Come down to the Study Hut in Redondo Beach, where we arm students like you from all over the South Bay with strategies to excel on every section of the test. We understand that taking the ACT coincides with a very crucial time in students’ lives: when you decide where you want to go to college. On top of making sure that your grades and applications are in order, you also have to worry about preparing for a four-hour long test designed to evaluate almost everything you’ve learned in high school. It’s enough to make anyone stressed out. But that’s okay. Even the best students aren’t always the best test-takers, so don’t worry; you’re not alone if you think you need help.
ACT at the Redondo Beach Hut
At the Hut we employ graduates from renowned universities, including UC Berkeley, UC Santa Barbara, UC Irvine, and Cal Poly SLO to equip you with the leading ACT test-taking skills. So, when the time comes to take the test, you will not only be able to complete it efficiently, you’ll be able to do so confidently.
Because we work with students from a diverse pool of high schools — Palos Verdes, Peninsula, South Torrance, Redondo Union, Loyola and others — we have plenty of experience adapting these test-taking strategies to best fit your specific needs. No matter what your subject background or your skill level, we are ready to help you.
So how does this work? First, we set you up with a free and brief consultation where we determine the ACT prep course that’s right for you. Our packages range from 12 to 16 to 20 sessions total, with each session lasting two hours. After we set up the course that best suits your schedule and abilities, you start meeting with your tutor! Together we’ll help you dissect complex reading passages, simplify the steps you take to answer questions correctly, and prepare you to make more educated guesses.
Over the years, the Hut has witnessed so many of its students exceed their expectations on the ACT, and we would love to catalyze your success too.
Ready to give this a shot? Either fill out the contact form on this page or give us a ring at (310)540-5888. We’re looking forward to gearing you up!
It has been yet another successful year at the Study Hut in Redondo Beach. We saw improved grades, great SAT and ACT scores, and admissions to awesome colleges all over the US. From the schools in Palos Verdes (PVHS and Peninsula), to RUHSD, and all the Torrance schools in between (South and West mostly), all our beloved Hut kiddos have truly set the bar in the South Bay.
For instance, Darrian went from getting D’s in her freshman year, to getting B’s this year after getting routine subject tutoring. Thomas was able to raise his worst subject, Spanish, from an F to a B! We were also ecstatic to see Austin raise all of his grades to A’s and B’s this year with tutoring twice a week after getting straight C’s last year. Austin’s mother has told us that her relationship with Austin has improved dramatically since they no longer have fights over his grades anymore! Connor stunned his mom and brought his tutor to tears of joy when he earned straight A’s both semesters of his junior year after receiving straight C’s during his Freshman and Sophomore years.
Many of our students demonstrated exceptional improvement on their SAT and ACT scores. Connor raised his ACT score from a 20 to a 29 in just three months after coming in for ACT tutoring twice a week. Sophia juggled her hectic life of AP classes, club soccer, and numerous school clubs by coming in once a week for four months for ACT tutoring. Sophia raised her score from a 29 to a 35, which secured her early admission to one of the most prestigious academic institutions in Massachusetts, Wellesley College. Shivani not only scored an outstanding 2300 on her SAT, but used test preparation at Study Hut to ace her SAT 2 tests as well in Math and English.
We could not be more proud of the incredible college acceptances our students earned after getting college guidance with their tutors. Olivia was not only admitted to every college she applied to, but got into her dream school, USC, to pursue studies in Marine Biology. Kelley was accepted to the incredibly competitive music industry program at USC, which only admits thirty students annually. Hayley will be attending one of the most impacted schools in California, San Diego State, which has been her dream school since she was in sixth grade. Eliza and Mollie will both be attending the most impacted college in the country, UCLA, in the fall.
The Capstone Project is a research paper and project that students attending Palos Verdes High School work on throughout their junior and senior years. The Capstone Project requires students to think critically about a topic of their choice. It manifests with the students giving a presentation on their research and work to a group of teachers and parents. The Capstone Project helps students narrow down options for a major and find out if they would be passionate working on their topic long term.
