Supplemental Instruction Sessions

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Posted March 31, 2014 by Emma Mann

Sometimes, as hard as you try, the schedule of classes you create just isn’t what you want. You get all of the classes you need, but they just might not be the most convenient schedule for you. Spring of my freshman year, I had one of those schedules. I got all of my classes: Math, Physics, Chemistry, Engineering, and even a general education course. The main problem I had was that all but one of the office hours for my math professor was during either my chemistry lab or my physics lab. Most weeks, this wasn’t an issue. I could go into the office hour I was free for and get my questions about the concepts answered. Other weeks though, there just wasn’t enough time. That’s when I found Supplemental Instruction sessions (SI sessions).

SI sessions are free weekly study sessions led by a fellow student who has taken the class before. They allow students to collaborate with other students on course concepts and study together. SI sessions allow students to work in a smaller setting than in the lecture. The largest group of people I had in the SI session I went to was only about 20 students compared to the over 100 students who attended lecture. SI sessions were there to answer more conceptual questions in the course through additional practice problems from outside of the book and class homework. The SI leader asked why we used they steps we did on an incorrect problem and then explained why a different approach to the problem would make the problem not only easier, but correct. SI sessions not only helped me improve my understanding of course material, but also helped me improve my grade in the course.


Purdue University YouTube video on SI Sessions

Attending one SI session every other week of the semester has been shown to increase student’s grades an average of a full letter grade. SI sessions are offered for 15 different introductory courses allowing students to transition into college learning. Most SI sessions are offered at least twice a week and later in the day, which allows students to fit SI sessions into their class schedule. SI sessions are a great opportunity for students to learn a gain a better understanding of their course material. I would highly recommend for students to at least attend one SI session to see if it would help them in at least one of their classes because who doesn’t love free help in class?

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