Emergency Notice

No SAT-review class tomorrow on Wednesday. Instead the class shall take place on Thursday at 8.00 am. In the meantime you are requested to take a mock at 8.00 am at HOME.

  

No classes tomorrow Sunday

As I will be finalizing a few of the documents - I need a working day and therefore there will be no class/MOCK on Sunday.

However, there will be another MOCK on Monday at 8.00 am - if you want to take the MOCK, you MUST mail me to confirm your presence.

Please check for important blogpost tomorrow.

MOCK on Saturday

We will have mock on Saturday at 10.00 - do attend.

What do we have tomorrow - Friday?``

I was thinking that we shall have a MOCK on Friday - but NO! I have my Theatre Schedule and therefore we shall have our MOCK on Saturday.

In the meantime please keep working on the critical reading from many point of views - Vocabulary, Reading Items, Previous mails to me, and lots of Essay readings from the NET.

SAT II Scores

I have informed of the SAT-II scores by most of you. Please send me individual mails where you will state the breakdown of Critical-Writing-Math score from the October exam and then the breakdown of your SAT-II scores.

May I also request you to make necessary preparations for December SAT-I exam? We will have a few classes starting from coming Thursday. All the classes will be in the morning. I also intend to take class on Saturday at 10.

I also need to finalize 3 more MOCK days which we can settle after I meet you.

Well, I am sure everything is going fine.

Of Moral Actions and Reasoning

Like the previous year this year too had seen some of the finest and the toughest essays based on the Templeton Foundation's Big Question - Does moral action depend on reasoning? I just went through big-tall essays by Noor, Huma, Shahriar, Anik and others. Thank you all for braving this very fundamental philosophical question in the best AnglophileS tradition.

I will try to put selected parts of these numerous essays on the blog in the next few days. Remember, if you are not articulate - you are nobody!

Very Important Notice

Check out the other blog immediately.

We have MOCK on Tuesday

We will have MOCK on Tuesday. Please bring the NEW set of Real SAT papers that I gave some of you. I want to remind that these booklets shall cost you 200 TK each. Those who do not have these Real SAT Past Papers Booklet - please place on order through email. It will take around 2 hours to make a copy on a working day.

Please post all sorts of queries regarding SAT and Application [whether you have been accepted into the Program or not].

Everyone is working crazy - so don't fall behind. Forget that you have a body that is subject to rest-sleep-dream-leisure-hunger-physical pain. Only when you are gone crazy - there is some sort of light at the end of the abysmal gorge. 

Today Friday

Today, I will be working from here in my study. I have already invited some of you to come and see me. If you want to come - just let me know through an e-mail.

And - get back to work.

Get Back to Work

Sorry for not posting anything in the last 5 days.

I was busy over checking a large number of drafts. I am sure that everyone is now well set on working on their application while not forgetting the DUE attention for the upcoming SAT-I exam.

I will appreciate if you send me mails regarding your level of preparation. I will be in my study-room tomorrow from 8.00 till 12.00 in the morning. If you want to meet please request through an email.

The other blog has been posted too. Please check.

Prioritize your Tasks

As you are all busy over the SAT-I preparations - DO NOT forget that your prime reason for doing SAT is that you would apply to US colleges/universities. So, set aside the festival happenings and concentrate on your task at hand. Use the holiday [which shall last for 5 to 8 days at best] to finalize many of your principal papers.

Please do not hesitate to mail me in the event of need.

Read and review the following.

1. Vocabulary: Word Smarts, 430 List, 100 Words, Princeton Hit Parade [downloadable]
2. Granta, LRB, Red Room Essays.
3. Critical Reading Sections from 10 Real SAT, and Princeton.
4. Check the following Concepts [all VERY important] on the Net:

Behaviourism/Neuroscience/Evolutionary Science/Plant & Animal Biology, Feminism [Mary Wollstonecraft, Simon de’ Beauvoir, Virginia Woolf, Aurora Leigh], Art Movements [Surrealism, Expressionism, Impressionism, Cubism] [Gothic, Rococo], Immigrants’ Issues [Identity Crises, Memory of the Lost Homeland, Traditions and Rituals], European Infiltration on the American Soil [Euro-centrism, Local Govt. of Native Americans, Destruction of Native American Art], Historiography – Lefevbre, Carr, Trevelyan, Braudell, Herodotus [re-writing Native American History],

