Writing Section - Win-Win Solution Negotiation

We can say, there is a win-win negotiation when there is no side taking a lose, everybody win, and gains something of value. In order both party to get benefit from a negotiation, everyone should listen to each other's concern, what they value and what they don't value. Sometime, we can give something that we don't need or care of to other side that put high value to the thing. So by doing that, we lose nothing by offering that thing and the other side get something valuable. But be careful, sometimes there is options that we cannot explore or negotiate with too. In general in a win-win situation, we must see other party as colleagues who want to support each other's success.
In the case example of the lecture, we can see Tony as a good negotiator. In that case, Tony gives his idea in exchange of some money to support his life during developing that game. He doesn't ask for a big upfront money so that the company want to support him building the game. But the important thing is the company want to listen and share a pretty good profit sharing with him. So everyone happy there is no one taking the lose side.

Writing Section - Distance Learning vs Traditional Class Based Learning, what student should do to get the best from both?

Distance learning and traditional class based learning both have their own advantages. For whom not familiar with distance learning, it is a new way of a class structured by the help of computer and the internet so that a student can study by him/herself remotely and independently. The materials are pre-recorded in form of videos and some are text based. By using this kind of system student can easily choose their desired time to study whether it is in the morning or at night if they have a job in the morning. Another strong point of distance learning is they can complete the assignment at their own pace as long as it meets the deadline. Furthermore, it allows the students to repeat the lecture as many as they. They can repeat for hard subject and skip or fast forward if the subject is easy.The distance learning provides flexibility and freedom for a busy student than traditional class does.

On the other hand traditional class still has its own advantages than distance learning. It provides more interactivity during the class than the other. Student can ask to the lecturer and get answer directly. Traditional class offers a structured environment to motivate students. They meet their friends and motivate each other to be the best at class. They can also have more personal relationship with the lecturer and friends. By that mean, meeting in person help them to have more interaction than distance offers.

Students now have more choices in study. If they want more flexibility of course they can choose the distance learning. If they want more interaction they can choose traditional class courses. To get the best from both they must schedule their own needs and see their own personality. If they have job or internship to do for that particular semester, they can choose more distance learning courses. And if their personality is not an independent learner, they can choose traditional class more and have more group study with other students.

Writing Section - Apply for First Choice of School Only vs Apply for Several Schools

Apply for the first choice of school or apply for several schools? From my personal experience, I can say that I prefer the second strategy to apply for several schools. In the first strategy, apply for the first-choice school only, I would say that it is a pretty risky strategy. There is a tendency that the first-choice school is a favorite school. There will be a lot of brilliant students applying for admission to that school. So you will get a fierce competition from those brilliant students. The harder the competition is, the smaller chance of acceptance you will get.

To boost your chance for securing your position in  your favorite major, I suggest to apply for several schools. You can have the most competitive school as your first choice and 2 other less competitive schools for your other option. If you can't get into the first choice school there are two more schools for your options. Another advantage of applying for several school is you already have all requirements for school admission. At the time you are ready to apply for a school, I assume you already have all requirement for the admission. Some requirements such as TOEFL and GRE scores, are valid only for two years, if you failed to get into a school this year, there is one more year for you to use those test scores. In the case for the first strategy, you only apply to 2 schools in two years. In the case for the second strategy, you can apply for six schools in two years!

Writing Section - THe Nebular Hypothesis

According to the Nebular Hypothesis, 4 - 5 millions years ago there were cloud dust and gas that positioned around the current solar system location. Their composition material were 99% hydrogen and helium plus all natural occurring element. The gravity initiated a collapse in the cloud caused the cloud to spin rapidly. That spinning process resulted a disk shape with rounded middles and flat edges. Further more it will create small objects that is called planetesimals. These planetesimals collided and captured and forming bigger objects that formed planets. While smaller part of the dust and gas created planets, 99% of it was forming a Sun. The Sun became a star and began to radiate the light and heat.
The lecture shows that by using a high speed computer we are able to do experiment and simulation of that Nebular Hypothesis. By doing the experiment we are now able to understand how stars were born. That experiment based on the information we can find in the passage that stars were formed because of the gravity pull. Another interesting conclusion we can draw is if we do the math some stars form a solar systems and sometimes it can support life.

Writing Section - essay about dream from a passage and listening to a lecture

According to biochemical and physiology research done by Hobsin and McCarly, dreams are the result of chemicals in the brain that cause neurons to fire. In the research they use cats because cats have the same sleeping activity that human have. In dreams brain tells the body to move but the messages do not transfer to the body, do no movement is initiated. About the content of the dreams can be explained just using the activation-synthesis theory. For example if you are trying to escape from something, the brain receive a message to run, but the legs don't response. And based on that theory there is no hidden meaning on our dream and there is nothing to do with the unfulfilled desires. dream is just a chemical response to brain cells.

The biochemical and physiology research is very different from what Freud has identified. According to Freud a dream is a symbolic image about our unfulfilled desires while it is not the case by the Hobsin and McCarly research.

Speaking Section - Live on the Campus Dormitories or Apartments Off Campus?

If I have to choose between the two, I think I prefer to live in the apartment than in the dormitories. While if I live in the dormitory, I don't have to think about transportation and distance to the campus but it doesn't let me to live with my family there. I have wife and kids so apartment is the best choice for me. In the apartment, I can have a privacy with my family and I can reduce my spending by cooking our own meals. And for the transportation, I will choose to use bicycle because it is much cheaper and makes me healthy.

PhD to the USA requirements

Several things need to be prepared when you decided to take a PhD degree especially in the US. One of them is a GRE test score. GRE is a standardized aptitude test for engineering graduate school. It assesses of your critical thinking, analytical writing, verbal reasoning, and quantitative reasoning skills — all skills developed over the course of many years. This is one of the most challenging blocker for several people of taking a PhD especially if you are not an English native speaker. Beside of that GRE also pretty expensive, it costs $160 in the US and $190 in other countries. There are many of online courses, for example magoosh.com, that give what you need for the test.

If you're not from an English speaking country, you need to prepare document proof of English proficiency. You can choose between iBT TOEFL or IELTS. iBT TOEFL is much better if you are targeting for a PhD in the US and IELTS is best for European country and Australia. American universities accept both but it requires bigger score of IELTS than other countries.