May 5th, 2015
Jacob comes in once a week for enrichment tutoring with his tutor Charlsey. Jacob picks up on most of the material he learns in class right away, but has trouble with second-guessing himself while doing his homework. He also gets very nervous while taking his tests. His test anxiety negatively impacts his scores on tests.
At Study Hut, he works on reviewing math concepts. Together, Charlsey and Jacob work on his homework. Charlsey makes sure that Jacob is doing the problems correctly. The reassurance that he knows what he is doing boosts Jacob’s confidence. Charlsey also sends him home with extra practice work to do between their sessions and his tests so that he does not forget any of the material they went over.
Together they also go over Jacob’s biology classwork. Sometimes his teacher does not clearly explain confusing topics, such as the difference between meiosis and mitosis. They practice drawing and labeling diagrams of different cell structures and complex processes like DNA replication and cellular respiration. Drawing out the diagrams rather than looking at them helps students remember content more vividly, due to their muscle memory working along with their regular memory. Writing out the processes in their own words also helps students understand confusing and complex processes better.
His weekly sessions at Study Hut have helped ease Jacob’s anxiety. He is no longer stressed when he goes into tests because he has practiced the problems so many times. He got a 4 out of 4 on his last common core standards test!
Posted in focusing, General, Learning, life skills, local tutoring, math |
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May 2nd, 2015
An agenda book is an important tool in keeping your student on top of assignments. Not only does keeping an agenda help manage assignments, it also helps students with time allotting skills and helping them plan out their study habits. However, simply having an agenda does not instantly give a student all these benefits. They must use it correctly.
First, your student should be using their agenda book every single day they have school. Every upcoming assignment, test, or project should be written down in their agenda book. When they get home at night or get to their tutor, they know exactly what they need to get done that evening. Checking with friends can take a long time, and sometimes friends have inaccurate information.
Being able to see their upcoming week will help students with planning ahead. They will not fall into the trap of studying for tests last minute or saving big projects until the night before. Planning ahead is a valuable life skill that students should develop sooner rather than later.
Assigning designated sections for each class makes a big difference in keeping organized. If your student simply jots down what problems are assigned but does not note the class those problems are for, things can get confusing the next day when they don’t remember which set is for Physics and which is for Calculus.
Keeping an agenda will help even the most disorganized student stay on track. You can help by asking to see their planner each day and making sure that they are writing in it.
Tags: high school, organization, study skills
Posted in focusing, General |
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April 25th, 2015
As junior year comes to a close, it is time to start thinking about colleges and where to apply. Summer is a great time to plan some college visits and start narrowing down your list of schools you would like to apply to. The college criteria differs for every student, but here is a basic list of things you should be taking into consideration.
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Location
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You are going to be spending a lot of time in this area for the next four years. So while having a beautiful campus is nice, having a great city is also incredibly important. Make sure you will be able to get around and have access to activities that you enjoy.
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Academics
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You are going to college to learn. Make sure the schools you are looking at offer a program for the degree you are interested in. There is no use finding your dream school and not being able to major in exactly what you want to do.
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Cost
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Cost is a factor for many people. What financial aid packages are available to you from each school? How much is the total cost of going there going to be? This includes tuition, books, room and board, and other expenses. Discuss this with your family to find a school that fits your financial needs.
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Student Activities
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Take a look at the students because these are the kinds of people you will be surrounded by. The clubs, professional societies, and other groups are going to be available to you when you go there, so make sure there is something that you are interested in!
Tags: college
Posted in College |
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April 20th, 2015
With the competition for college admissions getting more and more competitive by the year, high scores on the SAT and ACT standardized tests are becoming increasingly important. At Study Hut, we offer SAT and ACT small group classes that are limited to no more than ten students, as well as private one-on-one tutoring. For students who get easily distracted in a group environment or for those who just want extra practice, one-on-one tutoring is a great route.
Melanie came in once a week to work with her tutor Charlsey. She quickly realized that the time she was meeting was too late, and she was too tired to focus properly. She switched her time to earlier in the week with Laura. Laura and Melanie covered basic strategies for the critical reading, math, and writing sections, as well as the general structure for an SAT essay. She took a diagnostic test a few weeks into her test preparation package and she had already gone up one hundred points.
