Writing Feedback / 'architecture or town-planning' - GRE Analytical essay Societies and Cities [4]

I am practising for the GREs and have not written essay in 30 years. Here goes..
To understand the most important characteristics of a society, one must study its major cities.

Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the statement and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and supporting your position, you should consider ways in which the statement might or might not hold true and explain how these considerations shape your position.

The statement that the lifestyle of the citizens and the values they hold, can be gleaned by the architecture or town-planning of the city, is arguable. Do cities today reflect the belief-system of its citizens? Any major city one visits today, has the same skyscrapers, administration buildings, Presidential or King's palace, tall apartment buildings. Cities are very keen to impart how advanced technologically, how successful financially and how efficient its administration is.

However in ancient times, great cities like Angkor in Cambodia, and Borobudur in Indonesia would have reflected the belief-systems of her people. Those cities were built full of palaces, administrative buildings and temples, replete with carvings of The Lord Buddha, and Rama the IV, their revered king. Rock carvings, paintings and sculptures represented the deeds and lives of Buddha and the achievements of King Rama IV. The chinese scholar Fa Hsien, who visited the city remarked how devoted the people were to their kings and what faithful followers they were of Buddha. He did not have to do any form of study. Moving through the city, he got the idea. He also did not have to find out what the people did for a living. Rice padi fields were abundant, irrigation systems were evident as it wound around the cities.

I believe that the above statement is time-barred. There was a time when a study of cities would have allowed certain presumptions of the society that lived within, but no longer.

The absorption of western values of what is progress has gone around the world. City after city compete to build the highest tower, highest hotel, as though any progress was only to be measured by how close we get to the clouds. The result, we have cities trying to show their success by deleting every green patch and erecting a clump of concrete buildings in its place, indistinguishable from one another. Every city looks like any other. This makes it difficult to discern the values or histories of any one city.

Architecture may reflect the histories of its citizens. A city with fine works of carvings, and works of art, would assume an artisan society, one with fortified buildings would tell of a warrior-age or warring states. The Amber Fort in New Delhi in India, would tell you that it went through many battles centuries ago. But what can you translate from the tall row upon row of Apartment buildings, glass paneled office blocks of New Delhi today? They are synonymous with cities like Tokyo. But do their citizens share the same values? Certainly not. Architecture has become homogenous and one can no longer make out or discern the essence of its citizens merely by looking at the city.

Citizens no longer absorb and reflect the histories of their ancestors. The global village has people travelling to and from faraway places for study, business and leisure. Even if we assume cities can reflect society, society is no longer constant. People today, receive and assimilate values from other places and societies. They inter-marry, co-habit,with people from vastly different cultures and traditions from their own. They make compromises to their beliefs and lifestyles.

My conclusion is, the statement is true of a bygone era of the ancient civilizations. Cities all over the world started looking the same decades ago in the race to show progress with tall buildings, that reflect little of what the citizens stand for. People are so transient that in any one city, you have a polyglot of values and belief systems, from different parts of the world. For all these reasons, I believe that the statement is no longer relevant today.

Writing Feedback / 'People with great imagination' - analytical GRE essay [3]

Claim: Imagination is a more valuable asset than experience.

Reason: People who lack experience are free to imagine what is possible without the constraints of established habits and attitudes.

Imagination is the ability to form pictures, think of creative ideas and solutions to problem-solving. To experience means to undergo a process or to have a hands-on encounter with an event. There is value in both imagination and experience, but is imagination more of an asset, because it lacks boundaries and disciplines, and hence is more expansive and free-flowing? Certainly not.

A person who has much imagination and spends his days developing his dreams, and building larger and more elaborate castles in the air, is akin to the man with many wonderful suggestions but never does anything to attain any concrete success. A person with experience is the one who has created ideas in his mind, and takes the time, trouble, and effort to add life to them. He takes the risks to plant the seed of his imagination, nurtures it through time, and effort, fights off problems that come along and sees it to fruition. Along the way, experience teaches us to reflect, organise and plan. These skills pave the way for more success in the next endeavour.

