Junior year is a very important year for any high school student. They learn to drive and start venturing out into the world. Academically, it is probably the most difficult of their high school careers. It is the time where they need to start seriously thinking about their future college plans. This means more than researching potential schools. The SAT and ACT are the tests that play an integral role in the college application process. What many people don’t know is that they should actually be preparing for these tests in their junior year. While they need their final SAT and ACT scores until their senior years, their junior years are the most important for actually preparing for outstanding performance. There are other benefits to early SAT and ACT preparation, including improved performance in the reading comprehension and writing and exciting scholarship opportunities.
It is common knowledge these days that the SAT and ACT are very important for getting into a good college. It is also true that college entrance has become very competitive. Students need an edge to get into their schools of choice. This can come in the form of early SAT and ACT preparation. The earlier a student starts preparing for the SAT and ACT, the more time they have to improve their scores.
As they prepare for the SAT and ACT, parents might see an unintentional bump in their kids’ English or math grades. It may come as a surprise to some that material covered on the SAT and ACT is not mutually exclusive with high school curriculum. The preparation for the SAT and ACT can also function to improve and reinforce math, writing, and reading comprehension skills.
The PSAT is administered to students in the fall of their junior year. This is a great way for students to be introduced to the style of the SAT. However, there is also the possibility of an extra bonus of receiving a National Merit Scholarship. These are rewarded to the highest performing students on the PSAT. Students who have had previous SAT and ACT preparation have a big advantage over those who have not. As a general rule of thumb, it is critically important to start preparing your child for the SAT or the ACT as early as possible, particularly in the beginning of their junior year!
The overall majority of high school students, if not all, have the ultimate goal to complete high school and move onto the bigger world of colleges and universities. Now we are in the major season of application process with students taking final SATs, narrowing down schools and writing entrance essays. With so many things that go into getting into college, choosing a school out of the over 2,000 universities in America and almost 4,700 universities worldwide, the daunting and often times confusing application process and trying to find scholarships, many students often end up rushing through applications at the last minute or not even going through the effort. However, it does not need to be that way – with the proper preparation and effort, the process can be a breeze!
I recommend having a student start the application process around the summer before their senior year in high school. Generally the student has lots of free time to surf the internet and read through lots of information about different school, which is the first and most important step in the process: deciding which schools to apply to out of the thousands to choose from. The best way to do this is scour the internet for information, visit the campus and talk to friends and relatives that have attended the schools they are interested in. After this preliminary survey, try and narrow the potential schools to a list of 25-30, then go into a full depth research of those schools and start eliminating the ones that fall out of favor. From this new research, try and get to between 10-20 schools. Then you will want to visit these schools to narrow it down to your final 7-12 schools to actually send applications to.
The next step after choosing the schools is to actually apply! This process may seem daunting as almost every school has a different application process and requirements. The solution to this should have come from the earlier research done from choosing which schools to apply to: Application deadline, online application process, essay and letters of recommendation requirements.
The final step after applying to these schools is hopefully finding some free money to pay for the schools since we could all use some free money. Often times high schools have school programs or scholarship binders to send to local businesses, but there are countless scholarships for almost anything and everything you can think of, and all this requires is more research.
However, if after all of this you still have no clue – never fear! All of us at the Study Hut have gone through the process of applying ourselves, and have helped many other students get into their dream school. We offer a comprehensive College Application program to help with every application need, be it writing personal statements, getting scholarships, or even just filling out the applications. Time is running out – many deadlines are in November and December of this year, so let’s get a move on!
Here at The Study Hut sometimes saying goodbye is a happy occasion. As the summer is coming to an end so we say goodbye to a few of our tutors. Not to worry! Their departure is not due to sub-par performance or conflicts between other tutors, but because they are once again joining the ranks of US college students or are exploring the world in hopes of expanding human knowledge.
We are happy to see one tutor off to Columbia University this fall. Jenna who has worked with us this last year came to us already with some teaching experience. She had taught and substituted for a few of the lower elementary grades after finishing school. Now she is going for her Masters degree in education. We are always happy people using their skills to teach other and help others.
Another tutor will also be leaving not just us, the whole United States. Jenny, after a few years helping kids in our Redondo office, is packing up and leaving for Australia. A marine-bio major, Jenny spent time studying sharks while in school. Now she plans on continuing that hobby/love. She will be camping out on the remote coast of Australia tracking, recording, and studying the local shark behavior. After a few months she will then be attending graduate school in Australia.
