Academic Support Programs

Welcome to CLUE

CLUE tutoring is more than a resource you can access when you're struggling in a class; it's a welcoming, inclusive space for students to connect, ask questions about various subjects, prepare for exams, and have support on homework.

Get tutoring online or in-person, check out our calendar of live discussion sessions and exam reviews, learn about the subjects we cover, meet our tutors, and watch a video about in-person CLUE.

Nightly Subject Offerings
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu
Chemistry* Chemistry Chemistry Chemistry Chemistry
Math Math Math Math Math
Physics Physics Physics Physics Physics
Writing Writing Writing Writing Writing
  Biology* Biology CSE* CSE*
  CSE CSE*    
  Statistics*      

Starred (*) subjects are only offered virtually that night. 

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CLUE will be closed Sunday 5/28 in observance of Memorial Day. We are open regular hours on Monday 5/29.

CLUE is all virtual during finals week (6/4-6/7) and hours ramp down as follows: Tuesday 6/6 7-10pm, Wednesday 6/7 7-9pm, Thursday 6/8 CLOSED for summer.

Get Help

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In person Drop-in Tutoring

In person tutoring takes place in Mary Gates Hall commons. Husky cards are required for after hours (after 5pm) access to the building. 

 

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Virtual Drop-in Tutoring

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Select Virtual Tutoring and choose a subject area. Once a tutor is ready for you, they will call you and a Zoom link will be provided via a banner notification.

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Discussion Sessions & Exam Reviews

Discussion sessions take place either in person (MGH 2nd floor) or virtually. Virtual exam reviews are offered for on-sequence introductory courses in the following subjects: Biology, Chemistry, Math & Physics.

Hours, Updates & Cancellations

CLUE will be closed Sunday 5/28 in observance of Memorial Day. We are open regular hours on Monday 5/29.

CLUE is all virtual during finals week (6/4-6/7) and hours ramp down as follows: Tuesday 6/6 7-10pm, Wednesday 6/7 7-9pm, Thursday 6/8 CLOSED for summer.

CLUE tutoring is available Sunday-Thursday from 7-11pm.

Community Standards

CLUE provides a space for all students to be included, challenged, and supported in their educational journey. We expect that tutors and students alike enter into this space with respect for one another and treat others with kindness.

Contact Us

Do you have questions? Suggestions on what we can do better? Email us at clue@uw.edu

Feedback

We want to hear about your experience. Send us your information via the CLUE Feedback Form

Subjects

We can help with the following subjects and courses:

  • All biological-based subjects - BIOL department but also including courses in departments like NURS, GENOME, FISH, ENVIR, etc.

Drop-in tutoring is offered during CLUE operating hours, 7-11 p.m., on Sunday & Wednesday (virtual) and in-person (MGH) on Monday. Check in at the front desk to meet with our tutors in person or online! It is a one-on-one tutoring session between you and a tutor.

Meet the Biology Tutors

We can help with the following subjects and courses:

  • General Chemistry: CHEM 110, CHEM 120, CHEM 1X2 series (142, 152, 162), CHEM 1X5 series (145, 155, 165)
  • Organic Chemistry: CHEM 220, CHEM 22X series ( 223,224), CHEM 23X series ( 237, 238, 239), CHEM 24X series( 241, 242), CHEM 33X series (335, 336, 337) 
  • Biochemistry: BIOC 40X series (405, 406), BIOC 44X series (440,441,442), BIOC 45X series (450, 451)
  • Physical Chemistry: CHEM 45X Series ( 452,453)

Drop-in tutoring is offered during CLUE operating hours, 7-11 p.m., Sunday-Thursday. It is a one-on-one tutoring session between you and a tutor. You are expected to bring your own questions and our tutors can help answer them. These sessions are typically 15-20 minutes long.

Exam reviews are offered for on-sequence introductory chemistry and organic chemistry courses each quarter For example, CHEM 237 is the on quarter course in the fall and CHEM 238 is the on quarter course in the winter. During the exam review session, tutors will present practice problems and detailed explanations for the answer. Sessions are typically 1.5 hours long.

Frequently Asked Questions

What’s our approach to tutoring Chemistry?

