The holiday season is upon us, but that is no reason to neglect your SAT studies. The January 26 test isn’t that far away, and the March test will be here before you know it. Staying sharp over winter break isn’t always the easiest thing to do, but here at the Study Hut, we have a slogan: “Come on, Man!” Sure, vegging out in front of your TV re-watching The OC: Season 4 for the third time seems like a good idea, but this time of year provides you with ample time to continue your prep work without having to worry about classes, sports, and other obligations – besides, Season 4 is lame anyway (Spoiler Alert: Marissa dies).
To help you all remain on task, I’d like to share a method that I personally have found extremely effective: The Pomodoro Technique. Designed eons ago in the early 90s as a way to utilize the power of concentrated energy and frequent, short breaks, Pomodoro remains one of the most popular productivity techniques. The premise is simple; make use of all of your brain’s energy in 25-minute spurts, and then take a 5-minute break. Do this three more times and then reward yourself with a 25-minute break. It’s as simple as it sounds, but almost 100 times as effective.
So keep chugging along hut-sketeers (Nailed it!), and let us know how the Pomodoro helps you out. See the chart below for upcoming SAT dates and deadlines to register. Don’t wait until the last minute!
SAT Date Registration Deadline Late Registration Deadline
Jan 26 Dec 28 Jan 11
Mar 9 Feb 8 Feb 22
May 4 Apr 5 Apr 19
Jun 1 May 2 May 17
As the holidays quickly approach us, so do the wonderful bounties of winter breaks. While we at Study Hut would love to keep you students buried in books (not really), we can appreciate that, whether you’ll be travelling or not, you may want to enjoy your well-deserved breaks. After all, you’ve been hitting the books for months! We’d love to hear that our students are spending their vacations preemptively studying for future schoolwork, but we can’t say it’s a realistic possibility.
With that in mind, we’re here to offer some tips for keeping those wonderful minds sharp, so you can jump right back into the swing of things when you’re back.
1. Organization – Keep the work you’re supposed to do over the break and the work you will be doing upon returning (tests, etc.) in mind while you vacation. Don’t stress and obsess, but keep these tasks organized. If you keep a planner, you can lay out all of these obligations on paper and you won’t have to think about them constantly.
2. Moderation – As much as we love stuffing our faces with stuffing and other holiday grub, we want to encourage our students to not fall too deep into the bliss of the holiday season. How will you keep your grades up if you eat yourself into a coma? As with everything, enjoy the time off, but don’t let your school mentality slip completely away. It’s important to be able to transition back. Hit the floor running!
3. Have Fun – We know some of our students, being academic all-stars, will have trouble letting go over the break. If you have work to do while on break, take a specific day or two to get it done. This way, you’ll be able to celebrate the important holiday festivities with the ones you love, without having to excuse yourself to study.
As we, ourselves, prepare to enjoy the holiday season, we too much keep our heads in the game. We’ll be eating enough to inspire crippling dietary guilt, but we’re fully prepared to jump back into the swing of things. So whenever you find yourself back at the Hut, we’ll be ready! And don’t forget we are open over break. This is an excellent time to gear up for finals that are just around the corner!
The days have gotten shorter, the air has gotten colder, and the department stores over at Del Amo are starting to bust out their most maddening Christmas mixtapes. You all know what that means: the winter season is almost upon us and our first semester is wrapping up. And along with promises of presents, great food, and the company of loved ones, the holiday season brings with it a much needed break from school. However, it isn’t time to start relaxing just yet. In addition to the fact that most of you will be spending all your time applying to college or studying for final exams anyway, your classes are still very much in session. It is very important to utilize this time and stay on top of your studies. We both know that it’s tempting to start throttling back on your work already, but ‘ain’t nobody got time for that.’ You’ve got to finish strong. At the risk of sounding like somebody’s grandpa, “you’ve got to keep your nose to the grindstone”. No one still living today has any idea where that phrase comes from, but we all (sort of) know what it means. The hard work isn’t officially over until the last bell lets you out on the last day before break (whenever that may be). The consequences of slacking off now may not seem grave, but every little bit of effort counts. Right now, your teachers are scrambling to fit in everything they haven’t taught you for whatever reason. The final part of the semester is always the most hectic. To me, it calls to mind the time when my Physics teacher tried to teach us all of nuclear physics during the half-day period on the day before break. Talk about needing a major study session! Don’t be asleep at the wheel when this (inevitably) happens to you! Keep working, and finish strong. Remember, the friendly tutors at the Study Hut are always here to help your prepare for your final exams.
