Chemistry can be very difficult. Students have so many things to memorize: rules for naming compounds, charges for different elements on the periodic table, whether or not a solute and solvent will form a precipitate. All this information can quickly become overwhelming for students, especially as the year progresses and concepts build upon one another. It is helpful for students to go over chemistry outside of class with a tutor to review concepts the teacher may not have explained thoroughly enough.
Chemistry tutoring is especially helpful when covering more difficult and complex topics. Jason worked with his student, who had fallen behind in chemistry class and was struggling to catch up. They started with the basics: families in the periodic table, elemental charges, ionic vs. covalent bonds. These building blocks helped the student begin to understand the higher-level concepts. It was no longer a mystery why certain compounds formed and other elements could not combine, or why an anion was formed instead of a cation. Now that what elements came together to form compounds was no longer a mystery, it was time to move on to nomenclature. Together, Jason and his student went through all the rules for naming different kinds of compounds. There are different rules for ionic and covalent compounds. They also reviewed how to tell which version of certain metals formed, and how to tell when to use an –ic or –ous ending. All the extra review really helped and Jason’s student was able to bring his grade up twenty percent!
Cooper started coming a few weeks ago to work on his general study skills. He did well in class last semester, but his grades were beginning to slip this semester due to a lack of interest and effort. He worked on study skills and social studies with his tutor Sara.
Sara worked with Cooper on pre- and post-reading strategies to help his retention. A big factor in helping him remember key terms was folding his paper in half at the beginning of his lesson. He wrote key terms on the left side and then their definitions and any other relevant information on the right side. He could easily hide either side and quiz himself on the topics. After this, he would put the large concepts within the section into a concept map. Sara would have him explain to her why each bubble was connected and how they related. At the end of a chapter, Sara would also have him summarize and compare the different time periods so he would not get similar periods confused. He would also go over what the key accomplishments in each time period were, why they were important, and how they came about.
After working together for two weeks, Cooper told Sara that he had gotten a one hundred percent on his most recent quiz! He thought the quiz was only going to cover the most recent lesson, but it was actually on the entire time period. All the ways he had been studying with Sara helped him remember all the important information that he needed to succeed!
Many students come in to Study Hut for regular, weekly appointments. Some students come one day, others two days, and a few students come five days a week! Seeing a tutor regularly is one of the best ways to keep on top of and stay ahead in challenging courses. Students can work on one subject or multiple subjects with their tutors. Every session can be tailored to meet individual student needs. Having these regular appointments with the same tutors helps students stay organized with their classes, even when they have many of other extracurricular activities outside of school.
One Study Hut regular, Grace, comes in for tutoring twice a week with her tutor Charlsey. They work on all of Grace’s classes, but mostly focus on math, science, and history. Grace brought her grade up in math, and now understands the concepts. Her teacher was not explaining the material very thoroughly, so she worked with Charlsey on each of her homework problems to make sure she was getting them right. Grace also gets a lot of homework for her history class. After she finishes her math, she studies for her tests and works on her homework. Grace and Charlsey go over key terms and work on concept maps. Concept maps help students remember the material by linking key terms to other events that they are learning about. This helps them remember the information in context and strengthens their knowledge on the subject. For the first time since starting middle school, Grace received all A’s on her progress report!
Students can see a lot of benefit from getting tutoring for their foreign language classes. While the material may seem simple in class, retaining the information is the challenging part. This is especially true once students get to the second, third, and even fourth years of their language. Seeing a tutor for their foreign language is beneficial for may reasons.
Because they are with a tutor, the student will get more one-on-one time than they would with a teacher. A tutor can make sure the student is working on their pronunciation correctly, getting their accents right, and using the appropriate tenses. It is hard for a student to get the one-on-one attention they need in a class with thirty other kids who are all learning the same language. They may not know they are doing something wrong until they lose points on their test.
Practice conversation with a tutor will be much more helpful than the conversation practice they get in the classroom. Sometimes students may be paired up with students who cannot even make it through a sentence properly, or take a long time to even think of a response. Having conversations with someone who actually knows the language will help your student conjugate quickly and correctly, and be able to quickly form sentences out of their ideas.
A tutor will be able to find a way to explain tenses to your student that actually makes sense to him or her. Often times teachers explain the concept thoroughly, but it just doesn’t click with a lot of students.
The extra practice will help your student’s memory stay fresh. They will be able to distinguish between which words have masculine and which words have feminine articles, and irregular verbs will hardly present a challenge.
Britt comes in for tutoring at Study Hut once a week. She works on Algebra 2 with her tutor, Chris. Britt has excellent grades in all of her classes, but sometimes needs help working through the more difficult problem sets that her teacher assigns.
The graphs of conic sections and their transformations were challenging. It was hard to remember what the parent function looked like, and how each number in different spots could transform the graph. Chris and Britt worked on making parent function flashcards. They made sure to include how to find the vertex, directrix, focii, radius, and any axes the graph might have. Then, they went through many practice problems. Chris made Britt do problems until she was able to solve them quickly and correctly. Comparing her graphs to the graphs of the parent function also helped Britt gain a better understanding of how each transformation affected the graph’s shape and size.
Britt got a ninety-two percent on her Algebra II exam. She was selected by her high school to compete in a math competition against students from other high schools. She was given a set of problems and had a limited time to complete them. She wanted to prepare because some of the practice problems dealt with math she had never even seen before. She learned some concepts in Pre-calculus and Calculus so that she would be able to compete as best she could against her older peers. We cannot wait to hear what she placed in the competition!
