guest written by Eric Clark of Quincy Tutoring

Last week, my friend Mark from My Town Tutors wrote a great guest post for TestSoup.  This follow up will give you five things that you should look for in a tutor.  Don’t limit your list to these five categories, use the list as a starting point once you being the tutor search process.

References

Do your due diligence and make sure that each tutor that you hire is a great fit for your student.  Each student has a different set of needs, and it is important that the tutor meets those needs adequately.  It is important to gain trust in your tutors, but that takes time.  Ask for references; if the applicant doesn’t have any, stay away!

Experience

Experience tells a lot about a tutor’s ability to do their job well.  A tutor may be a great tutor with little to no experience, but experience is usually better.  Experienced tutors should be able to adapt a tutor session mid-stream, and help the student reach their potential.  Inexperienced tutors can help students, but it may be less efficient.  Experienced tutors also cost more, and for some, an inexperienced tutor is the best option.

Training

Quality training is almost as important as experience.  There are several great tutor training programs out there, and I would recommend the Crossroads of Learning (CRL) tutor training.  When a tutor successfully completes the CRL training they are certified by the National Tutor Association.  Tutors that have gone through teacher training are great as well.  My Town Tutors has a database of tutors that are/were full-time teachers.

Communication

Communication is a key component to a successful tutor/student relationship.  Tutors with great non-verbal communication will be extremely successful.  Tutors that can ask open ended questions will also be successful, because they require students to make connections.  Students will learn far less if they are given direct answers to their question.  A good tutor will allow their student to think and come up with their own answer by providing clues that the student can piece together.

Intentions

Is the tutor in it for the money?  If so, that relationship is not going to work.  Tutors need to be invested in their students, much like teachers are.  I don’t know a single good teacher that is in it for the money.  The students must come first!

As stated in the beginning, use these 5 categories as a starting point in the tutor search process.  There may be specific criteria that will come from the initial interview, so don’t be afraid to ask the tutor specific questions.  Students should feel comfortable with the tutor from the onset.  Don’t get started off on the wrong foot by hiring a tutor that is not a good fit.

The Quincy Tutor Network is only four months old, but it is a great place to start the tutor search.  New tutors are registering every week, and there is always room for more.  If you are a tutor please consider joining our free network and our LinkedIn Group.  Tutors are also given the ability to blog, which is a great way to show potential clients your skill set.  As always, feel free to find Quincy Tutoring on Facebook and Twitter.

About the author: Eric Clark is the founder and CEO of Quincy Tutoring, an online tutor network.  Quincy Tutoring also offers affordable standardized test prep, and fully endorses TestSoup’s flashcard system.  Follow Eric on Twitter and Facebook.

guest written by Michelle Deets Haynes of Clarity Learning

Have you considered whether your own study methods are working for you or against you? Study methods that consume too much time and don’t prepare you well can leave you feeling frustrated and too unmotivated to continue. Whether you’re a busy middle or high school student, a new college student, or a working adult who is juggling classes with family demands, there’s no time for ineffective study techniques.

I consider weak study techniques to be those that leave you feeling rushed, drained, overwhelmed, or bored. They leave your eyes watering while your brain wanders off. However, active, effective study methods leave you saying:

• I really don’t mind studying this way.
• I know this, this, and this.
• I need to review these things here.
• I still have time to master this material.

Here are three ways to set up and employ active, confidence-building study methods:

1. Plan ahead and study in chunks. Don’t cram. Cramming leads to mixed-up terms, forgotten steps, and that awful fog of self-doubt that settles on you during the test. It’s better to find several small chunks of time to commit a few concepts and terms to memory than to wait until you “have enough time.”

Smartphones can easily carry around your notes. Review a few pieces of material as you ride to school, wait for your parents, or wait for your own children to finish an activity. That having said, make sure you study everything together at some point in case there are terms or steps that are similar and easily confused. You’re a busy person; utilize your breaks to spread out your study sessions and avoid cramming.

