At some point during their college career, most students experience difficulty with a course.

Some students choose to tough it out and refuse to get help. Mary Turner, learning support specialist, said that’s a bad idea—especially with all of the free resources OCCC offers.

Turner said tutoring is a great resource for struggling students willing to accept help.

“Going to class is important, and of course doing the homework and stuff is important, but sometimes things go by quickly and there’s just stuff that you miss in class,” Turner said.

Working with another person can help students work through their problems and help them feel less frustrated, she said. Turner said being tutored can help students learn better by having something explained a different way.

“If nothing else, sitting down with a tutor or working with someone other than just the professor lets you hear things differently and sometimes it’s easier to pick up that second or third time,” she said.

Turner said students should not be ashamed to ask for help.

She said students with 4.0 GPAs often ask for help in the form of tutoring, Turner said.

“Usually it is our better students who immediately say ‘let me go see a tutor,’ because they understand the importance of understanding that material and being able to move on. So it’s kind of the opposite of what a lot of people have in mind,” she said.

“There will never be anything on their transcript or their diploma that says ‘this student graduated because he [or she] went to tutoring.’

“{OCCC is] providing a lot of services that are free of charge that [may not be elsewhere].”

President Paul Sechrist agrees.

“The learning resources that OCCC provides its students, coordinated by the many labs, is extraordinary,” Sechrist said.

“First, the quality of the tutoring is very good — the availability allows for easy access and it is free to any student.”

Turner urges students to take advantage of what is offered.

“It’s just kind of understood that, at some point, most of us — maybe all of us — need to get a little extra help from somebody … .”

For more information about tutoring, 405-682-7544 or by email at mturner@occc.edu.