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An Overview of CLAS Services

Campus Learning Assistance Services (CLAS) offers four categories of free tutorial services: Tutorial Groups, Drop-In Tutorials, Skills Workshops, and Individual Appointments.

  • Tutorial Groups are course specific, require advanced enrollment, and generally meet twice a week. Regular attendance is required to maintain enrollment.
  • Drop-In tutorial labs are subject specific and do not require advance sign-up.
  • Workshops are one time meetings that include general study skills and course-specific study skills.
  • Individual Appointments are thirty- to sixty-minute one-on-one sessions with CLAS writing and study skills specialists and tutors.

These services are organized in the following four categories:

CLAS provides some individual tutoring to students referred by the Intercollegiate Athletics Department or by the Disabled Students Program. Also, students who would like to hire a private tutor can receive referrals from CLAS coordinators.

Writing, ESL, and Foreign Language Program

CLAS offers a range of Writing and Foreign Language tutorials to all registered UCSB students.

Students seeking individual assistance with any writing assignment or project can sign up in advance for an appointment in the Writing Lab or use the Writing Drop-in Lab on a first-come, first served basis. Tutors in both labs assist students at any stage in the writing process--from analyzing the assignment to revising for clarity and conciseness. However, CLAS writing tutors do not proofread or edit papers. You may also want to visit the UCSB Writing Program for additional resources.

Writing services are in the Student Resource Building, Room 3240. Consult the Writing Lab schedule and Writing Drop-in schedule for days and times

New Service!
Students for whom English is not their first language can now meet individually with a CLAS ESL Specialist to receive one-to-one assistance with any piece of writing at any stage of the writing process—from analyzing the assignment to identifying and resolving problems with grammar, idioms, syntax, and organization. Consult the ESL Specialist Appointment Schedule for a listing of available appointment times for the current quarter.

Foreign Language Drop-In tutorials are available to students enrolled in certain foreign language classes, including Spanish, French, Italian, Russian, German, Arabic, and Hebrew. Foreign Language Services are located in the Student Resource Building, Room 3240. Stop by the Student Resource Building, Room 3210 or consult the Foreign Language Drop-in schedule for current quarter schedules.

Spanish tutor with student.

Math & Science Program

Three students working together.

Three students at the front board.

Tutorial Groups are offered for a large number of lower division math and science courses including Calculus, PStat, Chemistry, Biology, and Physics. Tutorials require advance sign-up and regular attendance. Groups normally meet twice a week for 50 minutes each meeting. Students can be dropped from group tutorials for inconsistent attendance.

Drop-In services are available for assistance on a first-come, first-serve basis. No advance sign-up is needed.

  • Math & Physics Drop-In
  • Biology & Chemistry Drop-In

Both drop-ins are located in the Student Resource Building, Room 3210.

For a complete list of current groups offered and drop-in times see Schedules.

Note: Students are expected to read ahead and attempt the problems before asking for help, have specific questions, and may not ask for help on problems that are from a take home test. Tutors are not allowed to complete homework problems that are turned in for credit.

For more information on our services, please visit CLAS in the Student Resource Building, Room 3210.

Economics & Accounting Program

CLAS offers Groups and Drop-In service for selected Economics and Accounting classes.

Tutorial Groups include Econ 1, Econ 2, Econ 3A, Econ 3B, and Psych 5. Tutorials require advance sign-up and regular attendance. Groups normally meet once a week for 50 minutes each meeting. Students can be dropped from group tutorials for poor attendance.

Drop-In services are available for assistance on a first-come, first-serve basis. No advance sign-up is needed. Drop-In service includes Econ 1, 2, 3A/B, 100A/B, 118 and 134A. Drop-In is located in the Student Resource Building, Room 3210.

For more information on our services, please visit CLAS in the Student Resource Building, Room 3210.

 

Three students working outside.

Academic Skills Program: Workshops and Individual Appointments

The Academic Skills Program offers free study skills assistance in the form of small group workshops and one-on-one counseling to all registered undergraduate and graduate students. These services include general study skills workshops and course-specific workshops.