2. In order to retain information, you must be alert and have the intent to retain. Get your body involved in the game. Just reading text off a website, flashcard, or page lacks the impact and retention of DOING SOMETHING with that text. Use an active website like www.quizlet.com to enter terms and manipulate them with the online drag-and-drop games or the voice recognition software.

Also, I prefer matching cards to standard flashcards. Rather than front and back cards, write the terms on one card, the definitions on another. Spread the terms out on the table. Then, similar to dealing cards, match the terms and definitions by placing the correct cards on top of each other. Between scanning for the partner cards, physically setting one card atop another, and checking the answer, you’re actively participating in your study session.

If you zone out while reading, create your study materials as you go to keep yourself tuned in. Read a paragraph and then think of two or three questions and answers. Write them on your cards or type them into your online flashcard system. Presto! You’ve become an active, alert student! No more sleepily reading and re-reading the text to absorb the data. You don’t have time for that!

3. Quiz yourself as part of your study program. Don’t be lured into that over-confident feeling of knowing something without quizzing yourself to see if you truly do know it. As noted in my blog post “Test Yourself Before You Take a Test,” research has shown that self-testing aids retention.

Flashcards can give you that, “Sure, that’s what I meant to say!” feeling. Take the next step. Read the question on the card and then write your answer on a tablet-sized white board to see if you really committed the information to memory. Digital flash cards are just as “fudge-able” and static as the old, 3-by-5 species. Pull up your digital flashcard and write your answer on a white board. Or, speak your answer into the notes recorder of your phone. Hesitations in your recording will expose any uncertainty and point to the areas that need more reinforcement.

Be active when you study. Stay alert through motion, drawing, and voice. Get creative and ask yourself, “How would I make a six-year-old do this?” Then set that up for yourself. Most importantly, ask yourself, “Am I working actively, or am I drifting?” Once you drift, you’re wasting time, and your time is too precious to waste!

About the author: Michelle Deets Haynes is the founder and owner of Clarity Learning, an in-home tutoring service that has served Orange County, CA since 2001.

(Or, How to Stop Worrying and Love the SAT)

guest written by Barbara Bellisi of the CollegeBound Network

I don’t consider myself old, but since I have taken the SAT almost half a lifetime ago (gulp!), I like to consider myself wise — at least when it comes to standardized testing. Combine that wisdom with a few years’ teaching experience and I discovered that — voila! — I was a natural SAT tutor.

During my training, I had to take a practice SAT. Wow! Either the test got easier or I got a whole lot smarter. OK, so maybe I didn’t have the stress that you college-bounders  have when I was filling out those little circles — after all, my college degree is already framed and hanging nicely on a wall — but I can still understand the pressure of a ticking clock and a dull #2 pencil.

Those algebraic equations won’t solve themselves, and someone’s got to fill in the blank with the correct vocabulary word, right? That’s why you’ve got to add a little dose of humor to your test-taking strategy. That’s right, future valedictorians and NMSQT finalists — I’m telling YOU that it’s OK to look at the PSAT, the SAT, the ACT, and any other hellish acronym directly in the face and give it a big LOL.

Need some help in finding the funny? Then put down the prep books and chew on some of these test-taking tips instead of that dirty pencil eraser:

1 – Hone your concentration skills.
There are two major problems with any standardized test: 1) It is long, and 2) It is boring. Practice concentrating at home by working on one assignment at a time instead of skipping around between subjects. Too tired? Then veg out in front of the TV for a half an hour, but no flipping around the channels. Bonus points if you can watch C-SPAN for a full 20 minutes without falling asleep.

2 – Make some noise.
Do you need complete silence when doing your homework? Break yourself out of that silly habit, because you have a better chance of getting a perfect score on the SAT than you do of getting a quiet testing room. There will always be a student who sniffles throughout the entire test, and there will always be a proctor who doesn’t know how to whisper. And, if you’re (un)lucky like I was, you might be able to hear the football team in all its grunting glory practice right outside your window. Woo hoo!

