Benefits of UC Math Tutoring

Benefits of UC Math TutoringIf you are a college student who is looking for an alternative to traditional tutoring, UC Math Tutoring might be the right choice for you. It is the premier provider of college tutoring programs, offering numerous options for students of all ages, ability levels, and backgrounds. From tutors for elementary school to high school, to university students, UCLM offers quality tuition assistance for your whole family.Because it is a privately owned company, it offers a unique guarantee that ensures it will be here for a long time. You will have access to many instructors for various learning opportunities, and in the most affordable pricing. The tutors are certified by the American Board of Teaching and the National Council for Higher Education Accreditation. With a motto of 'Character Matters', they take pride in offering affordable tuition assistance and are committed to your success.UCLM believes in providing their students with the tools necessary to reach their full potential in higher education. This is the reason why they do not just provide a tuition assistance plan; they also provide a tuition assistance program that is affordable and will always be in effect. Many companies offer some kind of tuition assistance, but they will often charge fees that are exorbitant for the privilege of getting a tuition assistance plan.The monthly tuition payments are also a major part of the tuition assistance provided by UCLM. It is easy to set up your payment schedule and keep track of your financial commitments. It will also allow you to easily manage your finances, so that you can dedicate yourself to your studies. By investing your money into tuition assistance, you are able to maximize your learning and attain your goal in life.A variety of private tutoring packages are available for students to choose from, depending on their needs. There are packages that are tailored to the needs of students from specific areas or specializations within their course of study. Students who are considering transferring can use the tuition assistance plan to cover the cost of tuition.Your tutoring from UCLM is personally supervised by the staff of the company. The staff members make sure that your tuition assistance plan is very practical, affordable, and easy to use. They will offer advice and guidance in meeting your goals, as well as activities that will prepare you for your upcoming classes.You should check out the tuition assistance plans offered by UCLM if you are planning to study abroad. It can save you money and give you the opportunity to enjoy studying abroad, as well as get in touch with other people who are studying abroad. An advantage to working with UCLM is that you will also get access to tuition assistance in your home country.

Interview with an Educational Psychologist

Interview with an Educational Psychologist At Tutorfair, we aim to give people a really valuable experience in tutoring. We were introduced to Stephanie, an educational psychologist, and felt what she does would definitely be of interest to our readers. Here, Stephanie answers some questions for us about what she does, which we hope you enjoy. Please be in touch at sam@tutorfair.com if you’d like to hear more. So, Stephanie what do you do in your job? As an Educational and Child Psychologist I aim to understand the cognitive and educational development of children and young people within the context of their home, school and community. Through my in-depth knowledge of learning and teaching, I enhance understanding of how children and young people think, learn and behave. I aim to bridge the gap between theory/research and practice, so as to maximise learning for all pupils! Different modes of teaching and learning are most effective for different people. Working with you, your child and your child’s tutor, I aim to gain a clearer understanding of your child’s strengths and abilities, which will help us understand the teaching and learning strategies that are most effective for them. Using positive psychology, we will build upon your child’s strengths to maximise their learning and help them reach their full potential. When might I want to use one? You may want to use an Ed Psych in a number of different instances When you would like to learn more about your child’s learning style and how the environment (and their tutoring experience) can be adapted to maximise outcomes. When you have concerns about your child’s development and you would like to explore these concerns further so as to understand how to help them and adapt their environment to maximise their development. This could be related to their learning, cognitive, social, emotional and behavioural development. When your child has a specific difficulty and you would like to learn strategies to help them progress further, such as dyslexia, AD/HD or dyscalculia. How does the process work? Following an initial meeting, I will carry out an assessment of your child’s abilities and the current learning environment. This will in turn enhance our understanding of how your child learns best; what they can do to maximise their achievement, and what you and their tutor can do to support them. The above may take place within one meeting or may involve a more in-depth assessment, which would be tailored according to the situation. What is the cost of hiring an educational psychologist? All maintained schools in the UK have a link EP that works directly with schools; you may be able to request that your child sees their school EP. However, this can sometimes prove difficult, as schools may have different priorities. Tutorfair have tried to make this service more accessible to you so as to make the most of your child’s tutoring experience. You access my service through any of the following forms: What has been the proudest moment in your job? That is a tough one! I don’t have one particular moment… but I feel its the moments where I’ve realised that my involvement has had a positive impact on a young person’s life. It may be on their learning, behaviour or their wellbeing and enjoyment school, and/or learning. However I do feel a sudden surge of happiness and pride when a parent has turned to me and said “thank you” - thank you for a change that may be insignificant to the whole world but means the world to that family. Ultimately its when I’ve realised that through my involvement (in part or fully) the world of learning has come alive for that young person! Do you have an amazing hidden talents? I do! Its an amazing hidden talent of being able to sing off tune â€" unfortunately for my poor friends and family its not always that hidden! Stephanie is a D.Ed.Psy, Cpsychol HCPC registered.  To view her profile - please click here

Improve Your GPA by Training Your Brain

