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Getting back in the Swing of Fall

August 2nd, 2011

School starts in a month! It’s time to dust the cobwebs off the mind and start easing back into school mode. Summer vacation provides more than enough time to forget last year’s math and science, and when class begins in September, things get hectic fast. New material, homework assignments, and projects are given immediately, so it is best to hit the ground running. Any student would greatly benefit from spending time reviewing old material and getting a head start on new stuff before the school year begins.

Even after two months off, teachers expect their students to remember what they learned the year before and continue building and expanding on it this year. For instance, it is assumed that Algebra 2 students are proficient at simplifying radical expressions, factoring, and solving two-step equations from day one of class. These are all skills learned in Algebra 1, but they can easily get rusty after an extended break. Summer is a perfect time for a refresher before everything kicks into high gear.

Summer is also a good opportunity for a brief introduction to next year’s material. Student’s who have had previous exposure tend to perform exponentially better. Although it is impossible to touch on every topic for the upcoming year, it’s often enough to get the mind jogging with an abbreviated preview.

Summer Tutoring Boost in Manhattan Beach

August 1st, 2011

Summer splashing and the sun rays is a great way to attain your vitamin D during the summer. So what
can be done after the sunburns start to ache and the beach seems to get mediocre? One incredible
way to continue amplifying your kid’s mental and scholastic ability is through summer tutoring at Study
Hut. Our summer hours are flexible and very tangible for any parent schedule. A combination of both
outdoor activities paired with some summer tutoring is a great way to not only attain great school
grades but it also relieves future stress on the student. While many students in September are in class
chugging away, pulling hair and pondering and trying to recall the Pythagorean Theorem, your student
will be cruising and mastering skills above their pupils. Study show that we only use about 3% of our
mind capability, so why not fill that brain matter with useful information for your student? One simple
hour of reinforcing previous unlearned or misunderstood material can cement information and ingrain
it thoroughly in the brain of student. This not only provides a solid foundation of information, but will be
used as a base for your student’s scholastic future.

We tutor in many subjects including Biology, English, Reading Comprehension, Math and much more. So
in addition to a fun summer swim in the gorgeous California beach, add a study hut tutoring hour before
or after. The student will be hyped on endorphins and will perform better scholastically. We are happy
covering any material your student is scared to confront and will give your student not only confidence
in their skills, but learn the material too. Our tutors are more than happy to help your student conquer
their scholastic fear and return to their classroom in September more confident and better prepared.

Avoid the Last Minute Summer Reading Cramming

July 29th, 2011

I remember when I was a Mira Costa high School student, summer just starting, tried to forget about school as much as I could.  This behavior is quite common among high school student.  This ultimately would result with most of my friends and I spending the last weeks of summer reading non-stop all of our assigned summer reading books.  As my family usually chooses to go on our family summer vacation during those weeks, my memory of those vacations is marred with memories of: If Beagle Street Could Talk, The Crucible, An Affair to Remember, One Flew Over the Cookoo’s Nest, and the other books our teachers said we needed to read.

Looking back I wished I started reading those books earlier in the summer.  There was no real need to wait so long.  I have heard kids make the excuse that if they start reading early in the summer they won’t remember the details and promptly fail the “rigorous” summer reading tests.  While that line of reasoning seems quite logical, it’s also been accounted for by the Mira Costa English teachers.  The summer reading tests are very simple short multiple choice exams, asking easy basic plot questions; the point is to just make sure that the taker simply had read the book.   Over the first few weeks class time is spent reviewing the summer reading books preparing the students for a more involved analytical essay.   So there is no advantage of cramming all the reading in the last weeks of summer.  Instead, start those books right now.  Read when you can.  Find your-self with a spare hour or two at home with no plans?  Spend some of that time on your summer reading.  By reading a few hours at a time throughout the whole summer you can easily avoid cramming them all at the end.  And in my case, I could have enjoyed my summer vacations much more.

