title: Myth Shift: Challenging The Truths That Sabotage Success
author: Merit Gest
description: Merit Gest has more than twenty years of experience working with companies to grow revenue, increase profitability, and reduce turnover. Merits work experience and certifications in both Emotional Intelligence and cultural transformation give her a unique perspective regarding hiring, onboarding, selling, and retaining top talent. Prior to forming Merit-based Professional Development, Merit was the Senior VP of Sales for a nationwide sales training organization and the youngest General Sales Manager for a start-up radio station in the countrys third largest market of Chicago. In her various roles as a business owner, trainer, coach, consultant, and keynote speaker, she has worked with CEOs, business owners, entrepreneurs, and sales management teams, among many others, across a wide variety of industries, including automotive, broadcasting, construction, direct sales, engineering, financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, professional services, real estate, retail, technology, transportation, and even pest control. Audiences appreciate her humorous delivery and engaging keynotes designed to impact sales, leadership, teamwork, and profitability. She is an active member of The National Speakers Association, has been featured in Selling Power magazine as an expert advisor, and is a highly-rated speaker for Vistage International, the worlds largest organization of CEOs. Do you need an opening keynote speaker to energize attendees and kick off your conference with inspiration, interaction, and humor? Do you need an emcee who can keep things moving along and inject some belly laughs along the way? Do you need an enthusiastic breakout speaker who doesnt rely on PowerPoint slides to capture the attention of the audience? Merit Gest delivers relevant content that will grow sales, increase profit margin, inspire leadership, cultivate teamwork, enhance productivity, and achieve world peace. Well, five out of six aint bad... She has been described as the love child between Malcolm Gladwell and Ellen DeGeneres because she skillfully mixes thought-provoking and actionable content with stand-up comedy and improvisational interaction with the audience. To book Merit for your next event, conference, corporate meeting, or executive retreat, go to www.MeritGest.com and place a no-obligation hold on your date. Operators are standing by. Well, theyre not really standing...
zlib_text: The Myth of 
  Achievement 
  Tests The GED and 
  the Role of 
  Character in 
  American Life 
  edited by 
  JAMESJ. HECKMAN, 
  JOHN ERIC HUMPHRIES, 
  andTIMKAUTZ 
  
  The Myth of Achievement Tests 
  The GED and the Role of Character in American Life 
  Edited by James J. Heckman, John Eric Humphries, 
  and Tim Kautz 
  Achievement tests play an important role in modern societies. 
  They are used to evaluate schools, to assign students to tracks 
  within schools, and to identify weaknesses in student knowl¬ 
  edge. The GED is an achievement test used to grant the status of 
  high school graduate to anyone who passes it. GED recipients 
  currently account fon2 percent of all high school credentials 
  issued each year in the United States. But do achievement 
  tests predict success in life? 
  The Myth of Achievement Tests shows that achievement 
  tests like the GED fail to measure important life skills. James J. 
  Heckman, John Eric Humphries, Tim Kautz, and a group of 
  scholars offer an in-depth exploration of how the