Did you fail a class or two last semester?
Are the same teaching methods just not resonating with students like they used to?
Or do you just want to pass a midterm?
Whoever you are, student or staff at UW, a plethora of programs are at your disposal to ensure that you reach your academic goals in 2018.
For students, resources like STEP Tutoring and the writing center are a hop, skip and jump away in Washakie and Coe Library.
“I think our location is pretty important to our success,” Jess Willford, Coordinator of STEP Tutoring and Supplemental Instruction, said. “A lot of students work and study and meet with groups of people in the library, so being in the library I think is huge. Now that we’re also in Washakie, I think that really important too because so many students live in the dorms.”
Satellite Tutoring, an extension of STEP, is now located in the basement of Washakie.
“I think it’s something like almost 2000 students are taking classes that we offer in our Satellite tutoring center, so many students can just roll downstairs in their PJs and get some questions answered,” Willford said.
Supplemental Instruction sessions also play a large part in helping students with difficult material. Willford said around 91 percent of students who go to SI get a passing grade in the class verses about the 60 percent of students who don’t go to SI that get a passing grade in that class.
“I think that students sometimes have preconceptions about what out-of-class help means. ‘If I go to tutoring I’m not a good student’ or ‘I could do this on my own, Cowboy Up!’” Willford said. “I think that a lot of students feel like this is not something that [they] need. If there was one thing I wish I could do it is change that culture of thought. Tutoring and SI is great if you need it, but we’re also here if you just want to be better at your class.”
If the prospect of writing essays and lab reports makes you queasy, the writing center on the third floor of Coe Library is the place to go.
“[We help with] brainstorming ideas for a class assignment, creating together an outline or a draft, revising the first draft, revising the second draft, going over any of the drafts,” Professional Writing Consultant Peyton Lunzer said.
The writing center also helps polish resumes, cover letters, graduate school scholarship applications, creative writing and anything that involves writing at any stage of the process.
Ross Hall is where the Math Assistance Center, or MAC, and the Oral Communication Center (OCC) are located.
The basement of Ross is where students can find MAC, a program that offers tutoring for lower division math courses. Students can come in with questions or just for a place to work on homework where questions can be answered readily.
“The goal is just to help students get through their homework assignments, but also to learn the material and teaching them to fish rather than giving them food,” Director of MAC David Anton said.
The OCC is a resource that helps students overcome fears of public speaking. The OCC also assists students with the presentation and delivery of speeches and presentations.
Surviving college workloads is challenging as a student, and taking advantage of free resources on campus could be the difference between a semester of success and a semester of suffering.
