For the past 7 weeks, we have held 2 group courses to help students prepare for the SATs. Our group courses took place on the nights of Tues/Thurs and Mon/Wed from 7-9 p.m.
The cap for the SAT classes are 10 students and P.J. and Josh were the teachers for the SAT course. The January group course helped the students prepare for the March SAT exam that just took place this past Saturday, March 9th.
HIGHLIGHTS: Victoria, one of the 10 students in P.J’s SAT Group Course, went up 300 points from the help of the SAT course!
HERE’S THE IMPORTANT PART: Our next SAT course starts TONIGHT…. and we have 4 SPOTS LEFT!! P.J. will be the teacher for this SAT Group Course which will help students prepare for the May SAT test. We are only offering one group course on Tues/Thurs!!
We will have one week off for Spring Break so please keep that in mind. If you would like to sign up for our group course please contact our MB office manager Samantha … samantha@studyhut.com or call the Manhattan Beach Study Hut: (310)546-2408.
We have many tips that we share with our students on how to succeed on the SAT – and today our 1st tip comes from Andrew, one of our SAT tutors.
1st Tip: “Lookout for extreme answer choices in the Critical Reading section! If the answer choice contains strong words like ‘never, always, must, impossible, cannot, only, all, none, etc,’ then it is likely incorrect.”
Lastly, if you don’t want to be in the SAT Group Course, we also offer 3 different SAT Packages: 40 hour, 32 hour, and 24 hour (prices range depending on package you pick). We also do private one-on-one SAT tutoring. We have wonderful SAT tutors including but not limited too: Rhiannon, Kristen, Jeff, Frank, Rita, Josh, and Andrew! One-on-one private tutoring costs $100 plus a $65 materials fee.
Tomorrow, March 9th, many students will be taking the SAT test… an exam needed to get into college!!
Here are a few good tips to remember before taking the SAT test!!
Print your Admission Ticket: Make sure to bring you identification and your admission ticket to your test room. They have to verify that you are the same person listed on their paper.
Check your calculator’s batteries. Make sure your calculator works before taking the exam! You wouldn’t want to start the exam and realize that your calculator doesn’t work!
Set out everything else you’ll need for the test. Make sure to prepare the night before and set out everything you’ll need for the test so you don’t forget anything! For example: Pencils (multiple – and sharpened), eraser, non-beepy wristwatch, water, calculator, your admission ticket, and identification!
Watch a movie or something. Seriously, take your mind off the SAT for a bit. Nothing you can do today is going to change anything in a major way, and you want to walk in to the test room well-rested, not panicked and confident.
Set your alarm. SERIOUSLY! A lot of people use cell phone alarms these days, and sometimes those are set only to go off Monday through Friday. Make sure your alarm is going to wake you up tomorrow. You don’t want to be running late or stressing out the morning of your exam! It’s the most important day and you need to keep cool, calm, and collected so that you do the best that you can!!
Go to bed early!! Make sure you get a good nights rest.. you don’t want to be falling asleep during the test.. it’s 4 hours and you need to pay attention for the full 4 hours! It’s a long exam… Make sure to eat a nutritious dinner the night before, a nutritious and filling breakfast the morning of, and having energy that will keep you motivated and focused for the exam!
Hope this helps and good luck to all the students taking the exam tomorrow!
Every Wednesday at 8 a.m. – Study Hut Co-Owner SP, MB Officer Manager Sam, and Nicole go to Manhattan Beach Middle School to tutor students for an hour for free during the school’s late start. They have been going to the Manhattan Beach Middle School since the middle of January and each week more students attend the one hour free tutor hour. The tutoring takes place in Mr. Lub’s Classroom (Room 103). One of the Study Hut tutors made a sign to put at the middle school on Wednesday mornings letting students know where the tutoring will take place so hopefully each week more students will attend.
We started the first week with a small turn out, but each week a few more students show up. This past week they had 15 students – the most students they’ve had yet. The tutors bring doughnuts with them – which all the students look forward to. Along with the tutors, the school supplies a cart of books so you can work on any subject you need. Many of the same students come consistently every week, allowing the tutors to get to know the students on a more personal basis.
The tutors have had students come in for help in every subject including but not limited to Spanish, English, Math, Reading, and Science. The tutors have worked on many assignments with students including book reports, homework, studying for tests, organizational skills, arranging classes for High School, and many others. Usually during the hour, a few students work on the same assignments which makes it easier to help more students at one time.
Along with the tutors, MBMS also sends in classroom aids to help during the hour and make sure that everything is running smoothly.
Again, the tutoring takes place in Mr. Lubs Room (103) from 8 – 9 a.m. during the late start hour! We hope to see you there!
