Newport Beach finals are coming, are you ready? Here at Study Hut Newport Beach, we are prepared to help students ace their exams and achieve their goals. With tutors coming from top colleges and graduate programs, we are prepared to help students in a large variety of subjects. Our tutors are not only experienced in multiple content areas, but are experts in study habits and test taking strategies as well. At Study Hut Newport Beach, we seek to create positive study habits that will follow students throughout their academic careers. As the new year begins and finals are approaching there is no better time to get started!
How do I get started? Give us a call or shoot us an email! We will pair you with a tutor that is an expert in the subject you’re looking for. We believe in providing students with a one-on-one service. This allows the tutors to target the student’s strengths and weaknesses and to focus on each student’s individual needs. Going into Newport Beach finals we want to ensure that each student gets the information and skills they need to succeed.
When should I get started? The sooner the better! Cramming for an exam is never a good idea. Students should be going into an exam prepared and confident. The sooner we start, the sooner we can fill any gaps and give students helpful strategies tailored to them. We see the best results with students who consistently come in week to week. Tutors are able to track their progress and get them ready for the test. As Newport Beach final get closer, our schedule tends to fill up, so call ahead!
So whether it’s physics, chemistry, math, or even Spanish, we are ready to help! Study Hut Newport has you covered for all of your tutoring needs. It’s time to buckle down and start studying.
Students can see a lot of benefit from getting tutoring for their foreign language classes. While the material may seem simple in class, retaining the information is the challenging part. This is especially true once students get to the second, third, and even fourth years of their language. Seeing a tutor for their foreign language is beneficial for may reasons.
Because they are with a tutor, the student will get more one-on-one time than they would with a teacher. A tutor can make sure the student is working on their pronunciation correctly, getting their accents right, and using the appropriate tenses. It is hard for a student to get the one-on-one attention they need in a class with thirty other kids who are all learning the same language. They may not know they are doing something wrong until they lose points on their test.
Practice conversation with a tutor will be much more helpful than the conversation practice they get in the classroom. Sometimes students may be paired up with students who cannot even make it through a sentence properly, or take a long time to even think of a response. Having conversations with someone who actually knows the language will help your student conjugate quickly and correctly, and be able to quickly form sentences out of their ideas.
A tutor will be able to find a way to explain tenses to your student that actually makes sense to him or her. Often times teachers explain the concept thoroughly, but it just doesn’t click with a lot of students.
The extra practice will help your student’s memory stay fresh. They will be able to distinguish between which words have masculine and which words have feminine articles, and irregular verbs will hardly present a challenge.
Joey started coming in to Study Hut because he was really struggling in his Spanish 3 class. All semester he had not been getting the grades that he wanted on tests and large assignments. He worked hard in class and did all of his homework, but he still did not seem to really understand the material. As much as he practiced it just did not stick.
Joey worked on Spanish 3 with his tutor Ana. The concepts became easier and he began to fully grasp the material thanks to the practice he was getting outside of the classroom. They worked on pronunciations, how to write using multiple different tenses, and how to make sure his grammar was perfect. Joey was really worried about his final because so much of the semester had not made sense. He put a lot of effort and work into studying and preparing for it. The final was an oral recitation with a lot of difficult future tense and new vocabulary. He and Ana spent a lot of time making sure that he was pronouncing all of his verbs correctly and that all of his irregulars were conjugated the right way. They also paid close attention to making sure that Joey remembered to follow the accents when he was giving the words emphasis.
Joey ended up getting a 95% on his final. He was incredibly proud of himself, and Ana was proud of him, too!
Quite a few students come to Study Hut to work on their foreign language classes. It is especially helpful to get tutoring in a foreign language because the more you use it, the easier it is. One of our Spanish tutors, Laura, was able to help her student Connor raise his grade by ten percent with his final, bringing his final semester grade up to an A!