Palos Verdes Summer School

July 27th, 2011

Whether you are retaking last semester’s toughest class or getting ahead for next year, all of you Palos Verdes High School students should be seeing the light at the end of the summer school tunnel. Finals are coming up, and it’s important to keep your eyes on the prize despite the classic Southern California summer weather outside.

Hopefully you’ve been keeping up with your summer studies by taking notes and staying organized, but we understand that, between all of the summer athletics and activities, it can be hard to scrape out some study time. In any case, the Hut tutors are armed with the test taking skills and subject knowledge that get you smoothly through Finals time. So if you are feeling overwhelmed or just want a quick review, make sure to stop by. We look forward to seeing you!

Finals Prep will help with Summer School classes too!

July 6th, 2011

When it comes to studying for finals, organization is key. More likely than not, you’re going to be studying for multiple exams, and will have to devote time to all of them. So, set up a schedule. This schedule should be made AT LEAST 3 weeks in advance (you should have some idea of what will be on the test by then. And once you make that schedule, stick to it! Make sure that you’ve penciled in ample time for each subject, reserving more time for the subjects that need it. Let’s face it, you’ll need to study more for that class you have a C in than the one you’re acing.

Now that you’ve got you’re time scheduled, the question is “How do I study for this?” Going through the text, and reading your notes helps a LOT, but one of the most importance study resources is going to be something you probably won’t want to revisit: OLD TESTS! Remember, the people writing these finals are the same people who wrote those tests. They are excellent guides for what to expect on the final. Look through them. What did you get wrong? What did you get right? Review the questions (some of them may even be repeated on the final), and try to get a feel for what might appear on the final exam. But remember, the tests can’t be your only resource; you DO have to review your notes and reading assignments.

And finally, get yourself in the right state of mind. Get a good night sleep the night before. 15 minutes before the tests, stop all studying and relax. If you don’t know it by then, you don’t know it. What’s important is to be calm, collected, and focused. You can’t do that if you’re using the last bit of time to memorize 3 weeks worth of notes. So, schedule, review, relax, and good luck!

AVID working through summer

July 6th, 2011

SP here. I am really looking forward to my lunch meeting today with all of the rad teachers from the Palos Verdes High School AVID program. Each year during the summer, these awesome teachers (Egan, Whalen, Morales) get together to reflect on the past year. They ask questions like:

What went right?

What could we have done better?

What activities to we need to make more room for?

Which activities and ideas could be eliminated all together?

Certainly the questions and ideas that get bounced around go
much more in depth than these “Level 1” questions (some students are snickering at this), but in actuality, sometimes it is just this casual approach that gets us to the gems.

We are all working together to make sure that the AVID experience is excellent for all students at all levels. We need to make sure that we are meeting the statewide expectations for the program and the curriculum, and we also need to make sure that the goals we set for the students are achieved, and that the activities we decide on and the curriculum we endorse has a direct, positive impact on those goals. Most importantly, we are all looking forward to another amazing AVID year come Fall.

Summer Time!!

May 24th, 2011

Are you looking to boost your comprehension of high school, middle school, or elementary school classes this summer? Trying to take advantage of your summer break to prepare for the SAT or ACT? Looking to master how to write a good essay? Then Study Hut is the place for you! Even after the school year ends, Study Hut is open for business seven days a week by appointment and ready to help you out.

Whether you’re taking summer school to get ahead on your classes or to raise a grade from this past school year, summer tutoring packages are convenient and affordable. We work to accommodate your custom schedule! Summer is the best time to take advantage of all the resources Study Hut has to offer. If you don’t want to take an SAT preparation course at the same time as you have all of your work for classes in the fall, take one during the summer! You’ll come in for four hours a week for a period of seven weeks, receiving individualized instruction. We’re confident you will feel ready for the SAT in the fall.

