Often, students struggle with homework and receiving good grades on tests due to their misunderstanding of the material. Sometimes, teachers can’t connect with the students and an extra point of view is necessary for learning. 

That’s where other peers come in, along with the new tutoring center offered after school on Wednesdays. Having another perspective and method of teaching can help a student click with the work.

“Educators will attest, tutoring ranks among the most widespread, versatile, and potentially transformative instruments within today’s educational toolkit,” Andre Nickow, Phillip Oreopoulos and Vincent Quan of the Brown Center Chalkboard said.

It’s important for students to do whatever they can in order to improve their grade. If they don’t understand something that was taught in class, then it’s their responsibility to seek additional help.

“It’s a lot of responsibility to self-advocate and show up to tutoring sessions like this,” senior Ashley Kim said. “Students may have other commitments to focus on.”

And that is true of most students. It can be difficult to create a spot in their busy schedules to stay after school. 

Most underclassmen don’t drive, so it can be hard for them to find a ride. With other students, they have remaining important responsibilities including jobs, sports, clubs and college applications. 

“I’m a student with a part time job and I play a sport year round,” senior Abby Bledsoe said. “It’s really hard to find time during the week to go, especially since it’s only on Wednesdays.”

Maybe the solution to that should be that the school upgrades the tutoring center so that different students are taking part in multiple days. However, we do have to keep in mind that the tutors themselves have events in their lives going on as well.

It can be quite difficult to devote time to extra steps in the academic field when so many other things are going on at once. However, some students may just be “shy or embarrassed” when it comes to asking other peers for help, according to Kim.

“Which is totally understandable,” she said, “but I encourage those people to reach out to one of the tutors and ask. We established this program to help, and not make fun of those who need help in a subject area that may not be their strongest.”

The researchers at BCC stated that 80% of the 96 studies that they conducted reported significant effects when it came to tutoring students.

“I found a time to go a few weeks ago and it really helped me,” Bledsoe said. “I was struggling on multiple subjects and my peers were happy to help. I didn’t feel any judgment whatsoever.”

Going to tutoring for help is not the only thing that the program can be used for, but for extra practice in a subject one is already comfortable with too.

“Sit down with one of the tutors and go over some math problems, chemical equations or grammar exercises,” Kim said. “In the long run, it could help with high level assessments such as AP tests and the SAT or ACT.”