Peninsula SAT prep at it’s finest! Like the ACT better? Peninsula ACT Prep has never been better.
Welcome back to school We are so pumped that Peninsula AVID is back up and running in full swing. Study Hut has been collaborating with the AVID program and delivering tutorials to the AVID students for many years now. AVID takes place every Thursday from 10am-12noon with six tutors from our Redondo Beach Location that are hand picked to attend the AVID and test prep training and help students improve upon their test prep skills. We have all four grade levels that participate and each grade level has two class periods for AVID since Peninsula has a block schedule.
During the AVID classes, each student comes prepared with their tutorial form filled out with their question or information that they want to review or understand better. Each student has a chance to get up and present their question to their small groups and then the tutor will help answer any questions needed while the other students take notes and participate in the discussion. Each student gets about 5-6 minutes for their individual question which makes the hour go by quickly once each student has presented.
We are able to track students progress and the students get points for their achievements, being engaging and participating in the group lessons. Another awesome collaboration we have going on with Peninsula is that a Study Hut manager along side a teacher lead Peninsula SAT prep as well as Peninsula ACT prep.
There are about 25 students that are taught by one manager and one teacher that receive instruction and receive homework assignments to complete and to help track their growth. The sophomores receive test Peninsula SAT prep once per month and the juniors receive Peninsula ACT prep help once per week. We use an online system that we use in office that helps track progress and makes for a smooth class and easy way to generate the information needed. The manager will help with the Math portion of the test prep and the teacher will help with the English portion of the test prep. We are very excited for the school year and to see many familiar faces around campus!
What is the ISEE?
ISEE stands for Independent School Entrance Examination. It is a test that is a helpful tool in assessing schools: how do their students usually fare on the ISEE? This helps measure the caliber of the school. It is also a test that schools use to assess students’ readiness, in consideration for admission. There are three levels of the ISEE: Lower level, for entrance in grades 5–6; Middle level, for entrance in grades 7–8; Upper level, for entrance in grades 9–12.
What is on the ISEE?
All levels consist of five sections: Verbal Reasoning, Quantitative Reasoning, Reading Comprehension, Mathematics Achievement, and a 30-minute essay.
Why take the ISEE?
Magnet, independent, and private schools often require the ISEE in consideration for admission.
When is the best time to take the ISEE?
Students can take the ISEE up to three times in 12 months, and you can review the results before sharing them with your school! For more information (https://www.erblearn.org/parents/admissions-testing-isee).
How can you prepare for the ISEE?
First, you should come to Study Hut for a FREE, full-length practice test. Then, our friendly, well-informed managers will breakdown the results for you, helping you and your student target areas for improvement.
Study Hut provides structured, test-based tutoring for the ISEE. The student will be matched with a test prep pro, who will serve as their tutor throughout the preparation process. This will provide consistency, accountability, and a level of comfort and trust for the student that will allow them to thrive!
Summer is a perfect time to prep for the ISEE!
Call (310-546-2408) or email (kristen@studyhut.com) today to schedule your free, full-length practice test and consultation!
Study Hut Tutoring offers free SAT ACT practice tests. The South Bay is filled with a variety of companies that offer training for the SAT, ACT, ISEE, HSPT, SSAT, GRE, LSAT, and every other kind of test you can imagine. Some offer just group classes, others do one-on-one. Some will come to your house, while many will hold lessons in their office. Curriculums change, strategies differ, and all of them have their pros and cons. However, one thing cannot be ignored no matter what kind of training you seek: Make sure you are given plenty of full length practice tests!
Whether you are training for a test or preparing for a marathon, you cannot adequately improve unless you first know where you are starting. For test training, it is imperative that you take an actual certified test (whichever one you are preparing for) so you get a good sense of what the test is, and we get an accurate reading of where you are starting. At Study Hut, we call this a Diagnostic Test. Armed with this report of your greatest strengths and most glaring weaknesses, we can create a tailored curriculum and study plan that fits YOU! This will mean a much more efficient use of both our times, and maximize our results.