You are expected to bring your own questions regarding your lecture material, course homework, exams, or practice problems. We will first ask you to explain your approach to the problem before we start helping you. This helps us to see what type of mistakes you have made and which concept you are missing. Then, we will ask leading questions and hopefully guide you to a satisfactory answer.

What can you expect tutors to do when they work with you?

  • We can explain/walk you through a hard concept that you have encountered in class. 
  • We can assist you to approach and solve a problem by giving helpful hints and resources.   
  • We make sure students understand the concept behind each problem and know how to apply them when encountering similar problems in the future. 

What should I bring to a tutoring session?

Questions. They can be problems that you have worked on but failed to obtain the correct answer or a hard concept from class that you do not understand.

If I want to come back later in the night, how do I do that?

If you have more questions, feel free to put yourself back on the queue before 10:45 p.m.!

Meet the Chemistry Tutors

Drop-in tutoring for CSE is offered in person on Monday and virtually Tuesday through Thursday. Check in at the front desk before seeing a tutor in MGH! It is a one-on-one tutoring session between you and a tutor. You are expected to bring your own questions and our tutors can help answer them. These sessions are typically 15-20 minutes long.

Meet the Computer Science Tutors

We can help with the following subjects and courses:

  • Precalculus: MATH 120
  • Calculus series: MATH 124, 125, 126
  • Differential Equations and Linear Algebra: MATH 207, and 208. 
  • MATH 209 to math major courses like 300 and 441
  • Non-Math courses, such as AMATH or QSCI
    • If your question is for an ECON course or STAT course, Math tutors are rarely able to assist. Please visit the approproate subject-specific tutor or study center.

Drop-in tutoring is offered during CLUE operating hours, 7-11 p.m., Sunday-Thursday. It is a one-on-one tutoring session between you and a tutor. You are expected to bring your own questions and our tutors can help answer them. These sessions are typically 15-20 minutes long.

Exam reviews are offered for the introductory Calculus series (MATH 124, 125 & 126). During the exam review session, tutors will present practice problems and detailed explanations for the answer. Sessions are typically 1.5 hours long.

Frequently Asked Questions

What’s our approach to tutoring Math?

We are here to help you understand what’s going on, not give you the answer. Coming to CLUE and expecting us to solve your problem for you is going to be a problem. We want to engage you with the question and get you to work through the problem so that you can answer it on your own afterwards.

What can you expect tutors to do when they work with you?

When a tutor gets to you, they will most likely ask what your question is, if you have attempted the problem, what the relevant material is, if you’ve covered concept xyz, or what your current understanding of the material is. We need to get a feel for where you’re at, before we can start going down our own path.

What should I bring to a tutoring session?

A question and/or an attempted problem along with a desire to learn. We want to help, we really do! But if you’re just not interested in learning what needs to be done and being with us on the steps we need to take, then that really hurts the vibe.

How long are tutoring sessions?

On paper, 15 minutes. Though they can tend to get a little longer if you ask a particular question that is rather nasty or there’s a concept that you’re really struggling with. If the night is really busy, we will be more strict to keeping to the 15 minutes and leave you to play around with what wisdom we dispense.

If I want to come back later in the night, how do I do that?

Just go back onto the clue queue online site and queue yourself back in, the same way you did so when you first queued up for CLUE tutoring. It does help if you say what your question is in the signup (saying “webassign 1.61” is not as helpful as “I need help with taking the derivative with trig functions”).

How do exam reviews work and what can I expect?

Exam reviews are offered for MATH 124, 125, and 126, as well as exam reviews for MATH 120 during the autumn quarter. These exam reviews are led by 2-3 tutors from the CLUE math team with problems that they think are worth going over. This doesn’t mean they will appear on a test, just that the problem is interesting in terms of the concepts that it goes over, and it’s those concepts that we would like for you to understand. We don't have access to anything that you're covering in your courses, and so we base the problems we go over on what we see when students come in for Drop-In tutoring and what we see on the Math Department’s Exam Archive.

Typically we hold 3 exam reviews per quarter. 1 for each midterm, and then 1 for the final. The midterm reviews last ~90 minutes, but our tutors are more than happy to stay and ask any burning questions you may have. While the final exam review lasts ~2 hours. An email is sent to any student in the relevant course regarding information about the exam review.