Improve Your GPA by Training Your Brain Improving Academic Performance Have you ever caught yourself being too critical of your abilities in a given area? Students in particular can be their own worst enemies. They don’t realize how powerful an influence mindset can be on day-to-day actions. In reality, what we think about ourselves and our abilities will determine what we can achieve, especially academically. In fact, there’s evidence that, if you believe you aren’t good at standardized tests, or aren’t very good at math, your brain is actually looking for ways to reinforce that belief, so that it can put the belief on autopilot, and spend more of its energy figuring things out that it’s not sure of. So, let’s talk about the power of thinking differently to improve your performance in class, standardized exams, or undergraduate and graduate institutions. We call this phenomenon the cycle of perpetual same-ness, which is a term and concept we borrowed from Dana Wilde, creator of the Mind-Aware brand. So-called facts and ideas that you think about yourself might very well be holding you back in ways that you don’t realize. Your thoughts may be reinforcing unsupported, mostly negative assumptions regarding your abilities that, paradoxically, your brain naturally wants to keep reinforcing, even though they negatively affect your performance. This occurs in a sequence of reinforcing steps over the course of months or years. Step 1: It begins with an event in the actual world. At some point, some specific event causes you to react and begin to believe something about yourself. For example, in second grade, you do a math exercise in class and get it wrong. Immediately, you wonder if you’re “bad” at math. You look around and notice that all of your friends in class are smirking, and you have trouble following your teacher’s explanation of why your answer is wrong. Step 2: This is followed by a reaction, and a conscious belief in your mind. You consciously think about the situation, and conclude that you must not be good at math. Not only did you get the question wrong, the teacher tried to explain it to you, and still you couldn’t understand. It seemed clear that everyone else understood. It seems apparent that the other students had an easier time with the question. They are better at math than you. Step 3: Eventually this belief enters your unconscious mind, and becomes part of the lens through which you view the world, affecting how you behave and reaffirming the belief. That initial run-in with math may happen a few more times. Perhaps by chance, or perhaps because your confidence with math has eroded a bit. Eventually, you decide that yes, you aren’t good at math, and that belief slips into your unconscious mind. It is just part of who you are. Being bad at math is a little frustrating, and uncomfortable to think about at first. But, you resign yourself to not being a math person. After all, you’ve been told we all have different talents, and people that are good at math may not be good at things in which you excel. After you come to believe that you’re just generally not good at math, your brain may try to fit its internal subconscious belief into the external world around you. So you’re going to find yourself automatically reaffirming your belief that you are bad at math again and again through behaving in a way that will endorse it (i.e., by not studying very hard or much, by avoiding difficult math problems that build math skills, etc.). The brain is trying to make sense of the world efficiently and effectively. Why would the brain work like this? Imagine the first time you rode a bike. Your mind was intently focused on every step of the process, putting your feet on the pedals, moving one foot forward, then the other, keeping your balance, grasping the handle bars. If you had to consciously go through all of that every time you rode a bike, it would get pretty overwhelming and you’d have trouble productively thinking about other things while riding that bike. The way our brains work, we have to constantly take a lot of information and put it into our subconscious to make room to bring in new observations. That’s why you can easily ride a bike or drive somewhere you’ve been a million times without thinking about it. Your brain has already catalogued it into your subconscious so that you don’t have to actively think about it to make room for new things. Why is this relevant to you or your child’s academic success? Let’s say, once again, you get a bad grade on that math test. We have the tendency to then say to ourselves, “I’m bad at math”, especially after witnessing other kids excelling. That opinion sticks with you until it becomes a fact. You do poorly on another test because of your already existing low confidence, and the cycle perpetuates itself. You need to break that cycle. Just as you stop thinking about how to ride a bike after the first few times, you stop thinking about how badly you believe you are at math and it becomes a part of who you are. From now on, your brain rejects any thoughts that you would rather be good at math or the possibility that you could be a natural with numbers. Your brain rejects these ideas in an attempt to make your daily life easier and go about it with as little stress as possible. You continue believing that you are lousy at math because it’s effortless. You form these beliefs early on in life, they influence your personality, your personality influences your behavior, and you grow old always ‘knowing’ you were never a math person. And, surprisingly, you’re completely comfortable with that because your brain automatically accepts it as fact due to your early experience and observations of others’ experiences around you. However, in reality, you can train your brain to behave differently by breaking that cycle. How can you do this? There are a variety of ways to go about breaking this cycle. Here are some options: Actively question your own assumptions about your abilities. Use positive “self-talk” in place of negative self-talk. If you catch yourself saying “I’m horrible at math” consciously stop yourself and just say “I have the potential to become much better at math than I currently think I am” Choose one academic area that you don’t consider a strength, and devote an extra hour per week to practicing in that area. All you need to do is apply practice - the right kind of practice - to a new belief that you can improve your math skills, or English skills, or creative skills, or whatever it may be that you seem to lack natural talent in. It is up to you to decide whether you are going to be a math person or not. It is up to each of us to decide where we place our passion and our focus and our hard work; don’t let your brain’s attempt at efficiency stop you from becoming great at something, or just getting generally better grades in school and higher scores on standardized tests.

