The Guided Studies program is designed to help students pursuing academic and workforce degrees at HCCS and other colleges and universities in Texas meet THEA requirements. The program’s reading and study skills courses also help students develop the higher-level reading and study skills necessary to succeed in the core classes that are required for most academic degrees.

The three-course reading program (GUST 0339, GUST 0341, GUST 0342) provides instruction in the following skills and strategies covered on the THEA test: deciphering word meaning from context, determining main ideas in reading material, analyzing reading material for supporting details, determining a writer’s point of view, tone and style, analyzing an author’s argument and reasoning, applying study reading strategies to textbook material, and recognizing a writer’s organizational patterns. The reading program, along with the college and career planning class (GUST 1270) teaches students strategies in note-taking, study reading, concentration and memory, test-taking techniques that will help them succeed in their college classes.

Learning and tutoring centers at HCC-Central, HCC-Southwest HCC-Southeast and HCC-Northeast also assist all students pursuing academic and workforce degrees by providing free tutoring in math, writing, science, foreign language, social sciences, and Computer Aided Drafting (CAD).