Any class that we give an Exam Review for doesn’t have a PDI for that quarter. A PDI is a night in which for the first 2 hours of CLUE a tutor is specifically dedicated to getting to students for that particular PDI and answering their questions. During nights that we have PDIs we tend to see students for the PDI gather in a specific area and all end up helping each other out as well as the tutor. After a PDI has ended there’s no reason to leave, as you will still be helped, albeit just at a slower pace. The number of PDIs a course has is dependent on how many students we typically see for that course as well as how many exams that course gives. Typically, PDIs are a 1-5 before an exam, but since many of the courses we give PDIs for don’t follow a similar structure as the intro calc series, they can be more sporadically laid out. We have PDIs for Math 307, 308, 309, and 324, as well as 120 for the quarters that we don’t give 120 exam reviews. 

Meet the Math Tutors

We can help with the following subjects and courses:

  • PHYS 11X & 12X Introductory Series (114-116, 121-123), and the 200-series
  • PHYS 300+ & 400+ on occasion

Drop-in tutoring is offered during CLUE operating hours, 7-11 p.m., Sunday-Thursday. It is a one-on-one tutoring session between you and a tutor. You are expected to bring your own questions and our tutors can help answer them. These sessions are typically 15-20 minutes long.

Exam reviews are for the on-sequence 11X/12X courses, typically two days before the exam takes place. During the exam review session, tutors will present practice problems and detailed explanations for the answer. Sessions are typically 1.5 hours long.

Frequently Asked Questions

What’s our approach to tutoring Physics?

We try to equip our students with general problem-solving skills that are transferable to classes beyond physics. There is obviously an emphasis on physics coursework, but many of our approaches to physics underpin a broad range of problems in STEM.

What can you expect tutors to do when they work with you?

You can expect tutors to ask leading questions, give constructive feedback, and foster independent learning & growth mindsets.

What should I bring to a tutoring session?

Make sure to bring your questions ready to be asked, a functional calculator, and a distraction free state of mind!

How long are tutoring sessions?

On busy nights, we try to keep our sessions under half an hour, but if there aren’t many students in the queue, we tend to spend more time for each student.

If I want to come back later in the night, how do I do that?

Simple! Just get back into the physics queue before 10:45 p.m. (or earlier if the questions on hand are formidable) and someone should be able to see you.

Meet the Physics Tutors

Statistics will be entirely virtual and only be offered once a week throughout the 2022-2023 academic year. We encourage you to visit the Statistics Study Center if you would like more regular support.

Drop-in tutoring for Statistics is offered virtually on Monday. It is a one-on-one tutoring session between you and a tutor. You are expected to bring your own questions and our tutor can help answer them. These sessions are typically 15-20 minutes long. 

 

Meet the Statistics Tutors

CLUE Writing Center 3-2-1 Policy:

Our goal is to make appointments available to all writers and to nurture their independent learning. For this reason, we have a “3-2-1” policy for writing tutoring appointments:

Writers may have no more than 3 tutoring sessions to work on the same assignment. 

Writers may have no more than 2 drop-in tutoring sessions per day.

Writers may only work on 1 assignment per tutoring session.  After working with a tutor on an assignment, writers need to revise that assignment for 1 hour before returning to the queue to work on the same assignment.

At the CLUE Writing Center, we have one goal in mind: to help you become a better writer. To that end, we believe that writing is a process. Even the most talented writers cannot sit down in a vacuum and produce a polished text on the first try. Whether you need help talking through ideas, honing an outline you've been working on, evaluating a draft mid-composition, or looking through a final draft—we're confident we can help you write more efficiently and effectively.

Frequently Asked Questions

What type of documents do you provide assistance with and what should I bring?

We will look at any piece of writing you bring in, including but is not limited to: papers, short response assignments, theses, cover letters, résumés, personal statements, scholarship applications, graduate school statements of purpose, memos, and lab reports.

