Academic Coaching

Academic Coaching provides personalized, one-on-one support from trained peer coaches to help you strengthen your skills and reach your goals.

Coaches can help with:

Setting goals and staying motivated
Managing time and balancing coursework
Planning assignments and group projects
Building study strategies and preparing for exams
Thinking and reading critically
Connecting with faculty and campus resources

Sessions are available by appointment in the Tutoring & Learning Center (Kennedy Library, Room 209) or virtually via Zoom. Book your coaching session today!

Apply to Become an Academic Coach

Working as an Academic Coach is a great opportunity to support your peers while strengthening your own study skills and building community! Visit our Become an Academic Coach page for more information.

Academic Coaching for Transfer Students

The Transfer Student Academic Coaching Program, in partnership with the Transfer Center and Cal Poly Scholars, is pleased to support transfer students through one-to-one peer coaching sessions.

Check out this great article about our awesome coaching program:

‘Creating a More Welcoming Campus.' Cal Poly Transfers Help Fellow Students Adjust

"My coach didn’t just give me tips; they helped me figure out how I learn best, which has changed how I approach all of my classes.” - new transfer student, class of 2026

Based on common topics covered during coaching sessions, we have developed the following tips for new transfer students:

Connecting with Faculty

Email can be an effective way to connect with a professor, but there are times when the topic(s) at hand is more appropriate for an in-person or Zoom meeting.

Topics that may be appropriate for email:

Clarification on dates and deadliness
Clarification on an assignment details/requirements
To schedule a meeting or a time outside of office hours if the times listed on the syllabus don’t work for you
Responding to an email from your professor that awaits a response

Topics that may be better for an in-person or Zoom appointment:

Discussing your grade
Going over an exam or paper
In-depth questions about course content or their research
Questions pertaining to practice problems

When Connecting Via Email

Use your Cal Poly email address. Use your other email address for non-school related matters.
Use the subject line. Make It concise and related to the topic you want to discuss. Check your syllabus because some professors may require certain information in the subject line such as the course name and section (e.g., “BMED 4440: Question about lecture #4”).
Start professionally: Avoid being too casual (e.g., “Hey Professor”). A good way to start would be something along the lines of, “Dear Professor Doe.” This would be the safe way to address a faculty member if don’t know if they have a PhD or not.
Be concise: Be clear, organized, and brief in your email.
Capitalize, punctuate, and check your spelling: Incorrect spelling or lack of punctuation may create misunderstanding or miscommunication. Also, professionalism is important in an academic setting to convey that you are a serious student.
Acknowledge any and all replies: Be sure to acknowledge with a thank you in your response.
Don’t expect an immediate response: Twenty-four hours is the standard wait time during the business week.

When Connecting Via Office Hours

Clarify and ask questions about course content: You can get help with class material by asking your professor to explain it differently or walk through it again with you. You can also ask questions about the text or lecture content.
Review exams or papers: You can ask about what went wrong, what went well, and how to improve on the next paper or exam.
Study strategies and assignment/project preparedness: Some subjects have specific strategies that that work better for that particular course. You can also discuss strategies and your professor’s expectations on assignments and projects.
Discussing grades: Office hours can be an appropriate place to discuss or ask questions about your grade in a class.

Engaging in Research

Research is a great way to get involved with your major and can bolster your resume. Look into current research opportunities in your department and talk to your professors about it. Learn about your faculty member’s research and email them to set up a time to ask questions and how to get involved.

Building a Network

LinkedIn is a great way to connect with Cal Poly faculty members, students, and alumni. You never know when a connection can help you land a job or internship!
Networking Events: Keep an eye out for networking events where you may get a chance to talk to and network with your peers, faculty members, and alumni. Getting to know your professors better in an event outside of class may help with letters of recommendation in the future.

Using a Planner

Whether this is a physical planner or digital one (Outlook, Google, etc.), utilizing a planner will help provide a tangible and physical representation of your upcoming tasks. Cal Poly automatically provides an Outlook account when you become student. Beyond just emails, outlook provides a calendar system allowing you to keep track of all important dates in one location.

An online calendar system also allows you to:

Create multiple schedules all in one location (Work, Classes, Homework, etc.)
Check availability of other’s schedules (Students, Professors, etc.)
Set reminders to finish a task or upcoming events
Effectively create an organized system to provide a foundation for time management skills

Check out this video highlighting the different aspects of what all Outlooks calendar provides!

Developing SMART Goals

Setting a goal can be easy. But having the drive or the dedication to complete it is an entirely different beast. That is why it is essential to start implementing SMART Goals into your planning routine! What is a smart goal? The premise of a SMART Goal is to fully flesh out a goal you have with realistic expectations as well as a time line on how to achieve it. The SMART in SMART goals stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. Utilizing SMART goals helps you to effectively plan out your quarter as well as other aspects of your life! An example can be found below.

