Any student worried about keeping up with the rigorous workload
of UCLA classes should have no problem getting some extra help from
the various tutoring services offered on campus.
In addition to class and subject-specific tutoring offered by
individual departments and private tutors, two major tutoring
services ““ the Academic Advancement Program tutoring and
Covel tutorials ““ have been helping UCLA students succeed for
over 20 years. Â
AAP offers tutoring for over 450 classes and is free for all AAP
students. The program is divided into three labs ““ science,
social science and humanities.
At the start of each quarter AAP students can sign up at
Campbell Hall, where all tutoring takes place, said Reggie Waddell,
English and humanities lab coordinator.
Waddell said AAP tutoring is conducted by standing appointments,
not on a walk-in basis. Once signed up, the student has made a
commitment to attend tutoring sessions once a week for 11
weeks.
His lab offers about 51 courses and over 500 students attend
each quarter.
The tutors are all UCLA students and must interview for the
program. Waddell said for his lab, it is preferred that the tutors
have taken the class for which they will be tutoring.
AAP fall training teaches tutors how to engage students in
discussion and debate applicable to their actual classes.
“It’s not about “˜I have the answers and you
don’t,'” Waddell said, adding that encouragement,
support and respect are three main tools tutors bring to each
session.
AAP tutors are required to visit the professor of the class they
are tutoring to learn how to best help AAP students taking their
class.
Waddell said tutoring broadens students’ perspective and
offers a diversity of information that they won’t get on
their own.
“The benefits are obvious in terms of critical thinking,
and that’s what college is all about,” he said.
Ed Frankel, assistant director of Covel tutorials, shares
Waddell’s feelings on tutoring. He has worked with Covel
tutorials since 1980 when it first started as part of the English
department, with a focus on writing programs.
The idea was to create peer tutoring to give students a chance
to process information for themselves, and this focus has not
changed over the years, Frankel said, though the program is now
under the College of Letters & Science.
Frankel said tutoring is valuable because “it gives us
distance in our writing.” He said writing is often viewed as
a solitary act, when it is really a collaborative effort.
Currently, Covel tutorials offers tutoring in all subjects for
student athletes, and free math and science, composition, or ESL
tutoring for all UCLA students.
There are 30 undergraduate tutors for the math and science
program, each working with about eight students at a time, and
running five to six groups. Students sign up in Covel Commons
during the first week of classes for tutoring in a specific
introductory math or science class, and usually get their first
pick, Frankel said.
Students can also schedule a composition tutorial anytime during
the quarter, meeting one-on-one with a tutor to discuss a paper.
Conducted by graduate students, ESL tutoring helps students write
or speak English as a second language, and is available by
appointment throughout the quarter.
Drop-in appointments for all three types of tutoring are
available between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m., Monday through Thursday.
While budget cuts will affect both AAP and Covel tutorials,
Frankel said it is nothing major, and Waddell added that if
anything, cuts might affect the number of classes and tutors
offered.
For more information visit www.college.ucla.edu/up/ct/ or
www.college.ucla.edu/up/aap/tutoring/index.html.