Connor came in twice a week to work on his Spanish with Laura. They would always go over his homework, as well as reviewing the content that he had learned in class earlier that day or that week. They extensively went over conjugating verbs, especially irregular verbs such as ir and tener. Connor practiced writing each conjugation over and over until he could do it for each subject with no mistakes. Laura and Connor also worked on improving his sentence composition and structure. They meticulously went through all the paragraphs that Connor had to write for homework and made sure that everything was correct. It does not help to slack on homework because doing things incorrectly on the homework will translate to doing it incorrectly on the test as well. Connor booked extra time before tests and when large assignments, such as essays were due. All their diligence and hard work paid off in the end. The final was an absolute breeze and Connor ended the class with an A, which he was a lot easier thanks to all of his hard work with Laura!
Foreign language classes never fail to be a little more difficult than all of a student’s other classes, especially once they have advanced past the first year. Learning a language is a bit different from other subjects though, and requires some extra effort and patience to truly master it.
First, master your conjugations. Conjugating verbs is one of the first things you learn in a language, and that’s because you are going to use it in every single thing that you do. If you know that certain verbs are going to be on an upcoming test, make sure that you know how to conjugate and correctly spell them for every form, especially if they are irregular verbs.
Know exactly what each tense is used for and how to use it. A lot of language tests will cover any new tenses you have learned in the class and when to use them over other tenses you have previously learned. If a tense just doesn’t make sense to you and your teacher can’t clear it up, see a tutor! They can walk you through exactly what each tense is used for and will explain it in a way that your teacher hasn’t.
Make sure you know the difference between masculine and feminine words. In some languages the gender of the object will affect its adjectives and how the verb in the sentence is spelled. Some teachers will count each of these things for separate points, so make sure that you know them!
Working at the Study Hut affords us tutors the freedom to delve deep into the student’s subjects beyond that what they do in class. I recently had a student who didn’t have much work in her high school biology and Spanish classes (what we normally work on) so I improvised and pulled out some knowledge from my university psychology classes. She was learning about the brain in her biology class, but the class only touched on the basics of the brain’s anatomy. After we covered the material from her textbook, we spent the rest of the lesson going in depth on the structure of neurons and synapses, the anatomy of the brain and nervous system, and a brief overview of neurotransmitters.
Since she grasped all the necessary information quickly and effortlessly, we also previewed a couple of interesting neurological disorders that highlighted how the brain works, and how it sometimes fails to work. Specifically, we talked about a neuropsychological disorder known as ‘hemispatial neglect’. It primarily affects patients of strokes and causes them to neglect one side of their bodies. They aren’t blind, and they have sensations in those areas, but they they do not recognize or are not aware of one side of their body. For instance, if you were to punch one of these people on their neglected side they wouldn’t see the punch coming, but they would feel the pain. This lack of awareness leads the sufferers of this unusual and startling neuropsychological disorder to do things like apply makeup to one half of their face or only put on one sleeve or pant leg.
I loved teaching this student about a subject that I was passionate about, and it was something that went beyond the scope and focus of an average high school class. Here at the Study Hut we have the flexibility to delve deep into subjects that students may not be exposed to in school but that may pique their interests.
As a former student at Palos Verdes High School ( www.pvhigh.com ), I have found that the Study Hut curriculum for PVHS Math, Biology, Chemistry, Spanish, and English are perfect for the PV High curriculum. The PV school district’s expectations for Math classes, ranging from Geometry to Calculus, are very high and the homework and study workloads show this. At Study Hut ( www.studyhut.com ), I give one-on-one tutoring to help students understand and manage their challenging Algebra, Algebra 2, and Geometry workloads. Adding to this, most students are required to take Biology and Chemistry. From my experience as a Natural Science major at USC ( www.usc.edu ), I can personally attest to the very high level and challenging requirements that Palos Verdes high school students face.
At Study Hut, I help students in understanding the difficult materials, as well as in preparing for their tests (whether they be finals, AP, SATs, or SAT 2). Spanish 1 and Spanish 2 are also requirements for PVHS students and during my time at PV High, I remember that many students also take Spanish 3 and Spanish 4. These classes can be especially problematic for students who have never taken Spanish before or are not used to the verbal and written demands of the classes. At Study Hut, I really enjoy helping students improve their Spanish vocabulary, as well as their grammar and pronunciation. With all of these subjects, it really works to my benefit that I have taken the classes that I tutor at PV High (a lot of times with the same teachers), so I have a good understanding of the expectations and style of work that PVHS requires for a good grade. Adding to this, the atmosphere and tutoring style encouraged at Study Hut meshes well with Palos Verdes High School students and generates very positive results.
