title: Pricing

text: Pricing can be a manual or automatic process of applying prices to purchase and sales orders, based on factors such as: a fixed amount, quantity break, promotion or sales campaign, specific vendor quote, price prevailing on entry, shipment or invoice date, combination of multiple orders or lines, and many others. An automated pricing system requires more setup and maintenance but may prevent pricing errors. The needs of the consumer can be converted into demand only if the consumer has the willingness and capacity to buy the product. Thus, pricing is the most important concept in the field of marketing, it is used as a tactical decision in response to changing competitive, market and organizational situations.


title: Pricing

text: Price is influenced by the type of distribution channel used, the type of promotions used, and the quality of the product. Where manufacturing is expensive, distribution is exclusive, and the product is supported by extensive advertising and promotional campaigns, then prices are likely to be higher. Price can act as a substitute for product quality, effective promotions, or an energetic selling effort by distributors in certain markets.


title: Pricing

text: From the marketer's point of view, an efficient price is a price that is very close to the maximum that customers are prepared to pay. In economic terms, it is a price that shifts most of the consumer economic surplus to the producer. A good pricing strategy would be the one that could balance between the price floor (the price below which the organization ends up in losses) and the price ceiling (the price by which the organization experiences a no-demand situation).


title: Pricing

text: Marketers develop an overall pricing strategy that is consistent with the organization's mission and values. This pricing strategy typically becomes part of the company's overall long-term strategic plan. The strategy is designed to provide broad guidance for price-setters and ensures that the pricing strategy is consistent with other elements of the marketing plan. While the actual price of goods or services may vary in response to different conditions, the broad approach to pricing (i.e., the pricing strategy) remains a constant for the planning outlook period which is typically 3–5 years, but in some industries may be a longer period of 7–10 years. The pricing strategy established the overall, long-term goals of the pricing function, without specifying an actual price-point.


title: Pricing

text: When decision-makers have determined the broad approach to pricing (i.e., the pricing strategy), they turn their attention to pricing tactics. Tactical pricing decisions are shorter term prices, designed to accomplish specific short-term goals. The tactical approach to pricing may vary from time to time, depending on a range of internal considerations (e.g. such as the need to clear surplus inventory) or external factors (e.g. a response to competitive pricing tactics). Accordingly, a number of different pricing tactics may be employed in the course of a single planning period or across a single year. Typically line managers are given the latitude necessary to vary individual prices providing that they operate within the broad strategic approach. For example, some premium brands never offer discounts because the use of low prices may tarnish the brand image. Instead of discounting, premium brands are more likely to offer customer value through price-bundling or giveaways.


title: Pricing

text: When setting individual prices, decision-makers require a solid understanding of pricing economics, notably break-even analysis, as well as an appreciation of the psychological aspects of consumer decision-making including reservation prices, ceiling prices and floor prices. The marketing literature identifies literally hundreds of pricing tactics. It is difficult to do justice to the variety of tactics in widespread use. Rao and Kartono carried out a cross-cultural study to identify the pricing strategies and tactics that are most widely used. The following listing is largely based on their work.


title: Pricing

text: A traditional tactic used in outsourcing that uses a fixed fee for a fixed volume of services, with variations on fees for volumes above or below target thresholds. Charges for additional resources (“ARCs”) above the threshold are priced at rates to reflect the marginal cost of the additional production plus a reasonable profit. Credits (“RRCs”) granted for reduction in resources consumed or provided offer the enterprise customer some comfort, but the savings on credits tend not to be equivalent to the increased costs when paying for incremental resources in excess of the threshold.


title: Pricing

text: Complementary pricing is an umbrella category of "captive-market" pricing tactics. It refers to a method in which one of two or more complementary products (a deskjet printer, for example) is priced to maximize sales volume, while the complementary product (printer ink cartridges) are priced at a much higher level in order to cover any shortfall sustained by the first product.


title: Pricing

text: Contingency pricing is the process where a fee is only charged contingent on certain results. Contingency pricing is widely used in professional services such as legal services and consultancy services. In the United Kingdom, a contingency fee is known as a conditional fee.


title: Pricing

text: Differential pricing, also known as "flexible pricing", "multiple pricing" or "price discrimination" , occurs where different prices are charged to different customers or market-segments, and may be dependent on the service provider's assessment of the customer's willingness or ability to pay. There are various forms of price difference including: the type of customer, the geographic area served, the quantity ordered, delivery time, payment terms, etc.


title: Pricing

text: Discrete Pricing occurs when prices are set at a level that the price comes within the competence of the decision making unit (DMU). This method of pricing is often used in B2B contexts where the purchasing officer may be authorized to make purchases up to a predetermined level, beyond which decisions must go to a committee for authorization. With the advent of data analytics differential price is becoming popular with most companies using customer specific data to give prices to specific customer.


title: Pricing

text: Discount pricing is where the marketer or retailer offers a reduced price. Discounts in a variety of forms - e.g. quantity rebates, loyalty rebates, seasonal discounts, periodic or random discounts etc. Enormous retailers can request value limits from providers and make a rebate evaluating system powerful as they purchase in mass. It is normally difficult to rival these retailers dependent on a rebate estimating technique. This type of pricing strategy is a predominant showcasing procedure to draw in shoppers by providing an additional worth or motivator, which urges customers to buy the advanced items right away.


title: Pricing

text: Diversionary Pricing is a variation of loss leading used extensively in services; a low price is charged on a basic service with the intention of recouping on the extras; can also refer to low prices on some parts of the service to develop an image of low price.


title: Pricing

text: Everyday low prices refers to the practice of maintaining a regular low price - in which consumers are not forced to wait for discounting or specials. This method is used by supermarkets.


title: Pricing

text: Exit fees are fees charged to customers who depart from the service process prior to natural completion or the end of a contract. The objective of an exit fee is to deter premature exit. Exit fees are often found in financial services, telecommunications services and aged care facilities. Regulatory authorities, around the globe, have often expressed their discontent with the practice of exit fees as it has the potential to be anti-competitive and restricts consumers' abilities to switch freely, but the practice has not been proscribed.


title: Pricing

text: Experience curve pricing occurs when a manufacturer prices a product or service at a low rate in order to obtain volume and with the expectation that the cost of production will decrease with the acquisition of manufacturing experience. This approach which is often used in the pricing of high technology products and services, is based on the insight that manufacturers learn to trim production costs over time in a phenomenon known as experience effects.


title: Pricing

text: Geographic pricing occurs when different prices are charged in different geographic markets for an identical product. For example, publishers often make text-books available at lower prices in Asian countries because average wages tend to be lower with implications for the customer's ability to pay. In other cases, geographic variations in prices may reflect the different costs of distribution and servicing certain markets.


title: Pricing

text: Guaranteed pricing is a variant of contingency pricing. It refers to the practice of including an undertaking or promise that certain results or outcomes will be achieved. For instance, some business consultants undertake to improve productivity or profitability by 10%. In the event that the result is not achieved, the client does not pay for the service.


title: Pricing

text: High-low pricing refers to the practice of offering goods at a high price for a period of time, followed by offering the same goods at a low price for a predetermined time. This practice is widely used by chain stores selling homewares. The main disadvantage of the high-low tactic is that consumers tend to become aware of the price cycles and time their purchases to coincide with a low-price cycle.


title: Pricing

text: Honeymoon Pricing refers to the practice of using a low introductory price with subsequent price increases once relationship is established. The objective of honeymoon pricing is to "lock" customers into a long-term association with the vendor. This approach is widely used in situations where customer switching costs are relatively high such as in home loans and financial investments. It is also common in categories where a subscription model is used, especially if this is coupled with automatic regular payments, such as in newspaper and magazine subscriptions, cable TV, broadband and cell phone subscriptions and in utilities and insurance.


title: Pricing

text: A loss leader is a product that has a price set below the operating margin. Loss leading is widely used in supermarkets and budget-priced retail outlets where the store as a means of generating store traffic. The low price is widely promoted and the store is prepared to take a small loss on an individual item, with an expectation that it will recoup that loss when customers purchase other higher priced-higher margin items. In service industries, loss leading may refer to the practice of charging a reduced price on the first order as an inducement and with anticipation of charging higher prices on subsequent orders. Loss leading is often found in retail, where the loss leader is used to drive store traffic and generate sales of complementary items.


title: Pricing

text: Offset pricing (also known as "diversionary pricing") is the service industry's equivalent of loss leading. A service may price one component of the offer at a very low price with an expectation that it can recoup any losses by cross-selling additional services. For example, a carpet steam cleaning service may charge a very low basic price for the first three rooms, but charges higher prices for additional rooms, furniture and curtain cleaning. The operator may also try to cross-sell the client on additional services such as spot-cleaning products, or stain-resistant treatments for fabrics and carpets.


title: Pricing

text: Parity pricing refers to the process of pricing a product at or near a rival's price in order to remain competitive. Markets can be sectioned empowering the firm to segregate between the fare and homegrown market it is indicated that the defectively serious firm can differentially cost. Besides, as the quantity of homegrown firms is expanded, and if these organizations can portion the market, the differential among homegrown and unfamiliar costs is diminished. The import equality cost might be charged in the homegrown market.


title: Pricing

text: Price bundling (also known as product bundling) occurs where two or more products or services are priced as a package with a single price. There are several types of bundles: "pure bundles" where the goods can only be purchased as package or "mixed bundles" where the goods can be purchased individually or as a package. The prices of the bundle is typically less than when the two items are purchased separately.


title: Pricing

text: Peak and off-peak pricing is a form of price discrimination where the price variation is due to some type of seasonal factor. The objective of peak and off peak pricing is to use prices to even out peaks and troughs in demand. Peak and off-peak pricing is widely used in tourism, travel and also in utilities such as electricity providers. Peak pricing has caught the public's imagination since the ride-sharing service provider, Uber, commenced using "surge pricing" and has sought to patent the technologies that support this approach.