Extra! Extra! Read all about it! There was an ACT vs. SAT Prep Fair at Mira
Costa High School Wednesday night !
Our Manhattan Beach Office Manager Sam and Adam attended the SAT vs. ACT Prep Fair on Wednesday at Mira Costa High School from 6:15 p.m. until 8 p.m. The Study Hut set up a table and talked to many students and parents – mostly Sophomore and Junior level students who are getting ready to plan for college.
There was a speaker there on Wednesday night along with other businesses including Kaplan, Blue Train, The Princeton Review, PJ’s Test Prep Service, and many others.
The Study Hut offers SAT prep – both group courses and private one-on-one tutoring. Right now are are in the 4th week of a 6 week SAT group course. We offer classes up to 10 students and the class is offered Mon/Wed or Tues/Thurs for 2 hours each night.
If you are interested in taking this course, you can sign up to take a free SAT Diagnostic test on Saturday mornings proctored here at the Study Hut. The next dates will be March 2nd and March 23rd. We offered a Diagnostic this past Saturday as well on February 23rd and had a great turn out since students are gearing up for the real SAT test on March 9th!!
Once you’ve taken the diagnostic test – we will then schedule a consult with Co-Owner Rob to go over your scores and sign you up for either the group course or the private one-on-one sessions.
Our next SAT group course will start on March 12th and will be offered Tuesday and Thursday nights for two hours each.
You can e-mail samantha@studyhut.com if you are interested in taking the Diagnostic Test/being in the SAT group course or private one-on-one sessions.
Good luck to all the students who are taking the SAT exam on March 9th!!
Finals are Over! Some Things to Keep in Mind for the New Semester!
We here at the Hut are proud of all of our students for conquering the recent wave of finals. It was a wild week for all of us, but we made it!
While all of you students have earned the right to relax a bit, we wanted to remind you of the academic opportunities a fresh semester brings about. Remember that time you had to scramble before a final exam to land that awesome grade you wanted? With your grades resetting, now is the perfect time to make your next finals a breeze. A clean slate means you can quickly grab and hang on to that ‘A’ you want. The work at the beginning of the semester is much easier than at the end. If you keep yourself diligent with homework and early assignments, you’ll have a much easier time come finals. Just think: wouldn’t it be nice to go into your math final knowing that the grade you get on it couldn’t drop you to a ‘B’ even if you lit it on fire?
The passing of finals also offers us the opportunity to assess the strengths and weaknesses we had the semester before. Even if you didn’t get that grade you wanted in that tough class, you’ll be able to learn from the experience. Now, you can adjust your study habits to make sure that it doesn’t happen again.
All of this is the perfect opportunity to make sure that you keep those stress levels low by the time finals pop back around. It’s about always learning, even from our shortcomings. As always, we’re here to help.
We did it! We made it through finals season!! Last week was a long week here at the Study Hut.
Last week we went to different schools and helped them study after school for a few hours.
We went to Peninsula High for 3 hours and at Palos Verdes High for 5 hours and the weekend of the 19th/20th – we went to West on Friday afternoon, West again on Saturday morning and then to South on Sunday for free Finals Tutoring in the library.
We had such a great turn out at each session.
I tutored in Spanish on Friday afternoon from 3 to 6 in the library at West. There were over 100 students who came and another 100+ on the waiting list to participate in the free tutoring.
When the students came into the library, there were signs hung up on both the 1st and 2nd floor of the library, with the names of all the different subjects that we helped tutor in. The High School also sent some of their students to help tutor as well with us which was greatly appreciated.
We tutored in multiple subjects – Algebra 1 & 2, Trig, Calculus, Biology, Chemistry, Spanish – just to name a few.
Each student chose to either be tutored in one subject for all three hours – or be tutored in three subjects, one subject per hour.
For my first hour I had about 6 students – 2 in Spanish 1, 2 in Spanish 2, and 2 in Spanish 3. Then for my 2nd hour – 5 of the 6 students went to a different subject so I tutored a student one-on-one. Lastly, for my final hour, a few more students showed up and I finished with 5 kids. My subject was one of the smallest groups. I enjoyed having a small group since I was able to help each student individually.
Both the Science and Math subjects had about 30+ students in their group.
We always enjoy going to other schools before finals to help them study and we also helped many AVID classes study for their finals – including Newport and PV High.
This finals season went really well and we are proud of all the students!!
