I’ve been stuck in some pretty intimate tutoring situations.
My least favorite session was with a stereotypical elderly lady (cats and all) who attempted to drill freshman year geometry into my unwelcoming brain. As I sat in her vintage living room, my head came dangerously close to smacking that ancient cedar wood table from boredom as she took about twenty minutes to draw a straight line. There was even a china bowl filled with interesting lemon drops that I doubt have lined a Walgreen shelf since the 1970’s. Mom knew she owed me big time after that, so naturally we stopped to grab an extra large slurpee on the way home.
So, when I showed up last Tuesday at the Study Edge building, the whole experience should’ve felt pretty natural to me. But when I heard the session wouldn’t be over for four hours, my expression matched those of the other students who looked about ready to shoot themselves wasting another hour and a half of their lives in a lecture hall located dangerously close to Midtown.
So how do they keep us college students focused?
Food. The instructors are more than willing to chuck a piece of candy at any brave soul willing to ask a question. Remember the kindergarten days where the entire class immediately shut up at the thought of a mini snickers bar? The process still works. There are also some handy dandy discounts included in the study packets. I don’t know about you, but I’ll take any excuse to eat a Relish hamburger.
But the most effective way to keep our attention is a little bit of crass humor. When the calculus instructor referred to a complicated equation as a WTF (weird tricky function) the entire class perked up a little bit. The most hilarious experience I’ve had with Study Edge, however, is the instructor’s use of inappropriate names for individuals in our sample problems. My favorites were: Hugh Jass, Mo Lester, and Heywood Jablome (read these out loud and you’ll get it.) Imagine incorporating these hilarious names into economics problems, and things get a whole lot more interesting. Comparing Chris Brown’s production output of anger management classes to hamburgers is a lot better than simply studying the relationship of productivity.
Study Edge is so effective because they know us college students too well. All we need is a little bit of sugar, discounted meals, and some inappropriate jokes to keep us focused. I recommend going to Study Edge for a great stand up comedy routine and an A+ on your exam as an added bonus.
Photo courtesy of: NiagaraEdu
