by Sophia Mavrogiannis, Director of Academic Support

Academic Support at SUNY Empire provides free online and in-person services and resources, including learning coaches, peer coaches, and TutorMe, 24/7 on-demand, live tutoring in more than 300 subjects.

Review our five tips to help you get the most of out of your session.

1. Don’t wait until the last minute to get help. Make an appointment with a coach/tutor early in the term to begin working through challenging material and assignments. Don’t wait until one or two days before an exam or right before a paper is due to ask for assistance.
2. Keep up with classwork and homework. Tutoring is a supplemental resource – an opportunity to get some extra, one-on-one help. It's not intended to replace primary course instruction. Keeping up with classwork, homework, and readings will give you a foundation for talking about material with your coach/tutor. If you want to work on a specific assignment with a coach/tutor, first try completing it on your own so that your session can focus on the parts you found most challenging.
3. Come ready with specific questions or concepts to work on. Make a list of questions or course concepts for which you need help. Be specific and narrow down your list so that you and your coach/tutor can focus on one or two things. Saying, “I don’t understand how to graph inequalities” is an example of a focused topic versus saying, “I don’t understand anything about graphing.”
4. Bring your course material and assignment with you. Coming to a tutoring session with your assignment and materials will help the coach/tutor understand the context of your questions and the task at hand. We can help you more when we know exactly what your instructor assigned.
5. Hold realistic expectations. Learning new material takes time, so be patient with yourself. A tutoring session is one hour, so consider what can reasonably be accomplished in that time. A coach/tutor helps by listening, asking questions, and modeling tips or strategies, but they won’t complete assignments for you or evaluate your work for a grade.