Such people are not in a state of innocence, but are unrighteous.
II. They Will Perish Without The Law (2:12b-13)
Second, all who are without the Law will perish. “For all who have sinned without the Law will also perish without the Law” (2:12). The word “also” is very important, because it indicates whether you have the Law or whether you do not have the Law.
Without the gospel, you are going to perish. “Perish” (apollymi) refers to eternal destruction, eternal punishment, and eternal damnation. This is a very strong statement. It does not say that they will be saved. It says they will perish without the Law. According to 1 Corinthians 1:18, they are already perishing right now. They are self-destructing by their own life lived without God. They are like a cheap sweater that is unraveling as they live their life.
Doers Will Be Justified
Verse 13 is an explanation of the end of verse 12. Law. Paul says, at the end of verse 12, “All who have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law.” This refers to Jews who have received the moral law from God. It has been passed down from generation to generation, read in the synagogue and memorized. They are “under the Law,” meaning they have the Law and are directly accountable to the Law. They have sinned and will be judged by the standard that is in the Law.
Verse 13 begins with the word “for,” which means it is an explanation of the end of verse 12. “For it is not the hearers of the Law who are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified” (verse 13). This does not mean that there are people who can keep the Law, obey the Law, and therefore be justified by God. The whole book of Romans makes it crystal clear that would be a wrong interpretation of what Paul is saying. Even in the context of the passage, verse 13 is talking about those who keep the Law but are not justified by keeping the Law.
Verse 13 is saying that if you are more than a hearer of the Law, if you are a repenter and a believer in Jesus Christ, who is presented in the gospel, then you will immediately begin to live in obedience to the Law of God. Just because you have the Law does not mean that you are right with God. You have to be a doer of the Law to prove that you are right with God.
The Obedience of Faith
Paul has already established this truth at the very outset of the book of Romans. In Romans 1:5, he talks about the obedience of faith, which means the obedience that comes from faith or the obedience that is produced by faith. All true faith is an obedient faith. There is no such thing as faith that is disobedient. All true saving faith produces obedience. James 2 is also abundantly clear on this matter. Obedience is a very important fruit of salvation. Faith is the root, obedience is the fruit. It is a cause and effect.
Even Jesus says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father” (Matthew 7:21). Verse 13 is addressing those who have repented of their sins and have true, genuine, saving faith in Jesus Christ as presented in the gospel. They are known as doers of the Law, and they alone are justified by God.
Those who do not obey the Law are unconverted. They may be religious, but they are lost. We would say today that they are lost church members, unconverted religious people who have a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof. They are those who have sinned under the Law and they are judged by the Law.
III. They Instinctively Know To Do The Law (2:14)
Third, they instinctively know what is in the moral law of God. When we come to verse 14, we come back to Paul’s original argument, which is found in the first part of verse 12. These are those who are without the Law, who have not received special revelation, who have never heard the gospel. “For when the Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves” (verse 14).
They instinctively and intuitively know the difference between right and wrong. This is not referring to the ceremonial law and the civil law. It is referring to the moral law of God contained in the Ten Commandments. They instinctively know they should honor their parents. They instinctively know they should not steal. They instinctively know they should tell the truth. They instinctively know that they should love other people and show compassion to others. They instinctively know it, because God has written it upon their hearts.
IV. They Have the Law Written In Their Heart (2:15a)
Fourth, as we come to verse 15, we see that God has written the Law upon their hearts. Paul writes, “in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts” (verse 15). Those without the Law instinctively know to do what is in the Law, because God has written it upon their heart. The invisible finger of God has written His Law upon the tablet of every human heart. It is a limited knowledge of the Law, not enough to be saved, but it is enough to condemn. Because God has written the Law upon the tablet of their heart, they are held accountable to God for the choices that they make.
As we will see, they are held accountable before God, not just for their deeds, but for their very thoughts, conscience, and secrets within them. Verse 15 shows that they are accountable to God for the Law that is within them. They are not off the hook or in no man’s land. They are not without accountability to God.
As a quick footnote, those who have the Law do have a stricter accountability to God, because they have a greater light. Those without the Law, that only have the Law written upon their heart, have a lesser accountability, but nevertheless, it is an accountability. The Bible is clear that it would be better to have never heard the truth than to hear the truth and reject it.
V. They Have an Accusing Conscience (2:15b)
Fifth, they have a conscience that bears witness to them of right and wrong. “And if they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness” (verse 15). Their conscience is giving a clear and strong testimony regarding what is right and what is wrong.