Basic: I want to read more.
SMART: I will select one book each month and read it for an hour during lunch and an hour before bed; this will result in reading a total of 12 books a year.

If interested in the science behind setting, assessing and pursuing goals, check out this podcast from Dr. Andrew Huberman who is a tenured professor of Neurobiology and Ophthalmology at Stanford.

Applying the Pomodoro Time-Management Technique

Laying out a weekly plan may be one thing, but committing to the plan and having study sessions be effective and efficient can be a whole other hurdle to get over. That is why applying the Pomodoro technique can be a great asset for determining to find what works best for you. The Pomodoro technique has been proven to be a more effective time management technique than trying to complete tasks all at once.

The Pomodoro Technique

Decide on the task you need to complete
Set a timer for 25 minutes
Work on the task until the timer stops
Take a five-minute break
After four cycles of the above, take a longer break of 15-30 minutes
Repeat until the task is complete.

The technique is essentially composed of a 25/5 minute cycles of on/off studying. Now sometimes taking a break 25 minutes into your work may interrupt your concentration, so ratios of the techniques can be used such as 50/10 but don’t increase the times too much as it would defeat the purpose of keeping your mind fresh. Of course thee is no copy and paste technique that is perfect for every individual so use this technique as a baseline.

Strategizing Coursework Completion

Balancing and prioritizing coursework can be stressful and overwhelming. At any given time of the term, you’ll find yourself balancing several assignment deadlines while preparing for major projects and exams looming two or three weeks ahead. The suggestions below might assist with determining how best to allocate time to complete assignments, study for exams, and manage other personal responsibilities.The following suggestions might be helpful in terms of strategizing how best to manage time:

Identify: Identify what's most important and urgent. Utilize due dates as a criterion for this as well as the assignment/project scale.
Avoid: Avoid multitasking if possible. Research has linked multitasking to worse performance.
Consider: Consider effort. You may want to take care of tasks that require little time first to avoid a long to-do list. Clearing these small tasks first will provide some alleviation and sense of accomplishment. This can help you in avoiding procrastination and being effective with your effort. More information regarding procrastination.
Utilize: Utilize a to-do list and calendar application that incorporates the previously mentioned elements. There are many forms of calendars, whether they are physical planners or electronic calendars. More information regarding time management schedules can be found here and more information regarding the importance of an electronic calendar here.

To set up this strategy:

Begin by listing all your current courses and thinking of them as “bins”. In each bin, list each assignment that is due for each respective course and any exams. This will give you a “bird’s eye view” of all the assignments and exams you have in front of you.

Example:

HIST 3101

CPE 2202

PHYS 1141

MATH 2164

Discussion Board #1
Discussion Board #2
Essay #1

Project #1
Quiz #1

Problem Set #1

Problem Set #1
Exam #1

Next, identify and list the assignments that require the most urgency. Utilize the assignment’s due dates and scale to help you with this.
- Example:
  - Discussion Board #1 (Due Feb 1)
  - Problem Set #1 [Phys 1141] (Due Feb 3)
  - Problem Set #1 [Math 2164] (Due Feb 7)
  - Discussion Board #2 (Due Feb 5)
  - Quiz #1 (Due Feb 6)
  - Exam #1 (Due Feb 9)

Then, set up a to do list for the next week or two incorporating assignments/study time to allocate for each day of the week. Doing so will grant you a sense of direction within the long list of assignments and an overall sense of structure. You’ll want to avoid multitasking and work on finishing an assignment one at a time. Consider effort when setting up your to do list and try to focus on clearing assignments that take little effort first to get some sense of accomplishment. Your to-do list may look something like this:

Example

WEEK 1
Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
- Study for Exam #1	- Discussion Board #1 - Problem Set #1 [PHYS 1141]	- Problem Set #1 [PHYS 1141]	- Problem Set #1 [MATH 2164]	- Discussion Board #2 - Study for Quiz #1	Quiz #1 takes place	- Study for Exam #1
WEEK 2
	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
	Exam #1 takes place

Finally, utilize a calendar tool of some sort to incorporate your 1-2 week plan into. Some electronic calendar services you may consider are Microsoft’s Outlook application or Google’s Google Calendar application. Check out more resources for time management and scheduling.

Visiting the Study Strategies Library

For additional support, the Study Strategies Library has curated online resources from a variety of websites. Visit the library for further assistance on topics such as note-taking, memorization, test anxiety, and getting focused.

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