The ambitious program MET 1
Since the fall of 2013, the Texas A&M University-Kingsville has developed a program called “enhanced mentoring and tutoring: MET”. The objectives of this program are highly specific, such as improving student retention, and increasing both the number of graduate students and the enrollment of minority groups.
MET’s main theme is a mentoring program in which tutors receive training to achieve the MET’s outlined objectives. The program’s preliminary results were documented in the fall of 2014, and this data was compared with data from 2012. Table 1 shows a comparison of the percentage of passing students in both courses.
Since the number of students who passed the courses were the main indicator, almost all courses with tutors showed improvment. It brought results closer to MET’s first and second objectives. Further results are still pending publication.
Sleep to learn 2
Although it may sound strange and counterintuitive, studying before bedtime is a good habit, because during sleep the brain consolidates new memories, making this a sort of period of knowledge organization. That’s why it may be a good idea to sleep or at least take a nap after a good study session. To be clear; sleeping after to studying doesn’t mean sleeping while studying!
1 Kai Jin, H. L; Abderlrahman, M; Gonzalez, M; Miller D; Increasing student retention through an enhanced mentoring and tutoring program. Proceedings of the ASEE Gulf-Southwest Annual Conference Organized by The University of Texas at San Antonio Copyright © 2015, American Society for Engineering Education.
2Lebowitz, S; 22 Science-Backed Study Tips to Ace a Test. Published in 2013. Consulted May 19 th 2015. Available: http://greatist.com/happiness/better-study-tips-test