title: Pricing

text: "Price lining" is the use of a limited number of prices for all product offered by a business. Price lining is a tradition started in the old five and dime stores in which everything cost either 5 or 10 cents. In price lining, the price remains constant but quality or extent of product or service adjusted to reflect changes in cost. The underlying rationale of this tactic is that these amounts are seen as suitable price points for a whole range of products by prospective customers. It has the advantage of ease of administering, but the disadvantage of inflexibility, particularly in times of inflation or unstable prices. Price lining continues to be widely used in department stores where customers often note racks of garments or accessories priced at predetermined price points e.g. separate racks of men's ties, where each rack is priced at $10, $20 and $40.


title: Pricing

text: Penetration pricing is an approach that can be considered at the time of market entry. In this approach, the price of a product is initially set low in an effort to penetrate the market quickly. Low prices and low margins also act as a deterrent, preventing potential rivals from entering the market since they would have to undercut the low margins to gain a foothold.


title: Pricing

text: Prestige pricing is also known as "premium pricing" and occasionally "luxury pricing" or "high price maintenance" refers to the deliberate pursuit of a high price posture to create an image of quality.


title: Pricing

text: Price signaling is where the price is used as an indicator of some other attribute. For example, some travel resorts promote that when two adults make a booking, the kids stay for free. This type of pricing is designed to signal that the resort is a family friendly operation.


title: Pricing

text: Price skimming, also known as "skim-the-cream pricing" is a tactic that might be considered at market entry. The objective is to charge relatively high prices in order to recoup the cost of product development early in the life-cycle and before competitors enter the market.


title: Pricing

text: Promotional pricing is a temporary measure that involves setting prices at levels lower than normally charged for a good or service. Promotional pricing is sometimes a reaction to unforeseen circumstances, as when a downturn in demand leaves a company with excess stocks; or when competitive activity is making inroads into market share or profits.


title: Pricing

text: Two-part pricing is a variant of captive-market pricing used in service industries. Two-part pricing breaks the actual price into two parts; a fixed service fee plus a variable consumption rate. Two-part pricing tactics are widely used by utility companies such as electricity, gas and water and services where there is a quasi- membership type relationship, credit cards where an annual fee is charged and theme parks where an entrance fee is charged for admission while the customer pays for rides and extras. One part of the price represents a membership fee or joining fee, while the second part represents the usage component.


title: Pricing

text: Psychological pricing is a range of tactics designed to have a positive psychological impact. Price tags using the terminal digit "9", ($9.99, $19.99 or $199.99) can be used to signal price points and bring an item in at just under the consumer's reservation price. Psychological pricing is widely used in a variety of retail settings.


title: Pricing

text: "Premium pricing" (also called prestige pricing) is the strategy of consistently pricing at, or near, the high end of the possible price range to help attract status-conscious consumers. The high pricing of a premium product is used to enhance and reinforce a product's luxury image. Examples of companies that partake in premium pricing in the marketplace include Rolex and Bentley. As well as brand, product attributes such as eco-labelling and provenance (e.g. 'certified organic' and 'product of Australia') may add value for consumers and attract premium pricing. A component of such premiums may reflect the increased cost of production. People will buy a premium priced product because:


title: Pricing

text: The old association of luxury only being for the kings and queens of the world is almost non-existent in today's world. People have generally become wealthier, therefore the mass marketing phenomenon of luxury has simply become a part of everyday life, and no longer reserved for the elite. Since consumers have a larger source of disposable income, they now have the power to purchase products that meet their aspirational needs. This phenomenon enables premium pricing opportunities for marketers in luxury markets. Luxurification in society can be seen when middle class members of society, are willing to pay premium prices for a service or product of the highest quality when compared with similar goods. Examples of this can be seen with items such as clothing and electronics. Charging a premium price for a product also makes it more inaccessible and helps it gain an exclusive appeal. Luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton and Gucci are more than just clothing and become more of a status symbol. (Yeoman, 2011).


title: Pricing

text: Prestige goods are usually sold by companies that have a monopoly on the market and hold competitive advantage. Due to a firm having great market power they are able to charge at a premium for goods, and are able to spend a larger sum on promotion and advertising. According to Han, Nunes and Dreze (2015) figure on “signal preference and taxonomy based on wealth and need for status” two social groups known as “Parvenus” and “Poseurs” are individuals generally more self-conscious, and base purchases on a need to reach a higher status or gain a social prestige value. Further market research shows the role of possessions in consumer's lives and how people make assumptions about others solely based on their possessions. People associate high priced items with success. (Han et al., 2010). Marketers understand this concept, and price items at a premium to create the illusion of exclusivity and high quality. Consumers are likely to purchase a product at a higher price than a similar product as they crave the status, and feeling of superiority as being part of a minority that can in fact afford the said product. (Han et al., 2010).


title: Pricing

text: A price premium can also be charged to consumers when purchasing eco-labelled products. Market based incentives are given in order to encourage people to practice their business in an eco-friendly way in regard to the environment. Associations such as the MSC's fishery certification program and seafood ecolabel reward those who practice sustainable fishing. Pressure from environmental groups have caused the implementation of Associations such as these, rather than consumers demanding it. The value consumer's gain from purchasing environmentally conscious products may create a premium price over non eco-labelled products. This means that producers have some sort of incentive for supplying goods worthy of eco-labelling standard. Usually more costs are incurred when practicing sustainable business, and charging at a premium is a way businesses can recover extra costs.


title: Pricing

text: "Demand-based pricing", also known as dynamic pricing, is a pricing method that uses consumer demand - based on perceived value - as the central element. These include price skimming, price discrimination and yield management, price points, psychological pricing, bundle pricing, penetration pricing, price lining, value-based pricing, geo and premium pricing.


title: Pricing

text: Pricing factors are manufacturing cost, market place, competition, market condition, quality of product.


title: Pricing

text: Price modeling using econometric techniques can help measure price elasticity, and computer based modeling tools will often facilitate simulations of different prices and the outcome on sales and profit. More sophisticated tools help determine price at the SKU level across a portfolio of products. Retailers will optimize the price of their private label SKUs with those of National Brands.


title: Pricing

text: Uber's pricing policy is an example of demand-based dynamic pricing. It uses an automated algorithm to increase prices to "surge price" levels, responding rapidly to changes of supply and demand in the market. By responding in real-time, an equilibrium between demand and supply of drivers can be approached. Customers receive notice when making an Uber reservation that prices have increased. The company applied for a U.S. patent on surge pricing in 2013, though airlines are known to have been using similar techniques in seat pricing for years.


title: Pricing

text: The practice has often caused passengers to become upset and invited criticism when it happens as a result of holidays, inclement weather, natural disasters or other factors. During New Year's Eve 2011, Uber prices were as high as seven times normal rates, causing outrage. During the 2014 Sydney hostage crisis, Uber implemented surge pricing, resulting in fares of up to four times normal charges; while it defended the surge pricing at first, it later apologized and refunded the surcharges. Uber CEO Travis Kalanick has responded to criticism by saying: "...because this is so new, it's going to take some time for folks to accept it. There's 70 years of conditioning around the fixed price of taxis."


title: Pricing

text: "Multidimensional pricing" is the pricing of a product or service using multiple numbers. In this practice, price no longer consists of a single monetary amount (e.g., sticker price of a car), but rather consists of various dimensions (e.g., monthly payments, number of payments, and a downpayment). Research has shown that this practice can significantly influence consumers' ability to understand and process price information.


title: Pricing

text: Micromarketing is the practice of tailoring products, brands (microbrands), and promotions to meet the needs and wants of microsegments within a market. It is a type of market customization that deals with pricing of customer/product combinations at the store or individual level.


title: Pricing

text: The "price/quality relationship" comprises consumers' perceptions of value. High prices are often taken as a sign of quality, especially when the product or service lacks search qualities that can be inspected prior to purchase. Understanding consumers’ perceptions of the price/quality relationship is most important in the case of complex products that are hard to test, and experiential products that cannot be tested until used (such as most services). The greater the uncertainty surrounding a product, the more consumers depend on the price/quality signal and the greater premium they may be prepared to pay.


title: Pricing

text: Consumers can have different perceptions on premium pricing, and this factor makes it important for the marketer to understand consumer behaviour. According to Vigneron and Johnson's figure on "Prestige-Seeking Consumer Behaviours", Consumers can be categorized into four groups. These groups being; Hedonist & Perfectionist, snob, bandwagon and veblenian. These categories rank from level of self-consciousness, to importance of price as an indicator of prestige. The Veblen Effect explains how this group of consumers makes purchase decisions based on conspicuous value, as they tend to purchase publicly consumed luxury products. This shows they are likely to make the purchase to show power, status and wealth. Consumers that fall under the "Snob Effect" can be described as individuals that search for perceived unique value, and will purchase exclusive products in order to be the first or very few who has it. They will also avoid purchasing products consumed by a general mass of people, as it is perceived that items in limited supply hold a higher value than items that do not. (Vigneron & Johnson, 1999). The bandwagon effect explains that consumers that fit into this category make purchasing decisions to fit into a social group, and gain a perceived social value out of purchasing popular products within said social group at premium prices. Research shows that people will often conform to what the majority of the group they are a member of thinks when it comes to the attitude of a product. Paying a premium price for a product can act as a way of gaining acceptance, due to the pressure placed on them by their peers. The Hedonic effect can be described as a certain group of people whose purchasing decisions are not affected by the status and exclusivity gained by purchasing a product at a premium, nor susceptible to the fear of being left out and peer pressure. Consumers who fit into this category base their purchasing decisions on a perceived emotional value, and gain intangible benefits such as sensory pleasure, aesthetic beauty and excitement. Consumers of this type have a higher interest on their own wellbeing. (Vigneron & Johnson, 1999). The last category on Vigneron and Johnson's figure of “Prestige-Seeking Consumer Behaviours” is the perfectionism effect. Prestige brands are expected to show high quality, and it's this reassurance of the highest quality that can actually enhance the value of the product. According to this effect, those that fit into this group value the prestige's brands to have a superior quality and higher performance than other similar brands. Research has indicated that consumer's perceive quality of a product to be relational to its price. Consumers often believe a high price of a product indicates a higher level of quality.