Allie worked with her tutor Charlsey to work on raising her SAT score. She originally was debating between the SAT and ACT and ended up settling on the SAT. She had good scores but wanted to work on fine tuning some of her weaker topics. She came in every week and did her online homework. She took regular diagnostics to see how her score was rising. She took the real SAT and saw her score on the math section improve by over one hundred points! She plans on taking another SAT after she completes her test preparation package so she can improve her scores further.
Tags: ACT, SAT, test prep
Posted in ACT, College, high school, SAT, SAT vs ACT |
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April 20th, 2015
Spring break is supposed to be a time for students to relax and enjoy a week or two off from the monotony and stress of school. Unfortunately, some teachers do not see it that way and choose to assign homework anyway. One student, Ken, came in for help on a monstrous essay that his teacher had assigned him over his spring break.
Not only was this paper assigned over spring break, but the prompt was difficult and vague. On top of that, Ken’s teacher told him that the grade for this paper would be put into the grade book forty times. This caused Ken a lot of stress. Ken and his tutors Charlsey and Laura brainstormed ideas for his thesis and concepts he could use for his supporting arguments. The group session was very helpful because the three were able to bounce ideas off each other. After Ken had a clear plan for his essay, he was able to draft an outline and have it looked over before he went home to find concrete details and develop his arguments.
After taking a few days to flesh out his essay, Ken brought it back to revise and fine tune it with his tutor Richard. They worked through the complicated topic to ensure that Ken did not have any logical fallacies in his arguments. Richard read through the essay to make sure that Ken did not make any grammatical mistakes. After hours slaving over his essay, Ken finally had a finished product he was very happy with, and could enjoy the rest of his now stress-free spring break.
Tags: essay tutoring, essays, writing
Posted in English |
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April 17th, 2015
Olivia has worked with Laura for years on all of her difficult assignments. From ambiguous essay topics and intense cram sessions, to capstone and marine biology vocabulary they had studied it all. When it came time to write her college application essays, Olivia knew that she wanted Laura to guide her through the stressful process.
Laura helped Olivia narrow down what schools she wanted to apply to from her very long list. Olivia would visit some of her choices over spring and winter breaks, long weekends, and any other time that she could. She always reported back what she thought of each school to Laura and together they kept track of where she would be sending her applications. They sorted all of the schools into Olivia’s safety schools, schools she would most likely get into, and her dream schools. Her number one choice was USC.
Olivia decided that she wanted to write her essay about her adopted brother and the impact he has had and continues to have on her life. Laura helped Olivia focus her essay on herself, and how her brother had helped her grow, instead of focusing too much on him. She also helped Olivia achieve the critical thinking and brainstorming she needed to discover what she really wanted to tell the schools about herself. At the end, Olivia had a clear idea of who she was, and how she wanted to portray herself to her schools.
Olivia has been hearing back from all of her schools, including her top choice USC. She got in to the highly competitive program to study marine science. Congratulations, Olivia!
Tags: college, college applications, college apps, college essays, writing college apps
Posted in College, College essays |
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April 17th, 2015
Mira began coming to Study Hut for Chemistry and Algebra 2 midway through her sophomore year. She had a decent handle on both classes, but the content was beginning to get much more challenging. She showed determination and found some extra help to make keeping her A that much easier. She worked on math and chemistry with her tutors Charlsey and Maher.
Maher and Mira worked together on her difficult chemistry homework. He taught her when to use different gas laws, and easy tricks to help her remember which was which. He also helped her through the tricky steps of finding the empirical formula for different types of chemical equations.
While Mira mostly got amazing grades in math, she bombed one of her tests on probability and permutations. It was difficult for her to determine when to use a permutation versus a combination. She was determined to ace her retake while learning her new material on sequences at the same time. She and Charlsey worked on memorizing the different sequence formulas and how to tell whether a sequence was geometric or arithmetic. Sequences were super easy for Mira, so they spent more time reviewing permutations, combinations, and other probability problems. They focused special attention on what words to look for in word problems that would signify whether Mira should use the formula for a permutation or combination. On top of that, she had to figure out when she would be dealing with repetition or not. The countless practice sheets and determination paid off, because Mira received a 95% on her make up probability test and a 97% on her sequences test!
