Academic Coaching
For students, good study skills are often as important as the subject material. This is especially true of students who have to integrate demanding coursework with extracurricular activities. Through middle school, class grades typically weight homework more heavily causing bright students with poor organization to receive poor grades. Throughout high school, tests, quizzes, essays, and projects are more heavily weighted which creates problems for students who lack time management and study skills. Many times, brilliant students are not recognized for their talents because their bad study habits prevent them from showcasing their skills in their schoolwork. Every student stands to benefit from improved organization and time management skills. Cardinal Education will work with your child to hone these skills to perfection.
A Hands-On Approach
It is never enough to simply tell a student how to study. Such advice is often generalized or based on hypothetical situations that may not apply to every student. Cardinal Education understands this and uses a hands-on approach for Academic Coaching to show students exactly how to approach their studies with consideration for their aspirations, courses, extra-curricular activities, and habits. Students are also taught how to leverage the social aspect of school: using study groups and group projects, communicating with teachers, and how to accomplish tasks when others are involved. This method helps develop their thinking and approach to assignments now and in the future.
Study Skills
Proper study skills are much more nuanced than simply knowing to avoid “cramming” for a quiz or test. Cardinal Education’s Academic Coaches show students the intricacies of how the teacher, timeline, course content, and format of the exam all influence study methods. Students are taught how to economize studying and how to utilize proper note-taking and homework completion to achieve better grades on exams and in-class assignments. Our Academic Coaches teach students how to give responses that teachers seek. Some students actually spend an abundant amount of time studying for quizzes and tests to no avail. This detracts from other classes, extra-curricular activities, and enjoying being a kid. Some instructors model their classes after college courses and only give students topics that will be covered on exams with no methodology for moving through and understanding all of the material. Cardinal Education helps students reduce stress by being prepared.
Time Management
As students take on more and more activities, the learning how to schedule becomes increasingly important. While mom and dad handle the scheduling duties for younger students, there comes a time when students must learn to manage their own time to accomplish everything they need to. Cardinal Education’s Academic Coaches show students how to prioritize and understand the concept of work before play. We teach students how to create schedules for short-term and long-term planning so that they can handle anything from studying for a test scheduled for the end of the week to planning out a semester research paper. Students learn how to create shorter milestones to ensure that assignments are completed on or before deadline and with good quality.
Organization
The benefits of being highly organized go well beyond the classroom. Today, a high level of organization is what most employers seek from applicants as being highly organized is synonymous with professionalism. Furthermore, teachers expect students to maintain a high level of organization with little to no instruction on how to do so. This is seen in the fact that most classes give notebook grades; grades that should be easy A’s. Cardinal Education’s Academic Coaches teach students how to keeping neat notebooks in order to receive full credit on binder and notebook checks. The benefits of organization are multifaceted. They lead to a reduction in backpack and room clutter, fewer missing assignments, and development of good habits to get students through grade school, college, and beyond.