Like the title of this article states, academic success shouldn’t be a guessing game. The Study Hut is here to help you pave your way to becoming a successful academic student. Here are a few tips:

1. Go to class everyday (unless you are sick), and be on time. Teachers dislike it when students waltz in late because they disrupt the learning experience.
2. When in class, be sure to sit to the front (and center, if possible) of the room. This way, you won’t get distracted as much if you were sitting anywhere else, and this also encourages you to participate more either by asking or answering questions, or by writing through notes.
3. Always bring your pen, paper, notebook, and books. Being prepared for class is essential to becoming an outstanding student.
4. Take notes. Don’t doodle in your notebooks, or write notes to your friends in class if you want those As.
5. Behave and dress like a normal student (don’t be rude to your teachers, text or have your cell phones turned on in class, eat food, or dress inappropriately). All these factors are disruptive to your classmates.
6. Show respect and enthusiasm to your teachers.
7. Be sure to pay attention and listen, listen, listen. Talking to your friends while your teacher is speaking is not only rude, it is a distraction to those around you that are trying to pay attention to the teacher.
8. Have a study partner, and form study groups. Also, have your parents, friends, etc. quiz you.
9. Read, read, read. Read news magazines, the newspaper, fiction, or anything you can get your hands on in order to help expand your knowledge and vocabulary. (Fashion and gossip magazines and comics shouldn’t be considered as reading materials.)
10. Set aside at least three hours a day and five or six days a week to study. You can’t expect to earn As in your classes if you don’t put in the time and effort.
11. Get some of your homework done during school. Use free periods, extra time between classes, and the time before sports so you don’t have to use all your time afterschool at home to study.
12. Volunteer for extra credit. It will help you earn good grades.
13. Get involved in extracurricular activities. Don’t merely attend classes and go to practice. Get involved in high school. It will help you later with your college admissions process.
14. Work hard and be proud of it.
15. Realize that education is a key ingredient to many great things that you will accomplish in life. Make a commitment to becoming a successful student!

Attention parents and high school juniors and seniors!!

Did you know that the January 23, 2010 is coming up in the next few weeks? Shortly after that is the March 13, 2010 test, so now would be the best time to prepare for either of those test dates!

Students, preparing for the SAT doesn’t have to be a boring chore that your parents are making you to do. At the Study Hut in both Manhattan Beach and Redondo Beach, we have fun and effective tutors that are ready to help you get prepared for the SAT while making it FUN! We have a great, positive studying environment here for you and all your friends. You can either chose to work one-on-one with a tutor, or in groups to learn and understand the material that is in the SAT.

And just to let everyone know, the Study Hut will also have a group class in preparation for the March 13th SAT test. Here are the details:

Class starts Monday, January 18, 2010. Classes are every Monday and Wednesday from 7:00 to 9:00 pm. Class will end on Wednesday, March 3rd.

The 1st Practice Exam (Diagnostic) is Saturday, January 16th, at 8:00 a.m. Please do not be late. Also, the exam is 4 hours long, so please plan rides to and from the Study Hut accordingly.

Subsequent exams will be scheduled as followed: Exam #2 – January 30th, Exam#3 – February 13th, and Exam #4 (the final preparation exam before Official SAT test on March 13th) – Mar 6th.

The 7-week class is priced at $795, and all written and online test prep materials will be provided by Clear Choice Prep.

If you would like to sign up for SAT tutoring, please call either the Manhattan Beach or Redondo Beach office (whichever is conveniently located for you) to make an appointment today. Our Manhattan Beach office is located at: 880 Manhattan Beach Blvd., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266. That office’s phone number is: (310) 546-2408. Our Redondo Beach office is located at: 210 Avenue I, Redondo Beach, CA 90277. That office’s phone number is: (310) 540-5888.

And students, don’t wait until the last minute to prepare! Enroll now! We look forward to helping you out soon!!

Like the title states, does “too much pressure” exist? Well, the obvious answer (that is, to me) is yes. Parents often put too much pressure on their children, sometimes without realizing it. I mean, it’s not uncommon for parents to want their children to succeed. However, being successful involves a lot of hard work, and because we live in a performance driven society, we often emphasize too much on success without realizing that the drive for success may harm us.

It’s a known fact – many parents have high expectations, and they end up putting too much pressure on their children. The pressure might become too unbearable for some. In all my years of learning and tutoring, I am convinced that a source of motivation for many kids is the pressure from their parents. Don’t misconstrue my words; some pressure is good, but too much pressure is harmful. The child might develop depression, behavior issues such as lashing out or rebelling, or even develop low confidence due to being not able to please his/her parents.

How do you know the limit of the pressure you have to apply? Take note of these following signs:

1. They tend to forget things easily.

2. They happen to start cheating in tests or assignments.

3. They stop hanging out often with their friends.

4. They do not talk to you as often as they did.

5. They get easily agitated.

6. They seem really frustrated when studying

If your child displays any of these signs, it means you’ve put too much pressure. Whether you may choose to back off at that point is up to you, but keep this in mind, we all want our children to be happy, don’t we?

Going to school, whether it be elementary, middle, or high school, now is different than going to school 20, 10, and even 5 years ago. Today, parents realize that their children are learning in different ways than they did when they went to school many, many years ago. I often hear parents ask each other, and on the occasion, ask me, being an educational provider (I’m an academic tutor), “What’s so different about how the way students learn presently than in the previous times?”

Upon being asked this question (or overhearing it being asked from one parent to another), it’s easy to reply that “Times have changed, and society is becoming more modernized and technology developed driven than before. Therefore, students today are immersed in a completely different learning environment than their parents.” I came to this conclusion based on a theory I have about education – that it is complex, and always changing.

So, in order to provide points about my argument, I will breakdown my theory into two phases of learning: Pre-Digital (pre-2000s) and the Digital Age (mid-2000s).

In the pre-digital (a.k.a. the “Pre-Historic Times”, according to my 13-year old nephew), learning was focused on these main three concepts:

– observation
– listening
– memorization

And now, in the digital (modern) age, where information is easily attainable via the Internet, and at times is overwhelming and/or misleading, I believe that learning expands out of those three concepts (observation, listening, and memorization) to include:

– questioning your learning experience (this is the most practiced concept; teachers and professors alike almost always ask their students this question after they are taught something new)
– proving (and disproving) what you find (this is a great method because students are taught to question what they find, therefore, stimulating their brains even more so)
– inventing new knowledge and learning methods and concepts (embracing the “new” is being taught in classrooms today)
– teaching others what you have learned (my favorite concept thus far; not only is it teaching students to share, it is also enriching learning beyond the classroom setting)

So, to summarize my theory in a nutshell, learning today is far more (and I really emphasize on that phrase) interactive than it was in the previous years. Students are taught to be hands-on in class, whether it is through more discussion in class and less lecturing, or going to the Internet to do information research in class. I feel that a lot of students today enjoy going to school because many teachers are welcoming these new learning methods, and instead of the students feeling like they are being tortured through boring lectures, they are involved in those methods along with their teachers.

Being how this is an article about learning, my question now, to you, is: what do you think? Feel free to leave a comment.