We wish Jenna and Jenny the best of luck on their new adventures.
Study Hut, coming up on it’s sixth birthday in December has come a long way. Not only have we expanded in the South Bay, but we are now in Newport Beach! By nature, you can only imagine the tutor rivalry that has spurred out from such expansion. The biggest rivalries are between the Manhattan Beach Study Hut, which we tutors like to call “Hut 1 or The Mother Hut”, and the Redondo Beach Study Hut located in the Redondo Beach Riviera Village, which we call, “Hut 2” (take note that no other cool name has been associated with this location). Hence, I have decided to write this blog on the reasons why Hut 1 is inherently better and completely dominates Hut 2.
1. Hut one is bigger and caters to more students. The Hut is always bustling with tons of kids ranging from kindergarten to adults. We tutor the young ones in subjects such as reading and writing, high school kids come in for SATs and whatever other homework they need help with, and we have the occasional adult coming in to learn Spanish, or English for that matter!
2. Our tutors dominate! We can tutor all subjects. Whatever subject you need to be tutored in, we can do it. Even Chinese!!!!
3. We are much facier. We are open seven days a week during the school year! No matter what kind of a bind you are in, we are here for ya! Scheduling around sports proves to be no match for us. Come in on a Saturday or Sunday and knock out your school work before the week begins to get a head start.
Or newly renovated Underground is inundated with new and exciting under the sea decor.
4. We have a self built lifeguard chair. Built just for the manager, Samantha, we dominate the seating arrangements category!
5. Even though they seem to be cool over there they are merely an image of a younger brother stealing the appearance of his older brother so he can play off as “cool” in front of his friends.
6. It is not rare to find the owner Rob BBQing in the parking lot for all of the employees. We all know the way to a tutors’ heart is through their stomach… or their calculator.
All in all, both Huts are great. They both have amazingly qualified tutors with open arms ready to help each and every student that walks in the door. However, it wouldn’t be The Hut if there wasn’t a little friendly rivalry. We like to keep ourselves entertained around here 😉
As a kid, one of my favorite times of the year was when my parents would fork out money for me to go back to school shopping. I would go with my mom to pick out the newest styles. Requirements were new shoes, a new backpack, and at least three new outfits, one for each day of the first week of school. My brother and I would always want to wear our new shoes right away, but were forced to wait until the first day of school.
Along with the back to school shopping came orientation. Mira Costa has their orientation this week as well as Manhattan Beach Middle School. This was always exciting because the students got to see which teachers they had, and also,more importantly, which friends made it in the same class.
Now that I am no longer in school I see more of an importance on the preparation academically rather than the outfits and classes. Students are starting to trickle into The Manhattan Beach Study Hut to get their mind in gear and ready for the whirl wind to begin. Most students need refreshers on math and Spanish. It is extremely important for the seventh graders to come in and review their foreign language. Spanish, French, Latin, and even Chinese are subjects the middle school offers. These are such new topics to the students that they often forget how to conjugate a verb. However, after a simple refresher they are ready for the school year. Moral of the story, don’t forget about tutoring when you are shopping for back to school. The Hut is open for appointments!
As young students, everything seems prescribed and planned out all the way through high school. However, as soon as students hit senior year, everything changes; all the sudden they have to figure out where to go the following year and the mysteries of how to get there. Applying to colleges can be a very scary task and often students may not even know where to begin. With a little guidance, though, the application process can be smooth and painless. For most students in California, the Cal State or the UC schools are a popular option. Most students are able to find at least a few state-run colleges that suit their goals and will offer them a top-tier education. Of course, choosing colleges to apply to is the first step. Once that part is done, the important part commences. Fortunately, both systems of colleges use the Common Application, which is quite simple and straightforward. With the help of a tutor, students can perfect their application essay and personal statement, as well as properly organize their applications to highlight all of their strengths. With a little preparation, careful writing, and timely organization, the college application process can successfully position students to go on to the school of their choice.
At the Study Hut, we offer a specialized program to help students perfect their college applications. From the basic beginning steps to helping students pick the qualities they most want to highlight and the achievements they should recognize, our tutors understand the college application process inside and out. We offer packages tailored to each student’s needs. Students can rest assured that we will help them stand out and look as exceptional as they possibly can, and that we will aid in making this as easy of a transition as possible.