Here at The Study Hut sometimes saying goodbye is a happy occasion. As the summer is coming to an end so we say goodbye to a few of our tutors. Not to worry! Their departure is not due to sub-par performance or conflicts between other tutors, but because they are once again joining the ranks of US college students or are exploring the world in hopes of expanding human knowledge.
We are happy to see one tutor off to Columbia University this fall. Jenna who has worked with us this last year came to us already with some teaching experience. She had taught and substituted for a few of the lower elementary grades after finishing school. Now she is going for her Masters degree in education. We are always happy people using their skills to teach other and help others.
Another tutor will also be leaving not just us, the whole United States. Jenny, after a few years helping kids in our Redondo office, is packing up and leaving for Australia. A marine-bio major, Jenny spent time studying sharks while in school. Now she plans on continuing that hobby/love. She will be camping out on the remote coast of Australia tracking, recording, and studying the local shark behavior. After a few months she will then be attending graduate school in Australia.
We wish Jenna and Jenny the best of luck on their new adventures.
Study Hut, coming up on it’s sixth birthday in December has come a long way. Not only have we expanded in the South Bay, but we are now in Newport Beach! By nature, you can only imagine the tutor rivalry that has spurred out from such expansion. The biggest rivalries are between the Manhattan Beach Study Hut, which we tutors like to call “Hut 1 or The Mother Hut”, and the Redondo Beach Study Hut located in the Redondo Beach Riviera Village, which we call, “Hut 2” (take note that no other cool name has been associated with this location). Hence, I have decided to write this blog on the reasons why Hut 1 is inherently better and completely dominates Hut 2.
1. Hut one is bigger and caters to more students. The Hut is always bustling with tons of kids ranging from kindergarten to adults. We tutor the young ones in subjects such as reading and writing, high school kids come in for SATs and whatever other homework they need help with, and we have the occasional adult coming in to learn Spanish, or English for that matter!
2. Our tutors dominate! We can tutor all subjects. Whatever subject you need to be tutored in, we can do it. Even Chinese!!!!
3. We are much facier. We are open seven days a week during the school year! No matter what kind of a bind you are in, we are here for ya! Scheduling around sports proves to be no match for us. Come in on a Saturday or Sunday and knock out your school work before the week begins to get a head start.
Or newly renovated Underground is inundated with new and exciting under the sea decor.
4. We have a self built lifeguard chair. Built just for the manager, Samantha, we dominate the seating arrangements category!
5. Even though they seem to be cool over there they are merely an image of a younger brother stealing the appearance of his older brother so he can play off as “cool” in front of his friends.
6. It is not rare to find the owner Rob BBQing in the parking lot for all of the employees. We all know the way to a tutors’ heart is through their stomach… or their calculator.
All in all, both Huts are great. They both have amazingly qualified tutors with open arms ready to help each and every student that walks in the door. However, it wouldn’t be The Hut if there wasn’t a little friendly rivalry. We like to keep ourselves entertained around here 😉
Just a couple weeks ago, we were all waiting in anticipation for our long overdue summer break. Now, summer is at its peak, and while we do enjoy our vacations and coffee breaks, the academic semester is just around the corner, and it is time to start investing in what matters by taking initiative. Instead of waking up to a sluggish summer hangover, why not buckle up before the academic storm hits and start preparing for your semester courses? Study Hut’s tutors are not only available to help you cram for midterms and term papers. We are also here to help you gear up for SATs, APs, or even Geometry. Take advantage of the last couple weeks of summer to get ahead of your peers. When you go shopping for your back-to-school supplies, remember that learning is merely facilitated
by textbooks, paper, and pencil. — your actual success in school will depend on your attitude, preparation, and dedication to your studies.A couple of hours every week goes a long way in preparing you for the coming academic semester — choose to sacrifice a couple hours of this fading summer for a significant head start on your courses at school.
We at Study Hut call this ‘investing in education’.
This summer, as manager, I have been presented with the opportunity to actually tutor! Normally, the hustle and bustle of the Hut prevents me from my real passion, teaching. One of my regular and favorite students in here over the summer is Adelia. She has diligently come in twice a week throughout the summer to study Spanish and Geometry. I admire her confidence and motivation to get ahead of the game and become prepared for the classes she will endure in the fall.
Starting out with Spanish 5/6 in the fall she went ahead and bought the book that her high school, Mira Costa, uses so that I can start teaching her the material. Once fall comes she will be prepared with the vocabulary and will be strong with the grammar. Throughout the course of these few weeks she has already improved in both her retention of vocabulary and her ability to speak and comprehend the language. Last year, I tutored another student in Spanish in preparation for Spanish 2. He excelled in his Spanish class receiving a high B opposed to D+ he received the semester prior. A little elbow grease in the summer goes a long way when it comes to learning a language. I have the confidence that Adelia will be able to start and finish this year strong.