3 – Perfect your circle-filling ability.
Learn to fill in those answer circles with no more than three swipes of your #2 pencil. Any more and you’re just wasting precious time — time that is better spent erasing those circles once you’ve realized you skipped a row on your answer sheet.

4 – Don’t get too wrapped up in the reading comprehension.
Yes, every once in a while, a really interesting passage will appear on a standardized test. But this is the SAT, not a leisurely Sunday morning with the newspaper. Standardized tests are not written for your personal enjoyment; get through those reading sections, answer the questions, and be done with it.

And some tips for the day of the test:

Don’t mess with breakfast. I don’t care if butterflies are playing Marco Polo in your stomach. Scarf down a granola bar before you sit for the test. Otherwise, the audible growls coming from your stomach later will cause you to lose focus.

Layer your clothing. Some people get the chills when they get nervous. Other people have hot flashes. All bets are off for what will happen to you on the day of the test, so prepare for anything by wearing several layers. If you need to remove a piece of clothing, do so quickly and quietly — this is the SAT, not a Vegas show.

Don’t make plans for after the test. Instead, go home and crash on your bed, the couch, or in your little brother or sister’s wading pool. Stay there for a while. You’ve earned it.

About the author: Barbara Bellesi is a blogger at The CollegeBound Network. Follow CBN on Twitter @CollegeBoundNet.

When you think about it, who do you trust most when it comes to test prep?  Odds are, you have your own system for preparing for exams that you developed through years of trial and error.  You know approximately what works and what doesn’t for you.

But let’s take a step back from that.  How consciously did you develop your own study habits?  Did you pay close attention as you cultivated this style of yours, or did you just get used to doing what came easiest and most naturally?  Hopefully you didn’t just wing it, but even if you put a lot of thought and effort into your study system there is likely still room for improvement.

We study for so many tests in our lives that the act of studying becomes routine.  We stop paying close attention to our methods and we just focus on the simple fact that we are “studying.”  It becomes more about fulfilling an obligation; putting a check in the box.  And our retention of the material falls by the wayside, along with our study habits.

Why is this?  Perhaps because even though the need to practice has been drilled into us since we were very young, most people pay very little attention to how they are practicing.  In other words: we know that we need to study often, but we fool ourselves into thinking that we are studying when we really aren’t, or when we’re only phoning it in.

TestSoup aims to change that.  We want to remind people that there are smarter ways to study out there.  You know the phrase “work smarter, not harder” right?  It also applies to studying.  Why bother sitting in front of a text book for hours when you could get so much more out of making studying an active process?  If you can learn the material more quickly, why waste time doing things any other way?

Getting back to the original question of this post: who do you trust the most when it comes to study habits?  Rather, who should you trust most when it comes to study habits?  Most likely, you should trust someone who actually has devoted years and years to consciously developing the most effective study system.

In other words: trust a tutor.  They know what they’re talking about.  Not only are they experts on the specific subject matter, they have spent their careers working out clever ways to make the most out of every hour spent studying.

That’s why TestSoup is embarking on a quest to find expert tutors to write guest posts for our blog filled with study hints and tips.  We’re going to be looking for the best, the brightest, and the most creative.  We want to help you learn all you can about study methods, so the next time you need to study for a big test you won’t just being repeating those same, tired moves you’ve been making since middle school.

When we are young, our lives are defined by the summer.  We look forward to it almost deliriously.  In fact, I think the only time we weren’t counting down the days until summer vacation was when we were counting down the days to some shorter (but closer) vacation.  Three months of idleness is enough to make anyone with a full-time job more than a little jealous.

They say that summer used to be a time when students stayed home to help out on with the harvest.  This was, of course, in the days before a measly 2% of Americans called themselves farmers.  Our society has shifted from agrarian and rural to knowledge-based and urban.  Today, only 17% of people live in what can be considered truly “rural” parts of America.

