As some of us are starting to wind down with summer on the horizon, some of you are getting ready to take the big test, the admissions killer, the SAT. It may sound overwhelming to balance school, extra curriculars, and studying for the SAT, but there are steps you can take to make it easier on yourself. Keep a balance to your life, and get help if you are struggling or just want to make things easier. At the Study Hut, we can give you that extra help you need. We’ll help you manage your time, stay ahead in your classes, and we also offer premium SAT tutoring if you want that 2,300 score. SAT time in high school is a stressful period, but get the help you can and come out on top. College is right around the corner and this is the last stretch, give it your all!
Some you may also be taking AP Tests. At the study hut we are offering a free AP Practice Test in the subject of your choosing this Saturday the 28th from 8am to 11am. If you are interested in taking it, which you should be if you’re planning to take the AP test in May, shoot Sam an email at Samantha@studyhut.com and specify the test you wish to take.
Remember, these tests may be overwhelming at first, but through slow and steady practice, improvement will show, and your confidence will rise. Once you have confidence that you are going to do well, the rest is cake, so use every resource at your disposal and ensure yourself the best score possible. Good luck!
Hey everyone. After hours of research and planning we at Study Hut are almost ready to start a new line of services aimed at helping college-ready-high schooler’s not just choose the best college for them but also help get into and pay for school. The first half of our new services will be geared at having students “Brand” themselves by identifying their own unique set of skills and strengths which they can then use to better their chances of getting to the college of their choosing. By better understanding and realizing his/her own strengths students will be better able to write insightful and stronger college application essays and articulate their worth to colleges during the application process.
After you get in the school of your dreams we offer another set of services, which mom and will love, that help reduce the cost of college. We will help students apply and win scholarships by coaching them how to best present themselves when applying for scholarships. We are also able to find other ways of reducing the college cost by getting in-state tuition, testing out of some college courses (which is not just limited to AP tests), help with FASFA application and process, tuition reimbursement, and other programs offered to help students reduce the cost of college tuition.
We at the Hut have all ourselves gone through the marathon of college apps and are aware how much stress the process can be. We are happy to offer our own experience and expertise in aiding students doing their very best to get in and pay for college.
Today, two bright-eyed and bushy tailed owners, actually, we had some scruffy scraggles left on the face from Spring Breaking, and it was pretty early at 6am so we weren’t too bright eyed, embarked on a journey to have breakfast. Our Destination: the Hacienda Hotel. Our reason: to join the elite do-gooders of El Segundo for their 45th annual Mayor’s Breakfast. 100% of the proceeds will be going to benefit the El Segundo Teen Center and the El Segundo Ed foundation. The El Segundo Rotary Club makes this all possible, among others. It was a quite a treat if I dont say so myself. I had pancakes, bacon, hashbrown cakes with lox, and coffee, with chocolate creamer. It was heart-stopping. We heard a motivational speaker, and listening to him made we almost want to put down my fork and head to the gym. Apart from the food, we met some wonderful individuals. We met the heads of the local churches and school board, and they were thrilled to meet some fellow educators who were also passionate about El Segundo middle school tutors. They quickly acknowledged that tutoring in El Segundo was something that was recognized as fruitful and important. El Segundo high school students need tutoring in chemistry, biology, algebra, geometry and specific training in preparation for the SAT tests. Moms and dads in El Segundo were encouraged to know that Study Hut Tutoring provides a reliable and local tutoring service to the students at both El Segundo Middle School and El Segundo High School. Parents were eager to send their students to Study Hut tutoring for chemistry tutoring because they know how tough that class is, and how difficult the college application process can be with a low mark in that class.
Today in AVID 10 at Palos Verdes High School, Rob and SP introduced our first lesson for the Critical Reading section of the SAT. Training for the SAT can be very difficult, and for many students, the vocabulary component of the Critical Reading section can be extremely daunting.
In an effort to keep things simple, but at the same time teach students a new and complex concept, Rob decided to start the SAT tutoring with the “plus-minus-neutral” approach, a strategy that can help students eliminate incorrect answer choices by assigning a value or feeling of worth to the blank space, as well as each of the answer choices.
Students then practiced eliminating wrong answer choices and making educated guesses about which vocabulary words would and would not work in each sentence. The process was rigorous and slightly painful, but I think we all walked away from the experience with a new tool in our quiver of SAT strategies.
Here is an example of a question students will see on the Critical Reading section of the SAT. You will probably understand why training is the only way to attack a test that contains hundreds of problems like this:
1. Today Wegener’s theory is ____ ; however, he died an outsider treated with ____ by the scientific establishment.
A. unsupported – approval
B. dismissed – contempt
C. accepted – approbation
D. unchallenged – disdain
E. unrivaled – reverence
Please let Study Hut know if you need any tutoring or training for the SAT, specifically the Critical Reading section. We have excellent SAT tutors who earned great scores, went to top universities, and follow our streamlined approach to no-nonsense SAT training.
Getting 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.
