Since February, freshman criminal justice major Angelica Eggers has attended weekly sessions to prepare for her Texas Success Initiative (TSI) exam in the university’s tutoring center.
Each tutoring session consists of looking over packets to help her practice and understand material expected on the exam. The Texas Success Initiative (TSI) state mandated exam evaluates incoming college students on math, reading and writing to determine their eligibility to enroll in college level courses.
The TSI tests students in math, reading and writing. While there are exemptions from taking the TSI, students still need resources they can count on to prepare themselves so they can officially start their college careers.
“For the past year I have been struggling with the TSI, so I have been having to go to math tutoring,” Eggers said. “My last appointment was the last Friday in April and I took the exam May 1. With the help of math tutoring I was able to pass my TSI.”
Student tutors are actively engaging with students throughout the semester to help with TSI testing, math, science, writing and behavioral statistics.
Students who visit the tutoring and writing center throughout the semester say that their sessions have helped them move onto the next level of education, graduation and careers with a deeper understanding of what they are taught in their classrooms. With the help of their faculty mentors, student tutors are not only helping students with their current assignments, but are also preparing them for their next chapter.
With the semester coming to an end, Torrez says there is a higher demand for student tutors to continue helping their peers study and prepare for the next step in their college careers.
Tutoring Services Coordinator Mercedes E. Torrez said that the tutoring center is able to keep track of their busiest times during the semester by logging into their EAB-Student Success Collaborative tool which can compile data for their busiest times and for which particular subjects.
“The demand rises for our behavioral statistics tutoring during finals and we’ll see an increase for math and science tutoring right before finals week,” Torrez said. “The subject that we see the most students for is math, which includes TSI Math tutoring.”
Katherine Bridgman, director of the Writing Center, said writing tutors use skill building to help students gain knowledge they can use beyond their current assignments and beyond their time at the university by teaching skill-building.
“Our goal in helping students with any assignment is to also support them in feeling more comfortable about their writing for future assignments,” Bridgman said. “A writing tutor will help the student think about their professor as a target audience – and what the broader goal of an assignment is within a course. Another strategy writing tutors might use revolves around tapping into a student’s prior knowledge and helping them understand how their prior knowledge might be applied to a particular assignment.”
Senior psychology major Jasmyne Thomas, a writing tutor since Fall term 2017, applied for the position after a faculty member encouraged her to become a tutor. Thomas teaches skill building in each tutoring session so students can recognize where improvement is needed.
“We help students throughout the whole process of writing. Whether it be clarification on the assignment or if they’re just looking to brainstorm some ideas,” Thomas said. “We develop an outline and ask the student where they would like to go with their paper and how we can help them find the material they need. If a student is worried about sentence structures and run-ons, we look at ways to identify them and build skills on being able to recognize them on their own so students are not dependent on us.”
Senior and Kinesiology major Mike Miller visits the tutoring center throughout the semester to seek assistance on both math and physics.
“The student tutors help you learn different ways to solve problems that your professor introduces you to,” Miller said. “This is what makes understanding the material much easier because then you can decide what works better for you because everyone just learns different.”
Senior biology major Jonathan Hernandez, a science tutor for two years, said he specializes in biology tutoring. Hernandez says the most challenging part of tutoring for him is adapting to different students’ learning styles, but it is also the most rewarding part of his job.
“Nobody learns the exact same way so I can’t really use a universal way for different people,” Hernandez said. “Some students just like to be lectured while others prefer a more proactive teaching session. For instance, I will explain something to them and then ask them to explain it back to me. Usually students will start off not fully understanding any of the concepts very strongly, but as we start seeing each other more, I start seeing them grasp the concepts a lot better. It’s really rewarding whenever that happens because it lets us know that the tutoring is working for the student.”
Five out of six tutors will graduate this semester with their bachelor’s degree in a few weeks which includes both Thomas and Hernandez. Hernandez is focusing on getting into a grad program while Thomas is planning on continuing work in the educational field.
“I want to go into education so this gave me a great opportunity to work with students and implement different strategies that are aligned with learning,” Thomas said. “I am able to see the progress of students that have come, and that have attended more than one session. Being able to see that growth is very solidifying that I love teaching.”
