When it comes to student success, many parents and educators ask, do study skills improve grades? The answer is more than just a simple yes or no. Academic success involves a combination of innate ability, motivation, and learned techniques. This is where study skills coaching programs, like those offered through Personalized Prep , can play a transformative role. Specifically, students who engage in academic tutoring K-12 Newport Beach programs often see measurable improvem

High school students today face more academic pressure than ever before. With competitive college admissions, scholarship opportunities,...

High school is one of the most challenging phases in a student’s academic journey. Between rigorous coursework, standardized tests,...

By: Alena You During my experience as a tutor with the ACT, I have found that taking the ACT is not just a test of understanding content, but much more than that. The ACT is testing students for skills such as endurance, stamina, detail to attention, prudence, and accuracy. To really get good at the ACT, here are my Top 5 Hacks to help students move the needle forward. Utilizing the Process of Elimination : The ACT is all multiple choice. If you eliminate 2 answers, you will

We all know practice makes perfect. While it does take repetition to achieve and master a difficult skill, it is helpful to get into a mindset of learning effectively. When we are learning a new subject, it might feel overwhelming and difficult to learn all the information at once, but over effective refinement, learning will become easier. Here are some of the ways to learn more effectively. Always Be Curious Whether the subject interests you or not, gaining knowledge will o

By: Celeste Calabrisi Today, everything is about oneself. Whether it be as simple as making sure you’re the best-looking person in the group picture or as complicated as making a decision that will benefit only yourself, people tend to care only about their own well-being. Now, I will not go into whether this is the best kind of behavior. Rather, I am going to point out how school is typically where that behavior falls short. Students are often more concerned about their soci

By: Mason Weupe Now that we have strategies to record and review information, when should we? It is not good enough to study material one time and then never revisit the topic. Repetition is necessary for allowing the information to truly solidify in the mind. The technique I will introduce today is called spaced repetition. This is a well-researched concept that essentially says it is advantageous to memory if one reviews material on a semi-regular basis. For example, the ma

By: Mason Weupe Now to the juicy stuff. These next two installments will teach you techniques that may help you become a top student studying half as much as everyone else. I do not promise miracles, nor am I saying there will be no work involved, but if you are efficient with your studying, you will be surprised at how much you can learn with less time and effort. Before I continue, I must say everyone is unique and these techniques may not fully resonate with you. Like with

By: Mason Weupe Now that we have learned some techniques on how to prepare for class, how do we record information? Take that notebook or tablet/laptop you have and prepare a table of contents. This entails numbering the pages of your notebook and leaving 2-3 pages at the beginning of the notebook for the table of contents. For virtual notes, organize your documents by setting the name of the document as the subject of the course and the date of the lecture and creating a fol

By: Mason Weupe Welcome to the first installment of the series! Here we will learn some techniques to help us conquer the classroom. The idea here is if we take the time to pay attention and effectively record information in the classroom, (we have to be there anyway) then we do not have moments days later in which we are wondering what even happened in class or if we even showed up. First, let's have something to record notes ready to go. For example, a notebook with the tit

By: Alena You Types of Journaling Many people journal for many different reasons. One type of journaling is a mind dump . When you experience feelings or thoughts that are difficult to process or feel complex, mind-dumping is an excellent way to release those thoughts and process them on your own time. For example, when I first failed my SAT and ACT, I started journaling my thoughts down. It was helpful to keep track of my thoughts and feelings. It is essential to know how e

By: Celeste Calabrisi Reading is such a difficult subject for some people. Reading can put some people in faraway worlds of varying galaxies and mystical creatures. For others, it just puts them to sleep. I hated reading in high school. I was a slow, methodical reader that liked to take my time to absorb the material. However, college was not so forgiving. I realized very quickly, that high school did not prepare me to read a lot of material at once and absorb the main points

By: Alena You As human beings, we are not always in a state of hustling and bustling. Sometimes, we just get tired. Have you ever had those moments where you just have no energy or motivation to do anything? Here is what you should do when that occurs. The Opposite of Being Productive When you feel this way, sometimes the best thing to do is the opposite of being productive. These are moments when you need to be more gentle on yourself and take a breather. If you just do more

By: Mason Weupe Seven classes each day, two club meetings, three sporting events, and twelve assignments all to be completed by Friday… and it’s Tuesday. Who has the TIME!?? Being an excellent student in and out of the classroom sometimes feels like an impossible task, but what if I told you it doesn't have to be? If you plan accordingly, you only have to study for two hours a day and NOT on Sundays. Yes, just two hours a day! I bet you didn’t think it would be that easy, did

By: Alena You As Martha Beck says, “How you do anything is how you do everything”, and this quote has stuck with me for quite some time now. It is important that you show up for yourself at home and not just at school. There are a few key things to focus on at home that will spill over to your academic, social, and spiritual wellness. Make Sure You are Healthy Eat a healthy diet, which involves a balanced meal. Let’s say you either have the option of eating a bag of hot Cheet

By: Alena You Balancing academics and extra-curricular activities can be difficult. When you have a commitment to go to school from 9 AM - 4 PM on the weekdays, you might think, “How can we balance school, friends, family, work, and clubs?” It is very different from the weekends, where you get to recharge all day and spend time with family. Many people do extra-curricular activities after school. It might be exhausting, and you might never seem like you have enough time. Here