SI leader Yi Duo leads a group study session for Intermediate Accounting students.

The Supplemental Instruction (SI) program, now in its eleventh year at AU, offers free group study/tutoring sessions for historically difficult courses like accounting, economics, and physics. These sessions are facilitated by trained student leaders who have done well in the class and typically have also completed advanced coursework in the discipline. SI sessions focus on both course content and ways to learn the material effectively. The sessions are student-run and student-driven, and the names of participants are kept confidential. Participants get involved in their own learning and collaborate on strategies that work for the course material. It is an efficient--and effective--way to study.

What to expect in an SI session

In SI's unique format, sessions are designed to focus on students' learning, not on re-lecturing.  SI leaders attend all classes and know what students are currently working on.  Because they remember what it's like to get through this material, leaders suggest session agendas based on what they have found to be critical or particularly difficult about this material and help students "learn how to learn" it by explaining concepts, sharing helpful tips and strategies, and providing the opportunity for practice and review. Students' active participation, however, helps direct the sessions' focus. Students work together to solve problems and share information in an effective study group faciliated by the SI leader.

While leaders adhere to course policies and offer sessions with the professor's approval, they do not report on student attendance or progress. SI is voluntary and confidential so that participants have a more comfortable, smaller setting in which to explore course material.

What students have said recently about SI

"It gives me more confidence in the material. It has been a great aid in studying."

"SI was a chance to test my knowledge of the material before I took the real exam."

"I didn't think it would help much at first. I got a B on the first exam. I started going to SI and got A's on the rest of the exams."

"The study skills in SI helped me get higher grades than ever before. I understood it for the first time in my life."

"It helped me push myself from a D to a C. I passed the course."