Thinking in a Foreign Language Made Easy

Thinking in a Foreign Language Made Easy Thinking in a Foreign Language Made Easy We’ve all heard that thinking in a foreign language is a sign of  real fluency.But I bet you havent heard that its the  fifth key language skill  that all learners must developâ€"falling right in line with speaking, listening, reading and writing.But is thinking really a skill?Yes, yes it is.After all, thinking is a constant and intimate process. If you can think in a language, surely you must have assimilated the language to such an extent that it’s now a part of you.You’re no longer translating from your native language to the new one. Thats why someone who thinks in their target language will speak faster  and more smoothly, and they won’t have any lag when they’re trying to understand something.Sure, all of that is true, but what people don’t often realize is that thinking in a foreign language can be its very own path to fluency, not just a result of fluency.What does this mean for you?It means that thinking in your target language is absolutely learnable. Its someth ing that you canâ€"and shouldâ€"start working on  right now. All it takes is some practice! Just like speaking, listening, reading and writing. And the best part? Thinking is naturally the root of all those other skills, so you’ll see them all improve drastically in turn.Here, were going to show you how to make this happen. Thinking in a Foreign Language Made Easy1. Translate Your ThoughtsYou could have thought of this one, right? Sure, it seems like the most obvious step to take, but not everyone does it. Some people are very visual or quantitative, meaning they dont have streams of words constantly going through their brains.If you don’t already narrate your life in your head, then start doing it consciously! This kind of active exercise is where you’ll get the most practice.When you remember conversations, translate. When you think about your daily schedule, translate. When you’re cursing the weather, your neighbors, the long line at the grocery store… translate!Pract ical StepsIs this easier said than done? Here are some mini-steps you can take to start working toward narrating your life in your target language.If you’re a beginner, try simply taking some time out of the day to describe what’s around you. When you see a tree, you could think “tree” in your target language. If the correct word for tree isnt coming to you, think “green,” “wood” or anything else that can describe it. Same goes for buildings, animals, clothing, whatever. If you’re really limited in terms of vocab, you could even count people, animals or objects in your head. Anything helps!Soon enough, though, you’ll graduate to wanting to translate two-word phrases and beyond. When you’re able to start doing this, you’ll want to double check everything you’re translating, either with a native speaker or by googling the phrase with quotation marks to see if lots of native speakers are phrasing it just like you are. (Hint: If you get less than 1000 hits or h its that include only learners’ dictionaries and forums, you probably have something funky going on.)If you can’t figure out how to say what you’re thinking, make up an approximation that you’re still absolutely sure is 100 percent correct. Because you’re thinking much, much more than youre speaking or writing, it can be easy to fall into bad habitsâ€"thats why double checking your language usage is still key. Concrete nouns, verbs and adjectives are quite easy to translate, but idiomatic phrases get trickier, so youll want to  be especially sure that you’re using the correct idioms and expressions all the time.2. Start Using Monolingual DictionariesNow we’re getting to less direct but oh-so-essential steps to making the language yours.A monolingual dictionary is just what it sounds likeâ€"instead of translating your target language into your native language and  vice versa, you’re looking up a target-language word and getting a target-language definition, just like when you pick up a dictionary to check a word in your native language.Using a monolingual dictionary can mark an important step in your language learning journey because it means that you’re using the language itself to learn.A small caveat, however: Monolingual dictionaries are most useful if you try them out at the mid- to high-intermediate stage when you can already understand a mainstream novel or follow formal news radio. Otherwise, youll spend a lot of time looking up words in the definitions of other wordsâ€"though that can be a valuable exercise, too.You’ll be pretty amazed at how monolingual dictionaries help you think in the language. While studying, you’ll no longer be translating back and forth. Consciously using a monolingual dictionary while filling out SRS flashcards,  reading novels or working through a textbook will pay off in all your other skill areas. Youll even start to think in terms of the language itself, rather than  only within the framework of your n ative language.Practical StepsFirst of all, find a good monolingual dictionary! WordReference has a great online Spanish-Spanish dictionary (plus monolingual options in many other languages).  