Every person on earth has a conscience. A conscience is that which instinctively tells you when you have crossed the line and violated the Law, or when you have kept the Law. Your conscience is like a smoke alarm that goes off in the middle of the night that wakes you up and alerts you when something is wrong. Your conscience is like feeling pain in your body when you have broken your ankle. You need to know that you have broken something, and pain is your friend because it tells you that something is broken. That is the roll of the conscience.
The Strength of Your Conscience
Your conscience may be clean, your conscience may be guilty, your conscience may be weak, your conscience may be strong. It just depends upon how many stop signs you have been running as the Law of God is telling you, “Stop, stop, stop.” There comes a point where the conscience becomes seared, as with a hot iron, and it no longer feels what it once felt. There is now no moral restraint, there are no brakes in the car, and you speed down the highway of sin. That is a seared conscience.
But as you humble yourself and keep the Law, that strengthens your conscience. You become more sensitive to even the little things. I have people who will call me after I have had a conversation with them and say, “Would you please forgive me? I should not have said this or that.” I may not even be aware anything wrong took place. It is because their conscience is so sensitive, because they have been walking in the truth and walking with the Lord.
For other people, it would take a sledgehammer across the forehead for them to even ponder the thought that what they are saying might be blasphemous. They have worn the brakes off their car, because they have been plowing through their conscience until they have little to no conscience left. They openly bring their sin out of the closet, they do not hide it anymore. They proudly tell people of the sin they have been doing. Earlier, they had enough moral restraint to hide it, but now there is no longer that shame. They now flaunt their sin.
The inner thoughts of those without the Law are accusing them of their sin. The Scripture says, “their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them” (verse 15). Their thoughts are both accusing and defending them. Their thoughts are connected to their conscience, and their conscience is bearing witness of their thoughts, accusing them of wrong doing. It is bringing conviction and pressing down.
They feel a sense of guilt, which is telling them that they need to get right, because something is wrong. There is a false guilt, but there is also a true guilt. Guilt is one way you know that you have violated your conscience. Your conscience is connected to the Law of God written upon your heart. This person without the Law, this person who has never heard special revelation, has a conscience that is accusing them before God.
“Or else defending them.” Every so often they help old ladies across the street. Every so often they fold the laundry for their mother. Every so often they do some right things. But they are also doing that which the Law written in their heart forbids. They think they are doing good things, but those good things will not save them from condemnation. It only takes one sin to stand guilty before God.
VI. They Will Be Judged By God (2:16)
Sixth, even those without the Law will stand on the last day before God. This passage says, “on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus” (verse 16). There will not be a reprieve or stay of judgment for those who have never heard the gospel. There will be no settling out of court for those without the knowledge of the gospel. They will have their day in court, where they will stand before God.
When Paul refers to “on the day,” he addresses that final day at the end of time. He already addressed this day in Romans 2:5. The day is so dramatic and graphic that Paul only needs to refer to it as the great day looking on the horizon. He writes, “Because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God” (verse 5). This is the day of judgment. Those who have never heard, those who are without the Law, will still stand before God on that last day.
They will no only appear, but will be weighed in the balances by God. On that day, they will be weighed against the standard of the Law written on their heart. Please note, this does not say they will be saved, but they will be judged. Paul writes, “on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge” (verse 16). There will not be a different standard for those who have not heard. They will be judged by the gospel.
The gospel includes not only the message of salvation, but also the message of condemnation. The truth of the good news necessitates the truth of the bad news. There can be no good news if there is not the corresponding bad news. The bad news of the gospel is found in Romans 1:18 through 3:20. It is the foundation upon which the gospel is built. The bad news of condemnation is inseparably bound together with the good news of salvation. These two can never be separated.
The believing sinner has to be saved from something. He cannot only be saved unto something. The truth is, he is saved from the wrath of God and condemnation. Paul writes that “on that last day they will be judged according to my gospel” (verse 16), which is the gospel of Jesus Christ. The importance of this statement is the judgment will not be by the morality of others sinners, how they compare to other people. They will not be judged on the curve to see if they have done more good than bad. They will be judged by the gospel, and the gospel commands that all men everywhere repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Those without the Law will nevertheless be judged by God. I have already alluded to this, but in here it could not be any more clear. Paul writes, “God will judge” (verse 16). This does not say they will be saved or pardoned by God. Nor does this say that they will be given a second chance by God. Rather, Paul maintains that they will be judged by God. Those without the Law will be strictly judged in accordance to the Law written upon their heart.