Here at Study Hut in Manhattan Beach, we know that there’s more to academic success than simply knowing the material. Organizational skills and general study tricks are perhaps the most important “subjects” we teach, because without them it’s difficult to stay on top of the ever-growing workload of high school.
We, the super smart and super awesome tutors of Study hut, develop customized study plans for every student that walks through our doors, based on their own habits and personalities. However, here are a few basic strategies that can work for anyone who’s having troubles with procrastination (read: everyone).
1. Designate Goof Off Time
Nobody is a machine. Sometimes you’re lucky enough to find a subject that you love so much that homework is actually fun (yay physics!)
However, a lot of the time you’re going to have to deal with subjects that you straight up don’t like. And that’s alright! However, there’s a physical limit to how much loathsome boredom a human can take before they get distracted and goof off.
And that’s alright, too!
The trick is to actually portion off part of your day to goof off – that can mean facebook, video games, TV, or whatever else.
These things are fine in small quantities, and they make your life more fun! So give yourself over to them, but for a set period that you’ve planned for ahead of time.
The other way – checking facebook every time you feel like it during your problem sets – is incredibly distracting, hinders your progress, and thus ends up stressing you out even more.
2. Page Blockers
If you’re having troubles staying off of fun pages, try downloading a page blocker. There are lots of them online, but a few great ones are “Concentrate” and “Self-Control”. They work by physically disabling your browser’s ability to visit certain sites for a pre-determined amount of time.
This serves as a sort of guardrail; if you feel like procrastinating for a tiny bit they’ll help keep you on track.
However, they aren’t cure-alls: just like real guard rails, if you’re really determined to go off the trail you’ll be able to hop over them easily enough. However, they do serve as reminders about where your priorities should lie.
3. Enjoy the process!
It is much easier to work if you enjoy the process. Sometimes that’s difficult, but there are things you can do to improve it. Choose a room that’s pleasant to you, one that you will enjoy working in.
Playing music while you study can be a big help. It can be marginally distracting, but sometimes that’s a sacrifice that’s worth making. If you have to choose between working at 90% efficiency because you’re listening to music, or working at 5% efficiency because you’re constantly getting bored and taking breaks, then that’s not really any choice at all, is it?
Enjoy the process, or if you can’t, make it enjoyable.
4. Healthful snacks in small quantities
Lay off the sugar and junk food. Small doses of healthful foods keep your energy up and keep you focused. Almonds, walnuts, carrots, broccoli, and dried fruit are all great choices. Overly sweet things like candy or poptarts send your blood sugar into a tail spin, and release hormones that make staying focused difficult. Don’t shoot yourself in the foot with a poor diet.
5. Don’t use these tips to procrastinate.
This is the important. It’s easy to think that “applying” tips like these is productive work. And to a certain extent that’s true.
But, if you find yourself spending twenty minutes reading reviews about the best page blockers, or preparing a gourmet snack tray, or meticulously organizing your iTunes folder into different playlists for each subject, then, well… We see the problem here, yes?
Apply these tips, but bear in mind that the final goal is to actually get your schoolwork done.
That’s it for now! Call Study Hut in Manhattan Beach for more information about how to study right and slaughter your coursework and SATs
Ah, the SAT. No matter where you live, where you go to school, or what kind of grades you get, the SAT is an experience that bonds American students of all ages. It’s changed over the years, but the idea is the same: find a way to accurately gauge a student’s level of education through completely standardized means. Now, whether it’s an effective gauge is another debate entirely. What matters to you is how well you do on the test. And that’s what we’re here to help with.
First of all, you should understand what you’re getting into. The SAT is divided into three sections: Math, Writing, and Critical Reading. The Math section covers nearly everything you’ll learn in the first two years of High School, plus a little bit of Junior year. Basically, expect to be tested on all of Algebra and Geometry. Not to worry, though; nothing from Trig or beyond will be on the test. The Critical Reading section involves two main parts. First is Reading Passages, in which you’ll be given passages to read (duh.) and will have to answer questions based on the content of the reading. Second is the Fill-In-The-Blank section, where you’ll have to school SAT vocabulary words to complete sentences, based on context. Last but not least, there’s the Writing section. This begins with an essay, followed by MORE reading paragraphs (now based more on grammar and sentence structure than content), and correcting sentence errors.
The test runs just under four hours. This involves 6 25 minute sections (two from each subject, including the essay), two 20 minute sections, and one ten minute sections. You’ll receive breaks after each two sections (3 breaks total).
NOW, how do you prepare? This is going to sound weird, but studying the material is NOT the biggest way to prepare (but still important). What we do here in our SAT Prep Courses is teach you STRATEGY. We teach you how to solve any problem, and how to do it in a quick and efficient manner (which, on a timed test, is priority one). We’ll teach you when to skip a question, when to guess, how to mark up a paragraph, and how to write a proper essay that the graders will love. We’ll show you how to raise that grade.
SO, this is how to do it. Come in for a free diagnostic. This let’s us see what level you’re at. Then, sign up for either our group classes, or private SAT tutoring sessions. This is dependent entirely on you, and how you learn best. Either way, we’re gonna work hard to make sure you know what you’re doing when that SAT rolls along.
