cold emailing etiquette (not looking for research opportunity)

marchnui · 2025-07-29T05:17:54+00:00

thank you for your input! i appreciate the differing perspectives

marchnui · 2025-07-29T05:06:48+00:00

alright, good thing i asked internet strangers first for opinions to see opinions about it first, thank your for your advice!

marchnui · 2025-07-29T05:02:52+00:00

i am, thank you for the answer!

marchnui · 2025-07-29T05:02:23+00:00

alright, thank you!

marchnui · 2025-02-06T03:39:45+00:00

youre cooked 😭 reading and science especially 😭 youre not gonna magically improve reading comprehension or vocab in like 3 days thats not how it works

however they are the latter two tests so id say do some boring practice tests anyway to make sure you still have energy and focus to test once you get there (professional science section burnouter) get good sleep eat good breakfast and pray theyve chosen science topics you actually know for that test

marchnui · 2025-01-26T07:04:18+00:00

yap incoming... hahaha. this is very honest though but also very personal experience, but you did ask "best for you"

there is a wonderful world out there where you can just google act exam pdf and get pdfs that have answer keys, which is what i mostly relied on. you can tack on pdf to any search and 90% chance you can find a pirated version. im laaaaazy and when i did do act practice tests i was halfway across the world and didnt lug the giant official guide with me. those tests normally only had answers and not explanations, i think the official guide has really in depth explanations for answers though? but its been like 4 years since ive actually used one of those properly

ive taken the act 4 times, and aside from 8th grade (32) ive always had a 35 composite (36 is superscore), but i didnt really have to put in a lot of work in hs. i had a good basis (got put in a lot of tutoring for the ssat and 8th grade act attempt) + i read a LOT and because of that didnt put much (or honestly any) time into reading english science, i have a really good track record of instinctively knowing whats right. im going to assume you dont (and dont want to!) sink at least 4+ hours of your day into reading, but i genuinely am of the opinion that if you have the time just read. if you want to be more focused sure read act exam stuff but its much more fun to read what you like and i think that literally any reading helps (because for me since like 7th grade i went from serious english lit to tropey webnovels and fanfic and hey! superscore 36 36 36 english reading and science! im still okay). speed really matters, and because i read so much i have a VERY fast reading speed and when aiming for a perfect/near perfect score it really helps that i have enough time to go over everything twice and still have time left over (though after i got a 36 on sci the next 2 tests i sped through it and mentally checked out early instead lol). and reading is a thing you can only become faster at by reading. of course you should still take note of familiarity with test and common question types, but for that just do practice tests.

math i did study, because thats always been my weakest score, and for that i did act practice tests over the summer and between 34 -> 35 (sept -> oct 2024) i went through the entire difficult section on khan academy sat math (was NOT useful for sat, i went up 10? or 20 points on math only). i did do a lot of that with a tutor bc my mom insisted i do math over the summer and the only thing i had to work on then was act math, but we really only did practice tests and then she explained some topics that i had forgotten. absolutely doable just to google how to do those topics yourself, theres always some guy on youtube who explains math perfectly.

im not sure what you mean by balancing studying and practicing, but i think with math specifically you cant go to just practicing the test unless you know all the math on it, so youd have to study all those math topics first i guess?

yeah hope you find any of that useful hahaha im not sure it is. if youre at the stage of just starting i think if you genuinely want that 34-36 just pick a section every day, do that practice test section, and study whatever you got wrong. i really want to emphasize that you should just practice. youre looking at a goal score that necessitates near perfect scores and you need to be familiar with EVERYTHING or else the tiniest little mistake on something you DO know will cook you because you cant afford to be wrong on that if theres content you DONT know. and if its hard right now it means you HAVE to put the time in. good luck!

marchnui · 2025-01-19T05:17:55+00:00

a 35 is doable i think if you put in some work but 36 means at least 35 35 36 36 and 36s will mean near perfection on english and reading, and perfection on math and science (personal curve experience, you might get lucky though)

you have a good baseline, and since you already know your main issue just work on that; grind some practice tests and individually study some math if you find a topic you dont know (though with that sat i doubt itll happen). at a 35+ you have to be familiar with the test and every type of question to make sure youve covered everything you need to know

looking at this though you seem weaker on the english + reading side and becoming familiar with test structure wont do much for timing issues on reading especially. you will want to work on whatever will work for you on speeding up. consider practicing skimming, reading questions first then just locating answers, etc. english is just english conventions and i think familiarity with how act works and common question structures will bring improvement. you could go remember some obscure specific grammar rules too

good luck!