title: Pricing

text: Even though it is suggested that high prices seem to make certain products more desirable, consumers that fall in this category have their own perception of quality and make decisions based upon their own judgement. They may also use the premium price as an indicator of the product's level of quality.


title: Pricing

text: In their book, "The Strategy and Tactics of Pricing", Thomas Nagle and Reed Holden outline nine laws or factors that influence how a consumer perceives a given price and how price-sensitive s/he is likely to be with respect to different purchase decisions:


title: Pricing

text: A "price waterfall" analysis helps businesses and sales personnel to understand the differences which arise between the reference or list price, the invoiced sale price and the actual price paid by a customer taking account of contract, sales and payment discounts.


title: Pricing

text: Many companies make common pricing mistakes. Jerry Bernstein's article "Use Suppliers' Pricing Mistakes" outlines several sales errors, which include:


title: Pricing

text: Contrary to common misconception, price is not the most important factor for consumers, when deciding to buy a product.


title: Medical College Admission Test

text: The Medical College Admission Test (MCAT; ) is a computer-based standardized examination for prospective medical students (both Allopathic M.D. and Ostepathic D.O.) in the United States, Australia, Canada, and Caribbean Islands. It is designed to assess problem solving, critical thinking, written analysis and knowledge of scientific concepts and principles. Before 2007, the exam was a paper-and-pencil test; since 2007, all administrations of the exam have been computer-based.


title: Medical College Admission Test

text: The most recent version of the exam was introduced in April 2015 and takes 7.5 hours to complete. The test is scored in a range from 472 to 528. The MCAT is administered by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC).


title: Medical College Admission Test

text: In the 1920s, dropout rates in US medical schools soared from 5% to 50%, leading to the development of a test that would measure readiness for medical school. Physician F. A. Moss and his colleagues developed the "Scholastic Aptitude Test for Medical Students" consisting of true-false and multiple choice questions divided into six to eight subtests. Topics tested included visual memory, memory for content, scientific vocabulary, scientific definitions, understanding of printed material, premedical information, and logical reasoning. The score scale varied from different test forms. Though it had been criticized at the time for testing only memorization ability and thus only readiness for the first two years of medical school, later scholars denied this. In addition to stricter medical school admission procedures and higher educational standards, the national dropout rate among freshman medical students decreased from 20% in 1925–1930 to 7% in 1946.


title: Medical College Admission Test

text: Advancements in test measurement technology, including machine scoring of tests, and changed views regarding test scores and medical school readiness reflected the evolution of the test in this period. The test underwent three major changes. It now had only four sub tests, including verbal ability, quantitative ability, science achievement, and understanding modern society. Questions were all in multiple-choice format. Each subtest was given a single score, and the total score was derived from the sum of the scores from the subtests. The total score ranged from 200 to 800. The individual scores helped medical school admission committees to differentiate the individual abilities among their candidates. Admission committees, however, did not consider the "understanding modern society" section to be of great importance, even though it was created to reward those with broad liberal arts skills, which included knowledge of history, government, economics, and sociology. Committees placed greater emphasis on scores on the scientific achievement section as it was a better predictor of performance in medical school.


title: Medical College Admission Test

text: From 1946 to 1948, the test was called the "Professional School Aptitude Test" before finally changing its name to the "Medical College Admission Test" when the developer of the test, the Graduate Record Office (under contract with the AAMC) merged with the newly formed Educational Testing Service (ETS). In 1960, the AAMC transferred its contract over to The Psychological Corporation, which was then in charge of maintaining and developing the test.


title: Medical College Admission Test

text: From 1962 to 1977, the MCAT retained much of its previous format, though the "understanding modern society" section was renamed as "general information" due to its expanded content. Handbooks at the time criticized the test as only a measure of intellectual achievement and not of personal characteristics expected of physicians. Admission committees responded to this criticism by measuring personal characteristics among their applicants with various approaches.


title: Medical College Admission Test

text: During phase four, the MCAT underwent several changes. The "general information" section was eliminated and a broader range of knowledge was tested. At this point, topics tested included scientific knowledge, science problems, reading skills analysis, and quantitative skills analysis. Individual scores were reported for biology, chemistry, and physics rather than a composite science score, thus six different scores for the whole test were reported. The score scale changed to 1–15 as opposed to 200–800 from previous versions of the test. Cultural and social bias was minimized. Though the AAMC claimed the new version intended to evaluate "information gathering and analysis, discerning and formulating relationships, and other problem-solving skills," no research supported this claim.


title: Medical College Admission Test

text: In 1991, the test changed again. Though the test was still divided into four subtests, they were renamed as the verbal reasoning, biological sciences, physical sciences, and writing sample sections. Questions retained the multiple-choice format, though the majority of the questions were divided into passage sets. Passage-based questions were implemented to evaluate "text comprehension, data analysis, ability to evaluate an argument, or apply knowledge from the passage to other contexts." A new scoring scale was also implemented. The total composite score, which ranges from 3–45, is based on the individual scores of the verbal reasoning, biological sciences, and physical sciences, which each have a score range of 1–15. The writing sample, which consists of two essays to be written within 30 minutes for each, is graded on a letter scale from J-T with T being the highest attainable score.


title: Medical College Admission Test

text: On July 18, 2005, the AAMC announced that it would offer the paper-and-pencil version of the MCAT only through August 2006. A subset of testing sites offered a computer-based version of the full-length exam throughout 2005 and 2006. A shorter, computer-based version of the test debuted in January 2007. The exam was at that point offered numerous times annually, and scored more quickly.


title: Medical College Admission Test

text: Although many medical schools will not accept MCAT exam scores after three years, this version of the MCAT will continue to be reported by the AAMC until the 2019 AMCAS application cycle.


title: Medical College Admission Test

text: The MR5 advisory committee was appointed by AAMC in fall 2008 to conduct the fifth comprehensive review of the MCAT exam and to recommend changes for the new exam set to be released in 2015. The advisory committee had 21 members including medical school deans and administrators, basic and clinical science faculty, pre-health advisors, one medical student and a medical resident. The recommendations determined were also based on responses from 2,700 surveys, over 75 meetings and conferences, and 90 outreach events to solicit input. The recommendations considered the content and format of the MCAT, the resources that should be provided relating to the exam, and the changes that should be made to medical school admissions in general.


title: Medical College Admission Test

text: To determine the content that should be tested for the exam, the MR5 committee surveyed medical school faculty, residents, and medical students, and asked what concepts entering students need to know to be successful in current and future medical school curricula. Three separate surveys were sent asking about concepts in the natural sciences, research methods, and behavioral sciences. The MR5 committee also consulted various expert committees from within and beyond the AAMC.


title: Medical College Admission Test

text: The largest changes in the exam consist of testing in biochemistry, psychology and sociology concepts. The addition of biochemistry material follows survey results placing biochemistry concepts as highest importance for success in future medical school curricula. The addition of behavioral and cultural material was recommended to provide a solid foundation for learning of these concepts in medical school. According to the committee, psychological science should be understood by medical students as an essential aspect of healthcare. The writing sample section was also removed, since data showed that these scores were not used by most admission committees. These changes were revealed in 2012 so that undergraduate premedical advisers studied the MR5 documents to translate tested core competencies into premedical course recommendations at their campuses.


title: Medical College Admission Test

text: This version of the MCAT has been administered since March 2015, and is expected to be in place until 2030.


title: Medical College Admission Test

text: The exam is offered 25 or more times per year at Pearson VUE centers. The number of administrations may vary each year. 43% of students take the MCAT within one year of graduation, 44% take the exam between one and four years after graduation and 13% sit for the exam five or more years after graduation.


title: Medical College Admission Test

text: The four sections are in multiple-choice format. The passages and questions are predetermined, and thus do not change in difficulty depending on the performance of the test taker (unlike, for example, the general Graduate Record Examinations).


title: Medical College Admission Test

text: The current MCAT consists of four distinct sections that are individually scored. Each section is allotted either 90 or 95 minutes and tests between 50 and 60 questions. Including breaks, the full examination lasts approximately 7.5 hours. The information for each of the science sections is organized into 10 foundational concepts and four Scientific Inquiry & Reasoning Skills. The science passages are guided by Scientific Reasoning and Inquiry Skills identified by the MR5 for medical school success. The Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills section focuses on three skills, since this section does not require outside knowledge to answer questions.


title: Medical College Admission Test

text: This section tests chemistry and physics in the scope of biological systems, requiring understanding of organic and inorganic chemistry and physics as well as biology and biochemistry. Specifically, this section focuses on the physical principles underlying biological processes and chemical interactions that form the basis of a broader understanding of living systems. Understanding of research methods and statistics are also important to successfully reason through this material.


title: Medical College Admission Test

text: The CARS section is similar to verbal reasoning sections providing passages with questions testing reading comprehension. The 500-600 word passages can cover topics ranging from the social sciences to the humanities, sometimes presenting in a convoluted or biased manner requiring the reader to consider what is being written from multiple perspectives. The passages are designed to discuss topics that are unfamiliar to the reader, but success in this section requires strictly using information from the passage without using previously known knowledge.


title: Medical College Admission Test

text: This section mainly tests biology and biochemistry but also requires an understanding of organic and inorganic chemistry. Students will have to answer questions about the functions of biomolecules, processes unique to living organisms, and the organization of biological systems. Understanding of research methods and statistics are also important to successfully reason through this material.


title: Medical College Admission Test

text: This section tests psychology and sociology so that students can demonstrate their understanding of the behavioral and sociocultural determinants of health. Specific material tested include behavior and behavior change, perceptions of self and others, cultural and social differences that influence well-being and social stratification. Understanding of research methods and statistics are also important to successfully reason through this material.


