TUTORING AT THE LAC
Welcome to the LAC! LAC tutoring is available to all SF State students free of charge. LAC tutoring is provided by SF State graduate and undergraduate students who are supervised by SF State faculty.
The LAC provides skills-based tutoring. This means that tutors help you develop specific skills and strategies during each tutoring session. They do this by asking you questions, helping you figure out what you know and what you need to work on. They teach you specific strategies to get your work done effectively, give you opportunities to practice the strategies during tutoring sessions, and suggest ways for you to use them on your own.
You can come when you receive an assignment and work with a tutor to brainstorm your next steps. You can come for help when you can’t complete a problem set. You can come with a draft to get feedback on organization and development.
SCHEDULING AN APPOINTMENT
The LAC has weekly, same-day and one-time appointments for tutoring. You need to fill out a student intake form for the current semester before making an appointment.
Intakes
On your first visit to the LAC, you will complete an intake to register for tutoring. You need to fill out a registration form and complete an intake interview with an LAC staff member. To save time, you can download the LAC registration form from the link on this page. (Use the sample registration instructions to make sure you fill out the form correctly.) At the Center, a staff member will sit down with you and complete the intake interview. This process takes about 10 minutes.
Weekly Appointments
Weekly appointments are 50-minute sessions scheduled every week at the same time with the same tutor. We are not able to offer weekly appointments to all students who want them. This type of tutoring is best if you
- are worried about failing
- are taking a remedial class
- are taking a class for the second time
- can commit to spending an hour a week for tutoring
Weekly appointments may be for individuals, pairs of students or small groups of students who have the same teacher. You may have up to two weekly appointments, one with a reading/ writing/ study skills tutor and one with a math/ sciences/ study skills tutor. In addition to your weekly appointments, you may also come for same-day and one-time tutoring.
To make weekly tutoring sessions productive:
- Come on time!
- Always try to do your homework before you receive tutoring.
- Bring the assignment, your notes, and your textbooks, readers, and course materials.
- Come prepared with questions you want to answer.
- Make sure you understand what you need to do AFTER the session to complete your assignment.
Groups
Groups give you a chance to work collaboratively on solving problems and learning with other students in your course who have the same teacher. By working together, you solidify what you already know and learn new strategies to tackle what you need to work on.
The LAC Writing Workshop is a special program for freshmen enrolled in English 201/202 or English 104/105 or 106. Writing Workshop students meet twice a week for ten weeks with 3-5 students from their English class and an LAC tutor. They work on reading, writing and grammar skills while getting help with their English essays. You need to be referred by your English teacher to participate in a LAC Writing Workshop.
Same-Day Appointments
Every day some reading/writing tutors and some math/sciences tutors have same-day appointments.
Same day appointments open up at 9:00 am and are given on a first-come/ first- serve basis. The daily same day schedule often fills up in the first hour we are open.
You may telephone or walk in to reserve a tutoring slot for the same day. Students who are waiting in the hallway outside HSS 348 before 9:00 AM will be served first.
You may reserve only one appointment at a time and may only have two appointments per week per subject.
This type of tutoring is best if you
- are doing well in general but get stuck on a specific problem or concept
- have done well in previous classes
- have a specific question to ask
- want some tutoring help but cannot commit to coming every week.
To make same-day tutoring productive:
- Avoid coming for help at the last minute.
- Always try to do your homework before you receive tutoring.
- Bring the assignment, your notes, and your textbooks, readers, and course materials.
- Come prepared with questions you want to answer.
- Bring the assignment, your notes, and your textbooks, readers, and course materials.
- Make sure you understand what you need to do AFTER the session to complete your assignment.
One-Time Appointments
We sometimes have one-time openings on our schedule that you can reserve during the current week. To reserve a one-time appointment, please call or drop by the LAC and ask about openings during the week. One-time appointments are like same-day appointments except you can make them for any day in the current week.
Late Policy
Don’t be late for your weekly, one-time or same-day tutoring sessions! If there are students waiting, we may give your appointment to another student if you are more than 10 minutes late.
If you cancel or don't show up for a scheduled appointment, it may not be possible to make another appointment that week
Skills Developed in Tutoring
Writing
- Understanding assignments
- Planning and getting started
- Citing sources
- Making revisions
- Editing and proofreading
Reading
- Planning reading schedules
- Reading textbooks effectively
- Locating main ideas
- Summarizing and retaining information
- Thinking critically
Research
- Planning for a research project
- Effectively using electronic databases
- Compiling bibliographic citations
Math and Sciences
- Identifying, comprehending, and learning to talk about concepts
- Discovering patterns and making connections in materials
- Problem-solving
Study Skills
- Time management
- Lecture note-taking
- Organizing information
- Annotating and marking texts
- Test-taking strategies
- Asking questions
If You Want Help with Grammar or Proofreading
Tutors are not allowed to correct your essays. Too much help is considered plagiarism.
If you're at the proofreading stage of the writing process (meaning you've written and revised several drafts), you can expect to
- Learn to recognize errors in your writing
- Learn steps to correct your own errors
- Focus on one or two writing problems during the session
On your own, before you see a tutor
- Do as much editing as possible
- Write down questions you want to discuss
- Bring the draft with your notes and corrections to the session.
After the session,
- Practice the steps you learned during the session to finish editing your paper on your own.
