Adrian Chimboza

Office Hours encompass the hours outside the regular lecture period in which a professor is available to help students with any difficulties they might be facing in their particular class of instruction. Office hours are a way for the professor and students to communicate outside of the pressure and sometimes hurried nature of a class. Understanding assigned materials/readings or grasping certain concepts in class is something that some students transitioning into college struggle with in their first term in college. However, office hours with your professor can be a good time to address this. This can be a very useful resource, especially at Dartmouth, if it is consistently utilized. I have attended almost every session of office hours since classes began, and I can declare with confidence that this is one of the best resources at Dartmouth.

One of the special gems among Dartmouth's academic resources is RWIT. RWIT stands for Research, Writing, and Information Technology. It is a peer tutoring center at Dartmouth that provides free, one-on-one, consultations for any student on campus. Whether you are brainstorming a topic for your term paper, crafting up a thesis statement, or just looking for someone to review your paper, this is the right place to go. By booking a session at RWIT, you get connected with a trained tutor who will not only help with your writing, but who will also motivate you into becoming an awesome writer.

If you are going to be a STEM major, if you plan to take a STEM class at Dartmouth (which everyone will do at some point), or if you plan to study at Dartmouth, then TA (Teacher Assistant) sessions are an important resource that you certainly have to make extensive use of if you plan on having a smooth transition into college (PS. There are a lot of people who transition really well into college even without making use of TA sessions). In TA sessions, you get help with problem sets, written homework, as well as challenging class concepts. TA sessions can also be a good place to meet new people as well as form study groups.

Whilst the RWIT center is more focused on helping students with writing, the Academic Skills Center is a diversified department that facilitates group tutoring sessions as well as individual tutoring sessions for almost every area of study at Dartmouth. When you sign up for the ASC tutoring program, be it for a group or one-on-one session, you get assigned to an upperclassman with exceptional experience in the specific class for which you would have signed up. Like with Office Hours, in tutoring sessions, you get to untangle all the difficult concepts in your classes while using the knowledge gained to tackle problem sets and homework. Apart from tutoring, the ASC also offers services such as coaching time management skills, and effective reading skills.