title: Medical College Admission Test

text: In the new MCAT exam, changes have been made not only in the content of the exam, but also in the way in which content is presented on the exam. MCAT questions will require examinees to demonstrate four Scientific Inquiry and Reasoning Skills that have been identified by the MR5 as crucial to success in science and medicine. The first skill is "Knowledge of Scientific Concepts and Principles", which requires students to not only recognize and recall scientific information, but also to identify relationships between similar concepts. "Scientific Reasoning and Problem Solving" tests the student's ability to relate scientific theories and formulas to presented information to explain findings and draw conclusions. "Reasoning about the Design and Execution of Research" requires examinees to show that they can understand science in the context of experiments. The fourth skill of "Data-based and Statistical Reasoning" requires students to be able to read graphs and tables and draw conclusion from evidence.


title: Medical College Admission Test

text: The test consists of four sections, each scored from 118 to 132 with a median score of 125. The total MCAT score is a sum of the scores from each of the four sections, ranging from 472 to 528 with a median score of 500. Scores are released on a pre-determined date between 30 and 35 days after the exam date.


title: Medical College Admission Test

text: The following are the scores along with their percentiles from test takers from May 1, 2022, through April 30, 2023. MCAT percentiles are updated every year on May 1. The average scaled score was 501.6 with a standard deviation of 10.8.


title: Medical College Admission Test

text: Like some other professional exams (e.g. the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) or the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT)), the MCAT may be voided on the day of the exam if the exam taker is not satisfied with his or her performance. It can be voided at any time during the exam, or during a five-minute window that begins immediately after the end of the last section. The decision to void can only be based on the test taker's self-assessment, as no scoring information is available at the time.


title: Medical College Admission Test

text: The AAMC prohibits the use of calculators, timers, or other electronic devices during the MCAT exam. Cellular phones are also strictly prohibited from testing rooms and individuals found to possess them are noted by name in a security report submitted to the AAMC. The only item that may be brought into the testing room is the candidate's photo ID. If a jacket or sweater is worn, it may not be removed in the testing room.


title: Medical College Admission Test

text: It is no longer a rule that students must receive permission from the AAMC if they wish to take the MCAT more than three times in total. The limit with the computerized MCAT is three times per year, with a lifetime limit of seven times. An examinee can register for only one test date at a time, and must wait two days after testing before registering for a new test date.


title: Medical College Admission Test

text: Scaled MCAT exam results are made available to examinees approximately thirty days after the test via the AAMC's MCAT Testing History (THx) Web application. Examinees do not receive a copy of their scores in the mail, nor are examinees given their raw scores. MCAT THx is also used to transmit scores to medical schools, application services and other organizations (at no cost).


title: Medical College Admission Test

text: The average student spent 12 weeks preparing for the MCAT exam spending about 23 hours per week, excluding time taking regular courses. Some students, however, choose to take more time.


title: Medical College Admission Test

text: On the weeks leading up to the exam, most students take some time off to study intensely for the exam. The AAMC provides official study materials for purchase on their website with hundreds of questions written by the developers of the MCAT including four scored practice exams and one non-scored practice exam. 74% of students who sat for the MCAT exam used official MCAT Practice exams while only about 40% used question packs and section bank questions written by the AAMC. The official questions supplied online by the AAMC were rated to be most useful by test takers. The AAMC also provides free online preparatory material for the MCAT through Khan Academy, including 1,100 free videos and 3,000 review questions including content review and passage-based questions. About 62% of test takers used these free resources and 83% of them found them to be useful.


title: Medical College Admission Test

text: Another popular study option for students is to use MCAT preparatory materials from a commercial company. Many companies provide preparatory classes in-person and online, sets of preparatory books, full-length practice exams, flashcards and many more. 77% of students used commercial preparation books and 67% of students used practice exams published by a commercial company. 85% of test takers found MCAT prep books to be useful.


title: Medical College Admission Test

text: Almost all United States medical schools and most Canadian medical schools require prospective students to submit MCAT scores for their applications. In a survey conducted by the AAMC of 130 medical schools, MCAT scores were among the most important metrics used to identify applicants to interview and admit. Furthermore, in a recent survey by Kaplan, 54% of medical schools said that a low MCAT score was "the biggest application dealbreaker". Medical school admissions is a holistic process and the AAMC provides recommendations on how MCAT scores should be used in admissions, specifically recommending that MCAT scores should not outweigh an applicant's other materials.


title: Medical College Admission Test

text: A recent study (2016), shows little to no correlation between MCAT scores and USMLE step 1 scores, as well as little to no correlation between MCAT scores and the NBME scores. The MCAT also correlated poorly with the Canadian Board exam in 2016, the (MCCQE-1). The Biological Sciences section had been the most directly correlated section to success on the USMLE Step 1 exam in an article published in 2002, with a moderate correlation coefficient of .553 vs .491 for Physical Sciences and a weak correlation of .397 for Verbal Reasoning, however, these are not very well correlated with USMLE Step 1 score, as a strong correlation would be anything above 0.7, meaning that even in 2002, MCAT did not have a strong correlation with USMLE Step 1 success. MCAT composite scores had previously (in article published in 2002) claimed to have some form of correlation with USMLE Step 1 success, although exact numbers are not given.


title: Medical College Admission Test

text: Results from the previous version of the MCAT that was administered between 1992 and 2014 have been studied in relation to academic success in medical school and beyond. Most data suggests that undergraduate grades and MCAT scores can predict scores on USMLE Step exams. Data from a cohort from 14 medical schools' in 1992 and 1993 found that MCAT scores were stronger predictors of USMLE Step scores than undergraduate GPA and were also good predictors for probability of experiencing academic difficulty. Data from students from 119 U.S. medical schools who matriculated between 2001 and 2004 showed that undergraduate GPA and MCAT total scores predicted unimpeded progress towards medical school graduation better than GPA alone. A third study using data from students from the University of Minnesota Medical School from five graduating classes between 2011 and 2015, found that MCAT component scores were significantly associated with USMLE Step 1 and Step 2 scores, although the effect was small. Higher MCAT scores are correlated with membership in the national medical honors society Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA), suggesting that MCAT scores can be useful to identify potential top-performing medical students.


title: Medical College Admission Test

text: Since the most recent version of the MCAT exam was only released in 2015, insufficient years have passed to determine correlation between MCAT scores and medical school benchmarks. The AAMC plans to use medical school data from 2017–2021 to determine the predictive ability of the new MCAT. The data will be collected from 18 medical schools who have agreed to collect data from students from entry to graduation including academic performance, USMLE Step exam scores, time to graduation and graduation rates.


title: Elisha Cook Jr.

text: Elisha Vanslyck Cook Jr. (December 26, 1903 – May 18, 1995) was an American character actor famed for his work in films noir. According to Bill Georgaris of TSPDT: They Shoot Pictures, Don't They, Cook appeared in a total of 21 film noirs, more than any other actor or actress. He played cheerful, brainy collegiates until he was cast against type as the bug-eyed baby-faced psychopathic killer Wilmer Cook in the 1941 version of "The Maltese Falcon". He went on to play deceptively mild-mannered villains. Cook's acting career spanned more than 60 years, with roles in productions including "The Big Sleep", "Shane", "The Killing", "House on Haunted Hill", and "Rosemary's Baby".


title: Elisha Cook Jr.

text: Cook was born in December 1903 in San Francisco, California, the son of Elisha Vanslyck Cook Sr., a pharmacist, and grew up in Chicago. He first worked in theater lobbies selling programs, but by the age of 14 he was already performing in vaudeville and stock. As a young man, he traveled and honed his acting skills on stages along the East Coast and in the Midwest before arriving in New York City, where in 1926 he debuted on Broadway in "Hello, Lola." Some other Broadway productions in which Cook performed were "Henry-Behave" (1926), "Kingdom of God" (1928), "Her Unborn Child" (1928), "Many a Slip" (1930), "Privilege Car" (1931), "Lost Boy" (1932), "Merry-Go-Round" (1932), and "Chrysalis" (1932). Then, in 1933, Eugene O'Neill cast him in the role of Richard Miller in his play "Ah, Wilderness," which ran on Broadway for two years. Cook continued to appear on stage during the remainder the 1930s; and although his acting career after that focused increasingly on films and then on television roles, he periodically returned to Broadway, where as late as 1963 he performed as Giuseppe Givola in Bertolt Brecht's play "The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui."


title: Elisha Cook Jr.

text: Cook enlisted in the United States Army in Los Angeles, California, on August 15, 1942. According to his enlistment record he stood 5-feet-5-inches tall and weighed 123 pounds. Cook's military record documents his level of education at "3 years of high school." Some online references state that he had attended "St. Albans College," "The Chicago Academy of Dramatic Art," and "The Chicago Academy of Fine Arts," which had been renamed the Art Institute of Chicago in 1882.


title: Elisha Cook Jr.

text: In 1930, Cook traveled to California, where he made his film debut in Hollywood's version of the play "Her Unborn Child", a motion picture directed by Albert Ray and produced by Windsor Picture Plays Inc.


title: Elisha Cook Jr.

text: At Twentieth Century-Fox, Cook made an impression as a bespectacled college freshman with radical ideas in the musical comedy "Pigskin Parade" (1936). He was also featured in the unofficial sequel, "Life Begins in College" (1937). Cook remained at Fox for two years, and then began freelancing at other studios. He did return to Fox occasionally in prominent roles: as a songwriter in the Alice Faye-Betty Grable musical "Tin Pan Alley" (1940), and as a mobster disguised as an old woman in the Laurel and Hardy feature "A-Haunting We Will Go" (1942). Typical of his early, bookish roles was his turn as a meek screenwriter in the madcap Olsen and Johnson comedy "Hellzapoppin" (1941).


title: Elisha Cook Jr.