I’ve personally used Larousse for French. Guoxuedashi is a good example for Chinese. Searching “dictionary” in your target language will land you with something, but quality is pretty important, so try asking other learners on sites like Quora or Language Learners’ Forum.Now what? Monolingual dictionaries work great when paired with sentence flashcards on SRS. Thats rightâ€"each flashcard will have a whole sentence on the front, and then you can use  your monolingual dictionary to define words you don’t know on the backs of your cards. You can embed definitions if there are words you don’t know in the original definitions.  Check out the blog  All Japanese All the Time  for a  complete explanation  (and a great post on monolingual dictionaries!).  This unconventional approach to fl ashcards  is a great way to learn vocabulary and grammar in context.If the definition is impossible to understand (think: definition for “oak” or “ladder”… simple concepts with confusing, convoluted definitions), paste in an image so that you get the meaning without any interference from English!3. Write in a JournalBecause journaling is writing down your thoughts, it gets you into the habit  of thinking in your target language, especially if youre finding thinking itself to be difficult at first.Basically, it’s just another way to practice Step #1, but it’s slower and you’re in one spot so you can look things up. Its also a good option if youre busy most of the time and dont have the freedom to glaze over and think purposefully in your target language. It doubles as writing practice, too!I discovered this myself when practicing writing in Spanishâ€"I found myself thinking in Spanish for some time after I completed a quick writing session and put down my pen. Spendin g some time deliberately formulating thoughts in Spanish definitely got me into that “zone” of thinking in my target language.Practical StepsTry writing a daily monologue. This can include whatever’s on your mind! Stuff about your work, about your familyâ€"it doesn’t matter. Opinions work well, too, because you might have a lot to say about them. You can just keep a diary in your target language!Get corrections and feedback from natives and learners on  services like italki. On italki, you can even hire a private tutor to work with you one on one, to get the best feedback possible. No matter how you get them, corrections will help you avoid writing things down wrong and cementing bad habits in your mind.Despite the importance of staying away from bad habits, I recommend keeping a private, hard copy journal on good stationery. It’s a great break away from Internet-heavy language learning, and the privacy gives you free reign to write about whatever you want!4. Read More Fir st Person LiteratureReading is so important when it comes to learning a language. If you read books written in the first person, you’ll see direct benefits when it comes to thinking in the language.Obviously, first person books give you the main character’s thoughtsâ€"you get to read someone else’s thoughts so that you can think your own! How cool is that?For all those hard-to-translate idioms and phrases from Step #1, you’ll get solutions from books. You’ll learn how native speakers express abstract concepts, which vocab they use and how they use it.Practical StepsGet some young adult fiction, stat!  Why young adult? Because fiction aimed at that age group loves first person perspective right now, and the language is casual and very realistic. Even if you’re not into reading in that age group normally, I highly recommend you check it out for this purpose (and you might find some new favorite books while you’re at it).As always, translations of books you’ve already r ead work wonderfully because you already have that crucial context that makes understanding a target language so much easier. But if you’re at a loss for what to find, I recommend translations of the Percy Jackson  books or The Hunger Games.  Both are popular (and thus widely translated) and both have fun stories that will keep you engaged.To find the translated titles of these books, simply translate the Wikipedia page into your target language. Then you can search for the title on Amazon!Commit to reading 20 minutes a day to get into the habit of thinking in your target language. It won’t be long before you start remembering phrases you see over and over, but to speed things up, dust off that SRS once again. Enter the sentences or phrases you think you might want to use in your own thoughts, and over time, you won’t forget them!And that’s that! With these four steps, you’ll get past all that clunky translating you’ve been doing in your head.You’ll be well on your way to thinking in your target language and making it your own.Once you’ve gotten the hang of thinking in your language, the rest is smooth sailing!

