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 we all know, part of being a student is being able to compose your thoughts into persuasive essays. Writing can be tricky for many students, but following a few simple guidelines can help you achieve a good grade and a solid argument.
As a general rule of thumb, the first step to writing should always be brainstorming. Generally, we are taught that brainstorming should be done on paper during quiet study hours. This writer disagrees: brainstorming is best done as a team effort! Find someone who will listen to you rant tirelessly about your writing topic. You may encounter some opposition here, but eventually you are bound to find someone who is as fired up about animal cruelty or child labor as you are (or need to seem to be for your essay!). Try to get enthusiastic about your writing assignment: passion always makes for a more persuasive argument.
Step two has a bit of grey area: some teachers will tell you that an outline is a must, but for some writers, a free-flowing first draft can be just the ticket to kick-start your writing. For outline writers, consider this paragraph steps two and three. If you prefer beginning with an outline, try to be as skeletal as possible about it. If it should happen that you are the type of student who likes to dive right in, go for it! Whatever pops into your head should end up on the paper.
The next two steps are versions of the same concept: editing. Read over your writing or hand it over to a friend for evaluation. Edit, cut, delete, and reword. Refine your ideas, first into a second rough draft, and then into a final draft. By the time your essay reaches your final draft, it should be clear, concise, and persuasive. Your writing should convince your teacher to petition for an extra month of summer vacation or that Harry Potter really is the greatest book ever written. Who knows, you may just end up with enough time to go to Mexico this September!

Of all of the summers I have been tutoring, this year’s crop is by far my most energetic, enthusiastic, and eager to learn and get ahead for next year.

While there are always those students that need to play a little catch up and fill in some of the holes that were created due to poor teaching or a lack of attention during school last year, this year, more than ever, I have been tutoring students who just want to get ahead. Even cooler is that most of these students are self-driven, meaning that they are signing up themselves and getting appointments adjusted on their own, rather than having mom force them to come in for some summer enrichment.

The result is that these students are getting far more out of each session than the average student. While some of these young achievers come here for tutoring from West Los Angeles schools like St. Bernard’s, Corpus Christi, Loyola High School, Notre Dame Academy, and Westchester Lutheran, more of our summer tutoring students are from El Segundo High School and El Segundo Middle School.

We have been tutoring El Segundo students in all sorts of subjects, but I have been doing mostly math tutoring, critical reading tutoring, and writing tutoring. It is definitely going to pay off for these guys come Fall.