The holiday season is upon as at the Hut! The place is spiffed up with holiday decorations, holiday treats, and good cheer to be found everywhere! The kiddos are having to learn to balance finishing schoolwork and the prospect of getting a break from learning! It’s holiday-itis! We tutors are doing everything we can to keep our kids in the ‘school” frame of mind until the holidays. We wouldn’t want all that hard work to leak away in a haze of candy and indulgent feasts!
The Study Hut is head and shoulders above “regular” tutoring places, we match our tutors with students on a one-to-one basis with experts in each field. We partner our efforts with each student’s school website, planner, etc, to provide exactly what each student needs to succeed in school! We welcome students of all levels. We even offer tutoring over the holiday break! This is a phenomenal time for our kiddos to catch up if they’re behind, or even get ahead! The improvement in a student’s work is measureable; we can actually see our students improving from session to session. As a tutor, it is extremely rewarding to see a student’s grades improve, especially if they come to us with little understanding of the material and/or poor grades. I have personally found, as a tutor at the Study Hut, that a student is more willing to open up and be themselves if they feel comfortable around their tutors. This is why students often get the same tutor each time they come in, so that we may build rapport with our kiddos and let them feel comfortable asking for help.
I think it’s fair to say that everyone at the Hut, both learned and learner, are enjoying the spirit of the season! We all look forward to a well-deserved break, and hitting the books again after the New Year!
Winter Update
December 13th, 2011High school Costa focus
December 8th, 2011Mira Costa students oftentimes step in with these colossal texts, and they report that they do not understand anything from cover to cover. Study Hut understands that AP Biology is extremely difficult but the process of absorbing the information does not always have to be painful. Geometry is just a bunch of lines, trigonometry is sin, cos, and tan, and calculus is a stretch. HS students are generally good with simple memorization and arithmetic calculations, so what is preventing them from scoring well on exams? Students largely lack the skills to study, prioritize, and break down complex information into absorbable energy. Study Hut is a catalyst in that we assist in making things simple and easy to understand. Students know the material, they understand the general concepts, but the learning process stops at simple understanding. We assist students in achieving the next couple steps — we assist students in absorption, digestion, distribution, and finally, regurgitation and waste management. We use simple memorization to facilitate the absorption process, but when it comes down to digestion, it requires a bit of reverse engineering. We assist students in approaching the concepts through different perspectives — that is exactly what exams ask for — a different perspective. Continuing, distribution is achieved through using the information to bulldoze through the coursework, testing for weak points and patching up where patching is needed. Ultimately, the zenith of the learning process is regurgitation — Study Hut aims for this point in that students will only exceed the average academic expectations when they are able to do what we do — spit the information back out so that others can understand it! Waste management comes last. Mira Costa HS students always come in with glitches. We assist in flattening out the wrinkles in the information, fixing the glitches, making sure they understand the formula to the dot so that they will not use the wrong one on exams, checking they understand that DNA and RNA are not just different strands of nucleotides. Study Hut makes studying easy.
Happy Holidays from Adrian
December 7th, 2011With the fine aroma of pine needles filling the air of the Manhattan Beach Study Hut, and lights flooding the streets, the holiday season is quickly approaching. As the year 2011 ends, us at the Study Hut can’t help but to look back and year which saw so many fond memories. However as one year ends a new one begins, thus it is important that we all think about the potentials of the coming year.
Looking on to another round of 365 days holds many possibilities waiting to be fulfilled. Therefore it is important to make concrete goals for the coming future. These goals should be small and achievable goals which build upon each other for a common goal of improving one’s self. It is important to remember to make a manageable plan of attack for meeting these goals while focusing on one’s weaknesses, in order to increase the chances of accomplishing these goals and succeeding. Year after year New Year’s resolutions get dumped by the wayside as the year progresses because they are unrealistic and demand too much.
However December is not quite over and there is much to do in the mean time. Most importantly, besides continued work, we must remember the holiday season is also a time of relaxation, and peace. It is a time to get together with family and friends over a delicious dinner table and forming new bonds, while reinforcing those already present. So while the tutors of the Manhattan Beach Study Hut encourage you to prepare for the coming year, we also encourage you to enjoy what’s left of 2011. Happy holidays.
PVHS AVID 10 update
December 1st, 2011AVID 10,
Bagels tomorrow! Yay! Thank you bagel families!
Grade POs due. EC to write a letter to last guest speakers: Michelle and Laura.
Room 306 is ours thanks to Ms. Sheridan who wanted to keep the room but realized it was perfect for our AVID class and gave it up for us. A big thank you to Ms. Sheridan who comes back from maternity leave this coming Monday!
Thanks to all who RSVPed (Yes or No). I attended the AVID 12 dinner tonight and it was a great time. I doubly look forward to ours on Wednesday!
Tomorrow we will spend half the class on our essay. Tuesday will be the same and notes are due Tuesday as well.