Let's take the example of the the artist, a person with great imagination, a person who looks with his mind's eye, so to speak. He is someone with immense and unbounded imagination. But as long as he does not act on it, we will not know his genius. What is worse, he will not sell any art, or earn a living. Today, we marvel at the art of Picasso and Van Gogh because they did not just imagine, they acted on their creative ideas, went through the processes of art, and continued to create even more complex masterpieces on canvasses and paper as time went on.

On a more pragmatic note experience is more valuable because of the ancillary values one accumulate from being hands-one. People with business ideas, who take the risks and act on them, start a business, run it and problem-solve a long the way, learn much more than the person who just thinks of how he would run a company. Experience therefore, is more valuable because of what you gain from hand-on learning, problem-solving requires lots of creative solutions and imagination.

In conclusion, I strongly disagree that imagination is more valuable than experience. Although both virtues have to work hand in hand, experience is the more valuable of the two, because it requires of one, to put in the hand-ons work of starting , and following through on what would otherwise be just dreams.

Writing Feedback / analytical Argument GRE [4]

[b"Over the past two years, the number of shoppers in Central Plaza has been steadily decreasing while the popularity of skateboarding has increased dramatically. Many Central Plaza store owners believe that the decrease in their business is due to the number of skateboard users in the plaza. There has also been a dramatic increase in the amount of litter and vandalism throughout the plaza. Thus, we recommend that the city prohibit skateboarding in Central Plaza. If skateboarding is prohibited here, we predict that business in Central Plaza will return to its previously high levels."][/b]

Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the recommendation is likely to have the predicted result. Be sure to explain how the answers to these questions would help to evaluate the recommendation.

It has been recommended that skateboarding in Central Plaza be prohibited because the increase in the number of skateboarders has had an adverse effect on business there. It is insinuated also that the increase in this popular sport in CPlaza, has resulted in much litter and vandalism. Before such a recommendation is effected, we have to ask some pertinent questions.

In the last two years, business all over the world has been affected by the global economic climate, and it is not unusual for there to be a decline in business in most malls. To put the blame solely on the popularity of skateboarding is unfair and illogical. Hence the first question to ask is, how well was the mall doing before the last two years, Did is coincide with the global economic gloom.

Two years is a long time, and has there been new malls built around the vicinity of Central Plaza? If so, the regular shoppers would have gravitated to the new malls regardless of the popularity of skateboarding, and the co-relation between the decrease in business and increase in skateboarding is highly coincidental.

Has there been a decrease in population around Central Plaza? People move for a number of reasons. In Singapore, for example, families move to get within the school of choice of their children. Around the time, when parents register their children, will see much movement of population towards areas near premier schools. If Central Plaza was in the suburbs and parents prefer to send their children to schools in the city, they would move away, and this would affect the business of Central Plaza. If this is the case, the popularity of skateboarding has no effect on the business of CPlaza.

Has there been a change in the mix of tenants in the Central Plaza? If within the last 2 years, there has been an influx of office tenants rather than retailers, there would be fewer reasons to come to CPlaza for shopping. If this is the case, then, shopping opportunities would be diminished, not because of the presence of skateboarders or their sport.

Was there a survey done in the last 2 years? Since there are no statistics, it seems like an anecdotal evidence. Regardless, let's assume that a survey was done and numbers were taken. Even then, the questions I would ask are: At what times of the day were these numbers taken? At what times of the year was the survey taken?

If the survey was taken after school hours, it is inevitable that there would be more skateboarders than shoppers. and this would be the adverse effect should the survey take place in the morning, when kids are in school. Surveys done immediately after Christmas or any festive season would show a drastic decrease from pre-festive season.

Where were the skateboarders skating? The statement says that 'the skateboarders in the plaza'. I assume that the skateboarders are using the corridors for their sport. If this is so, shoppers would be fearful of their safety, and trying to dodge these skateboarders, and this would put the shoppers off. Even if this were so, the shoppers would have lodged complaints to the management. Were there any complaints? If there were, what was the action taken by the management? However, if the skate boarders were skating in a part of the plaza separate from the shoppers, and this space is exclusively for their sport, then there would be no basis to blam the skateboarders for the decline in business.