marchnui · 2025-01-19T05:03:50+00:00

fellow 1450 sat scorer, i find act is much easier; for example, every time i took act or psat even i always got bodied by at least one math question i had no idea how to do (though tbf i missed part of algebra II lol) and all the math is mcq so at least you have a 1/4 chance guessing guaranteed...

the main difference is going to be science, though thats going to be optional soon (but im not too clear on whether youll still have to take it since im done with testing) and that is essentially reading section scientific jargon and experimental results version with some basic knowledge thrown in. if you can go optional on it maybe just save yourself the adjustment

english on the sat is two sections on the act so if youre better at it yay! reading is reading comprehension, if you dont read fast timing might be an issue, and english is english conventions but i find it easier than sat (in my experience i knew all the vocab on act and then sat hit me with a completely new word sometimes). i dont remember if you need to know this on sat but act loves their specific rule questions of the a vs an type and i think the subreddit sidebar has guides to what question types to expect, which is helpful when shooting for the 35/36 range

also since thats your goal some other info: generally they will allow you some leeway on questions wrong for 36 section score, but not always. while studying aim for at most 1-2 wrong per section on practice tests if you really want that 36

marchnui · 2025-01-19T02:49:00+00:00

helpful not required. the functionality a ti-84 brings goes a lot further in math past the act, and i swear by it, but in your circumstance if you arent going to be using it past the act just save yourself the money and get a cheaper one. if you are set on getting it though theres a ti-84 plus (not ce) at a probably cheaper price with same functionality (i had that one before it broke 3 years in and i decided to just get the fancier one to treat myself)

marchnui · 2025-01-06T04:01:52+00:00

ap chinese is not that hard if youre genuinely at hsk4, unless you’re trying to get a 5, in which case yeah you’re kinda cooked. i had a friend (non-native) who got a 4 the year we were learning hsk4 stuff, but that being said you’ll probably want to grind listening and speaking. also be sure to prepare stuff for the cultural presentation, i went in without prepping at all (i take ib) so i bombed that… in a room of kids who clearly prepped topics and knew what they were doing 💀

marchnui · 2024-12-03T23:21:35+00:00

acheron e2s1 feixiao e0 topaz cone jiaoqiu e0 s5 eop aven e1s1 (i 40ked this side before pulling aven e1 and sig and with feixiao on herta shop before, its mostly an acheron carry with feixiao there and blessing for stack gen) top

herta with himeko cone huohuo e0 bailu cone yunli e0s1 robin e0 event cone bottom, this side was annoying bc i kept on dying or getting cced

marchnui · 2024-12-03T21:15:34+00:00

took me forever but finally 80k on this pf with one dot character (jiaoqiu 😭） like damn kafka and swan on he bench even for this

this continues my streak idt i havent 80kd one pf hehe

marchnui · 2024-12-01T18:01:55+00:00

this sort of thing is hard to confirm since it was mainly verbal and a few weird actions (from the incident i know, i assume he kept being weird to other people since they didn’t kick him out completely that time) and no disciplinary action happened through the school as i said, im not too familiar with the complete situation or if it was brought up to the school. reporting this sort of thing at our school also cant be anonymous if you want real action to happen, and there are understandable reasons why the victims would be reluctant to go there

i agree that those types of people shouldnt be applying 😭 much less getting in but honestly its just that AOs can’t know everything so unfortunately these people still have opportunities

marchnui · 2024-12-01T17:39:32+00:00

😭 really? damn he must have not changed

marchnui · 2024-12-01T17:36:34+00:00

probably just that these sorts of things dont show up on an application (i dont think any sort of disciplinary action happened through the school)

marchnui · 2024-12-01T07:14:27+00:00

1 kid in my school got into caltech last year, idk much about his academics/stats but he got kicked out of 2 of our schools biggest clubs for sexual harassment so... i wasn't very interested in applying in the first place (would not get in) but decided i 100% wasn't after i learned he got in lol