Medieval Europe [Government, Arts, Town/Village], Philosophy [Perception of the External World – Epistemology], Modern Physics [Black Holes, String Theory, Master Theory], Genetic Engineering, Political Science, Political Figures and Political Ideology [Black Leaders in the 19^th century, Democracy, Radicalism, Machiavelli, Medieval Politics in Italy and England]

Convenient short Summaries of a few Granta Essays - courtesy Prianka

Interested readers could try their hand directly with the full texts - I would say, you must do that.

Never Raise Your Hand (Granta essay)

The writer here tells about the corporeal punishments which he had experience in his childhood while he was in a missionary school. The school followed strict discipline and anyone who disobeyed the rules implemented were punished severely. the teacher whom he remembered the most for her strict discipline and cruelty was Sister Margaret. The seven year olds were not allowed to ask questions in her classroom and once she even cause one of his classmate’s nose to bleed for making wise cracks in her class. Her discipline made a barrier between the students and herself which prevented them from learning anything. To have an effective education, it is vital that there is a good teacher student relationship, not the type of relationship that the writer and Sister Margaret had with each other.

Where to Begin (Granta essay)

First a character in a story is portrayed as a human being  and later  he is given  the identity of where he comes from and his surroundings and according to Nadeem Islam it is due to this fact why fiction writer fails as there is always be the truth after the first four pages. A writer observes and sees everything that goes on around him and later when he writes a book, the environment around him unconsciously pours down into his writing. The writer, Nadeem Islam believes that his writings are an exploration of his own life and it is only possible to connect with his readers only after he shares his views of life with them. A writer can awaken the ordinary people and make then question and think of the surrounding in which they live in. It is astounding how mere writings of thoughts on pieces of papers and awaken people from their sleep and this is the reason why politicians fear writers so much and even cause some to fled their countries like Qurratulain Hyder.A writer’s perception of his own culture and mother tongue acts as the basis of what he writes about; it is the identity of where he comes from and are the inspirations of what he writes about.

Going Back (Granta essay)

The writer looked back  when she used to be young and was used to enjoy the surroundings around her. Her children reminded her of the days she used to enjoy. Hough they are in the same place, things changed and the environment is not that same as it used to be. Temperature has risen due to global warming and this lead to the change that we see today. Our surroundings  changed  because of the deeds of our ancestors and its preventing the new generation from enjoying what their parents used to do when they were of the same age.

The Ribbon of Valour (Granta essay)

After years of using the typewriter, Hal Crowther has to stop using his beloved machine due to technological advances. Our lives are changing due to the constant advances due to technology  and preventing us from going to the past. But are these technological advances good for the human kind? According to Hal the typewriter made the typist think thoroughly before writing anything  as making a mistake would cause them to type the whole thing again but with the computer a writer can delete his writing easily and because of this there are not that many  good writers around. Technology is making our lives easier but is it for the good or for the worse? It has both its cons and pros and it depends on us to make the decision of  how we want to use technology.

A Voice from the Vault (Granta Essay)

Mark Twain forbade his autobiography to be published within hundred years of his death. But there have been many editions before he decided on the final one. This is mostly due to the fact that Mark twain dictated rather than put them with his own hands. This caused the writer to do a lot of revisions. Because of the huge bulk of different materials for his autobiography, there can be a lot of interpretations. To understand his autobiography it is necessary that we know all that is available.

Writer’s Writer and Writer’s Writer’s Writer (London review of books)

Translating a piece of work from one language to another is a very hard job indeed as it is very difficult to present the same literary meaning which the original language provide. There is also the possibility of not interpret ting the true meaning  that writer wants to tell the reader. In translating a work, we miss out the true meaning. The difficulty of translation has been shown here with the example of Madame Bovary. There has been many translations of this famous piece of work as it depends on the translator how much he wants to keep up with the  writer or write what he comprehended from reading the writing.