To get the most out of your session, we suggest you bring the following:

  • If you are working on a draft, please bring a copy of your draft, either electronic (accessible by e-mail or flash drive) or on paper.
  • If your writing concern is related to a particular assignment, bring the assignment prompt.
  • If your writing concern is related to a specific scholarship or application, please bring the necessary prompts.
  • If you are writing a paper using other sources, you may consider bringing the readings; if not, bring notes, an outline, or even a list of questions to help focus the conference.
  • If you want to discuss feedback you have received from a teacher, bring a copy of the comments.

How do I sign up for a tutoring session?

We are a drop-in center, so it is first come, first served! Normally, sign-up begins around 6:45 p.m. (PST) virtually. Go to our main website, select Drop-in Tutoring, and Virtual tutoring to get in line for Writing (or any other area) . When you are next up and a tutor is ready to see you, you will get a notification on the main check-in page letting you know who is calling you and what their zoom link is. Go ahead and click that link and you'll be sent to that tutor's zoom room.

You will have between 5-7 minutes to respond to the tutor virtually calling you. If you do not show up in the tutor's zoom room after 5-7 minutes, or after being called twice, we will delete your name from the list. This is only fair to the other students waiting to access the Writing Center. If you would like to leave and come back, please ask the Front Desk Manager (a separate line to get into) for an estimate of your wait time—but keep in mind tutors cannot ever guarantee the length of your actual wait time.

What is a typical tutor session like?

At the CLUE Writing Center, our aim is always two-fold: to help you with your concerns about the paper at hand and to better familiarize you with universal writing strategies that will help you address similar concerns in future assignments. To achieve these goals, most sessions begin with a tutor asking you a series of questions regarding the assignment, your professor's expectations, and any specific concerns or areas of inquiry you would like to address during the session. In almost every instance, the tutor will ask to see the assignment prompt, so please bring it!

Once the tutor has a strong grasp of your writing assignment and your specific concerns/needs, the tutor will typically spend 20-30 minutes reading (or having you read) all or part of the draft that you have both agreed to focus on. During this time, the tutor may make some instructive notes in the margins (please note that s/he won't "fix" grammar, punctuation, and style) that s/he will then discuss with you. This discussion will frequently involve asking you more questions about your ideas and/or getting you to talk through problems arising in the draft. The tutor will model example solutions for some of the concerns you are working to address as well as explain relevant conventions affecting his/her suggestions. If you have not yet written anything, the tutor will help you brainstorm and organize your ideas.

At the end of each session, you can expect to spend time developing a plan for further writing and revision. You can also expect to take copious notes and/or outline if necessary.

Each session typically lasts 45 minutes, but can be a little shorter or longer depending on your needs. Sessions cannot exceed one hour in length in order to be respectful toward other students.

Meet the Writing Center Tutors

CLUE Frequently Asked Questions

CLUE uses our Queue platform along with Zoom to facilitate online tutoring. You must be logged in with your UW NetID and password to access CLUE.

  1. When CLUE is open, log into CLUE using the Queue virtual check-in system and you will be placed in a queue. 
  2. In the queue, you will be prompted to let us know what class you would like support with, if you want to see a particular tutor, and if you would like to opt-in for text message notifications. 
  3. Then you will see an estimated wait time to meet with a tutor. You will also be able to see what place you are in line. 
  4. When a tutor is ready to meet you, you will get a pop-up notification with a Zoom link. Access that link within five minutes of receiving it and you will be seen by a tutor.
  5. If you accidentally click out of the link, simply check your Notifications page to see the pop-up again.
  6. Please be sure that the name you use in Zoom is the name you enter in the queue check-in. This will help your tutor know they are meeting with the right student.
  7. If you have questions or concerns email us at clue@uw.edu.

If you want to attend in person, just bring your Husky Card and the assignment you are working on! Mary Gates Hall requires Husky Card for access after 5pm.

A personal computer or tablet with internet access and sound is necessary to access virtual CLUE.

  • If you do not have access to a laptop/tablet, please go to UW's Student Technology Loan Program website to request technology. Supplies are limited. 
  • Make sure you have the most current version of Zoom downloaded on your device. Once you log into your Zoom account, please go to zoom.us/download to download the latest version. If you have any issues with Zoom, you can get support from UWIT.

If you have any questions about accessing CLUE, please email us at clue@uw.edu.

