Utilizing Kean’s services can help build a GPA
By Petruce Jean-Charles | Published by April 13, 2018
GPA stands for grade point average and it is a calculated average that students earn in school from a 0 to 4.0 scale. Every semester, a student receives a GPA based on the grades they earned in all of their classes during the semester.
Kean University is home to the writing center, tutoring services, Tutortrac and many more. These services help build a students’ knowledge, confidence, understanding and overall GPA.
The writing center is located in the library room 108 where it provides peer writing and one-on-one support. They provide guidance in brainstorming, grammar and final drafts with students of all writing levels.
Graduate assistant Richonda Fegins and academic specialist Holly Wood wanted to explain the importance of the writing center and the resources it provides.
“A service we provide for our students are all writing extensive things like writing projects, papers and creative work,” said Fegins. “We provide assistance in those fields for students so when they come in they will have a one-on-one session with us to go over things. Some of our services can range from brainstorming all the way down to polishing a literature review for research papers.”
Along with that statement Wood added in that there are many benefits attributed with the writing center.
“I think the benefit is that here students can have a conversation about their paper and that includes any issues going on in their paper or things direct as citation help. It’s always good to get another set of eyes on your paper,” said Wood.
Fegins wanted to add in the aspect that the best thing students can do is have a conversation about the paper. She emphasizes the importance of going over writing as a tool to help students improve their skills and self correct their work.
“A tip I have deals with students that come in with assignments that deal with citations, cite as you go so that you don’t have to go back in the end. It is so much easier to cite as you go along and always make sure you have a grasp on how to do it manually, instead of depending on generators,” said Fegins.
Wood notes the importance of taking a break from writing to ensure a better sense of mistakes and errors that may be written in a span of time.
“My go to tip is when you are done with a paper give distance between you and that paper, whether an hour it’s good to seperate yourself from writing. It helps revisions and gives you a new set of eyes to catch mistakes and make changes,” said Wood
Fegins and Wood encourages students to visit the writing center where they help with many styles of writing and editing. They also want students to understand that the writing center is a welcoming environment and that the end of the semester are the best times to make an appointment.
“Our main motto at the writing center is it’s not so much about improving the paper it about improving the writer,” said Wood.
Hours of Operation are Monday through Thursday 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Tutoring and learning support services is located in the Nancy Thompson Learning Commons where tutoring is offered in wide range of undergraduate courses.
Students can make appointments through Tutortrac or walk-in where they train student and professional students to implement strategies to help students succeed. Through Tutortrac students can login and make appointments that work for their schedule, this service can be used for many outlets on Kean including the writing center and tutoring.
Caleb Dagnall, an academic specialist for the tutoring and learning support services spoke of the services they provide and how they seek to improve each students academic success.
“We are open to one-on-one tutoring and group tutoring and essentially what we do is we have tutoring for most of the academic subjects, primarily math, science and business courses. We also have offerings for other courses as well,” said Dagnall. “We focus on the student traffic of each course and the courses I named before are the most in high demand. We also supplement what is going on in class, however students are being taught we do the same. We just want to help them understand concepts better and give them additional help.”
Dagnall notes that it is important for students to know themselves and their academic capabilities when trying to improve a GPA.
“We work with students to help build their knowledge and that’s why we have one-on-one sessions. A lot of studies show that reviewing notes and re-reading them can be the best way to retain information,” said Dagnall
The department’s goal is to provide students with the opportunity to achieve a high grade and build their GPA, through one-on-one and group sessions.
“Each student learns differently and each student needs to study differently,” said Dagnall.