What a wonderful year it was for the West Torrance High School Finals Cram Session in the library this year. Tension and angst run higher than usual amongst West Torrance High School students this week, predictably of course. The stress of Finals week finds a way to creep into almost every high school campus in California, and Torrance Unified School District students are not immune to the phenomenon. That is why Study Hut once again partnered with West Torrance High School over the weekend and sponsored a massive, two-day, Finals cram session. The event was a huge success, attracting over 200 students and more than 20 Study Hut tutors over the course of the two-day event. According to one Study Hut geometry tutor, JP Birk, “This was the most successful Finals cram session event that we have held at West to date. I have never seen such an eager group of students; these young men and women were prepared in advance with notes, previous tests and quizzes, and study guides.”
Finals tutoring at the West Torrance High School Finals Cram session is nothing new for Study Hut. We have sponsored and supported the event for over five years, providing study support twice each year as students gear up for their most heavily-weighted, comprehensive exams. Although tutoring is provided in all subject areas, the most popular, in-need subject areas are typically geometry, chemistry, biology, algebra, and Spanish.
This year, the biology tutoring table had the best energy, by far. Students were eagerly taking notes and asking questions about ecosystems, parts of the cell, and other foundational components of the study of life. Although biology is always a tough class, and students have always sought a tutor for the subject, the demand for biology tutoring has still been on the rise this year, so the idea that West Torrance students are mirroring that trend is no surprise. Regardless of the surge in biology tutoring interest, the Finals cram session still went off without a hitch, and many students got a huge advantage on this week’s exams.
El Segundo Finals Tutoring at its finest. Study Hut offers one-on-one tutoring to help you succeed on test day. Often times, your finals are worth 25% of your final grade. It is worth it to study ahead of time in order to prep for these big exams. If you are looking for El Segundo finals tutoring, you have come to right place. Our tutors specialize by subject and we are familiar with the expectations of your teachers.
Come to Study Hut El Segundo for top-notch service in order to make a plan and study your weakest chapters first!
Finals Survival Guide
Finals are coming! They will be here sooner than you think—thankfully, Study Hut El Segundo tutors know all the tricks to surviving these oh-so-important tests.
PLAN YOUR STUDY SCHEDULE
Got a half-hour break between class and volleyball? Read those chapters you’ve been sparknoting all semester.
TAKE NOTES ON YOUR NOTES
Don’t just read your notes. Write down lessons that were a little more difficult in your own words, make flashcards, and quiz yourself.
FORM A STUDY GROUP
Ask your teacher if you and a few classmates can use their classroom during lunch, before school, or after school once a week to go over lessons. If you guys get stuck, BOOM, ask your teacher right away.
USE A TUTOR
It’s far into the semester and you are still SO LOST. Don’t give up—get a tutor. A breakdown of foundational concepts can be the difference between passing and failing the exam.
SLEEP THE NIGHT BEFORE
This is not the time to cram in material. But you know this already, right?
If you have any specific questions or you’re eager to begin making a plan for finals, please email alex@studyhut.com or call 310-648-8526
El Segundo Finals Tutoring books up quickly so please call now to reserve your spot.
Newport Beach finals are coming, are you ready? Here at Study Hut Newport Beach, we are prepared to help students ace their exams and achieve their goals. With tutors coming from top colleges and graduate programs, we are prepared to help students in a large variety of subjects. Our tutors are not only experienced in multiple content areas, but are experts in study habits and test taking strategies as well. At Study Hut Newport Beach, we seek to create positive study habits that will follow students throughout their academic careers. As the new year begins and finals are approaching there is no better time to get started!
How do I get started? Give us a call or shoot us an email! We will pair you with a tutor that is an expert in the subject you’re looking for. We believe in providing students with a one-on-one service. This allows the tutors to target the student’s strengths and weaknesses and to focus on each student’s individual needs. Going into Newport Beach finals we want to ensure that each student gets the information and skills they need to succeed.
When should I get started? The sooner the better! Cramming for an exam is never a good idea. Students should be going into an exam prepared and confident. The sooner we start, the sooner we can fill any gaps and give students helpful strategies tailored to them. We see the best results with students who consistently come in week to week. Tutors are able to track their progress and get them ready for the test. As Newport Beach final get closer, our schedule tends to fill up, so call ahead!