Similarly, math skills are just as important to maintain during the summer. Adelia already has a solid understanding of the primary concepts in Geometry and will have gone through the first few chapters of the Mira Costa Geometry book by the time summer has ended.
Most kids are resistant to summer tutoring and believe that it will take up their entire summer. Adelia, however, is extremely active. She owns a horse is Palos Verdes and rides him every day. She is extremely happy with her progress she has made this summer at Study Hut.
Not only can we provide enrichment for math and Spanish, but also French, English, reading comprehension, physics, history, biology, chemistry and whatever else, you name it, we have a tutor for it! Bring it on fall semester!
Summer enrichment at Study Hut Manhattan Beach is filled with active, student-centered learning activities that get the kids out of their seats and thinking outside of the box. One of my elementary school students is entering first grade at Pacific this fall. Like most six year olds, he has an attention span of less than five minutes…maybe 30 seconds…so every few minutes we change up the routine! He practices his sight words by writing on a whiteboard, stamping the words with ink and a stamp pad, and even by jumping up and down as he spells the words out loud. For math practice he goes around to the Study Hut tutors taking polls so he can work on tally marks. This not only improves his math skills, but also gives him an opportunity to practice math in an applicable setting and see its importance to everyday life. These activities also help him to develop social skills. In addition to the social math activities, he also greets the Manhattan Crew every afternoon session using appropriate eye contact and asking follow up questions. Probably the highlight of the sessions for him is his sticker chart. He earns stickers throughout our study sessions and keeps track of them on a graph. Yesterday he told me, “I like Study Hut, it’s fun here!” I told him, “Yes, Study Hut is a lot of fun because learning is fun!” He smiled and walked out the door to show off the Star Student Award he had just earned during our session. At Study Hut, the students are at the center of everything of we do.
Study Hut generally maintains a relatively steady state of operations, seasonally — fortunately, this all changes when our students slam into the Great Wall of Finals. I see students coming in with varying degrees of academic success and perceptibility, which consequently creates a general state of panic and chaos in the majority of students that come in for extra tutoring. While it may seem as if this pinnacle, this cummulation of efforts, is far too all-encompassing to
be manageable, the truth is, none of this will matter tomorrow, or the next year, or the next century. Conversely, in respect to you, the student, everything matters with what you do today, and studying for classes during this hectic time is, rightly, what you must be doing. Study Hut’s role in this system is to facilitate your studies, guide you to answers to questions, and, most importantly, give you the confidence and ability to ensure you function properly at the right moment — test taking time.
I believe that, while some students do require extra tutoring and that others require a confidence chat in between sessions, studying is, clearly, the correct step. We, the tutors at Study Hut, will do everything we can to make sure you are ready for whatever test comes at you — more or less. When you feel as if everything is coming down on you and that things
are simply overwhelming your ability to retain all that information — come on, an entire year? — just remember to breathe, just breathe…
It’s the dreaded blank sheet. The writing assignment stares up from the table, but you have no idea where to begin. Should you start with the thesis statement? Gather textual evidence first? Maybe it’s better to just wing it and worry about editing later.
It’s a frustrating situation, but there is help! Study Hut is offering a series of writing workshops this summer designed to review the different types of essays and prepare students for the next level of writing.
Each grade brings new expectations, particularly when it comes to writing. If a student enters the school year even moderately unprepared, it can turn from a small setback to a major problem in a hurry. It’s tempting to regard writing in terms of black and white; there are inherently good writers and bad writers. That, however, is far from the case. Good writing is a matter of discipline, strategy and lots and lots of practice.
The Hut’s summer workshop is designed to be all of those things and more. Each week, we’ll spend one-on-one time with students going over everything from correctly citing a source to crafting the perfect topic sentence. From college applications to AP tests to middle school lab reports, strong writing skills are always going to help students succeed.
Each student has one-on-one time with a tutor, so we can adapt the program to fit any skill level. We’ve put together instructional, age appropriate materials that will help any student prepare for the next step in the great journey of mega-awesome skillstastic writing! Also, we promise to discourage made-up words like “skillstastic.”
Contact us today by emailing Samantha@studyhut.com for more information on the writing workshop. Sample topics include: thesis writing, finding and citing sources, topic sentences and using evidence effectively in narrative, analytical, expository, synthesis and literary analysis essays.