Tags: algebra 2, Chemistry, Math tutoring, one-on-one tutoring
Posted in General, high school, local tutoring, math |
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March 6th, 2015
Hayley started coming to Study Hut her freshman year of high school. She came almost every day to work on all of her challenging classes with her tutors. From studying for insane math tests to acing AP English, Study Hut has always had Hayley’s back when it came to helping her get her achieve her best.
When it came time to start looking at colleges and filling out her college applications, Hayley knew exactly who she wanted to have help her along the way. Hayley worked on everything related to college with her tutor Laura. Laura had watched her grow through the years both academically and personally. She helped Hayley narrow down her list of schools to apply to so they were left with only the schools that met all of Hayley’s requirements. They sorted through safety schools, reaches, and Hayley’s top choice: San Diego State University.
Hayley and Laura spent a lot of time making sure that Hayley’s personal statement was perfect. Because they had worked together for so long, Hayley felt comfortable opening up to Laura about her ADD. Together they crafted a series of car analogies that related her experiences with ADD to her school work and other areas of her life. They brain stormed and remembered Hayley’s greatest academic accomplishments and personal triumphs for the other sections of her applications, and made sure not a single question was left unanswered. They patiently waited to hear back from schools. As acceptances rolled in Hayley kept checking for SDSU. They were delighted when they found out she was accepted!
Tags: college application essays, college applications, one on one, Tutoring
Posted in College, College Applications, College essays, graduation, high school, Senior Year |
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March 6th, 2015
Mike works with his student Jack on Calculus at Study Hut every week. Most of the time Jack already knows his material, and together they just work on reinforcing the concepts so that Jack will have a solid foundation for the new material he will be learning. Mike says that it is incredibly rewarding to work with Jack because Jack asks in-depth questions and wants to go beyond the content he has been learning in class. Jack asks about the real world applications of what he is learning and if there are different ways to do his problems.
Once they have gone through Jack’s homework for the night, they explore Calculus more in-depth. They try working backward from the end of the problem to the beginning. Mike and Jack try to find multiple different ways of deriving the same formula and approach it in their own way.
Mike also works with his student Ken on Algebra 2 and Chemistry. Ken has a busy schedule with commuting to school, playing on the tennis team, and keeping up in all of his challenging classes. Together he and Mike still have time to discuss the real-world applications of the math he is learning, and how it is important in every day life. Coming in to Study Hut a few times a week makes the excessive amounts of homework more manageable. Studying with his tutor and reviewing concepts he is confused about on his study guide also helps Ken prevent himself from getting too stressed out. He is able to do all his after school activities and have an awesome GPA.
Tags: Algebra 2 tutoring, calculus tutoring, one-on-one tutoring
Posted in Algebra 2, Calculus, high school |
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March 5th, 2015
Emily comes in to work on math every week at Study Hut with her tutors Charlsey and Doug. Emily struggled with her Functions, Trigonometry, and Statistics class first semester. First semester she only came into Study Hut the day before a big test. She would try to learn an entire chapter’s worth of material in just an hour. While coming to Study Hut helped Emily understand some concepts better, it just was not enough when she did not keep up regularly in the class.
Emily decided to change her habits this semester and now comes to Study Hut every week. She goes over her homework and her notes for the class with each of her tutors. They review and fill out Emily’s notes and spend extra time on any material that she did not fully understand during her teacher’s lecture. Then they go through and do Emily’s homework together. Her tutors explain any problems that are difficult or challenging and make sure that Emily understands the concept. Now, when test week rolls around, she can do the majority of the problems on her practice tests on her own.
Coming in for weekly recurring sessions has not only helped Emily get a better grasp on the material, but has also boosted her confidence. Now when she goes in to take her tests, she knows that she can solve every problem, instead of just hoping she remembers what she learned the day before. All the concepts make sense and she is so happy!
Tags: fts, math, one-on-one tutoring
Posted in high school |
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