Laura helped her student Olivia with her Capstone Project during her junior and senior years. Olivia was having trouble deciding which topic to pursue for her project. After weighing her different options, Laura helped her decide on examining how documentaries affect public perception of issues. They decided to use the film Blackfish and how it changed the public’s view on captive whales as the basis of Olivia’s paper. She researched the differences between the lives of orca whales in captivity versus in the wild. She worked in the field scuba diving for research and polling people on how Blackfish changed the way they looked at captive whales.
Once she had all of her research completed and data collected for her project, it was time to put it all into an essay. Laura helped Olivia organize all of her data into paragraphs. There was a lot of research, so it took time to narrow down all the facts so that Olivia could prove her initial thesis while still being concise. Olivia was chosen to be part of Capstone Elite where she competed against other selected students as some of the best Capstone projects of the class.
Palos Verdes Peninsula High School had their Open House Night for prospective incoming freshmen last month. Interested students and parents were able to walk around and tour the campus, learn about all of the academic and extracurricular programs, and get a feel for the overall vibe of the high school. Palos Verdes Peninsula High School is a great school, just like its rival at the bottom of the hill, Palos Verdes High School.
Here are some statistics on Palos Verdes Peninsula High School. They were ranked tenth in all of Los Angeles by LA Magazine. They came in as fifty-fourth in the entire country by Daily Beast. Unlike Palos Verdes High School, who follows a block schedule, Palos Verdes Peninsula High School follows a regular class schedule where every class meets every day for about an hour. This type of schedule may work better for the students who want to go to here rather than meeting every other day for each class like at Palos Verdes High School. The average on every SAT II Subject test was above a 600, except for World History which was a 598. Peninsula’s average ACT score is 5 points above the state average and 6 points above the national average. The school offers 22 Honors or Advanced courses and 29 AP or Advanced Placement courses. They offer Speech and Debate, Model United Nations, a weekly newscast (“Eye on the Panther”), Mock Trial, “La Pantera” yearbook, as well as a cyber defense competition.
No matter what school they choose, students are sure to get an amazing education at either of the Palos Verdes schools.
Wednesday January 28th, Palos Verdes High School held their Open House night at their campus from 6:00 PM to 8:30 PM. Palos Verdes High School and Palos Verdes Peninsula High School hold their Open House nights annually so that incoming freshman can decide which high school they would like to attend the next school year. Palos Verdes High School and Palos Verdes Peninsula High School are extremely competitive because they are both great schools, so the Open house nights really help them show off their strengths. From 6 to 7 PM, there was a presentation on academics, athletics, and clubs at Palos Verdes High School in Sea Kings Park and the MPR. Afterward, there was a Live From 205 presentation and the premiere of the 2015 Palos Verdes High School lip dub in the gym from 7 to 8 PM.
Here are some quick statistics on Palos Verdes High School. Last year 98% of Palos Verdes High School students went on to either a four or two year college. They are currently offering 29 Advanced Placement (AP) classes as well as 19 different Honors Placement classes. The average ACT score is 5 points above the California state average. The average score on all SAT Subject Tests was above 600 points on each. There are over thirty different athletics teams. Palos Verdes High School also offers various extracurricular activities such as the The Triton yearbook, Trade Winds literary magazine, The Point newspaper, Live From 205 television show, and Model United Nations.
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.
The Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District participated in the international “Hour of Code” event this month. The program is made to give students a brief introduction to computer science and specifically learning how to code in different computer languages. The field of computer science is growing exponentially and offering more and more jobs for people with skills in coding, programming, and front-end development. Both the staff and students of the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District were invited to attend the event and learn more about code.
Computer Science classes are offered at both Palos Verdes Peninsula and Palos Verdes High School. These classes are offered at the AP level. Throughout the class students learn about different algorithms. Students also go through designing a program to fit their objectives, and then subsequently testing and debugging the program that they have designed. After that they learn about the different kinds of data class structures ranging from strings and classes to lists. Then the class will learn about searching and sorting through the code and algorithms, as well as different options that can be performed. The entire class is usually taught in the Java programming language, which is considered to be one of the more difficult programming languages.
Sometimes it can be difficult to find information on computer science online, and then it can be very dry and very complex. Luckily, if your student needs one-on-one AP Computer Science tutoring, we offer it at our Study Hut location in the Redondo Beach Rivera.