One for the Road! A Comprehensive Language Study Guide

One for the Road! A Comprehensive Language Study Guide Plotting Your Way to Fluency: A Flexible Language Study Guide Hindsight is 20/20.Looking back, well always see that it was at the beginning where we went wrong.Its when we set out on a journey of some kind that we can benefit the most from preparing ourselves for whats to come.But it may only be later that we understand just what we were missing at the start.When I started teaching myself French, I had no idea what I was doing.I bounced between different resources and techniques for more than a year, just picking up a few words and phrases here and there.Sometimes Id study like crazy. Sometimes Id put the language out of my head for a week.I finally enrolled in a great French class at school and realized that I could barely speak French.On top of that, Id been making some very ridiculous grammar mistakes.If Id had a study guide or a study plan to show me the way, I could have aced that class the minute I walked in.So now, Id like to give you the advantage I didnt have and show you a complete map for learning a language that you can adapt to you r own individual preferences.Ill show you what to study at each stage of learning and  how to keep your study time balanced over days and weeks where you might have a lot of other things going on.The key to learning success is consistency. As long as you keep at your studies and keep moving ahead, everything else will fall into place.And in this post, well look at how to ensure that things fall into place as quickly as possible. How Long Does It Take to Learn a Language, and How Can a Language Guide Help?But how long do you need to keep at those studies? Thats a question thats been asked many, many times over.It depends on a few main factors:The frequency of your study sessions.The familiarity of the language.The interest you have in the language.If you only study once a week, youll barely get anywhere. You need to give your brain a chance to absorb the material by frequently thinking in or about the language. More frequent and more consistent study means faster learning.A languag e that’s closely related to others you might know, or that shares a lot of vocabulary, will fit easier in your mind because you can guess how to apply your previous knowledge.Finally, if youre fascinated by it and the people who speak it, any language can become childs play, because youre intrinsically motivated to understand and communicate using it.You may not have as much control over the last two factors, but you do have some control over the first. Additionally, if youre disorganized in your learning, youre likely to retread old ground or run up against walls. Youve got to have something to help you along and show you what you should be focusing onâ€"like a language learning guide!A dedicated, motivated self-learner following a good guide should be able to achieve a comfortable intermediate level in about 300-500 study hours, spread over a period of roughly 10-14 months.That means averaging around an hour, or at least 40 minutes, of learning time every day. Its hard for most people to set aside that kind of time, but cut it into two or three chunks of 20 minutes and suddenly it seems far more doable. You might even spend 20 minutes reading posts or articles like this one today.An audio course in the car, a book in the bus, a video before bedâ€"thats how you fit those study hours into a busy day.You want to get in the habit of never really letting the language out of your sight.So youve got the time, but what should you do with it?Plotting Your Way to Fluency: A Flexible Language Study GuideBeginning: Pronunciation, First Words PhrasesPronunciationOne thing polyglots tend to do differently from the average learner is starting with pronunciation.Because practice doesnt make perfectâ€"practice makes permanent.If you get the wrong patterns in your head, youll have a devil of a time getting them out later on.Youre going to want to do some research on the sounds of the language youre learning and make sure you know how to make them and distinguish them.Wikip edia has articles on the sound systemâ€"called the phonologyâ€"of virtually every language out there, big and small. The articles are a bit technical, but in my opinion its some of the best technical knowledge you can pick up when it comes to language learning.If the Wikipedia articles are beyond you still, then go to YouTube and look for videos about the pronunciation of your target language. Try looking for more targeted, academic videos instead of just quick two- or three-minute overviews.If youre learning French, for instance, search for specific features like French R or French vowels.Once youre confident about the individual sounds, move on to words.Words PhrasesYoull need to practice listening and repeating words in isolation and in the context of an example sentence to understand the rhythm of the language.Rhythm is one of the most important parts of accent, and it really cant be ignored. Think of a toddlers speechâ€"they might have trouble with some consonants, but nobody would ever say they have a foreign accent. Thats because theyve already mastered the rhythm. They were hearing it even before birth, every time their mom spoke aloud!And so most dedicated learners will look high and low for courses with audio or good audiobooksâ€"they want to get as much exposure as possible to the sounds of the language and really soak the rhythm into their heads.A lot of these course books or guides will tell you to avoid memorization as if its something that might hurt your learning.At the true beginner stage, though, youre going to have to memorize something if you want to start understanding this language.The advice should really be something like dont memorize lists of words without context. Youve got to connect what youre learning to feelings or memories.So start with a simple game of pretending: Imagine the very first things most people will say to you.That means greetings, certainly.Lets assume youre using the language for travel. Youll want to know how to say hello, how to get someones attention, how to politely step past people in a crowded space, how to say thank you. If you still dont know exactly where to begin, these words