Summer School is ending… our SAT courses are underway and Fall is right around the corner!
Many of the summer school classes ended this week and we have had a lot of students coming to the Study Hut for help through their classes. Geometry, spanish and government were three classes that many students were taking over the summer.
We have an SAT class going on at both our Manhattan and Redondo Beach locations. After the first 2 weeks, the students in Redondo went up an average of 100 points on their exams.
Many students have been starting SAT training so they do well on the SAT exams coming up in the fall. We have many families who are purchasing packages.
Remember, we have a 24 (12 – 2 hour) sessions, 32 hour (16 – 2 hour) sessions, and a 40 (20 – 2 hour) sessions packages!
We also offer ACT Packages as well if you are interested!
We have a free diagnostic test for the ACT and SAT coming up this Saturday – August 3rd, and another one coming up in 2 weeks on August 17th!!
With Fall right around the corner, students are calling in to reserve times and dates for the fall to come into the Study Hut. We have created a list and it’s first come/first serve.
We have also been really successful this summer with our reading/writing/math students who are in elementary and middle school that are preparing for their coming school year.
Contact us if you would like to know anymore information about any of these topics listed above.
Manhattan Beach: (310)546-2408 – Office Manager: Kristen
One of our two assistant managers at the MB Study Hut is learning to speak Spanish!
Kristen has decided that since many of our tutors and both our co-owners speak Spanish, that she would learn the language as well.
Behind her desk, we have created a “Spanish Word of the Day” section, where it lists all the new words she has learned.
Other sections behind her desk include important fliers that we put up with important information regarding what’s going on at the Hut and courses that we are offering! She also has artwork and notes that her students have made for her.
Each day she is given a new word of the day, either by one of us that works at the Study Hut, or by a student that goes to the Study Hut. The students love it and many of them quiz her when they come in for tutoring to see if she remembers them.
She does well with the vocabulary words but she gets confused when we try to teach her to conjugate verbs. She is still trying to learn basic skills like the difference between the EL and LA articles before words for masculine/feminine.
Here are a list of some of her words:
Nadar: to swim
Bailar: to dance
galleta: cookie
la playa: the beach
Feliz Navidad: Merry Christmas
Gordo: fat
Gustar: To like
el juego: The game
Estoy en fuego: I’m on fire
Turquesa: Turquiose
dulce: candy
el barco: the boat
And many others!!
If you have any suggestions for words of the day.. you can e-mail samantha at samantha@studyhut.com
Or you can leave a comment below this post and we will be sure to make note of the new words of the day to add to Kristen’s wall.
I tutor a girl who is in the 7th grade and she has a twin sister – both in the same classes. These 2 girls have been struggling in all their classes and have not been receiving the best grades (though as a tutor I knew they could do much better).
We bought the girls planners – so that they could get organized and write all their assignments down instead of using only their IPAD. We really want to help them get their grades up before the end of the year – and I feel like it can happen! I tutor one of the twins and another tutor helps her sister.
For many students, it’s only one or two classes they are focusing on – but these girls need help in all their classes – English, Spanish, Science, Social Studies, and Math.
I am very well versed in Spanish and math – my two best subjects – and not so well in English, Social Studies, and Science – but it’s nice to tutor these subjects – not only to help my student but also to reteach myself things that I have forgotten about over the years.
So together, my student and I have made a good plan and we are on the same page – with preparing ahead – doing flashcards, section outlines, and section reviews right when she finds out she has a test.
Last week we knew she had a Science test – so we prepared very early instead of her waiting until the last minute and not studying and also not telling me she had a test.
We worked on the Cardiovascular system and studied all about the heart, veins, lungs, capillaries, arteries, and many other interesting subjects.
Long story short – she came in today and told me she got a 91% on her test and her sister got an 83%. She told me she wanted to scream with excitement when she got her test. Today, we then studied for her Social Studies test for Thursday and she really wants to get another good grade!!!