Finals week is coming quick and you might start feeling that uneasy shadow lingering over your shoulders, but luckily there are several tips, tricks, and techniques to make the next few weeks bearable. First of all, you need to make the trade and remember that drowsiness, exhaustion, and brain drain will all pass, but your GPA is forever. Accepting the climb ahead of you will set you on the right path for success. Regardless of the subject matter, people all learn the same which is why you know that cramming doesn’t work, taking long exaggerated breaks, and side tracking yourself is all sure ways to fail your finals. Thus, find an absolutely quite and if necessary (desolate) place to buckle down and really hit the books; this is a great time to turn off your cell phone and get away from your social notifications. Make goals for yourself and set time limits on how long you will study before you take a scheduled break. Don’t feel the urge to work in study groups if you know they will distract you, instead work on as much material as you can and save all your questions for your teacher, tutor, or friends for later. It’s important to build on what you know rather than give yourself test anxiety on what you need to know. Evaluate how your teacher or professor has given previous tests and quizzes and determine a study strategy that will most likely reflect you’re finals, midterm, test, or even future quiz. Then chunk the material into pieces and absolutely take your time learning the material – It takes more than an hour to digest a century of history! Finally, you need to make it interesting. Take pride in what you’re learning and mentally dazzle yourself.
EXTRA! EXTRA! Read all about it!! Are you ready to rumble???
We are excited to announce that this year the Study Hut will be putting on our first ever Parent/Teacher Scholar Quiz. The date has been decided, and the Scholar Quiz will take place on June 2nd at the Manhattan Beach Country Club.
The Scholar Quiz will be a Charity Event to help raise money for the Study Hut Foundation. Our Foundation offers free tutoring and scholarships to students at Narbonne High School.
Our event will be on Sunday June 2nd from 4 – 9 p.m and we will be using a majority of the rooms. At our event we will be serving appetizers and cocktails.
The event will have 16 teams of 4 players – a mix of both students and teachers from all surrounding neighborhoods.
If a teacher doesn’t want to participate and be part of a team, they can always sponsor one of the teacher teams.
The questions will come from a range of different topics so you’ll have to come with your thinking caps on.
We will also be holding a Silent Auction and so we will be looking for auction items to use!
We are looking for sponsors and donors to help support and raise money for this wonderful cause.
If you would like to help out and volunteer or donate in any way you can call the Study Hut or e-mail Samantha at Samantha@studyhut.com
Stay tuned for updates including: What kind of silent auction items we will have, donations we receive, and any other fun details that we come up with later.
It’s that time of the year again… that cliche statement.. “the most wonderful time of the year”… Ok, not really… but it is FINALS SEASON.
Today is one of the busiest days for the RB Study Hut since PV high are taking their first two final exams today! Good luck to all the students today!!
This past weekend the Study Hut went to both Peninsula High and Palos Verdes High to work with their AVID programs.
We were at Peninsula High for 3 hours and at Palos Verdes High for 5 hours.
This weekend we will be going to both South (Saturday) and West (Sunday) for free Finals Tutoring.
The Study Hut will be open on Monday January 21st – Martin Luther King Jr Day – since schools have off that day.
All our students have worked very hard this semester and we are hyped up for what next semester is going to bring!
We are halfway through another school year, and for some of you that means that High school is right around the corner. Since there are 4 years of High School, many students don’t ever think that your Freshman year really is an important year… so I am here to tell you that freshman year really is an important year !!
Freshman year is a new start for a lot of students…new school, new friends, new teachers/classes.. and every student wants to make a good first impression. For most students, going to a new school can be a big adjustment. Even if you have older brothers or sisters, naturally students will want to pave their own path and create their own reputation. Freshman year will be a chance to find new friends, join interesting extracurricular activities, and adapt to new teachers and their different teaching strategies.
New School: What you decide to do in High School will impact your future… and if you start off on the right track, hopefully your future will turn out bright.
When applying to colleges, they look for not only good grades but also consistency with sports, clubs, and organizations… so when you’re a Freshman, you should try to join either a club or extracurricular that you are passionate about and that you will stick with throughout your 4 years of High School.
New Friends: Usually when you attend High School you will be mixed with new people which is always fun and exciting. These new students could turn out to become some of your closest friends, and Freshman Year is a great way to break the ice and meet new people since you’re all going through the same experience.
New teachers/classes: In terms of new classes and teachers: each year, the learning curriculum will become more vigorous and the work load will become longer and more strenuous. The grades your receive your Freshman year are as important as the grades you receive the most of the years, though Sophomore and Junior year grades are weighted more on your GPA.
Learning to study for Finals will be new to all Freshman, since for most Freshman this will be their first time taking Final exams. Final exams are usually cumulative and there are good strategies to help you when taking the exams. Since grades are always important, the study habits that you use or learn from others will hopefully improve over time and can help you not only through High School but college as well.
As you can see, Freshman year is very important and can make a good or bad impact on you, depending on your experience. Here’s to a great first year!