There will be a maximum of ten students per group for SAT/ACT preparation, so you’ll get plenty of personalized attention. Get the ball rolling and become an awesome writer over the summer. We’ll help you learn to respond to a variety of prompts, establish a thesis for your essays, and edit your own drafts to create the perfect essay structure. We hope to see you this summer!

Tutoring: Helping Kids Fulfill Their Potential

March 21st, 2011

Education reform is a hot topic in politics and our communities. With documentaries like Waiting for Superman and powerful people taking a stance in education, people are starting to realize that things need to change. Successful schools have proven that outstanding teachers, extra time spent on education and high expectations for all students are key to academic achievement. At Study Hut, our tutors put these educational goals into action have seen exceptional results in our students.

Why is it so important to have high expectations for students? High expectations show students that we believe that they are capable of achieving their full potential. This turns into motivation for students to prove to us and to themselves that they can do well in school. I often hear fellow tutors saying “you are going to do an awesome job on your test tomorrow!” Students leave knowing their tutors expect them to perform well. When students at Study Hut are as excited to come in and tell us about an A on a test as much as we are, we know we are doing our job.

Excellent tutors at the Hut also add to students’ academic success. Students come to us because they need clarity, review and a fresh approach to teaching. If it takes a funny song to remember Spanish Vocabulary, we’ll make one up and sing it with our students. If history isn’t making sense, we will relate it to something relevant in a student’s life to show them the importance of a historical event. Thinking outside the box and connecting with students is a common method we share with schools in our community. The South Bay School Districts all have a mission to “strive for academic excellence by forming partnerships with the community.” Study Hut enjoys working with schools and students to be part of this partnership in promoting confidence and academic success in our schools.

Honing Math Skills with Incentives

February 22nd, 2011

For older students the incentives are easier to see, better math skills lead to higher grades. For younger children the final incentives of productive studying are harder to see, which is why we sometimes need to provide an extra boost of encouraged learning with a small piece of candy for a correct answer. Getting students in the mood to learn, and to appreciate their education can be one of the hardest things to accomplish as a tutor.

When the students learn how useful math can be to them and how they can apply specific math skills to real-life situations, they work harder and perform better. Mathematics revolves our daily lives. Teaching kids about everyday uses of math helps them to better understand the real world around them. Some examples of everyday uses of math included: problem solving, budgeting money, time management, calculating tips and tax, memorizing important number data i.e. phone numbers and locker combinations, and estimating distances and weights. These real world skills have major benefits towards the academic success of an individual, and can lead to a greater success in careers that you might not expect to be math-intensive such as, agriculture, law, business, politics, psychology, and music.

Daily mental math exercises to help keep your brain active are a great way to stay on top of your mathematical game. Solving puzzles and exercises such as, suduku or homework problem sets, keeps your mind sharp and ready to tackle any challenge. Mathematics may seem to be an underrated subject, but it has lasting influences in our lives everyday. From the moment we wake up to check the clock, to the number of hours we work each day to make a living, we are constantly surrounded by numbers.

South Bay SAT Tutoring

February 14th, 2011

It’s that time again. SAT season! This can be a time of tremendous anxiety for many, but it doesn’t have to be. Here at the Study Hut we work to prepare students for conquering this test. We focus on vanquishing the SAT and getting our students excited about college. Our approach is multifaceted and familiarizes students with the exam. Often our students are most nervous about the math section of the SAT. The Hut provides students with comprehensive materials to dust off older material and reinforce newer concepts. The most important thing is that students are familiar with the structure of the test, especially with the math section. When they know what to expect, students approach the SAT with more confidence and are more successful. We review everything from common denominators to parabolas!

Study Hut tutors will work side-by-side students to get them ready for the next stage of their lives! We will help make this potentially nerve racking time into one of excitement. Many of our students see their scores jump after preparing with us. We have many Redondo High and Palos Verdes High school students in our group course, as well as taking advantage of our one-on-one services. No matter their preference, our approach minimizes the stress and makes SAT prep more manageable. College is just around the corner!