Students commonly find themselves needing assistance in their studies. Whether from a lack of time, a confusing lesson, missing school, etc., high schoolers may find themselves behind and feeling like there is no where to turn. One often forgotten approach to alleviate this issue is mentor and peer tutoring. 

Tutoring from mentors and from peers is often beneficial to a marked extent which often can’t be matched by individual study. According to a study by Colin J. Beasley, 67 percent of students at Murdoch University in Australia felt that tutoring by peers was very useful. 

Contrarily, the recently implemented tutoring system at MHS may not be getting as many customers as it should, according to several NHS tutors.

NHS implemented a tutoring system a few months into the school year involving a network of academically gifted students able to help with a variety of topics. Students seeking help can ask their teachers for a list that contains student tutors’ names, e-mails and specialties. Students can then contact the peer tutors or ask their counselors to reach out for them. The tutor and student will then set up a meeting time. 

Tutors in the system can help with homework, study habits, test preparation and catching up on missed content. Of course, there are a limited number of tutors. For example, of the list of tutors, a large majority can help with any level and type of science or math, but only one student can help with all of the social sciences up to junior year. 

It has been noted in Winning With Peer Tutoring: A Teacher’s Guide that “In every [peer tutoring] case, a significant increase in skill performance accrued”.

Students may apply to the service if they are in need of help or wish to get a better grasp on content. One teacher who has used the service for her class, Mrs. Heusser, said that it significantly helped one of her students who was struggling to grasp study concepts for her AP United States History class. The same student in question also reported feeling more prepared for the next test and scored higher than on previous assessments.

Students seeking a social studies tutor, as well as assistance with math, science English content can contact Jonathon Bender at [email protected].

Other tutors include Mattherw Upanni, Chinmay Bapat, Ananya Shrivastava and Michael Willen. Other tutors who cover a variety of other subjects such as Spanish, German and computer science are part of the program as well.