Socialism (London review of book)

Most of the countries  follow capitalism rather than socialism. Capitalism lead to immense profit of the owners by cheating the consumers and it also forms big gad between classes. Socialism on the other hand aims for equality of class and prevents exploitation of consumers. The essay is a review of the book Politics of  Socialism.To the writer the book seems to lack focus and it was not clear in saying its messages aloud to the readers.

I will be in my Room tomorrow

There will not be any class tomorrow. However, I will be in the class from 8.00 am till 1.00. I will be expecting a good number of students to come and talk to me in person. I could not make any specific appointments - so anyone is free to come.

This is going to be an important day - so, make necessary preparations before you seek audience.

No classes tomorrow

No classes tomorrow as I will be staying home. Please look for mails and further posts by tomorrow morning. I am going to finalize the colleges for the app process by Monday.

IN the meantime if there is anything you need to talk about - dont hesitate to mail. I have already asked Abreshmi Maisha to mail me her specific plans.

The others are also requested to send me their plans for the entire week.

The app-processing students are requested to visit the other blog for further instructions.

App Processing Students

All the application processing students have been sent an important mail. Please respond immediately. Those of you who do not have e-mail account with gmail with your full name - please create one tonight. Make sure you do not use any code name that hides your identity.

No MOCK tomorrow Friday

I am very sorry to say that there will not be any mock tomorrow that we planned earlier. We shall have MOCK on Saturday at 10.15 am. We shall use Real SAT question paper. Please look for more post tonight.

SAT-I Mock on Thursday and Friday

There will be 2 SAT-I mocks. The first one will be tomorrow at 8.00 and the second one will be on Friday 10.15. Those who are not able to come on Friday should sit the MOCK tomorrow.

Application Processing students should work full scale and maintain deadline.

Class Timing Tomorrow Tuesday

We will have class tomorrow at 8.00 am and at 4.00 pm. We focus on vocabulary, critical reading, and OTHER things.

We also discuss some other things about applications after the class.

There will be a Back-Chamber cleaning session from 10.00 am to 1.00 pm. Students who will have to offer labour are - Noor, Adit, Anik, Tanzim, Sajid. You will be provided basic sustenance meal. Please wear T-shirts and comfortable trousers.

Go full score for Application Preparation

Since even the SAT-II is over there is no other things left but to go full throttle for Application to Colleges and Universities. And congratulations to everyone for staying with Anglophiles all these eventful weeks.

My Chap Safeer from Georgia Tech Who is Telling me after 658 Days - How he INTENTIONALLY Defied Instructions / Thanks Safeer for all your Passions

Dear sir,

658 days since my last email. In layman's terms, I would classify this time span to be ridiculous.

I would rather not begin with the natural etiquettes of an email that inquired about your well being. I know you are well, you were never one to let material troubles bother your person.

It might be hard to believe but I have been keeping up with Prachyanat's performances - I know the last performace wasShylock & Sycophants, and I have been trying to guess the storyline, an endeavour in which I have succeeded to my own imaginary avail.

As it is more than evident by the choppy sentence structure and the abhorrent grammar, engineering school has robbed me of the abilities of the pen. But i can make a pen now, but that again is a big cost to pay. 

I find it hard to believe that I am a sophomore, because I clearly remember writing every single college application essaysand emailing them to you. But college is good, academics is not. To be brutally honest with you, my GPA is a 2.90, and I am trying my level best to pull it up. Georgia Tech isnt easy, but I love it here. Machines and Dynamics of subatomic particles.... I have found out the hard way that those are the things I like, and not manufacturing cargo-crafts for NASA. And I like the fact that I am looking towards something to work towards in life.

Straying from that, there are some things I have to tell you. As you may remember from my "Why essays," I would incorporate a-capella groups and research groups into ALL of them (yes i mean all of them), and how you reprimanded me by calling attention to the fact that I was falling into a format in writing Why Essays, and hence compromising my literary flexibility. But I never listened to you. That is one thing I do NOT regret listening to. 