Assuming that summer once had a purpose, what is its purpose now?  Are we simply so used to this rotation that we don’t dare change it?  More than likely.  Globalization has made the nine-to-five office job all but irrelevant these days, yet people still find themselves falling into familiar work patterns.  Change is hard for us to accept, apparently.

Now, let the record show that we at TestSoup are not advocating for the end of summer vacation.  Long live summer vacation!

But long live education, as well.

Today’s American students have a tough time keeping up when it comes to math and science.  We’ve already tried throwing money at the problem.  Spending per pupil in America on public education has increased from $2,500 in 1960 to $10,000 today (in inflation-adjusted dollars).  Clearly, the key to churning out well-equipped students is not to be found in expensive tech or other budget-busting fads.

Real education happens when students are actively engaged in the lesson.  This can be the result of any one — or a combination — of several factors: Quality teachers, a naturally inquisitive mind, supportive family members or friends, or even a desire to get an “A.”

That’s the first part of the equation.  The second part is the work.  An engaged student is a great and powerful thing, but if you don’t take steps to keep him or her that way then you won’t get very far.  That’s why the summer is such an important time for students.  Three months is a long enough time to forget the vast majority of what you learned during the past nine — or enough time to forge it into a solid foundation for next year.

America used to make its living with our hands and our backs.  During this time it made sense for students to neglect their studies in favor of the harvest.  But now we make our living with our minds.  Should the fact that we have no fields to plow mean that we are allowed to do nothing for three months?

Take the summer for what it is: a chance to unwind and recharge your batteries.  But also as a time to set yourself up for success next year.  Read books.  Sign up to take classes that you are interested in but had no time for during the school year.  Parents (if you have little children), send your kids to a camp that’s more than just playing outside.  And teachers, please use the time to improve your skills as well.  Our students’ futures are in your hands.

guest written by John J. Walters

This is the second “announcement post” I’ve written for TestSoup in about a month.  If we don’t stop soon, our hubris will no doubt become our undoing.  But today we focus on happier things, because today I have the pleasure of announcing to you that TestSoup’s entire flashcard line is now available as apps on Apple’s mobile operating system.  So if you have an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch, check us out!

The good news is that all these announcements havene’t gone to our heads.  Our apps are the same, low price as the online cards.  I mean, come on!  It’s not often that you can find a convenient way to study for an upcoming standardized test for less than the price of a fancy sandwich.

I won’t lie to you.  We actually have questioned our sanity on that issue.  But our loss is your gain, as they say.  Maybe we’ll wise up down the line, but for right now we’re simply kicking back and enjoying the increased cool factor that comes with being in some way associated with Apple’s lineup.

We’re also working on creating free trials with 10 sample flashcards of each set (for those who like to try before they buy) literally as I type this post, so I expect those to be finished and available quite soon.  Watch our Twitter feed for updates on that.

The goal, as it has always been, is to make test prep affordable, mobile, and intuitive.  We’re still keeping our “sign up and start studying in under 60 seconds” thing going.  We’re just trying to make it so you don’t have to be seated in front of a computer to use our system.  As a side note, if you’re a fan of carrying around 850 page tomes that prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that you are, indeed, studying for the GMAT, then our service might not be for you.

TestSoup means to change the way people study for tests.  We started our quest to end expensive, ineffective, and inconvenient test prep a little over one year ago with our online flashcards and similar apps for the Blackberry operating system.  Now we’re moving forward once again with our iOS apps.  And, before you send me any angry emails, let me be the first to state that our Android apps are already in development.  Patience.

We’re also looking to expand both our offerings and our reach.  Already, more than 25 schools endorse TestSoup as an official way to help improve your scores on standardized tests.  And we’ve started a similar partnership program with qualified tutors.   Finally, if all that isn’t enough for you, we have plans to begin working on eBooks and online quizzes in a continuing effort to make studying more interactive and more efficient.  So stay tuned.

