Classes can be overwhelming. For some students at San Jose City College, lectures are not helpful enough and questions cannot always be addressed. Professors have limited office hours and cannot reach their students.

Peer-Led Team Learning is a program that helps students with their classes and instills good study habits. PLTL is offering five new classes this semester.

The need for extra help is apparent when looking at the many fliers for tutoring placed across the campus, said chemistry professor Madeline Adamczeski.

The students and leaders are in a friendly environment.

Ruby Abd Latif, 21, occupational therapy major, said her students “listen to others, give different perspectives with lots of support, share notes, share knowledge and form study buddies.”

Abigail Villarreal, 20, nursing major, said her leader for Chemistry 32A made studying easier. Not only was her leader helpful, but also others in the workshop were willing to help each other.

“We guide students as peers, not as lecturers,” said David Zarate, 25, nursing major.

Students in the program’s workshops work in small groups.

“We show them how to do it, and they do it them-selves,” said Phat Huynh, 21, computer science major.

The program is aimed at science, technology, engineering and mathematics courses.

The PLTL sessions are known as workshops. Students who have passed the class from previous semesters supervise the workshops and are referred to as leaders. The leaders know from a student perspective what topics are overlooked or are too detailed.

Leaders go through an intensive two-day training session between semesters. The training gives the leaders tools to facilitate their workshops. This training also helps the leaders become more effective in communication, cooperation and understanding.

By using these skills and knowledge, the leaders are able to help their students.

The program provides the incentive to join by offering up to five percent extra credit.

For some students, by the end of the semester, the five percent is negligible. The influence helped students get a letter grade of A without the five percent boost.

PLTL was founded in the early 1990s by David K. Gosser, Jr., Director of the Center for Peer-Led Team Learning at City College of New York. The program expanded to SJCC in the summer of 1999 because of Adamczeski.

In 2010 PLTL was funded by the Metas program, which helped spread the program outside of Adamczeski’s chemistry classes and into other chemistry classes.

The additional, alternative aid of the PLTL program helps once-struggling students grasp concepts and work through the confusion.

“I needed tutoring in a subject we rarely see in our daily lives,” said Julio Zaragoza, 36, nursing major, “PLTL helps connect the links between everything.”