How to Approach Tutors and Professors for Help with Your Work and Quick Study Reminders

	Everyone has had a moment of weakness in academics and I myself find myself in ruts where I feel like I am lost in a cloud of confusion. Though this is common with many in every level of mathematics, it can really happen with any subject and level. It's typical to be lost on work a few weeks into the semester if you haven't had a good foundation to begin with and this will leave you feeling troubled and scared for what's to come down the line.

*First thing's first, please try to have some work to show for. It will be discouraging but at least have something to bring.

	Of course, nothing beats a good round of practice in the subject, whether it be writing small pieces or doing a set of problems daily. If anything, you should be attempting to do this anyway but it's hard to start if you're already this deep in the semester!

*If you feel like the current work is too lost on you, reference older material and try that. Bring these worked out problems to be checked by your tutor if you feel like the professor will judge you too much (and honestly, you should banish the thought from your mind. Throw it out. It's how you end up deeper in the trench.)

	With that, they can help you more easily if the presented material to your tutor represents the foundations of the material so methodical mistakes and skill sets can be set straight. The previous point, of course, applies more easily to non-literary work. Paper writing is rather tricky and is not as concrete.

*Make appointments if office hours or tutoring hours are not reasonable for you.

	Professors and tutors may be there to help you along your academic career but they will not come to you. If you truly want to fix something or receive feedback, you must find a way to reach out to them. Again, stop being afraid of what they think. What else are they here for?

*If you're always at a loss for words or are unsure of how to describe your problem when actually face to face, try to make a list of topics.

	This is similar to highlighting problems and bringing them but there's still communication problems that slip through the cracks (“How did you get the thing. The minus five?” Should really be 'How did you get x= -5'? ) You want your question to be as sure and clear as can be. Sometimes if you work something out all the way or only to a certain point, you can annotate it with your question too. This helps guide the tutor to the point with as little confusion,
	Multistep problems, such as a differential equation or a particularly long integral (and even stuff in normal algebra), will require you to review every step you make while solving it. Most of these logical wrinkles can be ironed out with practice, but may require a knowledgeable authority to inform you with what method is  correct. Definitions are easy to lose in translation.