With the first round of tests and quizzes around the corner, it’s easy to get a little bit of extra help with studying at Elgin Community College’s tutoring center. Students can make an appointment or just drop in to get help from any of the professional tutors on staff.

Located near the back of the upper level of the library, the tutoring center is a calm, spacious atmosphere with minimal distractions, making focusing and studying much easier. With 40 different tutors on staff, there’s bound to be someone who can help you out with that tough English literature analysis paper.

“Tutoring isn’t just for someone who’s struggling in class, that’s a common misconception. It’s something that’s here for all students,”  said Joshua Worsham, director of ECC’s Tutoring Center.

There are three different ways the tutoring center offers to help: drop-in tutoring, by appointment or online through D2L. With drop-in tutoring, there’s no charge and students can visit as often and as long as they’d like. Drop-in tutoring is applicable with most general education classes, and is a great way to get to know the material.

“We hire professional tutors, so that have a bachelor’s degree in the area they’re tutoring, which is a good perk to have at the school, so you know the tutors have the knowledge of the material. Many of the tutors are instructors here at the school too, so they know the course work. It’s a really nice resource to be aware of,” Worsham said.

Students can also make appointments for private tutoring sessions as well. Each private session is 50 minutes long, each student is allowed five free sessions per semester and if you’re with TRIO you get an additional five free sessions. Private sessions are also offered for note-taking skills and test anxiety.

The third way for students to get help with classes is through online tutoring.

“If the students are not able to be here in person, they can use online tutoring on D2L. They can post questions and we can guarantee that a tutor can respond within 24 hours. If they have questions on nights or weekends or over the holidays, we still have tutors checking, so that’s just another opportunity for students to get support besides being here in person,” Worsham said. “It’s probably the one service that students know least about, the online service, so it’s good to get the word out there.”

And the best time to go to the tutoring center?  According to Worsham, it’s right now, at the beginning of the semester.

“A lot of the time, students show up to tutoring after they’ve done poorly on a test or right before their paper is due and at that point, there’s not necessarily a whole lot that we can help them with that short time frame. So maybe the biggest thing that I tell students is to come to the tutoring center before you need help. Come get to know us in the first week or two, but that way you can already start to ask those questions and build those relations before you’re struggling in a class,” Worsham said.