If you would like help with an academic subject but need more time than is available via drop-in tutoring, consider getting a private tutor. We can send out an inquiry and see if anyone is available and then connect you with that tutor. Email clue@uw.edu with the following information: Course you need support in, days/times you prefer for the meeting, how many hours of support you want each week and a preferred location (either on or off campus [ex. Suzallo Library or Café Solstice] or virtually via Zoom).

We will message our team and try to connect you with someone who can support your request. Given the high number of inquiries, we cannot guarantee that private tutoring is available for all students every quarter.

 

Meet Our Tutors

Anya, Biology, she/they

Anya, Biology, she/they

Senior, Molecular, Cellular, Developmental Biology / Interdisciplinary Honors

I'm excited about

Pathology, human physiology, and cellular mechanisms

I've taken

BIOL 355, 356, 406, 418, 486, and 492, GENOME 371

Ask me about

I love reading while cuddling with my cats. I also enjoy thrifting, repurposing, and salvaging anything destined for the trash. I am a member of Huskies for Neurodiversity and the secretary of Huskies for Reproductive Freedom.

Notable academic failure

I struggle with procrastination and perfectionism. In college, you cannot get 100% all the time, especially when you wait until the last minute.

Heather, Statistics, she/her

Heather, Statistics, she/her

Graduate Student (PharmD), Pharmacy

I'm excited about

Attempting to summit Mt Rainier next year!

I've taken

STATS 311, PHRMCY 514 (biomedical stats), CHEM E 436/437 (Stats for chemical engineers) I can also help with: All things chemistry!

Ask me about

Mountaineering and rock climbing

Notable academic failure

An event that I considered an academic failure was when I first transferred from community college to undergrad. I was not doing so well in my classes like I was before due to the major changes in environment and classroom teaching styles. My grades plummeted, but I studied even harder. After I got into the groove of things and into my major of choice, Chem E, I started to become a better student academically and socially.

Mohil, CSE, he/him

Mohil, CSE, he/him

Graduate Student (Masters), Mechanical Engineering

I've taken

I love hiking, composing music and reading novels.

Sophie, she/her

Sophie, she/her

Sophomore, History

I've taken

ENGL 198, HSTEU 234, HSTAFM 151, HSTCMP 284

Ask me about

I love backpacking & hiking, skiing, knitting, reading, thrifting, listening to music & going to all the great concerts in Seattle!

Notable academic failure

I have a difficult time staying organized and focused in many areas of my life, and with the increased responsibilities and independence of college academics learning different techniques to stay on top of school, work, and social commitments has been both challenging and valuable.

Maya (Lead), they/them

Maya (Lead), they/them

Senior, Chemistry

I'm excited about

Resonance structures, stoichiometry and organic reaction mechanisms!

I've taken

CHEM 142-162 237-239, 241

Ask me about

Knitting, video games, and reading

Notable academic failure

I took CHEM 241, a lab course during one of the online quarters. Since we weren't able to conduct the labs ourselves, I had a really hard time remembering and understanding the techniques we were supposed to use. I managed to pull through with my knowledge of the theory but swore off taking another lab course until I could do it in person!

Aaron, he/him

Aaron, he/him

Sophomore, Electrical & Computer Engineering

I've taken

MATH 207, MATH, 208, MATH 224, AMATH 301

Ask me about

Physical Activities: Sports, Weightlifting, etc.

Notable academic failure

My first midterm in MATH 208 was not ideal. I had to study and utilize my resources, including CLUE, to improve on the second midterm and the final.

Tyler, he/him

Tyler, he/him

Senior, Electrical Engineering, minor: Math

I've taken

STAT 220, MATH 324, MATH 308, MATH 407, STAT 390, MATH 209, MATH 394

Ask me about

Cooking, video & card games, skiing

Notable academic failure

I struggle with presentations and public speaking.

Selena, she/her

Selena, she/her

Junior, Electrical Engineering

Ask me about

Cooking, drawing, bouldering, snowboarding

Notable academic failure

I really struggled with staying motivated when all classes were remote during the pandemic, and I felt that the new virtual classrooms stunted my ability to learn. After I got used to those, in person classes returned and I had to adjust again. Having experienced both silent breakout rooms and noisy lecture halls, I now can say that each academic setting has its pros and cons.