This past week, in order to try out the Universities free academic resources, I visited the Math and Statistics Learning Center for help with my Calculus homework. Needless to say, this experience was very weird for me. Throughout High School, I was never one to need help with my course work, let alone ask for it. When I began having problems with one of our assignments, I decided that it was the perfect opportunity to use one of the many resources provided by the campus.
Thankfully, I have my Software 1 class in the same building as the MSLC, or else I probably wouldn’t have been able to find it. It was in the basement of Cockins Hall and down a very discreet set of hallways with arrows pointing towards the assigned room for my class. Thankfully, once I got there, I was greeted by a friendly front desk assistant who led me through signing in and understanding the system. I immediately felt welcomed in the room and not at all embarrassed to be asking for help. After putting up one of the flags to signal that I had a question, a TA promptly sat next to me and began explaining the conceptual issue I was having. I was struggling with a recent concept we learned in class known as implicit differentiation, and the TA did a wonderful job of explaining the content and even helped me through extra practice problems.
Overall, it was a very helpful and engaging experience that helped me in more ways than one. While there, I witnessed the TA’s helping students in a multitude of ways. This included giving the students example problems, describing concepts in easier terms, and even a technique that resembled more leading the student to right answer with small clues rather than straight up telling them what to do. Especially for a help center focused around Math, I believe that this last technique was probably the most effective. Math is a subject very much centered around understanding what your doing, not just memorizing a set of steps to find the correct answer. The TA that helped me didn’t do this, however I was still able to find a basic grasp of the concept that I’m hoping will be built upon during recitation.
I think help seeking is something that a lot of students struggle with. Nobody wants to admit that they’re having problems, and college is no different. I especially struggle with asking for help due to always being able to work through content on my own in high school. An easier way to do this might be through private tutoring since that provides students with a less public experience that can be more catered towards their own needs. In the past, I have thought about becoming a tutor for classes such as Chemistry, Physics, and Computer Science, due to my easy grasp on concepts and I am even still considering teaching Computer Science as my back up major if CSE doesn’t end up working out. I would definitely go to the MSLC again should i ever need more help with my course work.