Throughout your training, it is paramount to take officially sanctioned, full length practice tests every few weeks. Not only will this help us track your progress toward your ultimate score goal, but it gives you a safe arena to practice the concepts and strategies that we have been teaching you. It’s like sparing for a boxer, or a fully-padded practice for a football player! We can then analyze your performance, question by question, to see where your breakdowns were. This “game tape” will then be used to show you the benefits of what we are doing, and show you the dangers of falling back into old habits.
Long-story-longer, any training regimen, be it academic or athletic, needs to be anchored with an initial Diagnostic Test, and a healthy amount of Practice Tests. They are the only way to ensure broad and efficient training, and a high quality result. Study Hut offers free diagnostic and practice tests for every standardized test you can imagine. To sign up for one, just fill out a contact form on the right, and a manager will call you shortly.
Happy Training!
Come take a free SAT practice test at Study Hut Tutoring. After all, summer is upon us! As such, so is SAT prep season. If your student is in high school they need to be thinking about taking the SAT in preparation for the college application process—a super SAT score translates to a super chance of getting admitted to their top choice. Students typically take the SAT in the spring of their junior year or in the fall of their senior year; most students take it a second time to improve their first score.
“Ok, we get it—the SAT is important! How do we begin to prepare?” you ask. The answer: test it out at the Hut. Study Hut Manhattan Beach is here to help, offering free SAT practice tests to students getting ready for the SAT. This is a great opportunity to see where your student stands and see how much work they’ll need to put in before the real thing. Study Hut administers real, full-length SAT tests that have been given and retired in recent years. Did we mention there are free SAT practice test sittings? No strings attached, no nothin’. Of course, we offer plenty of SAT prep packages if you want to sign your student up later. But first, we dance! Err… test. Once graded, our SAT experts will offer advice on the best study plan going forward for your student, based on their score. Contact us at Study Hut Manhattan Beach today to sign up for a free diagnostic session!
Afterwards, the parents and student will want to set up a free 30-minute consultation to analyze the score report in detail and receive any further recommendations. The student’s diagnostic score with their college ambitions will be the two most influential factors in determining how much time will need to go into the prep.
Typically, a student will want to begin the 1-on-1 tutoring process around two months before the actual real test date. This crucial aspect in the test prep process confirms the student is continually hitting their benchmarks.
To ensure the student is tracking properly, it is important for parents to get feedback every two weeks of prep and after each diagnostic exam. If a student is not hitting their benchmarks then it is essential to schedule another free 30-minute consultation with the parent, student, and manager in order for everyone to get back on track.
The last step in preparing for the SAT II Subject Exams is every student should register for two consecutive official exam dates, such as May and then also June.
Most students will see a natural score increase on their second try.
By planning on taking two exams (back-to-back) it allows the student the opportunity to work on his or her weaknesses in the month in-between the exams dates.
Every student should prepare to take two test dates for the Subject Exams.
To monitor if a student is retaining the material from the 1-on-1 lessons it is highly recommended that he or she takes at least one diagnostic exam per month during their training.
Now that the hard part is over, what can a student expect when it comes to the scoring process?
After you sign-up for a free diagnostic exam, you will realize all Subject Exams have a scaled score between 200-800 points. A student will usually have access to their score report around four weeks after taking an exam. If a student needs the results sooner, the College Board offers a “rush reporting service” for a fee.
Students have three primary methods for releasing their scores: during registration, after registration, and “score choice.” “Score Choice” lets the students elect which scores (by test date and by specific test) to send to colleges.
If “score choice” is not selected, colleges will receive all of the student’s scores. The deadline to cancel any scores is the ensuing Wednesday after the specific test date. The last recommendation is to schedule a consultation with a manager to discuss the student’s score report in detail and any final guidance.
SAT II Subject tests are scored using a “guessing penalty.” For each answer that is bubbled in incorrectly, a quarter point will be deducted from the total raw point score. The raw score is calculated by tallying up the number of questions the student answered correctly and subtracting the number of wrong answers, multiplied by 1/4. If a student answers 40 correctly, and 12 incorrectly, the raw score calculation would be: 40 -[12(.25)]= 37.
This raw score of a 37 would then be turned into a scaled score out of 800. Each test has a slightly different “raw score to scaled score” conversion. Moreover, each time the College Board proctors an official SAT II Subject test, those scores are evaluated separately from tests proctored on different dates.