When a student comes to me for SAT tutoring, one of the first things I ask is how familiar he or she is with the test already from school (the idea being to build on whatever foundation teachers have already laid). Most of the students I ask glance up to the side and wrinkle their foreheads, combing through the past couple of years of high school, but come up with nothing. At most, they have taken the PSAT as sophomores. But for the majority, “SAT” is an ominous but vague trio of letters representing something on which a great deal of their futures will depend — what it is, they can’t say, but something.
I see these possible alternatives: either schools aren’t adequately introducing students to college entrance exams, or they’re just not introducing them at all. Whatever the case, this is an error. The arguments in favor of students attending college are by now well known and need not be reiterated, but it does seem a good time to repeat that preparing students for college is incumbent on high schools. Now, I do not believe in a model of “teaching to the test” — that kind of teleology narrows, shortens, and twists students’ vision of education and understanding of what it’s really for. I do, however, believe in a pragmatic approach to school; we must recognize that until the SAT (or ACT) can be replaced with something better, it will stand as a necessary hurdle in the college application process for most students. We (students, schools, and SAT tutors) have to face it.
How and when to do it, though? From my experience as an SAT tutor, I can say that the test is a puzzle unlike most others that high school students have to contend with, calling for certain strategies that don’t lend themselves to other tests or studies. Private lessons are still the best thing for many students (although the price of SAT tutoring through some companies has become prohibitively expensive). But is it wise to wait until students are juniors before suddenly thrusting the test upon them? Is the test so difficult that they can’t handle it before then? Is it really so foreign, so unlike anything else in high school, that it should be kept out of classroom discussion? Well, let me tell you a story.
Recently, I had an unusually productive tutoring appointment — one of those which seem to get progressively better as they go on. I and my student were in the zone. This student — let’s call him James — had brought his algebra homework and laid it on the desk alongside his SAT math assignment: he hadn’t been able to tackle either of them and was eager for help. Looking them over, I realized I could teach him the information and strategies he needed to know for both assignments simultaneously, thereby accomplishing two lessons for the price of one (if you will). I explained them to him, and we worked through some practice problems together. When our appointment time was done, he gave me a broad smile of surprise and satisfaction. “Wow,” he said, “we did a lot today!” I agree and disagree with that. Yes, we accomplished a great deal insofar as he was confidently acing every problem by the end of the session. But our actual workload had been fairly average. I think the accomplishment felt bigger to him because he had seen his knowledge adapt itself so smoothly from one area of study to another. In my experience, nothing inspires students to develop self-assurance and enthusiasm more than the realization that knowledge is connected and versatile. James was encouraged because the skills he needed to take on the SAT (or at least that part of it) didn’t seem completely foreign and unrelated to all the schoolwork he has invested so much effort to master.
So what is the point of this? I urge (not so humbly) that teachers and tutors begin incorporating SAT prep into their lessons from the time students first enter high school. To begin with, students need to be acquainted with the purpose, scope, and format of the test from early on. This supplement to the curriculum, however, need not be heavy-duty: a ten-minute multiple-choice exercise a few times a month would probably suffice. I don’t mean for teachers to assume all, or even most, of the responsibility for students’ test prep. The point is merely to show students early in the game how they will eventually need to apply their knowledge and skills beyond the parameters of regular homework and tests. Incidentally, teachers may find that students are galvanized by SAT prep to do better in their school subjects, since the test offers tangible evidence for any student that he or she will be using knowledge from high school to reach the next stage of life.
High school is a fun, challenging, and decisive point in one’s life. Academically, it’s the first time that your performance in classes will follow you and affect your future. It is also a time of great personal growth, and a time of starting to accept one’s responsibilities as a young adult. Because of all these rapid changes in an adolescent’s life, high school can be quite challenging. Through practicing with a sports team, hanging out with friends, and finding new hobbies and muses, finding the time and direction to do well in the often difficult classes packed into the four years can be quite challenging. This is where the Study Hut comes in. All of us tutors have gone through high school—we know what those years were like, even if it seems as though we’re too old to remember. The Study Hut is also a very community based organization, and the founders Rob and SP who grew up around Manhattan Beach, and many of tutors, know the greater Manhattan Beach area and its schools very well.
So Mira Costa high school students—let us help you get through these fruitful and challenging years. Study Hut has tutors proficient in everything from the mandatory mathematics of high school, to the more advanced AP courses of the sciences. Let us help you organize your planner, and make sure you’re armed with the best knowledge possible to do well in your classes and ace your tests.
High school is also the time for the SAT and ACT—those scary three lettered standardized tests which colleges and universities use as criteria for acceptance into their schools. At the Study Hut, we’ve got you covered. There are personalized SAT and ACT courses designed to teach you the fundamentals of test taking, so you know exactly what you’re going to get, and how to handle it during the test. Although challenging, there’s a method to these tests, and you too can learn to ace it.
So Mira Costa—come to the Study Hut… you’ll be happy you did.