Well, this is it, summer is almost over! It’s time to set those alarm clocks, get your notebooks ready, and get back in to the swing of the school year. Here at the Hut we are preparing for an influx of students who need a little extra help during the school year. For high school students, we are offering an SAT prep course as well as free diagnostic tests to get ready for this all-important testing season! To get the process started, just sign up for one of our “diags”, we’ll score it and schedule a meeting to go over the results and discuss college and training options. The class is 7 weeks long, and meets from 9/18 until 11/1. We cap it at a maximum of ten students for more student/teacher contact, and it will meet Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7-9 pm. This means that each student will get 28 hours of extra preparation! The total cost of the course is $895, but if you sign up by 8/31, we will discount the price by $100. That means it will only be $795 for 28 hours of class! We will also be offering diagnostic tests on four Saturdays: 9/8, 9/29, 10/13, and 10/27 at 8 am. These tests will give us an initial score to improve upon, and track the progress each student makes. It will also give the students a good sense of the timing of the test, and come test day, minimize their anxiety. Let us give you a helping hand in tackling this important test!
This summer I have been tutoring a lovely young girl named Hailey. She is the cutest little thing ever! Going into first grade her mom, a new mom to The Hut, called to see if she could get some reading help for her daughter. She explained that Hailey was not behind in her reading, but at the same time wasn’t in the upper level reading group. I explained how I am a credentialed teacher and used to teach 1st grade. Her mom heard what I had to say and got her into the Manhattan Beach Study Hut twice a week.
The first day I worked with Hailey I fell in love. She was shy at first, but that was not stopping her improvement in reading. Shen she came in at the beginning of the summer she had some trouble with even short vowel sounds. Each day we would go over a new sound and test her phonemic awareness, eventually getting into the more complex long vowel sounds. We then read a book together, followed by some writing, and then play sight words bingo. Of course we switch it up every now and then, but she tends to do really well with the structure.
This week we tried a book that she had tried to read in Kindergarden, but it was too hard for her. That book was the infamous Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss. After about the 20th page she looks at me and goes, “wow, this book is pretty easy!” with the biggest smile on her face. My heart melted. She took the book home to read to her parents. They emailed me the next day saying they could not be happier.
Hailey is now reading at the same rate as a first grader at the end of their year. She has shown an incredible amount of improvement. Most importantly, she LOVES coming in here! I am so proud of her progress, motivation, and preparedness for the first grade!
It’s summer time! The much anticipated vacation time, where school becomes a distant memory, and the beach and the sun the relevant priority! While vacation time is extremely important in rejuvenating the academic soul, a total abandonment of study and study skill practice can prove harmful when the first day of school arrives. Over the summer, it is highly recommended that a basic study routine be established to keep up the academic brain. If you know you have a difficult subject encroaching the following school year such as chemistry or physics, setting a designated time aside each day to familiarize yourself with the content before class actually begins can give you a head start when school begins. Here at Study Hut we can help you maintain and continue developing your study skills through individual one on one sessions where one of our expert tutors can help design an introductory approach to any academic subject that will be taken the following school year. Summer time is also an excellent time to brush up on literacy skills, especially for those in the younger academic grades. Regular scheduled reading, as well as vocabulary cards, created to memorize and understand newly introduced Summer relaxation is important in maintaining a healthy balance in the pursuit of rigorous academic endeavors, however, it’s important to always keep the study mindset sharp!
Summer is halfway through, has your brain turned to mush? Are you forgetting how to
do basic math? This is normal when you aren’t using your brain like you do during the
school year. Just like any other muscle, your brain needs regular exercise to stay fit!
While taking a rest once in a while to recharge is important, it’s also important to
keep your mental fitness during the summer so you are ready to tackle school come
September. A great way to do this is to work on subjects you struggled with in the
previous year to stay caught up, or start learning material in advance so you don’t feel like
you’ve been thrown in the deep end of the pool once school starts up again.
While things are quieter at the Study Hut during the summer, we still have great tutors
here ready to help out with any and all subjects you may need help with this summer.
Math tripping you up? Spanish giving you dolor de cabeza? Chemistry confusing you?
Think of the Study Hut as summer camp for your brain!