New Service!
Study Skills Individual Appointments: Personal training for your academic work!
These thirty- to sixty-minute one-on-one appointments are conducted by CLAS’s study skills specialists. They can focus on specific issues such as how to study for essay exams, how to organize your time, how to get more out of your reading assignments, or how to take better lecture notes. Specialists can also conduct a “study skills inventory” to help you analyze strengths and weaknesses in your study habits so you can change patterns that prevent you from achieving your goals. Students can make appointments for one-time sessions or for ongoing check-ins throughout the quarter or beyond.
Consult the Study Skills Appointment schedule for a listing of available appointment times for the current quarter.

Course-Specific Workshops: These workshops are offered for many of the large, lower division classes that satisfy GE requirements. Designed in cooperation with faculty and teaching assistants, they provide strategies that help students meet the demands of specific course requirements such as exams or papers. The workshops are not content based review sessions. Workshops are announced in the lectures or sections and advance sign-up is required. Consult the Course-Specific Workshop schedule for a complete listing of offerings for the current quarter.

Study Skills Workshops: The general study skills workshops can be helpful to all students who want to sharpen their study skills or learn new study strategies. First-year students might start with time management, reading and note-taking and then move on to the exam prep and memory workshops. Consult the Study Skills Workshop schedule for a complete listing of offerings for the current quarter.

Study Skills Workshops can come to you! If you would like to request a study skills workshop for your organization or residence contact Jay Stemmle at (805) 893-4754 or jay.stemmle@sa.ucsb.edu.

Students in a workshop.

Study Skills Workshops Offerings

In the Study Skills Workshops students are exposed to strategies for improving their academic performance and understanding of course material. The quarterly workshop schedule includes a wide range of topics and meeting times to fit most students' schedules. The counselors who conduct the general workshops are also available for follow-up. Students can also make an appointment with the study skills coordinator or drop by during their office hours for individual appointments. Quarterly workshop topics include:

  • Organizing Your Time - Helps students organize their schedules on a daily, weekly, and quarterly basis and to make the best use of their time.
  • Fighting Procrastination - Facilitators discuss how to prioritize deadlines and combat procrastination.
  • Taking Good Lecture Notes - Teaches techniques to take better notes.
  • Reading Strategies: Improving Efficiency and Recall - This workshop introduces students to methods for finding and remembering the most course-relevant information in their reading assignments.
  • Reading Strategies: Improving Comprehension - Students who come to this workshop will learn techniques for getting the most out of difficult reading assignments.
  • Effective Memory Techniques: Helps students develop better methods for remembering and understanding material.
  • Essay Exam Preparation - Helps students learn how to study for and take essay exams.
  • Objective Exam Preparation - This workshop helps students learn how to study for and take objective exams.
  • Learning Styles - We all learn differently, and this workshop helps students understand how they learn and how to study best for that learning style.
  • Making Your Way Through the System - The University is a complex series of departments, committees, and programs. This workshop helps students find their way through the system and make the best use of the resources available to them.
  • Statement of Purpose - Helps students learn how to write a strong statement of purpose for their graduate school applications.
  • Surviving University Writing - Writing at the University level.
  • For International Students: Conventions of U.S. Academic Writing - This workshop provides an overview of the rhetorical conventions most U.S. writers and readers take for granted--from the introductory sentence to overall structural patterns--and helps international students better understand the expectations of their U.S. readers.
  • Twenty Most Common ESL Writing Errors - This workshop focuses on helping students recognize, understand, and eliminate the most common patterns of error in their written English.
  • An ESL Workshop: U.S. Slang and Idioms
  • Study Skills for Transfer Students - In this workshop, students will inventory their already successful study skills to discover how to adapt them to their new campus. Trained facilitators will emphasize time management under the quarter system, getting the most out of large classes, and answering student questions about how to achieve their goals at UCSB.

All study skills workshops except for the Statement of Purpose workshop are Wellness Passport Events. Please see the Wellness Center website at wellness.sa.ucsb.edu for more information.

Consult the Study Skills Workshop schedule for a complete listing of offerings for the current quarter.

 
 

 

For further information on CLAS:
Call (805) 893-3269, email clas@sa.ucsb.edu or come by the Student Resource Building, Room 3210. Fax: (805) 893-4788.