Study Hut tutors could not be more excited for the big Finals push. We have students from AVID coming in for private tutoring all week, but we also have a huge event scheduled for Saturday. As in years past, we will be hosting an all day tutoring and study session on campus at Palos Verdes High School. We will have access to multiple different classrooms, and tutors will get to go into different rooms and help students with the specific subjects they need most help with.

This year, there will undoubtedly be math tutoring, science tutoring (including biology tutoring and chemistry tutoring), history tutoring, from World History and EHAP to U.S. History, Government, and Economics tutoring. Math tutoring will include algebra tutoring, geometry tutoring, algebra 2 tutoring, pre-calculus tutoring, trigonometry tutoring, and maybe even some calculus and FTS tutoring.

We will also, of course, have English tutoring, writing tutoring for students with an upcoming final paper, Spanish tutoring (all levels), and probably a few other subjects as well.

The event is free (and required!) for all AVID students, and speaking from past experience, it is an extremely productive event for all students involved. The teachers always come to support, supervise, and offer their knowledge as well.

And best of all, we are getting El Taco Man ordered, so he will be showing up with his cart, and all the tacos any young man or woman can eat. Does it get any better than this? I think not. See you on Saturday.

Personally I have always loved learning about history, since I started watching TV one of the first channels I used to check was The History Channel(before shows like Pawn Stars and Ice Road Truckers), and I was always happy to go into any one of my history courses all through my scholastic career. But for many students History is thought of as the extremely dry and dull subject about dead guys and wars. With students dreading having to go to class and spend countless hours reading through a text book as dry as sand. Then when the student sets forth to go about reading for the class, they try and get through it as fast as possible with the minimum understanding and learning to pass the quiz or test. However, there is a much better way to go about studying and learning all the historical knowledge a student could need for all of their classes.

First, I can’t leave out the tried and true method of going through the reading and either highlighting the book, taking notes on the material read or making flash cards for the important events and information. But often times this just leads to more boredom and less understanding. One key is for that the student needs to actively engage with the material and find something that he or she can find interesting or entertaining from the material. I know that not every student will be able to find something interesting in every section, but by in large a lot of really interesting things went on in the past, we do study human beings in history and most of the time humans are capable of some pretty amazing and awesome things. For example, when Andrew Jackson was elected President he threw the largest and craziest Party the white house has ever seen, to set the course for his presidency. Yet, most textbooks either don’t even mention this fact or gloss over it as an important detail.

This is why students if they want to really become actively engaged with history and have a chance of enjoying the subject need to do some looking on their own for interesting tidbits. By finding just one interesting fact about a certain time period most students would look to learn more and more about the subject. And a great way to go about this is to watch documentaries and the old shows they used to show on History Channel as most students would prefer to watch and listen to their information than to read it all in huge dry textbook with minimal pictures. There are multiple free website online to find documentaries and historical programming, its all about the students putting forth the effort on their own or with the the help of a tutor to find something that interests them, because without interest there cannot be true learning and understanding.

High school is a fun, challenging, and decisive point in one’s life. Academically, it’s the first time that your performance in classes will follow you and affect your future. It is also a time of great personal growth, and a time of starting to accept one’s responsibilities as a young adult. Because of all these rapid changes in an adolescent’s life, high school can be quite challenging. Through practicing with a sports team, hanging out with friends, and finding new hobbies and muses, finding the time and direction to do well in the often difficult classes packed into the four years can be quite challenging. This is where the Study Hut comes in. All of us tutors have gone through high school—we know what those years were like, even if it seems as though we’re too old to remember. The Study Hut is also a very community based organization, and the founders Rob and SP who grew up around Manhattan Beach, and many of tutors, know the greater Manhattan Beach area and its schools very well.

So Mira Costa high school students—let us help you get through these fruitful and challenging years. Study Hut has tutors proficient in everything from the mandatory mathematics of high school, to the more advanced AP courses of the sciences. Let us help you organize your planner, and make sure you’re armed with the best knowledge possible to do well in your classes and ace your tests.

High school is also the time for the SAT and ACT—those scary three lettered standardized tests which colleges and universities use as criteria for acceptance into their schools. At the Study Hut, we’ve got you covered. There are personalized SAT and ACT courses designed to teach you the fundamentals of test taking, so you know exactly what you’re going to get, and how to handle it during the test. Although challenging, there’s a method to these tests, and you too can learn to ace it.

So Mira Costa—come to the Study Hut… you’ll be happy you did.