I was inspired by this flippant blog post from Bethesda World News to write about the difference between smart studying and just cramming answers into your head to help you pass an exam.  Obviously, there is a big difference, and this difference becomes quite apparent when you’re talking with someone who knows only enough to get by (the slacker student who is convinced they have it all figured out) and someone else who actually understands the material (the professor — hopefully).

Let’s start by considering just how complex and fascinating a thing our own memories are.  Memory is not an on-off switch — it’s not like we either remember something or we don’t.  First of all, there are several different types of memory.  But think about the times when you know something but you just can’t recall it at a particular moment.  Why does this happen?  I’m going to be completely honest here: I don’t know.  I’m not a doctor.  But I do have what I consider to be a reasonable hypothesis.

When a piece of information enters your brain it can go any number of places.  Perhaps you will disregard it entirely.  Maybe you will give it a small amount of your attention and store it very temporarily (such as for the duration of a conversation).  If it’s important, hopefully the information will get processed and stored somewhere ready to be converted into a long-term memory.[1] But just because a piece of information is stored doesn’t mean we’ll always be able to access it at will.

In some cases, we may not know enough about the information to know that it’s relevant and worthy of recall in a particular instance.  In others, we may not even be aware that we’ve learned anything related to the task at hand.  It is only through a solid understanding of a subject that we can develop the neural network to connect all the random bits of information that we’ve ingested on a subject to make good use of our memories.

Here’s where the difference between the slacker who crammed right before the exam and the professor who has been studying this subject for years is thrown into sharp relief: the slacker may be able to spit back the correct answer when posed the exact question that he is used to, while the professor actually knows enough to answer questions that are only loosely related to it.  Why?  Because the slacker has ruthlessly created only one pathway to the information in his head; the professor has developed a vast network of interconnected ideas, any one of which can be used to tap into the main source of knowledge on a subject.

The slacker method may work for an exam, but it’s unlikely that you’ll ever be asked those same types of questions in “the real world,” thus rendering his study efforts useless after the course is over.  Maybe he won’t care (he is, after all, a slacker), but many of us do.  We go to college not for the degree but for the education.  For this reason, we seek understanding first and good grades second, and so we study smart.

We’re all familiar with the idea that there are many different learning styles out there.[1] For a quick and dirty overview of the three predominant types, LDPride has some decent explanations that aren’t weighed down with excessive scientific detail.  You can also take one of the many tests available online to see which one you are — just do a Google search for “learning styles.”

Of course, you can also think critically about how you learn to figure out your learning style.  I’m a man of many hobbies.  When I write, I find myself thinking in full sentences, reading a lot, and seeking inspiration in the world around me through in-depth conversation.  When I play an instrument, I learn best from hearing the piece performed.  When I work on my car, it’s not enough to simply look at what must be done — I must be instructed before I feel confident enough to start turning any wrenches.  This suggests that I am predominantly an auditory learner, with some degree of kinesthetic learning present.

While it may feel good to figure out what type of education benefits you the most, it is important to note that everyone has elements of all three working in their brain.  If you really want to internalize a subject you need to work on combining all three methods into your studies.  This is why I would use the notes I gathered throughout the semester in each subject to construct a study guide for myself that I could read over or have someone else quiz me on before each exam.

Now might be the time for a shameless TestSoup plug.  TestSoup’s system allows you to harness all three learning styles with their digital flashcard system.  First of all, you will see the information presented to you in a way you’re likely to see it on an exam.  That covers the visual side.  Then you read the information and process it yourself and can even have someone else read it to you if you have the luxury of a study partner.  That takes care of the auditory style.  Finally, you’re answering questions with full explanations rather than just passively taking in the information.  Score one for the kinesthetic learners of the world.