Why I mention this small specific detail is that right now I am part of a group called Engineering World Health (www.ewh.com) It is not directly related to my major, but I could care less, because what we basically do is that every weekend, we go to warehouses full of old/slightly defective medical equipment, fix it, and arrange to ship it to medical organisations in third-world countries for free. I can tell you hands down that I would not achieve this much satisfaction from fixing the suspension circuits in a car. I would much rather fix the simple circuit in a machine operated hospital bed.

That is not all, I do not know if I mentioned this, but my first semester, I joined an a-capella group. It wasnt that popular at all. a year later, I am one of its 3 co-captains, and we have performed twice at the Georgia World Congress Center. Tomorrow we perform in Georgia Tech. The day after, we perform at Georgia State University. Next weekend, we are performing atDuke University. Next to next weekend, we perform at Carnegie Mellon University. And next semester, we are scheduled forUniversity of Georgia, U.Iowa, and UNC-Chapell Hill. You know the best part? all the performances this semester are Invitationals, they WANT us to perform. I dont intend to sound obnoxious, its just we have never gotten to perform without auditioning. 

All that said, one of the many reasons that I havent written to you in a while is that I felt that I had betrayed your trust by not going for the liberal arts experience. I dont know if I regret it, probably not, I like what im doing, I just wish I was better.

Also, I cannot believe i havent talked to you in so long. Please do let me know how applications are going right about now, there are people probably giving their SAT subject tests tomorrow if I am not mistaken.

You were my mentor for the college application process and I respect you a lot for it. Probably the reason a lot of people dont keep in touch is that statistically speaking, most all people try to shake off their past. In the fast moving world we are living in, people who even glance at the past are labeled as old fashioned, and nobody wants to be labeled as anything detrimental. And I know you know all of this, I am just mentioning what I feel is a slight justification of the lack of communication with one's mentor.

It was good telling you all this, have been meaning to for a while. By the way, I had seen your interview regarding the rescripting of Shakespeare in Bangla. Please do let me know how that is going.

P.S Wow, first time sending you an email without an essay attached, feels very weird.

-- 
Safeer

End of SAT Season and the Aftermath

Congratulations to all the Anglophilites for completing the first Phase of the SAT season. The next Phase is the Application Preparation. I hope everyone is fully prepared for the SAT-II exam tomorrow. Please take necessary preparations (we discussed all those before the SAT-I exam) for tomorrow. Take correct number  and right grade of pencils. Take chocolate and little water.

Report me over the mail how you have done in the exam.

All of us meet on the morning of SUNDAY at 8.00 am and at 4.00 pm.

Good Luck!

An Anecdote

ঋত্বীক ঘটক একবার সলিল চৌধুরীকে বলছেন, “তুই তো বম্বে গিয়া নষ্ট হইয়া গেছছ” – আর সলিল লিখে ফেললেন – “আমি ঝড়ের কাছে রেখে গেলাম আমার ঠিকানা...”
In his early days Salil Choudhury socialist bent of mind. He was one of the key persons to float the Indian Peoples Theater Association, a landmark in the history of cultural organizations in Colonial India. Salil was later disillusioned by Socialism and went to Bombay to try his and in music. The rest is history - in his lifetime he had been hailed as one of the greatest composers of 20th century. The anecdote is posted in order to show that no matter what political clout a creative artist may or may NOT assume, it is irrelevant for achieving the artistic achievement. Conversely, Rwittik Ghatak, a passionate believer in Socialism, is never judged through his political affiliation - again proving the stance that creative art is beyond the grasp of political indoctrination. But what about a work of Art that is completely devoid of political overtones? Is it Art (with 'A' in capital)? 

A just-arrived mail from Aronno (Ex-Sunnydale) at the Wabash College

Dear Sir,

How are you doing? I would like to apologize before anything else about not writing to you earlier. Hope things are going great this year with the class and they are not driving you nuts like we did. =)

I am fine. Caught in the game of time management. That is what college is all about to me so far. There is always too much to do and I really need to know how to juggle them. Fortunately, we have some help with that here. Cannot believe first semester is on its way to coming to an end. Its been as much strenuous as it has been fun. Wabash is a little hard to cope with, both academically and socially. The lack of girls really doesn't help to ease out the air. Well, luckily DePauw and Purdue are nearby. Nabila, Prima and I meet up on weekends when we can. Classes are going fine so far. I am taking "life and death of languages" as my freshman tutorial. It is immensely intriguing. We have a lot to read and discuss, reminds me of your class. Other than that I have biology, maths and french. Got a little culturally involved besides studies. Was singing in the glee club, had to stop for a while due to schedule conflict with this job that I am doing. Trying out some African instruments and dances as well. Its fun!

