Many students start off the semester with different goals. For some, it may be to become more involved in student organizations, to find new jobs, or to work out. However, others may use this new beginning as an opportunity to bring up their grade point averages, and the Center for Academic Success can help.
“In high school it was easy to make As and Bs,” said Trisha Avery, a mass communication sophomore. “However, college classes are a lot harder, and my first semester I found myself struggling to keep my grades up and I was having trouble studying.”
Avery’s problems with maintaining her grades and developing a study strategy is not uncommon for many incoming and returning students. Director of the Center for Academic Success Saundra McGuire said students can seek assistance with these problems as well as others in the center.
“To use an analogy, it’s like a person who struggles with his weight,” McGuire said. “That person knows he should exercise and eat better, but he may not know exactly how to go about implementing diet and exercise.”
McGuire said students who are plagued with studying problems are similar. They know that they need to study, but are not sure how. “Students can either meet with a counselor or visit our Web site so that they can begin to build a concrete strategy for learning,” McGuire said.
McGuire said students can access many of the center’s resources online at www.cas.lsu.edu.
“Our Web site is the most useful, but underutilized resource,” McGuire said.
Online, students can take tests such as those which measure brain dominance and indicate personality type, and complete workshops in areas like time management.
Although the Center for Academic Success is best known for its tutoring and supplemental instruction programs, service-learning courses, study smarter workshops and computer software workshops, like the START program, also fall under the center’s umbrella.
Formerly called the Learning Assistance Center, the Center for Academic Success has been operating since 1989. Renamed in 2000, the center has constantly been growing and evolving to better serve the LSU community.
The Supplemental Instruction program was added in 1998. So how does this program work?
“We hire students who have excelled in courses such as biology, chemistry, math, geology, chemical engineering, and physics to sit through the course lectures again and host study sessions,” McGuire said.
Printmaking junior Melissa Bourgeois said she participated in supplemental instruction for a math course her freshman year and it helped her with the problems she had been having. “Having additional help outside of class gave me the opportunity to spend more time on specific information I had trouble understanding,” Bourgeois said.
The START program has also brought academic success to students. “I took classes for web design, and they helped me with my ISDS work,” said ISDS junior Reed Taylor.
The most popular workshops focus on computer software.
“Many times, students use computers for Internet purposes or to check email, but lack experience using the latest software,” McGuire said. “START workshops are offered free of charge to LSU students, and students can just walk-in to the sessions.”
With all of the services offered by the Center for Academic Success, it’s a wonder that students fail to take advantage of them.
“If I had known what a great benefit the Center was for students, I probably would have used it,” said studio art senior Katie Sims.
But the results for many students who have had the opportunity to attend have been positive.
“We are constantly receiving emails from students who are excited about the grades they have made,” McGuire said. “With better performance in class students gain greater confidence which makes our job in the Center for Academic Success very gratifying.”
McGuire said, although there has been much expansion in the Center over the past years, resources are still limited.
For instance, study strategy counselors are only able to work part-time, McGuire said. These counselors help students analyze their learning styles and create more effective study habits.
“Additional funding would allow us to expand our services so that we have the opportunity to reach out to as many LSU students as possible,” McGuire said.