The point is, no matter what learning style suits you best, it is possible to find a way to study that will cater directly to you.  This is what will net you a good grade, and more importantly, a lasting understanding of the subject matter.  So take some time to figure out what category (or categories) you fall into.  Then use that information to make your studying more effective.

President Obama recently signed legislation into effect that will pump $2 billion dollars ($500 million per year over four years) towards community colleges, which already saw a 17% spike in enrollment from 2007 to 2009.  He is calling for community colleges, “the unsung heroes of America’s education system,” to produce an additional 5 million graduates by 2020.  Amidst these difficult economic times, Obama points out that two-year education programs are more important than ever.

TestSoup could not agree more.  The unfortunate reality of higher education is the opportunity cost associated with attendance.  Four year programs place such heavy demands on students’ time that they often have time for little else.  What about those who want to study who can’t afford to give up their livelihoods?  What about those who are attending school while raising a family?  What about those who just want a leg up with a career change but are a bit beyond dorm life?

For people in these situations, and many others like them, community colleges are there to help, just like TestSoup.  With a wide variety of test preparation and study solutions, TestSoup can help students prepare for final exams, placement tests, and even keep up with class work.  But the benefits of the program don’t stop there.  TestSoup also has offerings for teachers that can help them give their students the technological edge to succeed in today’s world.

If the President wants America to make better use of our excellent system of community colleges, then TestSoup is right there with him, with high-tech online services for universities, school districts, individual classrooms, and even government networks.  Our education solutions can boost enrollment by offering students the resources to dominate their next test, encourage them to immerse themselves more completely in their subjects, and facilitate the sharing of resources across departments or even districts.

Community colleges are all about giving people the opportunity to find the sweet spot in their education, their careers, and their lives.  And TestSoup is here to help.

There are tons of articles online about improving your memory.  A quick search will bring up pages and pages of results.  I spent a few minutes clicking at random and then a few more sorting through the articles I chose.  Here are three of my favorites:

• Discovery Health has a good piece about improving general memory that should help with aspects of your life outside of your studies.  I am including it at the top of the list because it provides a good base (and also because their first tip is to drink a glass of wine, which is both unorthodox and totally awesome).
• For a quicker read that involves less clicking, try this WikiHow article that has 15 good tips and links to a bunch of other articles that may be helpful to your more specific situation.
• If you want to know more about what memories are and how your brain works to create lasting memories, check out this article on HelpGuide.org.  It spells things out scientifically in ways that are actually comprehensible to people without much psychological training like myself.

But what about improving your memory specifically for your studies?  Learning things for school is a particularly difficult task because it involves a certain amount of precision and recall that is not normally required in “real life.”  After all, we can almost always hop on the internet and look up something when we’re not in a classroom taking a final exam.

The best way I found to make sure I actually remembered something in school was to make studying an active process.  Reading and highlighting your text book or paying close attention in class may help create a base from which you can work, but it’s unlikely that you’ll remember quite enough to ace your exams just from reading.  To make lasting memories, you need to make your studying something you do rather than something that just happens to you.  I touched on this in another post, but let’s go a little deeper this time.

Your process for test preparation should place your mind in a state similar to the conditions of the test itself.  In other words, you need to test yourself repeatedly before the test begins.  If you know that you will be required to do certain types of math problems then don’t just look over the formulas — try doing sample problems without referencing your text books or class notes.  If you know you’re going to have to write an essay explaining an idea or historical event then don’t just read about it — try writing about that idea or event.  This way you won’t just be remembering the starting point (the equations or the basic facts) but the act of using the ideas you have taught yourself.

If there is one central idea to take from the myriad of articles on improving your memory available online, it’s that lasting memories make their home in more than one place in your brain.  The human brain is a complex thing, with hallways and passages leading every which way.  The more anchors that you can link an idea to, the easier it will be to remember it.  That’s why actively engaging your brain (and optimally the brains of your classmates) in the study process is so essential.  So study often, study actively, and study with others whenever you can.