Long story short, the best way to get started is to sign up for a free, full-length practice SAT II Subject test. From there, we set up a free consultation to review the results and explain the process in detail with respect to your goals and your individual score.
The first step in your AP test prep process is to take a Free Diagnostic Test>. Practice AP tests are offered every week at Study Hut for your convenience. After taking the test, we encourage all of our students to come in for a Free Consultation in order to discuss current strengths and weaknesses. Once properly assessed, we pair each student with a specialized tutor in the given content area as well as create a personalized curriculum tailored to each students’ needs.
Once the curriculum is designed, you will work with you tutor on AP Test Prep. We start by first brushing up on key concepts before diving into one-on-one focused sessions of areas of that need improvement. Because all of our tutors have great experience and familiarity with the structure and commonly tested content, we devote crucial time to teaching test taking strategies.
For best results, we recap lessons and we move through practice questions. If needed, we support the lessons with take-home work. Throughout the tutoring process, we frequently administer practice DBQs, FRQs, and Multiple Choice sections. All homework is reviewed during the next lesson to make sure the lesson sinks in. Once you can demonstrate mastery, we move onto the next concept.
Next we track your progress through regular full-length practice tests. These also ensure that you will have experience in executing the strategies and content proficiency that you will develop during your tutoring sessions. We hold them here in our office twice a month on Saturday mornings. Taking them in a simulated testing environment like that ensures an accurate timing schedule, and the added stressor or not taking it in the comfort of your own home. Our primary goal is to make sure that you go into your AP test with the confidence, knowledge, and experience to achieve the high score you deserve.
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.
Summer tutoring at the Study Hut is a great idea for any elementary aged student. Many people assume that tutoring is only for struggling students who need remediation. While tutoring is great for these students and will help them get back on their feet grade-wise, tutoring is also beneficial for students who are doing great in class, especially over the summer. The summer vacation is three months long, a very long time to have to remember everything you learned last year. And most teachers like to jump right in when class starts, as they have enough material to cover in a year without including weeks of review. The new Common Core standards emphasize coherence in mathematics, so students need to be prepared to build on the previous year’s learning. Here is the link for more info:
So, how do you make sure you are ready for these new standards? Practice! Tutoring is the perfect way to keep your brain active over the summer. Just like you have to work out to keep your muscles in shape, you have to keep your brain working to keep it in “school shape”. Tutoring will keep your study skills sharp and have you ready to go as soon as class starts. No more wasting the first week of school trying to switch your brain back into “school mode.” Was there a subject last year you kind of learned, but were never clear on? Maybe something that is going to make another appearance this year? (Long division? Fractions?) Tutoring will clear that up without the added stress of homework and other subjects and tests. Confidence is a key to success in school, and confidence comes from practice. With a little bit of tutoring in the off months, the next year will be a breeze.
Today I got to work with one of my students, Eric, on his ninth grade biology homework assignment covering natural selection and evolution. He has a quiz coming up so his homework reviewed the sections in the book. While working through the problems, Eric and I had a great discussion about each of his answers. We came up with lots of examples for the different terms he had to know. The example that stuck most with Eric was how the finches that flew to the Galapagos Islands represented the founder effect of genetic drift. By geographically isolating a small population of a species, the genetic variation is limited causing the species to change and adapt to the new environment. He enjoyed thinking up other situations in which the founder effect could be applied.
The one topic that confused Eric was the Hardy-Weinberg principle for genetic equilibrium. This is a tough concept to understand because it theoretical and complex. First off, we had to memorize the conditions that are necessary for this equilibrium to take place: very large population, random mating, no natural selection, no immigration/emigration, and no mutation. We talked about why those criteria are necessary for keeping the allele frequencies constant and that helped him remember each of those restrictions. After establishing the basis for the Hardy-Weinberg principle, we went over how to calculate allele and genotype frequencies. This uses two different equations and can be confusing at first. After showing him how to use the equations to solve for the frequencies, I gave him some practice problems. After a rough start, he did really well by getting the last three questions right.
After a quick review at the end of the session, Eric was much more confident about the material that was on his quiz. We got a lot done during the session and he improved a lot!