Those without the Law will have their secrets exposed and judged. Paul asserts, “God will judge the secrets of men” (verse 16). It is not just their deeds that will be made subject to divine judgment. Far more exposing and condemning, it is their secret thoughts that will be brought out into the open and condemned. Who could possibly stand innocent and acquitted before God when their secret thoughts are made known before God? Paul confirmed, “Their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them” (verse 15). What will be on trial goes deeper than just their actions that violate the Law of God written on their heart. It is their attitudes, their motives, their hidden thoughts, their selfish ambitions, revenge, anger, and hatred. All of that will come out into the open before God on the last day. The evidence will be overwhelming for those who are without the Law.
Those who are without the Law will still be judged through Christ Jesus. At the end of verse 16, Paul says that those without the Law will be judged “through Christ Jesus.” The truth is that God has given all judgment to His Son. It is before the Son of God that every person without Christ will stand. In John 5:22 it says that God has appointed all judgment to His Son. In Revelation 20, at the great white throne judgment, Him who sat upon that throne is Jesus Christ. It will be before Jesus Christ Himself that all without the Law will stand.
Conclusion
As we conclude our look at these verses, we see that even those without the Law are under sin and its curse. Paul will conclude the larger section in which this passage is found, “For we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin” ) Romans 3:9). The “Greeks” refers to those without the Law. Despite being without this special revelation, they nevertheless are under sin. Therefore, they are under the curse of the Law, which is eternal death or the second death. The Bible says, “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). Even those without the Law are still under this curse. If they die without Christ, they have no other recourse but to pay this penalty in hell forever.
All mankind has Adam’s original sin imputed to them. This includes those who have never heard the gospel. Paul teaches, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned” (Romans 5:12). When Adam disobeyed God, his original sin was charged to the account of every person who would ever be conceived in the womb of a woman. Again, this includes even those without the Law.
The mere fact that infants die in the womb confirms that Adam’s sin has already been imputed to every person. Otherwise, there could never be death in the womb. Even the infants of those who have never heard the gospel are not immune to death.
Over six thousand years ago, Adam’s sin was charged to every person who would ever be conceived in their mother’s womb. If that sin was not imputed to that child in the mother’s womb at the moment of conception, that child would never die. This is why there are miscarriages.
Through Adam’s one act of disobedience, the many were made sinners. That includes not only those who are under the Law, but also those who are without the Law. Every person who enters into this world already has Adam’s sin charged against them. This puts them in a state of death at the moment of their conception.
As a result, those who have never heard or read the Law are in desperate need to have the gospel preached to them. Paul writes, “How will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?” (Romans 10:14). That is a rhetorical question, and the obvious answer is they cannot. No one can call upon Him in who they have not believed. You cannot believe in that which you have not heard. The answer is they cannot hear unless someone tells them. No one can be saved without hearing the gospel. Whether it is a pastor, a parent, or a businessman bearing witness of the gospel, someone must share the good news if others are to be saved.
Paul continues, “How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things!’… So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ” (Romans 10:15,17). This is why we must be resolutely committed to the cause of gospel preaching, one-on-one witnessing, and world evangelism.
You do not have to go to the other side of the world to meet people who have never heard the gospel truth. You can just walk across the street and meet people who have never heard the good news of Jesus Christ. There are many in churches who have never heard the truth. In these places, church is show time, it is entertainment, or it is dead ritual and empty routine. You do not have to go to Africa, China, or India to find people who have never heard the truth. They live right where you are, and they remain in need of the pure, simple, saving gospel message.
What Paul addresses in Romans 2:12-16 is talking about the vast majority of people on planet earth. This is not describing a small pocket of people. There are billions of people in the world today who are without the Law. Untold numbers have never heard the saving gospel of Jesus Christ. Nevertheless, they have the Law written upon their heart. Consequently, their heart is accusing them, that they have sinned and fallen short of God’s perfect standard. They will stand before God at the judgment on the last day, just like every other unbeliever. At that time, all of their secrets, their thoughts, ambitions, lusts, and motives will be brought out into the open. The entire record of their lives will be made known. It will be Jesus Christ before whom they will stand. In that day, they will have no self-defense whatsoever to give. The only hope they have is in this world now, for us to take the gospel to them while they are still alive.
Those who have never heard the gospel are not just on the other side of the earth. They are in your zip code. They work in your office. They marry into your family. They live in your neighborhood. They think they have to work their way to heaven. They think they have to say Hail Mary’s to get to heaven. They think that they have to go to church a certain number of times and do good to certain people in order to meet a standard in which they will find acceptance with God. They are still on the treadmill of self-righteousness and have no concept of the saving grace of God. It is our responsibility to share the gospel with these people.” — Steven Lawson

