Yesterday was a busy Thursday. In fact, every school week there is a busy Thursday, whether you come to Study Hut Tutoring or not. With tests and quizzes, homework and projects, six classes of papers going in and out of the backpack everyday and all your friends jammed into one classroom, the task of managing a workload is impossible. Am I right? Let us take a quick look of how this impossible situation appears when our 8th grader Corey sits down for his tutoring hour. Corey is a very sharp student who is able to breeze through his pre-algebra assignments. He is very capable in other areas too. He is maintaining a strong grade in social studies, however, his grades dont reflect his intelligence.
So what is the matter? What do we do? How can we bump up these “C” grades up if Corey doesn’t need help with the actual subject matter? Lucky for Corey, the Study Hut knows exactly what to do. After speaking with his mom, I know she is frustrated with Corey’s sluggish performance around the house. So now Corey is at Study Hut, sitting down with me. The first thing I do is look at his daily planner. It is a bad sign when the whole thing is blank. The planner is the tool that fosters accountability, so if the planner is blank, Corey isn’t even accountable with himself, let alone with parents, teachers, and his tutor. The next step is manually going through the backpack. This is crucial to set the record straight and explain the reasoning and utility of behind using the daily planner.
After all, why do something if it doesn’t serve a greater purpose, save time, or help in the short term and in the long term. Young students are no different. You would never do a lot of things the right way if there was no direct or indirect benefit. After digging through every subject and organizing the folder, we see that there is a pile of old, completed work that can go into a folder and can be stashed away at home in the closet. The other pile was larger than I would like. This pile had a ton of incomplete work. Our plan from here on out at home everyday and at tutoring is as follows:
1)Write in the planner for every subject, during each class period, every week.
2) take notes each class period, everyday
3) make a list prior to tutoring of what we will be working on at Study Hut, and what will still have to be done at home.
4) Make one study tool (flashcards, outline, study guide, practice test) for each class each week.
5) show all of this to the tutor to remain accountable during bi-weekly tutoring sessions.
These simple tasks will, and have already started to, pull grades up, increase accountability, and lead to domination.
Having worked at The Study Hut for the past few years, I have learned quite a bit regarding the effects of study habits on students’ success in school. Developing a solid studying and time management routine at a young age can be one of the most important things a student can do for his or her educational career. I believe that by being effective at studying and being able to wisely mange your time, you will have positive results in both the short and long run. A college professor once told me that “Education is an attitude, not an IQ”, and as the more years that go by, the more he said made sense to me. Students that know how to efficiently approach learning will always have more success than the ones that don’t. It is as simple as that.
At Study Hut Tutoring, we understand this principle and place a high value not just on learning, but learning the proper way. The key to all of this is to stimulate the brain in as many ways as possible, so that when students are asked to recall information, typically via an exam, the brain has built enough strong neuron connections to quickly and easily pull information from it.
When attending middle school, organization is key to success, and that is why we focus a lot of our energy on the implementation of organizational skills. Assuring students’ backpacks are clean and folders have dividers are ways we aid in promoting the success of our students. We try to incorporate good habits while the students are young so they can really utilize these skills as they get older. As students grow, so does their workload, and organization only becomes that much more important with age. Read the rest of this entry »
Tests are a fundamental part of the schooling system. They are the only standardized way to assess the progress of the school as well as the student. Besides regular core curriculum tests there exist many widely
used state standardized tests that serve a number of purposes, primarily determining a student’s merit for acceptance into a higher grade level. Read the rest of this entry »
Fewer than three weeks remain until the AP Biology Exam. Are you ready? Yes? No need to read further, then.
Still with me? Then I suppose you’ve answered no. That’s an excellent, honest first step. Maybe you’re worried that the facts and skills aren’t set firmly in your mind, that you’ll go into the test less than prepared. Doubt and anxiety are normal feelings for everyday life, but disastrous ones for tests – they can make all your brain’s resources collapse like a half-baked soufflé. Obviously there is no reason to let this happen! AP Biology is a rigorous course, and you’ve probably worked harder at it than at any other class this year. You deserve a score to show that! Read the rest of this entry »
One-on-one summer program for 8th graders entering High School
As the end of the school year nears, it’s time to start thinking about the transition into a new high school. Bigger classes, different teachers for different classes, more homework, and more difficult material can be overwhelming if a student is not prepared to handle the stress of a new high school. Now is the time for eighth graders to sharpen their organization skills and develop new study tactics so they can stay on top of their work as they smoothly transition into ninth grade. Read the rest of this entry »
Transitioning from the eighth grade into high school is exciting and
daunting all at once. The ninth grade presents new opportunities for
socializing, organizing, and progressing in academic excellence. It is
during this time period that most students struggle with adjusting their
study skills to a faster-paced and more vigorous environment. Read the rest of this entry »
Many students find pre-calculus to be one of the most difficult courses they take in high school. At the Study Hut we work with students to help them develop a more positive outlook on the subject. We find that the reason most students struggle with pre-calculus is because they are lacking knowledge of the more basic mathematical principles. We work to get the students up to speed with basics, such as the unit circle and trigonometric functions, so that they can become successful math students. Read the rest of this entry »
Are you a high school student in the Torrance area experiencing pressure in your Geometry class? Are you a parent in the South Bay concerned about your child’s grades and performance in high school Geometry?
Working one on one with a Study Hut tutor will help students discover that this course isn’t as frightening as they expected. We want to expel anxiety and nervousness! Read the rest of this entry »
The question of “why should I get my child a tutor?” is classically covered with a packaged response that stresses the mood for individual attention and pressuring study skills. While these are true, the reality of tutoring actually goes much deeper than this. In today’s technological age, it is more important than ever to set aside some time each week to just focus on school work without being tempted to just surf the web. Tutoring at Study Hut offers tools and knowledge for students who are faced with tough classes. Read the rest of this entry »
Tests are a fundamental part of the schooling system. They are the only standardized way to assess the progress of the school as well as the student. Besides regular core curriculum tests there exist many widely
