One-on-One Skills Coaching
Whether you’re preparing for your first year or finishing up your final year, reflecting on your academic performance will help you succeed in university. Our academic coaches will work with you to identify and develop the skills and strategies you need to succeed academically.
This page will help you:
- Stay on track
- Gain confidence
- Learn new strategies
Get personalized academic support
Are you unsure how to improve your grades? Or maybe you need help developing effective strategies for studying and working on assignments. Meet with our academic coaches one-on-one to receive personalized academic support.
Our academic coaches are upper-year peer mentors who can help you develop your academic skills.
Reasons to meet with an academic coach:
- You want to explore new academic strategies for studying, working on assignments, time management and more.
- You need help making a realistic study or assignment work plan.
- You aren’t sure which skills you should work to develop.
Our academic coaches can help you:
- Build organizational skills.
- Learn best practices for time management, studying and test-taking.
- Develop learning strategies.
- Discover valuable McMaster resources to support your academic success.
Academic coaching appointments are 30 minutes long, and you can book as many appointments as you need in a semester. At this time, all appointments will take place online using Zoom. After you register on OSCARplus, we’ll contact you to set up your appointment and share any additional details.
What to bring to your appointment:
- Your class schedule
- Specific ideas for what skills you want to develop
- Ideas and questions about your learning strategies, studying habits and so on
Academic coaching FAQ
What happens during an appointment with an academic coach?
At the appointment, your coach will help you complete a learning skills inventory to identify your learning style and areas where you can improve. Using open-ended, positive questions, your coach will help you understand your study and work habits so that you can develop new skills and strategies to improve your academics.
How many appointments can I book?
You can book as many appointments as you need each semester.
Do I need to meet with an academic coach from the same Faculty?
Our academic coaches are trained using a holistic approach, meaning they can teach you learning strategies that can help you in any subject or course.
If you need help with specific course content or concepts, you can meet with a peer tutor through the Undergrad Peer Tutoring Network.
I’m pretty confident in my academic skills. Can academic coaching still help me?
We all have strengths and areas where we can improve. By meeting with an academic coach, you can learn new strategies to help you study, take better notes, overcome procrastination and get the most out of your university experience. Additionally, through academic coaching, you can gain confidence in your academic skills, which can help you grow and meet your university goals.
Meet the academic coaches
Name: Zahra Akhtar
Title: Academic Coach
- Hobbies: I enjoy all things creative: sketching, painting, writing, etc.!
- Top skills tip: Effective calendar blocking is essential to building good routines and letting go of those that don’t serve us!
Name: Mahrukh Fatima
Title: Academic Coach
- Hobbies: Sketching and writing
- Top skills tip: Have an organized calendar with all assignments, midterms and other important dates marked, and plan ahead for busier weeks!
Name: Hannah Kim
Title: Academic Coach
- Hobby: Travelling (once possible again)
- Top skills tip: Make blocks in your calendar to maximize efficiency and make the most out of a busy schedule.
Name: Sophie Pietropaolo
Title: Academic Coach
- Hobbies: Yoga and watercolour painting
- Top skills tip: Break down to-do list tasks into manageable parts! For example, if you have an essay due, writing “essay” on your to-do list can be overwhelming, and it’s difficult to know where to start. Instead, it can be broken up into parts such as outline, rough notes, etc.
Name: Luxiga Thanabalachandran
Title: Academic Coach
- Hobbies: Baking and travelling (once possible again)
- Top skills tip: Use the Pomodoro Technique to increase productivity! (This can be done through websites/apps.)
Name: Sophia Zhang
Title: Academic Coach
- Hobby: Cooking
- Top skills tip: Break it down! Writing assignments and studying for tests can be daunting but when you break it all down into chapters to study and paragraphs to write for each day, the task becomes a lot more manageable.
Academic Skills Animated Series: Introduction to Academic Skills
Recommended reading
Student Success Centre responds to Fall Experience Survey with resources and supports for instructors
Building on the results of the MacPherson Fall Experience Report, released in November 2020, the SSC’s academic skills team has responded with expanded online resources and services, individualized peer-to-peer support, and creative solutions to help staff and faculty connect students with further supports.
Journey
Being an online learner
Welcome to the final Monday Blog and the final week of the Academic Skills Prep Series! September is quickly approaching, and with it comes the beginning of classes. As many of you may know, the upcoming term is going to take place online. While this will likely be a new experience for many of you, know that the skills you have developed during in-person classes are going to help you be a successful online learner.
Read the Journey about Being an online learner