For about the past 5 years I have been learning Spanish, but I also have ADHD and dyslexia which has given me some unique challenges in my language learning journey. Luckily I also have bachelors in psychology and master's in education so I was able to understand my learning issues and also devise some methods for dealing with them. This guide is based on my own experiences but I hope that it may help others who are having trouble tackling a second language. I´ve broken this into an ADHD section and a dyslexia section so it is easier to find what you need if you don’t have both. With sub-categories so you can get the information that is most important to you.
ADHD
Motivation
Motivation is a double-edged sword for those of us with ADHD, for things we are interested in we tend to have no problem spending hours doing research, or becoming “hyper-focused”. However this intense motivation often doesn’t last very long, a few weeks to a couple of months at best, and unfortunately languages take more time than that to learn. Once something becomes uninteresting it can feel burdensome to even think about studying it. This is why many ADHDers have many unfinished projects or are jack of all trades kind of people.
So how do you address this issue? Well people will tell you that discipline is better than motivation and they are correct but there are things we can do to increase our discipline and motivation when it comes to language learning.

1. Set a realistic goal - set goals based on time and a completed task. For example, I will complete 3 duo lessons a week, I will read 10 pages a week, or I will learn 3 vocab words a day.
2. Try to keep the streak going using things like habit trackers can help with this
3. Make it urgent - studying for an upcoming trip or test is going to be way more motivating than “just because”. If you can’t afford classes or trips sign up for a language meet up
4. Make it interesting- try to pick content that you care about, learn vocab that you can use right away and that is relevant to your life now.
5. Use other people to hold you accountable- get a language buddy, join a class, tell your family you want to practice with them, having other people to practice with keeps it interesting but knowing that someone is holding you accountable means you are more likely to study.