So whether it’s physics, chemistry, math, or even Spanish, we are ready to help! Study Hut Newport has you covered for all of your tutoring needs. It’s time to buckle down and start studying.
Ok the weather is pretty nice…blue skies for days…Ahhhh. Winter Break! A time to relax, eat, hang out with family, and celebrate. You should definitely do all of those things… (here comes a but)…(drumroll please)…
BUT
You should ALSO use your break wisely! Open that backpack and do some studying over Winter Break. It’s been a long, hard semester, and you do not want to spoil all that you have put into it by slacking right before finals. With the biggest test of the semester right around the corner, many of you already have a study guide or an idea of what your final will look like. Use that!
You can start making flashcards for vocab. That’s something you can do with Mariah Carey belting out “All I Want for Christmas…is an A!” and it’s been proven that listening to music while studying can improve your performance on the test!
You should make a detailed outline with flow charts, timelines and pretty colors. This will refresh your memory of the topics and provide a beautiful study guide you can use once finals week arrives.
Grab your old tests or practice tests, and retake them, checking your answers as you go. This will help you decide where you need to allocate the most time for studying, and where you can skim a bit because you already have a good handle on the material.
DO NOT simply run your eyes over every single chapter in the book, or every single page of notes you’ve written. This is a waste of your time. Rereading is a passive activity, plus it is much too general. With so much material to cover, you are better off zeroing in on what’s important (hint: what’s on the study guide or what was on old tests). Have fun over break, but spending the entire two weeks binge-watching Parks and Rec for the 3rd time will come back to haunt you when finals week arrives! Put in a few hours over break and I promise you’ll thank yourself later!
Without fail, every semester there are students who do not think about or pay attention to their grades until one month before the semester is coming to an end. Whether this lack of attention is because they have more important obligations or simply do not care, the outcome is the same. The student has a grade that they absolutely do not want, and very minimal time or points to make it up. There are a few options to help you bring up your grade at the end of the semester.
The most important thing you can do is discuss your grade with your teacher. Did you simply not turn in a lot of assignments? Was there one chunk of content you just could not wrap your head around so your grades are low across all of those assignments? Have you been consistently scoring low and now need to hit a homerun on your final so you can bring your grade up a whole letter grade? Luckily, most of these things are an easy fix.
If you are sincere and have a genuine reason for why you have copious amounts of missing work, most teachers will let you turn it in for at least partial credit. Even partial points will help a lot if the missing assignments made a huge dent in your grade.
To do well on makeup tests and upcoming finals, make sure to come in and see a tutor to cover any topics you missed or did not understand completely. Especially if your entire grade relies on one or two tests there is no room to slip up. A tutor can help you figure out why you have been getting low grades all year if that has been the issue.
Richard and his student Jarred worked on studying for Jarred’s Psychology final exam together. Jarred is a very good student, but Psychology has a lot of complex terms that sound very similar. Some terms have definitions that are almost the same, but small nuances that can make the difference between a right and wrong answer on the essay portion of the test.
Richard wanted to help Jarred make sense of all the vocabulary and see how they were all related to one another. They went through each word and pieced together how it connected with some of the other vocabulary. Exercises like this made it easier for Jarred to remember each word and what it specifically meant. Richard would see if Jarred knew a word, asked him to explain it, and then use it in an example. Using the vocabulary words and concepts in examples reinforces the meanings and connections for students, and gives them a more comprehensive working definition of them word. For example, Jarred had to know that serotonin and dopamine could be affected by conditions such as Parkinson’s disease and depression. A lot of students have trouble differentiating between serotonin and dopamine because they have similar functions. Explaining how each one was affected by different conditions to Richard really helped Jarred distinguish between the two.
Jarred was a little worried about his final. However, after studying with Richard he felt confident and more prepared for his test. He was now armed with relative examples and real connections between the vocab to ace his final and destroy all the essay questions.
With finals right around the corner, a lot of different high schools are gearing up for their weekend finals cram sessions. Study Hut tutors will be helping out at Palos Verdes High School, Palos Verdes Peninsula High School, and West Torrance High School. The AVID classes are holding the sessions in the Palos Verdes Peninsula School District.