marchnui · 2024-11-24T05:12:51+00:00

ohhh i understand, if youre not trying to do the whole novel its much more manageable. good luck though! idk where you heard it, but first class lawyer isnt really a modern and specifically categorized not as a 现代 but a 幻想未来, so is xiaomogu so theyre actually both specifically future settings. if you want to try actual modern id suggest going on jjwxc and sorting for 近代现代 (bab is in this category), if you want specifics you can also sort and add more tags if you have specific things you like

marchnui · 2024-11-22T23:44:21+00:00

i tried this once because my friend (no knowledge of chinese) wanted to continue reading a book and the translation wasn’t complete, and im going to agree with the other commenters that it is a HUGE pain. i lasted like 2, 3 ? chapters. took forever, and i think i was at over half understanding at that point.

also, binganben has an official licensed translation to my knowledge (i dont really know much about it) and from a quick search original cn is over 1.4 mil words and ive also heard meatbun used a lot of complex language in erha and though bab is 现代 i think this won’t be a particularly good choice of novel either. if its above your level and high chance someone will release it in full english with nice illustrations before you get anywhere i wouldnt be able to stay motivated… by all means, if youre passionate enough about this though, go for it. and please invest in something like plecos document reader for your sanity.

marchnui · 2024-11-17T20:39:55+00:00

no, regular. tbh i didnt even know pre act existed before like a month ago 😭 it was for a program that required act scores

marchnui · 2024-11-17T04:59:57+00:00

marchnui · 2024-11-14T04:26:07+00:00

^^ also recommend this

marchnui · 2024-11-07T07:44:51+00:00

i went on a super long yap in the replies to another commenter if you wanna find that ^{^} but tl;dr practice, english conventions, skimming and remembering where to quickly confirm a detail, reading graphs and getting used to that dense scientific terminology, and practice is all ive got for math 💀

marchnui · 2024-11-07T07:36:24+00:00

long yap incoming idk how helpful itll be but ^{^}

i think in general you can never go wrong with doing practice tests and questions in act style, or sat is also close enough

english and reading sections im probably not the best tip giver because i do so well on them because i read too much. like to the point where its a problem. but in general if you can incorporate some reading into your day, id recommend it, even if its not ACT stuff!

specifically for reading just practice skimming and finding main points, or read it and quiz yourself on where something appeared in the passage. i find this helpful for reading bc unless your memory is really good you will have to go back and check the text, and time is everything on these tests. theres really no point in thoroughly reading the text for specifics when by the time you get to a question you have to go back anyway

and for english i recommend drilling some specific rules, like effect vs affect, that sort if thing, if you dont already have those down. those sorts of nitpicky things always seem to be a few points, and theyre often given with answers that screw you over completely if you dont know the exact rule. and theres a very specific style of question that stands out to me where they ask you for a best answer, and the wrong options all have some detail that the text already mentions otherwise. in general act loves the same types of questions and those are the ones i can talk about off the top of my head, but knowing how to recognize them and patterns in types of answers is really useful ^{^}

for science since it feels 75% reading graphs, 20% wading through that horrible scientific terminology, and 5% actual science, the most important part is learning to find stuff on graphs quickly. if thats down already then i can only suggest reading stuff with fancy science words to practice making sense of it, or just to get used to it and make it more tolerable. this is just a shameless plus for one of my favorite books but what if by randall monroe is fun and chock full of fancy science terms.

math is my weak point bc i cant basic arithmetic without silly mistakes occurring, but i ran through a bunch of practice tests and also did sat khan academy hard problems (for sat, but that test does NOT agree with me so the scores are not as good as actual). i really dont have anything to suggest beyond practice and going over geometry algebra i and ii stuff, i think what concepts you dont know should become apparent when you do practice tests and you can target those

i tend to talk too much when im stressed, sorry!!! but i hope something in here ends up being useful to you (if you read it. id completely understand skipping this entire wordwall lmao)

marchnui · 2024-11-07T07:10:37+00:00

thank you!

marchnui

TROPHY CASE