and phrases are a good bet.After you pick these things up, you should branch out and learn some verbs, nouns and adjectives from dictionaries, phrasebooks or vocabulary lists.At this very early stage, its a great psychological boost to be able to recognize and understandâ€"so dont stress out if you cant produce very much in the language.High Beginning: Constructing Sentences, Listening to DialoguesConstructing SentencesPretty soon, youre going to want to move beyond the phrases youve learned and begin to express yourself.For that, youre going to need to know how to construct sentences.In many languages, you can start picking up these rules intuitively just by looking at a handful of examples.If your phrasebook tells you that What is your name and What is his name are identical except for the pronoun, theres a good chance that What is her name follows a similar pattern. Keeping your eyes open for these patterns is going to boost your learning significantly.But when its not clear from context what the next word should be, youre going to have to move beyond the phrasebook and begin with a grammar resource.The very concept makes a lot of people cringe. But these days, you can sample many simple, free online courses with an emphasis on sentences.Your local library may also have well-known coursebooks in its collection. Try books in the Teach Yourself  or Dummies series for a solid intro to the grammar.An extra-easy alternative is to start learning with FluentU, as it starts you off putting words and phrases into grammatical context immediately. FluentU takes real-world videosâ€"like movie trailers, music videos, news and inspiring talksâ€"and turns them into personalized language lessons. Youll find content on FluentU for complete beginners, but itll continue to fit right in with your learnin g as you make your way all through the rest of this guide and beyond, starting withListening to DialoguesAt the same time, youre going to want to begin your long listening journey around this point. Listening is incredibly important for learning languages at really any level, for all kinds of reasonsâ€"from getting used to different accents to improving your reaction time with new vocabulary.Use FluentU, search through YouTube to find beginner lessons or dialogues in your target language, or look for a textbook with companion audio that you can get at a low cost (or from a library!).Listen to these dialogues again and again over a period of a few days.You want to be giving your mind two simultaneous tracks to learning the language: naturally, through examples and dialogues, and systematically, through overt explanations of grammar rules.Low Intermediate: Improving Vocabulary, Listening, Speaking WritingAs you progress through the stages, youre naturally going to become a better and better self-learner.Because of that, you probably dont need this guide to tell you, Repeat after your dialogues. Keep an eye on your pronunciation. Of course, youre going to continue doing the things that make you progress onward.So take these next several steps as additional suggestions rather than all-encompassing instructions. Stay well-rounded in your learning, and even go back and review older material for as long as you want.Improving VocabularyNow that youve got some of the basics down, the whole wide world of vocabulary out there is yours to conquer. The only question is, where to start?Again, one of the best ways to learn vocabulary is to really connect with what youre trying to memorize. If you watch an interesting video or read an interesting article in your native language, look up some of the main vocabulary points and youll remember much better than if you learned those same words from a list.Continue to follow the guidance of whatever grammar resource youre usingâ€"i deally, your resource should challenge you enough as you move on that you dont grow bored and try to jump ahead too fast. If you bite off more than you can chew, youll likely lose motivation.ListeningAt this point, you should be looking for as many listening resources as you can.Its difficult at this point to pick up new words from listening aloneâ€"so dont shirk on the vocabularyâ€"but unless you plan to mostly read and write your target language, listening is the core skill.And it takes a lot of time to develop.That means enjoyment is the key to progress. Dont waste your time watching things you don’t like. If youre into photography, watch camera reviews. If you like makeup, there are makeup tutorials in hundreds of languages on YouTube.One of the most valuable resources at this point in your learning is audio with transcripts, such as videos with subtitles.Again, this is something you can turn to the trusty learning tools on FluentU for.Outside (and occasionally inside) of Flue ntU, the YouTube project Easy Languages is an outstanding collection of street interviews with subtitles in both the target language and English.Watching short, entertaining videos is a great way to keep yourself focused and on task during this important study activity.Speaking WritingIts tough to speak when you dont have much you can say.Thats why we havent mentioned speaking too much until now.Some language acquisition experts believe that you learn most effectively if youre not pushed to speak or write until you can understand a lot of what you read and hear.And that makes senseâ€"its demoralizing to enter a conversation and constantly be lost as to what your partner is saying.At this stage in your learning, however,  you should be itching for some speaking practice.The single best free place for speaking practice online is a language exchange site called Hellolingo. Its got a huge community of people from all over the world, waiting to help you with their native languages.If yo ure willing to spend a little money, though,  iTalki cant be beat for finding tutors. The selection of professional teachers and skilled enthusiasts is truly unparalleledâ€"plus theres a large community that will help you with writing practice as well.Writing is daunting, especially in languages with lots of grammatical forms to memorize. But writing practice always has a positive effect,  even if nobody corrects your mistakes.  