text: After "The Maltese Falcon," Cook became typecast again, as weaklings or sadistic losers and hoodlums, who in the plots were usually murdered, either being strangled, poisoned or shot. In Universal's "Phantom Lady" (1944), he portrays a slimy, intoxicated nightclub-orchestra drummer to memorable effect. He received excellent notices for his portrayal of a happy, breezy disc jockey who turns out to be a homicidal maniac in "The Falcon's Alibi" (1946). He also had a substantial, though uncredited role as Bobo in the 1953 film noir production "I, the Jury".


title: Elisha Cook Jr.

text: In addition to his performance as Wilmer in "The Maltese Falcon" (1941), some of Cook's other notable roles include the doomed informant Harry Jones in "The Big Sleep" (1946), the henchman (Marty Waterman) of the murderous title character in "Born to Kill" (1947), the pugnacious ex-Confederate soldier 'Stonewall' Torrey who is gunned down by Jack Palance in "Shane" (1953), and George Peatty, the shady, cuckolded husband in Stanley Kubrick's "The Killing" (1956). Other films in which he appeared are William Castle's horror film "House on Haunted Hill" (1959), "One-Eyed Jacks" (1961), "Papa's Delicate Condition" (1963), "Blood on the Arrow" (1964), "Rosemary's Baby" (1968), "The Great Bank Robbery" (1969), "El Condor" (1970), "Blacula" (1972), "The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid" (1972), "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid" (1973), "The Outfit" (1973), "Tom Horn" (1980), and "" (1984).


title: Elisha Cook Jr.

text: Cook appeared on a wide variety of American television series from the early 1950s to the late 1980s. He played a private detective, Homer Garrity, in an episode of "Adventures of Superman" television series titled "Semi-Private Eye," airing for the first time on January 16, 1954. That same year, on April 12, he guest-starred on NBC's "The Dennis Day Show." In 1960, he was cast in the episode "The Hermit" of the ABC sitcom "The Real McCoys" with Walter Brennan. He appeared too in 1960 as Jeremy Hake in the episode "The Bequest" of the ABC western series "The Rebel", which starred Nick Adams. He also portrayed the character Gideon McCoy in the 1966 episode "The Night of the Bars of Hell" on "The Wild Wild West". He performed as well in the second episode of ABC's crime drama "The Fugitive".


title: Elisha Cook Jr.

text: Cook made two guest appearances on the CBS courtroom drama series "Perry Mason". In 1958, he played Art Crowley in "The Case of the Pint-Sized Client", and in 1964 he played Reelin' Peter Rockwell in "The Case of the Reckless Rockhound". Cook portrayed lawyer Samuel T. Cogley in the "" 1967 episode "Court Martial", Isaac Isaacson on the "Batman" television series, Weasel Craig in "Salem's Lot", and later had a long-term recurring role as Honolulu crime lord "Ice Pick" on CBS's "Magnum, P.I." In 1974 he made a surprise guest appearance on "The Odd Couple" as government agent Eliot Ness. He appeared too in "The Bionic Woman" episode "Once a Thief" in 1977.


title: Elisha Cook Jr.

text: Toward the end of his life, Cook often played dimwitted or cranky elderly characters. He played a bum in an episode of "The A-Team" as well as an elderly uncle in an episode of "Alf", which was one of his last roles prior to his retirement entirely from acting in 1988, followed by his death seven years later.


title: Elisha Cook Jr.

text: Cook was married to singer Mary Gertrude Dunckley (known professionally as Mary Lou Cook of the popular vocal quartet The Merry Macs) from 1928 until their divorce on November 4, 1941. He then married Illinois native Elvira Ann (Peggy) McKenna in 1943. The couple were married for twenty-five years until they formally divorced in Inyo County, California, in February 1968. They remarried on December 30, 1971. Their second marriage lasted another nineteen years until Peggy's death on December 23, 1990. Various references about Cook state that he had no children from his marriages; yet, his army enlistment record of 1942 documents his marital status as "Divorced, with dependents," which suggests he may have had a child or children with his first wife, or been responsible for the well-being of others.


title: Elisha Cook Jr.

text: Cook never became part of the Hollywood social scene, which he held in low regard. His slight build and calm demeanor belied his offscreen status as a rugged outdoorsman. He resided for many years in Bishop, California, but he typically spent his summers at Lake Sabrina in the Sierra Nevada. According to John Huston, who in 1941 directed him in "The Maltese Falcon":


title: Elisha Cook Jr.

text: [Cook] lived alone up in the High Sierra, tied flies and caught golden trout between films. When he was wanted in Hollywood, they sent word up to his mountain cabin by courier. He would come down, do a picture, and then withdraw again to his retreat.


title: Elisha Cook Jr.

text: Elisha Cook, Jr. died of a stroke at age 91, on May 18, 1995, at a nursing home in Big Pine, California. He was the last surviving member of the main cast of "The Maltese Falcon".


title: Swakopmund

text: Swakopmund () is a city on the coast of western Namibia, west of the Namibian capital Windhoek via the B2 main road. It is the capital of the Erongo administrative district. The town has 44,725 inhabitants and covers of land. The city is situated in the Namib Desert and is the fourth largest population centre in Namibia.


title: Swakopmund

text: Swakopmund is a beach resort and an example of German colonial architecture. It was founded in 1892 as the main harbour for German South West Africa.


title: Swakopmund

text: Buildings in the city include the "Altes Gefängnis", a prison designed by Heinrich Bause in 1909. The "Woermannhaus", built in 1906 with a prominent tower (Damara tower), is now a public library. Attractions in Swakopmund include a Swakopmund Museum, the National Marine Aquarium, a crystal gallery, and spectacular sand dunes near Langstrand south of the Swakop River. Outside the city, the Rossmund Desert Golf Course is one of only five all-grass desert golf courses in the world. Nearby is a farm that offers camel rides to tourists and the "Martin Luther" steam locomotive, dating from 1896 and abandoned in the desert.


title: Swakopmund

text: The Herero called the place "Otjozondjii". The name of the town is derived from the Nama word "Tsoakhaub" ("excrement opening") describing the Swakop River in flood carrying items in its riverbed, including dead animals, into the Atlantic Ocean. However, Professor Peter Raper, Honorary Professor: Linguistics, at the University of the Free State points out that the name for Swakopmund is based on the San language, specifically from "xwaka" (rhinoceros) and "ob" (river).


title: Swakopmund

text: The German settlers changed it to "Swachaub", and when in 1896 the district was officially proclaimed, the version "Swakopmund" (German: "Mouth of the Swakop") was introduced.


title: Swakopmund

text: Captain Curt von François founded Swakopmund in 1892 as the main harbour for the Imperial German colony—the natural deep sea harbour at Walvis Bay belonged to the British. The founding date was on August 8 when the crew of gunboat erected two beacons on the shore. Swakopmund was chosen for its availability of fresh water and a relatively easy connection into the centre of the South West African territory, particularly the Otjimbingwe and Windhoek. Other sites such as Sandwich Harbour and Cape Cross were found unsuitable due to dune belts that block the way to the hinterland.


title: Swakopmund

text: The Swakop site did, however, not offer any natural protection to ships lying off the coast, a geographical feature not often found along Namibia's coast. When the first 120 "Schutztruppe" soldiers and 40 settlers were offloaded at Swakopmund in 1893, they had to dig caves into the sand for shelter. The offloading was done by Kru tribesmen from Liberia who used special boats. Woermann-Linie, the operator of the shipping route to Germany, employed 600 Kru at that time.


title: Swakopmund

text: Swakopmund quickly became the main port for imports and exports for the whole territory, and was one of six towns which received municipal status in 1909. Many governmental departments for German South West Africa had offices in Swakopmund. During the Herero Wars a concentration camp for Herero people was operated in town. Inmates were forced into slave labour; approximately 2,000 Herero died.


title: Swakopmund

text: Soon, the harbour created by the "Mole" (breakwater) silted up, and in 1905, work was started on a wooden jetty, but in the long run this was inadequate. In 1914, construction of a steel jetty was therefore commenced. Trading and shipping companies founded branches in Swakopmund.


title: Swakopmund

text: Early in World War I in 1915, German South West Africa was taken over by the Union of South Africa. With this, the logistic and political barriers disappeared to use the harbour in Walvis Bay for South West Africa. In Swakopmund all harbour activities ceased, central government services disappeared, the jetty became a pedestrian walkway. Businesses closed down, the number of inhabitants diminished, and the town fell in decline.


title: Swakopmund

text: However, Swakopmund had been guaranteed a lifeline in a 1923 treaty in London negotiating the aftermath of World War I. Its moderate climate and location on the Atlantic made it suitable as a holiday resort for the white population of the territory, and the town was re-shaped into a tourism destination. Having lost its military importance, Swakopmund was used for recreation even during World War II, and in the 1940s and 1950s it was expanded to serve more and more tourists.


title: Swakopmund

text: With the opening of the Rössing uranium mine in 1976, Swakopmund changed its shape once again. While this mine to the east eventually got its own town built, Arandis, logistics and workers' accommodation were first supplied by Swakopmund.


title: Swakopmund

text: After Namibian independence from South Africa in 1990 many street names were changed from their original German, or in some cases, Afrikaans names, to honour Namibians, predominantly Namibians of black heritage. For example, in 2001, then-president of Namibia Sam Nujoma renamed the main street (Kaiser-Wilhelm-Straße) Sam Nujoma Avenue in honour of himself.


title: Swakopmund

text: The discovery of uranium at Rössing outside town led to the development of the world's largest opencast uranium mine and the foundation of Arandis. This had an enormous impact on all facets of life in Swakopmund which necessitated expansion of the infrastructure of the town to make it into one of the most modern in Namibia.


title: Swakopmund

text: "Salt Company Swakopmund" produces approximately 120,000 tons of table salt per year through solar evaporation of sea water. The salt is marketed as "Light Flow".