How are things back home? Cannot wait for next summer! How is your theater going? Its really hard to believe that this one year went by so fast. I clearly remember the first day I came to you with baba. Can never thank you enough for all the help and guidance you have provided so will not even try. Hope you are happy and in good health. Will wait to hear back from you.

Your student,

Aronno

SAT-II Final Review Class Tomorrow at 1.00 pm

The class shall continue till at least 4.00 pm. It can be rally fruitful IF and Only IF participants bring problems and float the problems for the forum discussion.

Hope to see you all.

Notes courtesy by Humaira Anjumi (Scholastica)

Dear Sir,

These are all the tips I managed to note down during class today.

Give the Physics exam first during the SAT II exam and then Maths.

In the case of Physics, after the first 10 minutes, 25 questions should be done. It is because the questions are arranged in the ascending order of difficulty and therefore, you have easiest questions at the start. The next 20 questions should take up around 20 min and the final 30 questions will take up 30 minutes of your time.

Don’t leave out more than question for Physics. For Maths, don’t leave even one question unanswered.

PHYSICS

Some information

• Rate of fluid = velocity of fluid × Cross sectional Area
• Total magnification = product (multiply) of the magnifying power of all the lenses
• Human retina is a convex lens
• When an object is placed at the focal point of a lens, no image is formed.
• When an object is placed at 2F (twice the focal length), the image and object sizes are equal.
• Silver is the best conductor, but it is very expensive to use. The next best conductors are aluminium, copper, and nichrome. 
• Dime (1 cent); Nickel (5 cents); Quarter (25 cents).

Problem Areas

• Gravitational Potential and Electric Potential
• Energy related to satellite
• Sparknotes Test 2 Question : An object of weight 200N is at rest. Its coefficient of static friction 0.8 and its coefficient of kinetic friction is 0.2. how much force is needed to move the object and maintain its motion at constant velocity?
• A string is vibrating. If tension is doubled, what happens to its velocity?
• To what significant figure should the answer be written?
• Special Theory of Relativity

MATHS IIC

• Trigonometry formulas
• Functions
• Trigonometry and Functions should be done from Sparknotes
• Determinant of matrix
• Distance between a plane and a line
• Ellipse 
• Graphs of ex and ln x

Check some problems in Sparknotes Test 2

Read Barrons Chapter 5 (Miscellaneous)

Major Formulas should be accessed from Barrons

NOTE:

• The tests from Sparknotes will be of help for the real SAT II exam. Barrons will only increase your knowledge on that particular subject but might NOT be of any REAL assistance during the real SAT II exam in most cases.
• With relation to no 67 of Test 3 of Sparknotes Physics - REMEMBER the following - 
• Charge remains the same.
• Voltage decreases.
• Capacitance increases.
• Electric Field decreases.
• Energy decreases [1/2 CV square]
• Adiabatic Expansion of Gas [Check the Garry Graff PDF version].
• V= Root Over (TL/m) [Ref to Sparknotes Test 3 Q No 70]

Fair Share of an Extract / Author left Unidentified

Its not the "need", need is a strong word that elicits a sense of dependency, it's just that I want to be a part of this program. After toiling through the SAT regime I can hardly imagine myself out of the team. It has been healthy for me, the entire package; waking up early, anticipating the capricious nature of the next class. For once I actually got used to a fixed schedule, which has been motivational, churning up a purpose to everyday life. 

I became irrevocably attuned to the convivial environment of the entire system, which is punctuated with laughter, discourse, the awkward moments mingled with the fair share of vituperation; oh the drama! I surely got a taste of what theater is. Here my senses have always been inadvertently involved, perpetually sharp and lively.

Important Notice

All SAT-II candidates are requested to attend a 2 hour session on final discussion on Maths and Physics problems. The session starts at 3.00 pm.