Just the act of writing on its own helps you recall words better. As you continue reading, youll develop more and more of an intuition for the grammar as well, and before long youll even be able to correct your own mistakes.Scheduling your output practice is something youll have to do on your own depending on how comfortable you are with it and how important it is for your purposes. If you enjoy it, try to work in some speaking and writing at least twice a week so you dont get too rusty.Intermediate: Grammar and ReadingGrammarAt this point, youre going to ne ed to shore up any remaining leaks in your grammar knowledge.Your general online courses and book guides may not cut it here. Luckily, for commonly studied languages like French, Russian, Japanese and German, the internet is awash with free and in-depth grammar guides.Heres where I actually wont recommend YouTube, though there are of course some gems to be found, as the best resources tend to be single-purpose grammar overviews like Dartmouths German grammar page or JGram for Japanese.Beyond that, the publisher Routledge has a whole line of Modern Grammars  for ten major languages. Theyre some of the best reference grammars and workbooks around, and can really help you figure out what youve been missing. If your language isnt on that list, try their Essential Grammar line or looking around for a reference grammar at a library or online bookstore.Grammar is so important at this stage because youre likely to start internalizing mistakes soon. If you dont nip these in the bud, your gra mmar mistakes will become bad habits later on that are harder to break.ReadingNow you can slowly but surely work your way through simple native texts.I really like the NHK World news site for its no-frills daily news reporting (in 18 languages). The articles are written for natives, not learners, but theyre short and digestible enough to be very helpful reading practice.Every major city around the world has newspapers or other media outlets in their own language as well. For just one of scores of examples, check out Público,  a popular news source from Portugal.Now, its likely that the feature articles and opinion pieces on these websites will still be too hard for you at this point.But thats just fineâ€"most have all kinds of lighter content like recipes, entertainment news, sports scores and lifestyle tips. Usually with video included, too!Check out the topics that most interest you. Its fine if you end up only looking at pictures and their captions. The most important part is th at youre immersed in the language wherever you go on that site.Offline, you should look for translated books from your native language. If theres a best-seller youve read cover to cover tons of times, thats a perfect tool for diving into literature.Translated books are easier to start out with because the plot and characters are likely going to be more familiar to you, culturally speaking. With a more accessible story-line, you can focus on absorbing the language through your extensive reading.High Intermediate and Beyond: Expressing Yourself and Understanding OthersExpressing YourselfThe more you read, the more you listen, the more you expose yourself to, the more youre going to learn.Understanding complicated, authentic native speech is not an easy task. And at the high-intermediate stage, it really can seem like youve plateaued because the gains are harder to see.Going from a vocabulary of 100 to 500 words feels amazing, but from 4000 to 4400, the effect barely registers, since y ou can already understand most of what you encounter.The key is to keep going and to branch out. Challenge yourself with material you might not normally think of, such as cooking shows or comedy routines. When you come back to material you saw earlier, it wont seem nearly as hard.Understanding OthersRepeating after dialogues, writing on your own and reading aloud are all excellent learning strategies, but if your goal is fluent communication, theres no better way to get there than communicating.Whether its with a tutor, a friend or even strangers on the street, you should take whatever opportunities you can to have conversations.Ask your speaking partners to strike a balance between correcting your mistakes and allowing you to speak freely. Schedule some sessions as tutor sessions and some as conversations.You need a mix of these two practice styles to get into the flow of a natural interaction while also continuing to work on your mistakes.After that… its up to you.The intermedia te-advanced stage of language learning sometimes seems like itll never end.Even if youre continuing to study, it might not seem like youre making progress until you really challenge yourself.But then all of a sudden, you look back at an old piece of writing you did or a book that was giving you troubleâ€"and you see how far youve come.Consistency is the single most important part of any personal improvement.When you put in the time and effort on a regular basis, you simply cant fail to see results. And One More ThingLooking for engaging material for developing your language skills? Then youre going to love learning with FluentU!FluentU makes it possible to learn languages  from music videos, commercials, news and inspiring talks.  Its all stuff that native speakers  actually watch.  With FluentU, you learn real languagesâ€"the same way that natives  speak them. FluentU has a wide variety of videos like movie trailers, funny commercials and web series, as you can see here:FluentU A pp Browse Screen.FluentU has interactive captions that let you tap on any word to see an image, definition, audio and useful examples. Now native language content is within reach with interactive transcripts.Didnt catch something? Go back and listen again. Missed a word? Hover your mouse over the subtitles to instantly view definitions.Interactive transcript for Carlos Baute song.You can learn all the vocabulary in any video with FluentUs Quiz Mode. Swipe left or right to see  more examples for the word you’re learning.FluentU has quizzes for every videoAnd FluentU always keeps track of vocabulary that you’re learning. It uses that vocab to give you a 100% personalized experience by recommending videos and examples.Start using FluentU on the website  with your computer or tablet  or, better yet,  download the FluentU app from  the  iTunes  or  Google Play  store.