George comes into Study Hut every week to work with his tutor Allie. Allie has been George’s tutor since he began coming to Study Hut. This year George made the tricky transition from middle school to high school. With Allie’s help, keeping his good grades was a breeze. She taught him how to balance all the work that came with his new course load.
Allie and George mostly worked on Geometry and English. Like most students, George was having difficulty grasping the concept of graphing. Plotting the points on and x and y graph was easy enough, but learning all the different forms of equations and finding the x and y intercepts were hard. Allie explained the difference between point-slope form and slope-intercept form. Point-intercept form is useful when you are only given two points on the line and no other information. However, slope-intercept form is more useful. You can immediately find the slope of the line and the y-intercept from a line’s equation that is written in slope-intercept form. Allie also showed George how to find the x-intercept of a line. To find the x-intercepts, you plug in zero for y and then solve the equation for x.
Allie also helped George develop his essay writing. She taught him the proper structure for a five-paragraph essay, as well as ways to create a strong thesis statement. They also worked on creating smoother transitions and engaging commentary for his concrete details. George did amazing and received all A’s and one B his first semester.
Wyatt began coming to Study Hut halfway through eighth grade. He had an essay to work on so he worked with Tori. She taught him the general structure of a five paragraph essay. Wyatt’s mom e-mailed Study Hut the next day, saying that Wyatt felt “rejuvenated and inspired” after his session with Tori, so he started coming to Study Hut once or twice a week.
Tori helped him develop his critical thinking and writing skills for high school. She also helped him work on his application essays for St. John Bosco High School. Wyatt knew this school had an amazing reputation in regards to sports and he had his eyes set on the prize. He started his freshman year in the Fall of 2013 and has earned his spot on the honor roll every semester. He was at the top of his English class thanks to all the skills he worked on with Tori, and he always felt prepared for all of his assignments. His teacher was constantly impressed with his work.
Now he works on all of his subjects at Study Hut. He is has an incredibly busy schedule. He commutes to school every morning, and has training for football or basketball year-round. Wyatt recently got his first offer to play football in college and Tori could not be more proud. She said. “I often feel overwhelmed in my own life with school, work, and student teaching, but Wyatt’s commitment to doing what it takes to achieve his dreams truly inspires me to do what it takes to achieve mine. I could not be more excited for what the future has in store for him.”
Online classes can be difficult to keep up with. Students can go to class when they want, and skip a day or two without any tangible repercussions. Lack of face-to-face communication with a teacher can be discouraging when topics do not make sense. Many online schools also have confusing and frustrating homework submission guidelines and processes. All these factors lead many students to put off online classes until the last possible moment at the end of the semester.
Connor came in over summer to work with his tutor, Laura, on his online United States History class. The long blocks of text assigned for reading every night were dry, and hard to get through. Laura was working on getting her teaching credential to become a history teacher, so making history exciting was an easy task for her. She explained the importance of the events that Connor had to learn about and their lasting effects on society today. Turning history into something relevant instead of some distant story that happened a long time ago made the material interesting again and much easier to work with.
Being able to tie together the past and present made Connor’s essays a breeze. Laura helped him research his topics. They then turned that research into pertinent examples that helped support his thesis. Laura’s retellings of history also helped Connor to answer and respond to other students in all of his discussion board assignments for each unit. With all of Laura’s help Connor was able to complete all of his assignments and finish his online class on time!
Bryce began coming to Study Hut because he was having trouble in his Algebra 1 class. He understood basic concepts, but was having trouble applying what he learned to homework problems. This was translating into grades he was unhappy with on his tests.
He began coming to Study Hut twice a week to work with his tutor, Charlsey, on his Algebra 1 homework. He had been having a lot of trouble solving for multi-variable systems of equations. His teacher had not explained the topic very well. The practice problems that were assigned for homework did not review or explain any of the new material. Bryce quickly became frustrated because simply reading the book did not explain solving systems clearly enough.
Charlsey went through the different ways of solving systems with Bryce. First, she explained substitution. With substitution, you solve for one variable in terms of the other variable that you are solving for and then plug that back in to your second equation. Then you are left with one variable and a simple algebraic equation to solve. Bryce hated substitution though, so they went over elimination. In elimination you use multiplication or division to make the amounts of one variable equivalent in the two equations. Then you either add or subtract your equations depending on the sign, and are left with one variable to solve for. Then you use simple algebra to solve.
Charlsey sent Bryce home with extra problems to work on. When he returned for his next tutoring session, he understood how to solve systems and was confident with the material.
Study Hut offers SAT 1-on-1 classes. If your student learns better in a group setting, then the class is a great choice. Ten is the maximum number of students we allow to be enrolled in the class at a time, so group sizes are small, and students can still get help if they get stuck on a concept. The class is seven weeks and meets twice a week for two hours.
One student, Erica, has already seen her score improve almost three hundred points since her first diagnostic practice test. The strategies taught in the class kept her from making silly mistakes that she had made before on previous tests. She also had a better understanding of which questions she should skip, whereas before she would go ahead and fill in an answer for every question.
Going into the test with knowledge of the strategies and the SAT layout decoded boosts confidence and helps to put even the most anxious test takers at ease. After the 1-on-1 class, our students walk into the SAT with confidence and the skills to ace it, and walk out with spectacular scores!