There are a lot of different ways that students can maximize their results during tutoring in large groups. First, find other students who are studying the same subject, or better yet are in the same class with the same teacher. Someone may have taken better notes, or have been there on a day when you were absent. Together your group can try and work your way through the more difficult concepts of the semester together. Go through the study guide for the final together. Make sure that the answers make sense to everyone. If you are having trouble with a concept, have a friend explain it to you. They may be able to make it make sense in a way that your teacher could not. Do the same for your friends. Teaching the material to your friends will also help you get a better grasp on the information. If any of you have contradicting answers to one of the questions, make sure you find out what is actually correct either by looking in your book, asking a tutor, or by searching on the internet. Afterward, review the information later in the day or the following day on your own to make sure that it all sank in.
With finals quickly approaching, it is time to start relearning or brushing up on any concepts that you may have missed and just skimmed over during the semester. A lot of students just never learn a concept if they do not get it because they have the mindset of “it will just be on this test and then I will never see it again”. This is a dangerous pattern of thinking because in most classes, the concepts build on top of one another and show up again on later tests and on the final. There is still plenty of time to relearn something that you missed earlier in the school year before finals.
If you did not understand the concept because of the way the teacher taught it, seek out a different way to learn it. Come in to Study Hut for one-on-one tutoring. If you are cramming the night before and do not have time for a tutoring appointment, try researching the concept. There are plenty of free online resources that are solely for teaching, such as Khan Academy. Remember, these are not as good as someone who knows the material walking you through it, but they definitely come in handy in a pinch.
While trying to learn a concept, it is important to practice practice practice. Do practice problems. Try different types of problems. Fill out worksheets. Anything you can do to engage with the content and solidify the concept in your head will benefit you in the long run.
Once you think you have mastered it, try teaching it to someone else. Explaining a difficult concept to someone will help you learn it better.
There is no one size fits all formula for studying for finals. There are definitely a few tricks that are universal in helping you maximize the time and effort you put in.
First things first, make sure that you study in an environment where you will not be easily distracted. Places like your bedroom, your friend’s house or in the living room with the television on are all riddled with distractions that will quickly get you off track. Pick somewhere that you know you will focus, whether it is the library, a coffee shop, or a quiet room in your house.
To make the most out of the time you put in studying, make sure that you have a study plan. This should include which topics you are having the most trouble with, any material from earlier in the semester that will be on the test, and definitely any questions that the teacher specifically mentioned will be on the final.
Pay attention in class leading up to the final. Your teacher will usually drop hints and be very specific about what will be on your upcoming test. Many teachers like to take questions directly out of notes that they have gone over in class.
Do not save all of your studying for the night before the final. Numerous studies have shown that cramming does not do you any good, and pulling an all-nighter will negatively impact your ability to remember info as well as your performance on the test.
Do not forget to take care of yourself during all the stress of finals. A well-rested and happy student is a productive student!
With summer underway and the Independence Day holiday weekend behind us, our enrichment programs at Study Hut are in full force, and learning is back on the agenda.
Tonight we begin our ACT small-group course, which runs Monday and Wednesday evenings for the remainder of summer. Our SAT small-group course also begins tomorrow evening, and runs through the rest of summer on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Students are excited to learn concepts that they either missed in high school or have not yet learned, and they are even more eager to go over their practice tests and learn time management and question prioritization strategies for both the ACT and SAT. Students in previous classes at Study Hut Tutoring have learned all about the tremendous benefits of having an ACT tutor or an SAT tutor in their corner.
Whether a student needs help with SAT math, critical reading, writing, or some combination of these, having a top Study Hut tutor has shown to make a huge difference in students’ scores. Our small group ACT and SAT classes have helped to earn students an average of over 200 points of improvement from their original scores, and many students improve 300 or more points.
At the Hut, we strongly suggest making a game-plan early so as to ensure that your son or daughter has the maximum amount of time to make the gains that he or she desires. The test preparation process is, after all, about opening as many doors as possible, both for college and for opportunities beyond.
If your son or daughter has not yet taken a practice SAT or ACT, now is the time to see where you stand. We offer free full-length SAT and ACT diagnostic tests, and we also provide free consultations to parents and students after the test so that you can fully understand your results. Please email info@studyhut.com today to sign up at any of our beach-front locations.
