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.

As the school year begins to draw to a close, students are hard-pressed to improve their grades. It’s certainly not too late to do so, but raising a grade significantly at this point is difficult and requires a lot of hard work. If students are committed to bucking down in their classes, dramatic improvement can be made in a short period of time. It’s crucial that students take thorough notes throughout the entire school year in order for them to effectively study for final exams. If notes have not been consistent during the year, a great way to review for finals is to go back through each of the earlier chapters in the textbook, making a brief outline for each one. Students need to balance the learning of new material in the last month or so of school with comprehensive reviews of the prior subjects.

One of the main subjects that poses a problem for students learning at the last minute is precalculus. When broken down into small doses, precalculus is somewhat palatable. A few formulas to memorize here and there don’t seem like too much to wrap your mind around. But when thrown into a cumulative final on all of the year’s work, a comprehensive understanding of the material is more important than rote memorization. At Study Hut, we teach students how to problem solve when presented with different types of exam questions. For example, trigonometric functions often overwhelm students—six trig functions, inverse trig functions, graphing trig functions, properties of trig functions. The list goes on and on… However, all trig functions can be related to the most important two: sine and cosine. By knowing the basic graphs and properties of sine and cosine, every student is capable of deriving all other trigonometric properties and identities.

Think about problem solving at a comprehensive level. By knowing the basics, each student can logically work his or her way through even the toughest of problems. Best of luck!

I’ve only been a tutor at Study Hut for two weeks, but I am most impressed with my students who are well-organized. What does a well-organized student do? They fill out their agendas with all their homework and upcoming tests/quizzes. They fully take advantage of their planners. They bring in all their books and homework worksheets to the tutoring session (those that do not have the correct materials, just end up wasting time by having to call someone to bring the book or having the tutor waste time figuring what the student has to do). The well-organized students are able to get more from their tutoring session because they have a plan for what to do before they even show up to study hut. They know what classes they have homework in and are able to assess their weakest subjects so that we can spend the session working on that subject.

One of my most organized students is Tim, a junior, from Mira Costa High. Tim mainly comes for help in Geometry and Chemistry. While he may not know how to do the problems at first glance, after an explanation of the concept behind the problems, he is able to work out similar problems by himself. One of the main reasons why Tim is able to do this is because he writes down all his work on paper. I constantly stress to my students to show all their work because if they get the wrong answer, they can go back and pinpoint exactly where they made a mistake. This enables the student to make a mental note of the mistake they made and not make it again in the future. Tim also comes to each session with an attack plan on what to do during the session and he always knows whether he has an upcoming quiz or test.

In all, to stay ahead of the game that is school, one needs to be organized by making full use of the planner and to show all relevant work when doing homework!