Irvine Tutoring Tips 4 Finals Week Pitfalls to Avoid - TutorNerds

Irvine Tutoring Tips 4 Finals Week Pitfalls to Avoid - TutorNerds Tips from an Irvine Tutor: 4 finals week pitfalls to avoid Its finals week and students are studiously preparing for these important exams. This is the time of year when students are being tested in every subject, and their final grades will be immensely affected by their performance. Many students become overwhelmed and forget the big picture at this point in the school year and may experience some pitfalls that can make life more difficult than it needs to be. Although each student is an individual and their experiences will vary by grade level and classes, there are some common situations that nearly every student experiences our private Irvine tutors are here to help you score high on your finals. 1. Panic Its normal to be a little bit stressed out about testing week and, in fact, a healthy amount of stress can help students focus on studying and make good choices when it comes to priorities. However, excess stress can lead to all-out panic, which does not help students concentrate or perform well. Students can best avoid becoming panicked by planning and having a backup plan in case their first strategy doesnt work out. Students can organize their study time, work with their tutor to review important information, and put social plans on hold while theyre working towards finals. Students should also take adequate brakes and make sure theyre getting enough sleep as well as eating healthy meals during this time, so both their brain and body are awake and alert for their exams (READ: How to Keep Your Grades High During The Holidays). 2. Excess socializing Although having good friends at school is part of a healthy and balanced childhood, there should not be too much socializing during finals week. Its just one week out of the year, so theres plenty of time for students to get together with friends once theyve taken their exams. Students my appropriately socialize during a study group or a group tutoring session but should not make lots of weekend plans when theyre about to take important tests on Monday morning. Students who dont prioritize well at this point in the term will often find that their final exam grades are lower than they couldve been and this can affect their entire GPA. 3. Cramming Many students procrastinate and put off studying as long as they can, then they end up cramming until the early hours of the morning before taking exams. This is one of the worst ways for students to study because it fatigues their brain right before taking the test and also prevents the brain from having enough time to absorb new information. Rather than cram, students should prioritize how theyre going to study for each course, allocate a certain number of hours and prioritize which subjects need more of their attention. Tutors can be a great asset when it comes to this studying because they can help students determine how much they need to improve to reach their GPA goals and how much each test is worth about other assignments in the course. 4. Skipping review sessions Many teachers will hold a review session which will cover important points from the entire semester. Many students do not attend these sessions because they think they only need to remember a few key points or that the review session will take up too much of their time. However, review sessions contain the most valuable information a student can get before taking an exam. The information is coming straight from a teacher who is administering and grading the test. Many teachers will give students hints on what will appear on the exam and go over important information that hasnt been covered for a few months. Every student should attend review sessions offered before finals week. All blog entries, with the exception of guest bloggers, are written by Tutor Nerds. Are you an education professional? If so, email us at pr@tutornerds.com for guest blogging and collaborations. We want to make this the best free education resource in SoCal, so feel free to suggest what you would like to see us write.

6 Essential Habits for a Successful Student

6 Essential Habits for a Successful Student 6 Essential Habits for a Successful StudentWhat separates an average student from a successful student? More times than not there is no considerable difference in the intelligence of students, but rather the routine and habits of the students. This outline will provide you with successful habits that you can apply to your everyday academic routine. There is always room for improvement! 1. Successful students SET GOALS! Goals are a great way for students to stay on track, while also keeping them honest. When you set concrete goals for yourself, it’s easier to become motivated and measure your success in those goals. If you don’t have goals in sight, you have nothing to achieve or strive for in your courses. Make sure the goals are realistic! Although it’s okay to challenge yourself, you shouldn’t set yourself up for failure, either. Remember, it’s always a good idea to set higher goals once you’ve achieved your first set. 2. Successful students are WELL-RESTED This step can’t be stressed enough! If you’re awake and alert, you’re certainly more likely to absorb information given in class, during study sessions and in-class activities and participation. Make it a habit to get 6-8 hours of undisturbed rest at night. 3. Successful students TAKE ADVANTAGE OF EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES In addition to attending class, a successful student makes it a habit to learn the many ways outside the classroom they can supplement their academics. There are a variety of resources available to aid students in thriving and achieving in class. There are a variety of resources available to aid students in thriving and achieving in class; Teacher Assistants, teacher office hours, and study review sessions are a few widely available resources a student should utilize to implement into their routine. Ask questions! You're in school to learn, so don't be afraid to do just that! 4. Most Successful students have STUDY BUDDIES Collaborating with other students is a great way to learn. Try finding like-minded, success-hungry students like yourself, in your classes. This can also help expand your social group and you’re more likely to stay focused on the school work. Students who form study groups with one another can often learn more through learning by teaching. When students explain concepts to one another, they are more likely to learn and absorb the information. Additionally, students that need clarification on difficult subject areas can ask peers to be able to better understand the course materials. 5. Successful students NEVER PROCRASTINATE!! Along with great time management skills, successful students never wait until the last minute to study, do homework, or any other task. No one works well under pressure. If you put off your work until the day (or worse, the night) before it’s due, you’ll have to work in an incredible rush and under crazy pressure. The best way to avoid procrastination is to develop a weekly schedule detailing what you plan to accomplish for that week. This will also help you stay on track! 6. Successful students are CONSISTENT! Last but surely not least, consistency. All the above tips would be useless if they aren’t followed regularly. Success isn’t achieved by what you do, but how often you do it. Consistency is the “glue” that holds everything together!