Students signed-up for tutoring services In record numbers. (Jones)
CLIFF NOTES, CRAM SESSIONS AND CHAPTER SUMMARIES DIDN'T CUT IT, SO 700 STUDENTS SIGNED UP FOR
THE REAL HOMEWORK
ELPERS I
t was a real learning experience. After all, there were not many other universities in the nation where the student government paid undergraduates to instruct other students. But then there were not many other schools in the nation that gave people the right to one hour of free tutoring a week. Each semester, about 70 students received at least $4.50 an hour to tutor some of their 700 peers, according to Judy Wallins, coordinator of the Learning Resource Center (LRC). Graduate students were paid $5.50 an hour to teach. "Its a mistake to think those signed up for tutoring are the down and outters," she said. "The typical student who comes and gets a tutor is above average. They're the ones motivated to impro"e their grades." Nearly two-thirds of students tutored were upperclassmen, Wallins said. "A freshman doesn't always know what's wrong
or what they need to work on. By the time they reach their sophomore or junior year, they know exactly what they don't know, and they come here hoping to fix that," she said. After doing poorly on a Math 140 test, Dale Limesand signed up for weekly sessions. " My first test score convinced me that I needed some help. After my first tutoring session, I was hooked on it," he said. "Since then, my quiz grades have gone up quite dramatically.'' Limesand's tutor, Paul Thomson, said he had taught more than a dozen students since he began working for the LRC in
1985. According to Thomson, a new computerized scheduling system made it easy to help several students a week. "Now that its all computerized, its a lot easier for me to schedule more hours of actual tutoring. It gets difficult, though, when midterms arrive and everybody wants me to give them extra time,'' said Thomson. Computers also helped the center track the number of times students and tutors missed appointments. Those who missed two sessions lost tutoring privileges, Wallins said. To help students review for major exams in core classes like Biology 100 and Economics 151, the LRC also sponsored free test reviews. But Wallins said that neither the study sessions nor tutoring sessions were an adequate substitute for regular study. "Students enrolled in tutoring often raise their marks about a letter grade," she said, "but only if they put the help they get here to good use by developing good study habits."
EXTRA
CREDIT
quallflcawere necea路 to be hired as a tutor?
B
ing to Learning rce Center Coordiudy Wallins, tutors were upperclassmen who had earned a " B" or be芦er In their teachIng area. LAC secretaries used computers to schedule tutor appointmenta with students like Rob Gordon. (Jones)
Student Tutors
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