It is insinuated that vandalism and litter are connected to the presence of the skateboarders. What needs to be asked of the security and cleanliness department of the management of the building is: has there been any lay-offs of employees from the security and hygiene departments? Has any hygiene services been stopped due to cuts in budgets? Has any or both these departments gone on strike in the last 2 years? If the answers to these are yes, then the lack of patrols, and fewer shifts in picking up litter could be the reason for the rise in vandalism and littering.

Before the drastic step of prohibiting skateboarding is taken, a valid survey should be taken, and many questions like those above need to be answered. Perhaps creating a space for the skateboarders should be considered seriously, if one does not exist yet. THis would both attract the younger generation who are infamous for their impulse- buying habits, as well as give the regular shoppers space and safety to shop in Central Plaza.

Writing Feedback / Analysing argument estate agents GRE [3]

"Of the two leading real estate firms in our town-Adams Realty and Fitch Realty-Adams Realty is clearly superior. Adams has 40 real estate agents; in contrast, Fitch has 25, many of whom work only part-time. Moreover, Adams' revenue last year was twice as high as that of Fitch and included home sales that averaged $168,000, compared to Fitch's $144,000. Homes listed with Adams sell faster as well: ten years ago I listed my home with Fitch, and it took more than four months to sell; last year, when I sold another home, I listed it with Adams, and it took only one month. Thus, if you want to sell your home quickly and at a good price, you should use Adams Realty."

Write a response in which you examine the stated and/or unstated assumptions of the argument. Be sure to explain how the argument depends on these assumptions and what the implications are for the argument if the assumptions prove unwarranted.

The homeowner who wrote this very biased letter to her friend is of the opinion that Adams Realty is superior over Fitch Realty because the former has more full-time agents, and its revenue last year was two times that of Fitch. The assumption made here is that the full-time agents are fully empoyed throughout the week, and each has assigned properties to sell or buy, whereas the part-time agents in Fitch are less effective due to less time spent in trading in properties. Full-time agent merely means that they are paid a salary at the end of the month, whether they have sold any property or many properties. Full-time staff also cost more to keep on your payroll, at least this is the case in Singapore. Employers have to be pay a percentage of their monthly salary to a retirement account which earn interest for the fulltime staff and they can withdraw at the age of 65. This adds hefty sum to having ful-time staff, if they do not earn over and above the % which empoyers pay towards their retirement each month.

The other assumption is also that the full-time agents sell more than part-timers, and hence it's better to have fulltime staff. This cannot be further from the truth. the amount of sales aperson makes depends on many factors, one of which is, the salesperson said the right thing, the customer was looking for a propery exactly like the onw he showed. the salesperson clues in exactly into what the buyer wants. Therefore, a part-timer who pays attention, understands what the client wants and has that particular property to show, had a clear advantage over a full-time agent who does not have all those elements coming together to close a deal.

The other assumption was that Adams' revenue was more, and hence superior, is incorrect. Adams' has a higher fixed cost because of full-time agents. This will eat into the net profits of the company. Fitch with a smaller staff, coud have more efficent staff who bring in more sales and a more efficient use of expenses. That firm does not need to incur CPF(retirement account) for its agents, so there would be ampe amount of savings there, too, which woud add to their profit.

The difference in revenue is only $20,000, and if the expenses of Adams is higher than that of Fitch's, the percentage of gross profit over revenue would be higher for Fitch.

The example the homeowner gave his friend, is not a fair one because there are soem questions to be aske about both the homes. Many factors affect how easily, or difficult it is to sell a house. It's location, was it in the city, or suburb, did it have convenient amenities around. what kind of home was it? A big house would appeal only to big famillies. An apartment would be favoured by people who like convenience and security in one spot. What was the economic climate of that time? An expensive home would be more difficult to sell in times of recession, than a small apartment.

For all the reasons above, it the friend of the owner would have to bear in mind all these considerations before using Adams Agency.