Studying
Figuring out how to study is a bit tricky for ADHDers because well we tend to get analysis paralysis. We are way more likely to keep looking at all the options over and over again instead of just picking one and going with it. So I made a list of resources that I found helpful at each level to hopefully save you some time and energy. Some of these are Spanish-specific but there is probably something similar in other target languages.
A0-A1

• Duolingo - it is easy, it is pre-planned, it has gamification
• Language transfer- it uses the language you already know to help you build connections in your TL
• Pimsler - check it out free from the library and practice your pronunciation and drill some basic phrases and conversation skills
• Conjugato- the application just for conjugating verbs just worry about present tense and work on memorizing

Pair these with stuff you already do so maybe you do Pimsleur on the way to work, you do a Duolingo lesson while you go to the bathroom, you listen to language transfer when you go for your evening walk, and you use Conjugato whenever you are waiting in line somewhere. The idea is to introduce yourself to the language and not get overwhelmed or burnt out.
A1-A2

• Readlang-time to start consuming comprehensible content readlang is a great place to start reading and find native content at your level
• Gringo Spanish on youtube- has some good explanations of Spanish grammar in English
• Duolingo stories- great listening practice
• Tutor or classes- if you can afford it I would really recommend getting a tutor or classes at this stage. Your language skills are still pretty weak so language exchange may not be an option this is where the newness of the language has worn off and you need some extra accountability to help keep you on track.

A2-B1

• Graded readers are a good option if you like novels, the news is another good option and a great way to build more real-life vocabulary.
• Spanish with Vincent on youtube has great explanations of grammar rules in Spanish and DELE assignments if that is one of your goals
• No hay tos podcast for Mexican Spanish is great and covers a lot of slang
• You can use Tandem, and hello talk to find language exchange partners and practice conversations
• Begin writing in writestreaksES or keep a Spanish diary

B1-B2

• Read young adult novels in Spanish or translated works
• Youtube channels related to your interest
• Radio Ambulante podcast exposure to different accents is great
• Go to language meetups and try to make native friends if you can
• Take classes again if possible, getting through the intermediate slump can be difficult so sometimes having a class can reignite motivation or help us to identify the areas we need to focus on.

A general note about studying is please don’t compare your timeline to anyone let alone youtube polyglots. Remember slow and steady wins the race. I have been learning for almost 5 years and I am at the B2 level. Some people would be devastated if they weren’t at C2 by now, but I know that I am making progress and improving and that is the best I can do.
Dyslexia
Dyslexia is such an interesting thing because it was such an issue when I was growing up but then as I got older and learned workarounds for it in my native language I kind of forgot I had it until I started learning Spanish. Then it was like being in grade school all over again and remembering how difficult it was for me to learn how to read and spell. If you have dyslexia you may be more or less dyslexic in your target language. For Example, I find I can typically sound words out in Spanish far better than in English because almost everything is spelled phonetically but I still have a lot of issues when it comes to reading.
In English, I basically sight-read everything. When I find new words in English I usually cannot sound them out or read them until I have heard them a few times. Dyslexia is a decoding issue more than anything else so finding out how to decode in a new language presents a new set of challenges. The things that helped me were:

• Reading while listening to matching audio ( podcast with transcripts, videos with matching subtitles, audiobooks)
• Reading a paragraph silently to myself then again out loud
• Summarizing what I read after every paragraph and if I couldn't re-reading it until I could, or listing to it to see if that helped
• Using Anki decks with audio
• Identifying the sounds that didn’t exist in English and practicing them over and over so that I could hear and say them

Hopefully, this information was helpful to those of you who learn a bit differently. I am happy to answer any additional questions about my language learning journey.

If you guys were to give a grade for this sample essay what will this be out of?
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Sample Response:

The text is a typical piece of travel writing based on an experience in Indonesia. It is written from an outside perspective and is aimed at a Western audience who enjoy reading about exotic places or experiencing adventure travel. It can be argued that the text largely succeeds in entertaining the reader with an amusing and dramatic account of a simplistic game of ping-pong; however, there is a tragic undertone as the ‘devastating’ reality of frequent earthquakes is revealed gradually. In addition, we may question whether the author is perhaps too quick to dismiss cultural differences as strange behaviour; however, as the text is a personal account and aimed at entertaining an outside audience, it is fair to submit that his feelings towards what is ‘other’ are essential to the purpose. His struggle to understand their customs is central to the passage and he communicates this in a humorous way with which the reader can identify.
Initially, the writer creates entertainment through the headline ‘Travel Tales’, using alliteration to create a light-hearted tone and emphasising that this will be a short and amusing story. Moreover, the headline implies that this may be one in a series of travel anecdotes. Furthermore, there is a pun employed in ‘Wild spin’ which is intended to create humour, as it could refer to both ping-pong technique and ‘spin’ as in a biased interpretation of events. This indicates that Indonesia’s version of the game is out of the ordinary and bizarre. The adjective ‘wild’ connotes both excitement and a lack of civility, thereby appealing to the Western reader’s curiosity at best or – at worst – to their prejudices.
The opening paragraph puts the reader straight into the action, building tension and excitement despite the rural setting. An extended metaphor of war is used to describe the match. For example, ‘attacks’, ‘barrage’, ‘ammunition’ and ‘ricochet’ all fit into the semantic field of battle and therefore add drama and intensity to an otherwise simplistic game. Later, the writer continues to create a feeling of anticipation through single, isolated verbs: ‘Crouch. Uncoil. Slam’. This magnifies each movement, with the use of present tense adding to the immediacy of the situation, as if the reader is also there and experiencing the tension.
The notion of ‘strangeness’ is somewhat central to this passage, which focuses on the author’s inability to understand the local customs. While curiosity of ‘the Other’ is a typical feature of travel writing, arguably the repetition of ‘weird’ and ‘weirder’ creates an ‘us and them’ divide. Moreover, the writer also employs non-standard English to communicate this strangeness, such as ‘four seero’, making it clear that the people are different and have limited English. However, any suggestions of mockery here are undone by the fact that the article largely makes fun of the writer himself, as his ping-pong inadequacies in this context are revealed. There is also some admiration evident in the description of the paddle as a ‘wooden sculpture’, implying a respect for beauty and crafting despite struggling with functionality.
The writer’s portrayal of his general incompetence in the situation and his inability to comprehend the preference for a ‘dented’ ball are entertaining aspects of this piece. He uses questioning throughout to convey his utter bemusement and heighten the comedy for the reader. However, interspersed throughout the text are references to the terrible natural events that shape the lives of the local people. The decision to refer to the ‘devastating’ and ‘ever-present’ earthquakes subtly, disguised in the more obvious focus on the game of ping-pong, is effective for two reasons. Firstly, the use of humour makes the reference to such natural disasters more unexpected and therefore jarring. The text is thus not solely intended for entertainment purposes, but rather uses entertainment to depict a more serious reality. Secondly, the structure of the text reflects the local elder’s statement that ‘Earthquakes are a part of life’. It is fitting that life goes on around these catastrophes, with the sport providing the teens with much needed relief and enjoyment. The simile ‘even my attacker… looks like a baby on his back’ conjures an image of innocence and happiness, appealing to the reader’s empathy. Furthermore, by the end of the article, the barrier of ‘strangeness’ has arguably been broken down by the emotional connection made through the game. This is seen in the final line ‘to the teens, to me, nothing at this moment could be better than an unexpected bounce that brings joy’, demonstrating a shared elation in the comedic value of the moment which overrides cultural differences.
In conclusion, through its stylistic choices, this text does entertain its intended reader, with the strangeness of the experience intertwined with this purpose. However, in the end, strangeness succumbs to basic human connection over spectacular failure, forging a link between the intended outside audience and the people of Indonesia.

I am running into the problem of having students who qualify SLD and cannot read. Many of my 5th grade students are on a 1st grade reading level with a fluency rate of maybe 40 words a minute.
Many of them have subject verb agreement errors, verb tense errors, and verbally produce super simple sentences with no noun or predicate elaboration.
When I attempt to target these errors in verbal production through explicit instruction, they spend majority of their time decoding the simple sentences I give them. Many have working memory deficits and they can't even recall the word choice they used 20 seconds ago.
I want to support reading goals, but it is taking away from my syntax goals.
Any suggestions/ tips for what you do?