We had a great lesson from Studyhut’s SP and Rob Stone on Wednesday where we learned that for difficult problems with “easy” answers, it’s a great opportunity to “work backwards” and plug in the answer choices into the problem to find your answer (starting with the middle number). Thanks Rob and SP! HW for practice on this lesson is out of the book and is due our next Wednesday A day in 2 weeks.
Wow! December already…
All the best to all you beautiful people
Why Do I Have to Know This?
December 1st, 2011I’ve been tutoring for a while now. Before coming to the Study Hut, I
worked as a private tutor and substitute teacher in New Jersey for
about 4 years. During that time, there was one question I was asked
over and over again. It had nothing to do with sines or cosines. It
had no relation to bicameral legislature. And it bared no resemblance
to anything in chemistry. The question was a simple one: WHY DO I HAVE
TO KNOW THIS?!
And parents, let’s be fair; we’ve ALL asked this in the past. We’ve
all experience the study session where we have to answer 14 questions
relating to alternate interior angles, and we couldn’t think of a
single instance when we’d use the information in real life. We were
usually given the same excuses as well:
-“Maybe you’ll have a job with a lot of math.”
-“You’ll need to know it to get into college.”
-“You need to know it because it’s ON THE TEST.”
-“Because I said so.”
All valid. All true. But none of these speak to the average Manhattan
Beach student. And, let’s face it, how often DO you use trigonometry
and chemistry in your real life? (Engineers and doctors, put your
hands down, I was being rhetorical.)
This is how I try to explain the value of education to my students:
When you go to the gym, you do pushups. Are you doing this because of
how often you push yourself up in real life? No. You do it because it
trains your body, and allows it to do other physical activities when
you need to. It makes your body strong. And to get strong, your body
needs to do a variety of exercises. Just doing pushups wont cut it.
It’s the same thing with your mind. You’re not going through Trig and
Chem and Bio and History because of how often you’ll use them in real
life. You’re taking these classes in order to TRAIN YOUR MIND HOW TO
THINK. You’re making your mind strong, so that, later in life, it will
be ready for when you really need it. By studying so many different
subjects, you’re practicing the fine arts of thinking analytically and
critically, which is beyond important in any career.
Plus, memorizing the state capitals is a great trick at parties.
SAT vs ACT – What’s best for you
November 30th, 2011For high school juniors and seniors (sometimes sophomores and younger) they will most likely be taking one or both of the standardized tests, the SAT or the ACT. But how is a confused high school student supposed to decide which one of these tests will work bests for him or her. Each test offers different benefits and pitfalls for each to decide which is better.
Normally the ACT questions tend to be more straightforward than those on the SAT. The ACT has a science connection and often tests more advanced math topics going up to trigonometry whereas the SAT only goes up to 2nd year of algebra. The SAT focuses much more on vocabulary and requires a written essay, whereas the ACT’s essay portion of the exam is optional and the score is not included in your composite score. The ACT also includes a science portion of the exam and the SAT does not have any science, only math, reading and writing. One final difference between the ACT and SAT is how the exams are broken up. The SAT is broken up to many more small sections, 10 to be exact and the ACT is only split into the four main sections math, science, english and reading.
Each test has it’s own distinct advantages and disadvantages for each individual student and the students must figure out which tests will be best for them. Sometimes it’s easy to decide which test to take, if the student completely hates science and wants nothing to do with it then the SAT is the choice and if the student is adverse to doing anything more than bubbling in scantrons then the ACT is the better choice. However if the student does not fall into one of these categories, the best way to determine which test is right for the individual is to actually take each one of the tests. Be it taking each individual test for real and getting your scores for both, or coming into the Study Hut and using any one of number of practice ACT and SAT test resources, as well as our fantastic tutors. The only way to truly find out what works for the student is to try out each test and see how you do.
For more information about our private ACT and SAT tutoring, contact us today!
Admissions into Four year Universities
November 19th, 2011Getting into colleges and universities is becoming more and more difficult nowadays. The mean accepted GPA, SAT/ACT scores, and the number of extra-curriculars expected are becoming more difficult every year. Although all these elements are critical in one’s application, another important but often forgotten aspect is the personal statement. Not only can the Study Hut help you with your GPA and standardized test scores, but we’re also prepared to help you write the best possible personal statement you can. We tutors have been in your shoes before, we’ve all gone to college, and some are also in the process of applying to graduate schools. Needless to say, we’ve all written personal statements in one form or another, and know what colleges and universities are looking for in their candidates.
However, coming to the Study Hut for help on your personal statement does not mean we are going to write it for you. Rather, we are going to guide you as to the rules and tactics of writing a good personal statement, and give you the tools to make the perfect personal statement for yourself. A good personal statement has multiple aspects to it. It is both professionally written, but also genuine and personable. You are telling the admissions committee what makes you YOU, and why they should want YOU to study at and represent their institution in the future. All this may seem like a tall order for a one or two page statement about yourself, but with the right guidance, it’s very possible to do. So feel free to stop by the Hut at any step in your process, from planning your essay, to a final review before you submit it.