title: Swakopmund

text: The city has scattered coffee shops, night clubs, bars, and hotels. There are balloon rides, skydiving, quad biking, and small marine cruises. The Swakopmund Skydiving Club has operated from Swakopmund Airport since its founding in 1972.


title: Swakopmund

text: There are three museums, the Swakopmund Museum, the Kristall Galerie () and the Martin Luther (steam locomotive) museum outside town.


title: Swakopmund

text: As of the 1970s, German influences remained evident, including German street names, a German daily newspaper, and the German language being spoken by some residents, prompting "The New York Times" to describe it as "more German than Germany". A 2008 "New York Times" article describes the town as having "the dislocating feel of a Baltic Sea resort set in the tropics."


title: Swakopmund

text: In October 2000, an agreement was signed between the Namibian and People's Republic of China governments to build a satellite tracking station at Swakopmund. Construction was completed in July 2001 at a site north of Swakopmund to the east of the Henties Bay-Swakopmund road and opposite the Swakopmund Salt Works. The site was chosen as it was on the orbital track of a crewed spacecraft during its re-entry phase. Costing N$12 million, the complex covers 150m by 85m. It is equipped with five metre and nine metre satellite dishes.


title: Swakopmund

text: Swakopmund lies on the B2 road, and on the Trans-Namib Railway from Windhoek to Walvis Bay. It is served by Swakopmund Airport and Swakopmund Railway Station.


title: Swakopmund

text: The German school Regierungsschule Swakopmund was previously located in the city. There are four secondary schools, Secondary School Swakopmund, Namib High School, Private School Swakopmund and Coastal High School. West Side High School, Atlantic High School and Private School Swakopmund include both primary and secondary grades. Other Primary schools include Hanganeni Primary, Tamariskia Primary, Festus ǃGonteb Primary, Swakopmund Primary, Namib Primary and Vrede Rede Primary Schools.


title: Swakopmund

text: The main healthcare provider in the city is the Cottage Medi-Clinic, a hospital with 70 beds. The other public health facilities found in Swakopmund, are Swakopmund State Hospital and Tamariskia Clinic.


title: Swakopmund

text: Most inhabitants of the town live in the suburbs of Vineta, Tamariskia, Mondesa and Vogelstrand. Both black and white people, mostly well-to-do, live in Vineta. Tamariskia was originally a neighbourhood for the coloured people, built in the early 1970s, to replace the shacks the coloureds earlier had between the town centre and Vineta. Mondesa existed already in the 1960s, and it was a neighbourhood for the black people, and it was a considerable distance from the town centre in the early days.


title: Swakopmund

text: Namibia's ruling SWAPO party won the 2010 local authority election with 4,496 votes, followed by the local Swakopmund Residents Association (SRA, 1,005 votes), the United Democratic Front (UDF, 916 votes), the Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP, 666 votes), and the National Unity Democratic Organisation (NUDO, 280 votes). The 2015 local authority election was again won by SWAPO which gained six seats (5,534 votes). One seat each was won by the UDF (1,168 votes), the SRA (790 votes), the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA, 497 votes), and NUDO (296 votes).


title: Swakopmund

text: The 2020 local authority election was won by the Independent Patriots for Change (IPC), an opposition party formed in August 2020. The IPC obtained 3,458 votes and gained three seats. SWAPO was the runner-up, obtaining 2,745 votes and also gaining three seats. The SRA obtained 1,575 votes and two seats, and one seat each went to the Landless People's Movement (LPM, a new party registered in 2018, 1,059 votes) and the UDF with 641 votes.


title: Swakopmund

text: Surrounded by the Namib Desert on three sides and the cold Atlantic waters to the west, Swakopmund has a desert climate ("BWk", according to the Köppen climate classification) with mild conditions year round. The average temperature ranges between . Rainfall is less than per year, making gutters and drainpipes on buildings a rarity. The cold Benguela Current supplies moisture for the area in the form of fog that can reach as deep as inland. Fogs that originate offshore from the collision of the cold Benguela Current and warm air from the Hadley Cell create a fog belt that frequently envelops parts of the Namib desert. Coastal regions can experience more than 180 days of thick fog a year. While this has proved a major hazard to ships – more than one thousand wrecks litter the Skeleton Coast – it is a vital source of moisture for desert life. The fauna and flora of the area have adapted to this phenomenon and now rely upon the fog as a source of moisture.


title: Swakopmund

text: Swakopmund was the filming location for "". In August 2008, filming commenced in Swakopmund on the AMC television series "The Prisoner" starring Jim Caviezel and Sir Ian McKellen. Swakopmund was used as the film location for The Village. In 2002, the city appeared on "The Amazing Race 2" and was visited again in "The Amazing Race 26". In 2019, MTV's "" was filmed in Swakopmund, including the dunes of the Namib Desert and Swakopmund's coast.


title: Contingency table

text: In statistics, a contingency table (also known as a cross tabulation or crosstab) is a type of table in a matrix format that displays the (multivariate) frequency distribution of the variables. They are heavily used in survey research, business intelligence, engineering, and scientific research. They provide a basic picture of the interrelation between two variables and can help find interactions between them. The term "contingency table" was first used by Karl Pearson in "On the Theory of Contingency and Its Relation to Association and Normal Correlation", part of the "Drapers' Company Research Memoirs Biometric Series I" published in 1904.


title: Contingency table

text: A crucial problem of multivariate statistics is finding the (direct-)dependence structure underlying the variables contained in high-dimensional contingency tables. If some of the conditional independences are revealed, then even the storage of the data can be done in a smarter way (see Lauritzen (2002)). In order to do this one can use information theory concepts, which gain the information only from the distribution of probability, which can be expressed easily from the contingency table by the relative frequencies.


title: Contingency table

text: Suppose there are two variables, sex (male or female) and handedness (right- or left-handed). Further suppose that 100 individuals are randomly sampled from a very large population as part of a study of sex differences in handedness. A contingency table can be created to display the numbers of individuals who are male right-handed and left-handed, female right-handed and left-handed. Such a contingency table is shown below.


title: Contingency table

text: The numbers of the males, females, and right- and left-handed individuals are called marginal totals. The grand total (the total number of individuals represented in the contingency table) is the number in the bottom right corner.


title: Contingency table

text: The table allows users to see at a glance that the proportion of men who are right-handed is about the same as the proportion of women who are right-handed although the proportions are not identical. The strength of the association can be measured by the odds ratio, and the population odds ratio estimated by the sample odds ratio. The significance of the difference between the two proportions can be assessed with a variety of statistical tests including Pearson's chi-squared test, the "G"-test, Fisher's exact test, Boschloo's test, and Barnard's test, provided the entries in the table represent individuals randomly sampled from the population about which conclusions are to be drawn. If the proportions of individuals in the different columns vary significantly between rows (or vice versa), it is said that there is a "contingency" between the two variables. In other words, the two variables are "not" independent. If there is no contingency, it is said that the two variables are "independent".


title: Contingency table

text: The example above is the simplest kind of contingency table, a table in which each variable has only two levels; this is called a 2 × 2 contingency table. In principle, any number of rows and columns may be used. There may also be more than two variables, but higher order contingency tables are difficult to represent visually. The relation between ordinal variables, or between ordinal and categorical variables, may also be represented in contingency tables, although such a practice is rare. For more on the use of a contingency table for the relation between two ordinal variables, see Goodman and Kruskal's gamma.


title: Contingency table

text: The degree of association between the two variables can be assessed by a number of coefficients. The following subsections describe a few of them. For a more complete discussion of their uses, see the main articles linked under each subsection heading.


title: Contingency table

text: The simplest measure of association for a 2 × 2 contingency table is the odds ratio. Given two events, A and B, the odds ratio is defined as the ratio of the odds of A in the presence of B and the odds of A in the absence of B, or equivalently (due to symmetry), the ratio of the odds of B in the presence of A and the odds of B in the absence of A. Two events are independent if and only if the odds ratio is 1; if the odds ratio is greater than 1, the events are positively associated; if the odds ratio is less than 1, the events are negatively associated.


title: Contingency table

text: The odds ratio has a simple expression in terms of probabilities; given the joint probability distribution:


title: Contingency table

text: A simple measure, applicable only to the case of 2 × 2 contingency tables, is the phi coefficient (φ) defined by


title: Contingency table

text: where is computed as in Pearson's chi-squared test, and "N" is the grand total of observations. φ varies from 0 (corresponding to no association between the variables) to 1 or −1 (complete association or complete inverse association), provided it is based on frequency data represented in 2 × 2 tables. Then its sign equals the sign of the product of the main diagonal elements of the table minus the product of the off–diagonal elements. φ takes on the minimum value −1.0 or the maximum value of +1.0 if and only if every marginal proportion is equal to 0.5 (and two diagonal cells are empty).


title: Contingency table

text: "C" suffers from the disadvantage that it does not reach a maximum of 1.0, notably the highest it can reach in a 2 × 2 table is 0.707 . It can reach values closer to 1.0 in contingency tables with more categories; for example, it can reach a maximum of 0.870 in a 4 × 4 table. It should, therefore, not be used to compare associations in different tables if they have different numbers of categories.


title: Contingency table

text: "C" can be adjusted so it reaches a maximum of 1.0 when there is complete association in a table of any number of rows and columns by dividing "C" by formula_6 where "k" is the number of rows or columns, when the table is square , or by formula_7 where "r" is the number of rows and "c" is the number of columns.


title: Contingency table

text: Another choice is the tetrachoric correlation coefficient but it is only applicable to 2 × 2 tables. Polychoric correlation is an extension of the tetrachoric correlation to tables involving variables with more than two levels.


title: Contingency table

text: Tetrachoric correlation assumes that the variable underlying each dichotomous measure is normally distributed. The coefficient provides "a convenient measure of [the Pearson product-moment] correlation when graduated measurements have been reduced to two categories."