These past few weeks excitement waas in the air as Scholar Quiz took place! Both the Mira Costa High School study body and the Manhattan Beach Middle School student body, both competed in what we like the call, “The Scholar Quiz.”
Teams of 4 compete in different rounds of Lightning Rounds and Bonus Rounds. During the bonus rounds, you can score up to 20 points. Scholar Quiz’s premise is the same as that of the popular game ‘Jeopardy’. Each team includes four students. The the game consists of two teams of four students each, a Reader, Judge, and a Scorer.
Other schools put on their own Scholar Quiz as well. The idea started at Mira Costa High School in Manhattan Beach. Mr. Cooper, former PV High Econ teacher and Football coach, and Barton, PV High teacher, took the idea from Costa. Both teachers attended and taught at Mira Costa High School. Cooper approached Barton, and PV High’s Scholar Quiz began in 2005.
There are three types of questions asked in the Scholar Quiz- Toss Up, Bonus, and Lightning Round questions. A toss up question is one that either team can answer. The first team raising a placard is given the first opportunity to answer. If they answer incorrectly, the second team has a chance to answer the same question. A toss up question may lead to a Bonus Round. The Bonus Round includes a specific topic with four questions. This round is where teammates work together to come up with the final answer. Only the team that wins the Toss Up can benefit from the Bonus Round. A Lightning Round question is one where ten questions are given in quick succession to the teams, with each team being allowed to answer only once. If a team answers a Lightning Round question incorrectly, they are penalized with a loss of points.
Pictured below are the winners from the MCHS Scholar Quiz
Pictured below are the winners from the MBMS Scholar Quiz
For many years, our tutors have been helping seniors at Palos Verdes High School complete their senior projects called the Capstone. This project consists of a research paper on a topic the student is interested in or affected by and a corresponding research project or experiment. Study Hut owners Rob and Sean Patrick, together with Redondo Beach manager, Justin, are all industry partners and judge the Capstone projects at the end of the year to decide which students will receive prizes and scholarships. In the past, the entire project has been completed during the course of the student’s senior year, but during the 2013-2014 school year, the school made some changes. Now students are required to finish their entire paper in the last quarter of their junior year, leaving the entire senior year to dedicate to their physical project and research. As the school is aware that this can be a very stressful time for students due to Advanced Placement exams in May, AP students are not required to begin working on their Capstone papers until after they have completed all their AP exams.
Early in the school year, I worked with a senior named Cara whose project analyzed the effectiveness of three different teaching styles. She works as a swim teacher at the South Bay Aquatic Center, which was the perfect place for her to experiment with different teaching styles in her swim classes. I recently worked with a junior named Halle who studied the societal influence on the evolution of music. While expanding on previously learned academic skills and preparing students for college level papers and projects, the Capstone also provides students an opportunity to pursue further education about a topic of personal interest.
As a former student at Palos Verdes High School ( www.pvhigh.com ), I have found that the Study Hut curriculum for PVHS Math, Biology, Chemistry, Spanish, and English are perfect for the PV High curriculum. The PV school district’s expectations for Math classes, ranging from Geometry to Calculus, are very high and the homework and study workloads show this. At Study Hut ( www.studyhut.com ), I give one-on-one tutoring to help students understand and manage their challenging Algebra, Algebra 2, and Geometry workloads. Adding to this, most students are required to take Biology and Chemistry. From my experience as a Natural Science major at USC ( www.usc.edu ), I can personally attest to the very high level and challenging requirements that Palos Verdes high school students face.
At Study Hut, I help students in understanding the difficult materials, as well as in preparing for their tests (whether they be finals, AP, SATs, or SAT 2). Spanish 1 and Spanish 2 are also requirements for PVHS students and during my time at PV High, I remember that many students also take Spanish 3 and Spanish 4. These classes can be especially problematic for students who have never taken Spanish before or are not used to the verbal and written demands of the classes. At Study Hut, I really enjoy helping students improve their Spanish vocabulary, as well as their grammar and pronunciation. With all of these subjects, it really works to my benefit that I have taken the classes that I tutor at PV High (a lot of times with the same teachers), so I have a good understanding of the expectations and style of work that PVHS requires for a good grade. Adding to this, the atmosphere and tutoring style encouraged at Study Hut meshes well with Palos Verdes High School students and generates very positive results.