title: Contingency table

text: The tetrachoric correlation coefficient should not be confused with the Pearson correlation coefficient computed by assigning, say, values 0.0 and 1.0 to represent the two levels of each variable (which is mathematically equivalent to the φ coefficient).


title: Contingency table

text: The lambda coefficient is a measure of the strength of association of the cross tabulations when the variables are measured at the nominal level. Values range from 0.0 (no association) to 1.0 (the maximum possible association).


title: Contingency table

text: Asymmetric lambda measures the percentage improvement in predicting the dependent variable. Symmetric lambda measures the percentage improvement when prediction is done in both directions.


title: Contingency table

text: The uncertainty coefficient, or Theil's U, is another measure for variables at the nominal level. Its values range from −1.0 (100% negative association, or perfect inversion) to +1.0 (100% positive association, or perfect agreement). A value of 0.0 indicates the absence of association.


title: Contingency table

text: Also, the uncertainty coefficient is conditional and an asymmetrical measure of association, which can be expressed as


title: Contingency table

text: This asymmetrical property can lead to insights not as evident in symmetrical measures of association.


title: Kanshi Ram

text: Kanshi Ram (15 March 1934 – 9 October 2006), also known as Bahujan Nayak or Manyavar or Saheb, was an Indian politician and social reformer who worked for the upliftment and political mobilisation of the Bahujans, the backward or lower caste people including untouchable groups at the bottom of the caste system in India. Towards this end, Kanshi Ram founded Dalit Shoshit Samaj Sangharsh Samiti (DS-4), the All India Backward (SC, ST, OBC..) and Minorities Communities Employees' Federation (BAMCEF) in 1971 and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in 1984. He ceded leadership of the BSP to his protégé Mayawati who has served four terms as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh.


title: Kanshi Ram

text: Kanshi Ram was born to a Ramdasia family of Chamar caste on 15 March 1934 in Ropar district, Punjab, British India. Some sources say his birthplace was the village of Pirthipur Bunga and others that it was Khawaspur village.


title: Kanshi Ram

text: After studies at various local schools, Ram graduated in 1956 with a BSc degree from Government College Ropar.


title: Kanshi Ram

text: Kanshi Ram joined the offices of the Explosive Research and Development Laboratory in Pune under the government's reservation quota for Schedule cast, Schedule tribe and Other backward castes. It was at this time that he first experienced caste discrimination and in 1964 he became an activist. Those who admire him point out that he was spurred to this after reading B. R. Ambedkar's book "Annihilation of Caste" and witnessing the discrimination against a Dalit employee who wished to observe a holiday celebrating Ambedkar's birth. Kanshi Ram strongly inspired by B. R. Ambedkar and his philosophy.


title: Kanshi Ram

text: Ram initially supported the Republican Party of India (RPI) but became disillusioned with its co-operation with the Indian National Congress. In 1971, he founded the All India SC, ST, OBC and Minority Employees Association and in 1978 this became BAMCEF, an organisation that aimed to persuade educated members of the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backwards Classes and Minorities to support Ambedkarite principles. BAMCEF was neither a political nor a religious body and it also had no aims to agitate for its purpose. Suryakant Waghmore says it appealed to "the class among the Dalits that was comparatively well-off, mostly based in urban areas and small towns working as government servants and partially alienated from their untouchable identities".


title: Kanshi Ram

text: Later, in 1981, Ram formed another social organisation known as Dalit Shoshit Samaj Sangharsh Samiti (DSSSS, or DS4). He started his attempt of consolidating the Dalit vote and in 1984 he founded the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). He fought his first election in 1984 from Janjgir-Champa seat in Chhattisgarh. The BSP found success in Uttar Pradesh, initially struggled to bridge the divide between Dalits and Other Backward Classes but later under leadership of Mayawati bridged this gap.


title: Kanshi Ram

text: In 1982 he wrote his book "The Chamcha Age", in which he used the term "chamcha" (stooge) to describe Dalit leaders such as Jagjivan Ram and Ram Vilas Paswan. He argued that Dalits should work politically for their own ends rather than compromise by working with other parties.


title: Kanshi Ram

text: After forming BSP Ram said the party would fight first election to lose, next to get noticed and the third election to win. In 1988 he contested Allahabad seat up against a future Prime Minister V. P. Singh and performed impressively but lost polling close to 70,000 votes.


title: Kanshi Ram

text: He unsuccessfully contested from East Delhi (Lok Sabha constituency) (against HKL Bhagat) and Amethi (Lok Sabha constituency) (against Rajiv Gandhi) in 1989 and came in the third position on both the seats. Then he represented the 11th Lok Sabha (1996-1998) from Hoshiarpur, Kanshiram was also elected as member of Lok Sabha from Etawah in Uttar Pradesh.


title: Kanshi Ram

text: After Demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Kanshi Ram joined hands to keep communal forces out of power by creating unity among the backward and Dalit castes and giving the popular slogan "Mile Mulayam-Kanshi Ram, Hawa mein ud gaye Jai Shri Ram". After the election, a coalition government of Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party was formed in UP under the leadership of Mulayam Singh Yadav, although due to some differences and Mayawati's ambition, this alliance broke up in June 1995, Mayawati became first time Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh in support of BJP. In the late 1990s, Ram described the BJP as the most corrupt ("mahabrasht") party in India and the Indian National Congress INC, Samajwadi Party and Janata Dal as equally corrupt. In 2001 He declared Mayawati as his successor.


title: Kanshi Ram

text: In 2002, Ram announced his intention to convert to Buddhism on 14 October 2006, the 50th anniversary of Ambedkar's conversion. He intended for 50,000,000 of his supporters to convert at the same time. Part of the significance of this plan was that Ram's followers include not only untouchables, but persons from a variety of castes, who could significantly broaden Buddhism's support. However, he died on 9 October 2006.


title: Kanshi Ram

text: Mayawati his successor said "Saheb Kanshi Ram and I had decided that we will convert and adopt Buddhism when we will get "absolute majority" at the centre. We wanted to do this because we can make a difference to the religion by taking along with us millions of people. If we convert without power then only we two will be converting. But when you have power you can really create a stir".


title: Kanshi Ram

text: Ram was a diabetic. He suffered a heart attack in 1994, an arterial clot in his brain in 1995, and a paralytic stroke in 2003. He died in New Delhi on 9 October 2006 of a severe heart attack at the age of 72. He had been virtually bed-ridden for more than two years. According to his wishes, his funeral rites were performed according to Buddhist tradition, with Mayawati lighting the pyre. His ashes were placed in an urn and kept at Prerna Sthal, where many people paid their respects.


title: Kanshi Ram

text: In his condolence message, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described Ram as "one of the greatest social reformers of our time.. his political ideas and movements had a significant impact on our political evolution... He had a larger understanding of social change and was able to unite various underprivileged sections of our society and provide a political platform where their voices would be heard." Under Ram's leadership, the BSP won 14 parliamentary seats in the 1999 parliamentary elections.


title: Kanshi Ram

text: In 1982, Kanshi Ram wrote "The Chamcha Age" (The Era of the Stooges), a book in which he used the term "chamcha" (stooge) for Dalit leaders who he alleged had selfish reasons to work for parties such as the Indian National Congress (INC) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). His book "Birth of BAMCEF" was also published. His biography, "Kanshiram: Leader of the Dalits" was written by Badri Narayan Tiwari. His speeches are compiled in books like "Bahujan Nayak Kanshiram Ke Avismarniya Bhashan" by Anuj Kumar, "Writings & Speeches of Kanshiram" compiled by S. S. Gautam & A.R. Akela and "The Editorials of Kanshi Ram" by Bahujan Samaj Publications in 1997.


title: Kanshi Ram

text: There are many government programmes and schemes and public institutions named after Kanshi Ram in Uttar Pradesh. His birthplace Pirthipur Bunga Sahib has a memorial with his statue. Manyawar Shri Kanshiram Ji Green Eco Garden in Lucknow has been named in his memory.


title: Kanshi Ram

text: In 2017, a Hindi-language Biopic film "The Great Leader Kanshiram" was released in India, directed and produced by Arjun Singh, based on the story of DS4, BAMCEF and Bahujan Samaj Party founder Kanshi Ram from his childhood to 1984.


title: Victoria Leigh Soto

text: Victoria Leigh Soto (November 4, 1985 – December 14, 2012) was an American teacher who was killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. After the gunman, Adam Lanza entered the school, she hid her students; when the students later ran from their hiding places, she was reportedly shot four times by Lanza and died trying to shield them with her body. She has since been hailed as a hero. She is a posthumous recipient of the Presidential Citizens Medal.


title: Victoria Leigh Soto

text: Plans and petitions to honor her by name via scholarships, roads, and schools were announced in late 2012 and 2013. The Stratford Town Council unanimously approved a resolution to name a school after Soto and the city of Bayamón, Puerto Rico, birthplace of Soto's father, is planning to name a public facility after her.


title: Victoria Leigh Soto

text: Soto was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, to Carlos Soto, a native of Bayamón, Puerto Rico, and Donna Fagan-Soto, of Irish-American descent. Her father worked for the Connecticut Department of Transportation as a crane operator and her mother was a nurse at Bridgeport Hospital. Her family moved to Stratford, Connecticut, and she graduated from Stratford High School in 2003. In 2008, she earned bachelor's degrees in both education and history at Eastern Connecticut State University. She then enrolled in graduate school at Southern Connecticut State University.


title: Victoria Leigh Soto

text: On December 14, 2012, Soto was teaching her first-grade class at Sandy Hook Elementary School, when Adam Lanza made his way into the school, and began to shoot staff and students. After killing fourteen students and two teachers in the first classroom, Lanza entered Soto's classroom. Media reports state that Soto had hidden several children in a closet, and when Lanza entered her classroom, Soto told him that the children were not there and that they were in the school gym. When several children ran from their hiding places, Lanza began shooting at the students. Soto was reportedly shot trying to shield them with her body. A photograph of Soto's sister awaiting news of her sister on her cell phone was taken by Associated Press photographer Jessica Hill and widely reproduced across the globe. Some news outlets labeled the photograph "iconic" and said that it has come to symbolize the tragedy.


title: Victoria Leigh Soto

text: A memorial service was held on December 15, and funeral services took place on December 19 at the Lordship Community Church. American musician and songwriter Paul Simon performed at the funeral services and sang "The Sound of Silence". On December 20, she was interred at Union Cemetery Stratford, Fairfield County, Connecticut. The Connecticut State Police honor guard saluted Soto's hearse "en route".


title: Victoria Leigh Soto

text: In December 2012, Eastern Connecticut State University announced the creation of the Victoria Leigh Soto Endowed Memorial Scholarship Fund, awarded to students who aspire to become teachers. In December 2012, residents started a petition to rename North Parade in Stratford, Connecticut, to "Victoria Soto Way." On December 17, 2012, the Stratford High School Class of 2003 established the "Victoria L. Soto Memorial Fund" in her honor. The fund will use the donations made to help pay for the funeral services and for the creation of a memorial at Stratford High School and a scholarship fund in the name of Soto, a former classmate who belonged to the Class of 2003.


title: Victoria Leigh Soto

text: On January 14, 2013, the mayor of Stratford proposed the naming of a local school as the Victoria Soto Elementary School, with construction starting in 2013. The mayor's proposal was unanimously approved by the Stratford Town Council. The mayor also stated that a fund will be set up to accept donations from those who want to contribute to a memorial, which may include a statue of Soto.


title: Victoria Leigh Soto

text: In 2013, the Victoria Soto ACERO High School, located at W 51st Street, opened in Chicago, Illinois. It was designed by Wight & Co. The Victoria Soto ACERO High School is a public, charter school with grades ranging from kindergarten to the 12th grade.


title: Victoria Leigh Soto

text: The City of Bayamón, Puerto Rico is planning to name a public facility after Soto, whose paternal family was originally from Puerto Rico's second-most populous city.


title: Victoria Leigh Soto

text: On February 15, 2013, Soto and the other five adult teachers and administrators who were killed were posthumously awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal. The medal honors Americans who have performed "exemplary deeds of service" for their country or fellow citizens. The medal is commonly recognized as the government's second-highest civilian award and was presented to the families of the victims by President Barack Obama at a White House ceremony.


title: Victoria Leigh Soto

text: The Nutmeg Big Brothers Big Sisters organization created the "Victoria Soto Volunteer Award" in honor of Soto, who was a former Nutmeg mentor. On April 25, 2013, Ana Robles, a Nutmeg mentor, became the first recipient of the award. In June 2013, a playground in Long Brook Park in Stratford was named the "Victoria Soto Memorial Playground" in her honor.


title: Victoria Leigh Soto

text: In 2015, the Victoria Soto School was inaugurated and opened, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony, in Stratford, where she attended high school. The school, which was named in her honor, serves students from pre-kindergarten through second grade.


title: Édouard Daladier

text: Édouard Daladier (; 18 June 1884 – 10 October 1970) was a French Radical-Socialist (centre-left) politician, and the Prime Minister of France who signed the Munich Agreement before the outbreak of World War II.


title: Édouard Daladier

text: Daladier was born in Carpentras and began his political career before World War I. During the war, he fought on the Western Front and was decorated for his service. After the war, he became a leading figure in the Radical Party and Prime Minister in 1933 and 1934. Daladier was Minister of Defence from 1936 to 1940 and Prime Minister again in 1938. As head of government, he expanded the French welfare state in 1939.


title: Édouard Daladier

text: Along with Neville Chamberlain, Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler, Daladier signed the Munich Agreement in 1938, which gave Nazi Germany control over the Sudetenland. After Hitler's invasion of Poland in 1939, Britain and France declared war on Germany. During the Phoney War, France's failure to aid Finland against the Soviet Union's invasion during the Winter War led to Daladier's resignation on 21 March 1940 and his replacement by Paul Reynaud. Daladier remained Minister of Defence until 19 May, when Reynaud took over the portfolio personally after the French defeat at Sedan.


title: Édouard Daladier

text: After the Fall of France, Daladier was tried for treason by the Vichy government during the Riom Trial and imprisoned first in Fort du Portalet, then in Buchenwald concentration camp, and finally in Itter Castle. After the Battle of Castle Itter, Daladier resumed his political career as a member of the French Chamber of Deputies from 1946 to 1958. He died in Paris in 1970.


title: Édouard Daladier

text: Daladier was born in Carpentras, Vaucluse, on 18 June 1884, the son of a village baker. He received his formal education at the lycée Duparc in Lyon, where he was first introduced to socialist politics. After his graduation, he became a school teacher and a university lecturer at Nîmes, Grenoble and Marseilles and then at the Lycée Condorcet, in Paris, where he taught history. He began his political career by becoming the mayor of Carpentras, his home town, in 1912. He subsequently sought election to the Paris Chamber of Deputies but lost to a Radical-Socialist Party candidate; he later joined that party.


title: Édouard Daladier

text: Daladier had received military training before the war under France's conscription system. In August 1914, he was mobilised at the age of 30 with the French Army's 2nd Foreign Infantry Regiment when World War I started with the rank of sergeant. In mid-1915, the 2nd Foreign Infantry Regiment was destroyed in heavy fighting against the Imperial German Army on the Western Front. The surviving remnant of it was assigned to other units, Daladier being transferred into the 209th Infantry Regiment. In 1916, he fought with the 209th in the Battle of Verdun and was given a field commission as a lieutenant in the midst of the battle in April 1916 having received commendations for gallantry in action. In May 1917, he received the Legion of Honour for gallantry in action and ended the war as a captain leading a company. He had also been awarded the Croix de Guerre.


title: Édouard Daladier

text: After his demobilisation, he was elected to the Paris Chamber of Deputies for Orange, Vaucluse, in 1919.


title: Édouard Daladier

text: Later, he would become known to many as "the bull of Vaucluse" because of his thick neck, large shoulders and determined look. However, cynics also quipped that his horns were like those of a snail.


title: Édouard Daladier

text: After he entered the Chamber of Deputies, Daladier became a leading member of the Radical-Socialist Party and was responsible for building it into a structured modern political party. For most of the interwar period, he was the chief figure of the party's left wing, supporters of a governmental coalition with the socialist Section française de l'Internationale ouvrière (SFIO). A government minister in various posts during the coalition governments between 1924 and 1928, Daladier was instrumental in the Radical-Socialists' break with the SFIO in 1926, the first "Cartel des gauches" with the centre-right Raymond Poincaré in November 1928. In 1930, he unsuccessfully attempted to gain socialist support for a centre-left government in coalition the Radical-Socialist and similar parties. In 1933, despite similar negotiations breaking down, he formed a government of the republican left.


title: Édouard Daladier

text: In January 1934, he was considered the most likely candidate of the centre-left to form a government of sufficient honesty to calm public opinion after the revelations of the Stavisky Affair, a major corruption scandal. The government lasted less than a week, however, since it fell in the face of the 6 February 1934 riots. After Daladier fell, the coalition of the left initiated two years of right-wing governments.


title: Édouard Daladier

text: After a year of being withdrawn from frontline politics, Daladier returned to public prominence in October 1934 and took a populist line against the banking oligarchy that he believed had taken control of French democracy: the Two Hundred Families. He was made president of the Radical-Socialist Party and brought the party into the Popular Front coalition. Daladier became Minister of National Defence in the Léon Blum government and retained the crucial portfolio for two years.


title: Édouard Daladier

text: After the fall of the Blum government, Daladier became head of government again on 10 April 1938, orienting his government towards the centre and ending the Popular Front.


title: Édouard Daladier

text: Daladier's last government was in power at the time of the negotiations preceding the Munich Agreement during which France pressured Czechoslovakia to hand the Sudetenland to Nazi Germany. In April–May 1938, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain strongly but unsuccessfully pressed Daladier to renounce the French-Czechoslovak alliance, which led to Britain becoming involved in the crisis. From the British perspective, the problem was not the Sudetenland but the French-Czechoslovak alliance. British military experts were almost unanimous that Germany would defeat France in a war unless Britain intervened. The British thought that allowing Germany to defeat France would unacceptably alter the balance of power, and so Britain would have no choice but to intervene if a French-German war broke out.


title: Édouard Daladier

text: The alliance would have turned any German attack on Czechoslovakia cause into a French–German war. As British Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax stated at a Cabinet meeting in March 1938, "Whether we liked or not, we had to admit the plain fact that we could not afford to see France overrun."


title: Édouard Daladier

text: At the Anglo-French summit on 28–29 April 1938, Chamberlain pressured Daladier to renounce the alliance with Czechoslovakia, only to be firmly informed that France would stand by its obligations, which forced the British to be involved very reluctantly in the Sudetenland Crisis. The summit of 28–29 April 1938 represented a British "surrender" to the French, rather than a French "surrender" to the British since Daladier made it clear France would not renounce its alliance with Czechoslovakia.


title: Édouard Daladier

text: Unlike Chamberlain, Daladier had no illusions about Hitler's ultimate goals. In fact, he told the British in a late April 1938 meeting that Hitler's real aim was to eventually secure "a domination of the Continent in comparison with which the ambitions of Napoleon were feeble".


title: Édouard Daladier

text: Daladier went on to say, "Today, it is the turn of Czechoslovakia. Tomorrow, it will be the turn of Poland and Romania. When Germany has obtained the oil and wheat it needs, she will turn on the West. Certainly we must multiply our efforts to avoid war. But that will not be obtained unless Great Britain and France stick together, intervening in Prague for new concessions [i.e. to the Sudeten Germans] but declaring at the same time that they will safeguard the independence of Czechoslovakia. If, on the contrary, the Western Powers capitulate again, they will only precipitate the war they wish to avoid."