Miguel Soto says the help he finds in a row of gray, temporary bungalows at Fresno State is as valuable as the setting is modest.

Soto and up to 1,000 other students each semester depend on the Learning Resource Center at California State University, Fresno, now operating in more humble quarters since a September fire in the Lab School complex.

Soto, 20, says tutors help him in unexpected ways.

"It makes you a self-learner," he says. "They don't tell you what step you should take to an answer. They make you think: What procedure do you need to get there? ... They teach more at your level than professors do. Being students, they have dealt with it."

The bungalows sit just west of the Peters Business Building. Raymond Sanchez, a learning specialist and tutorial coordinator, says the center becomes busier each fall.

Most students select tutoring from among services offered by the Learning Resource Center. Others attend an academic-skills workshop.

Any registered student can find help here, and 56 graduate students found help from the tutors last semester. The help is free to Fresno State students.

The learning center also offers workshops in managing time; textbook reading and note-taking; preparing for exams and taking exams; academic goal-setting and overcoming procrastination; and relaxing and meditating.

The Learning Resource Center also operates the Ronald E. McNair Program, which focuses on helping students consider and pursue doctorates. It concentrates on those who are the first generation in their families to attend college and among population groups that are underrepresented on campus.

Soto has used the center's tutoring for three semesters.

Once he arrived at Fresno State, he found that his high school education had not provided him with an adequate mathematics base to pursue a computer engineering degree. Soto could not complete some assignments.

"You need calculus in your freshman year," he says, "and I wasn't ready. The center also offers computer science and physics tutoring. It has really made a difference."

Tutors help him find the right paths through computer problems.

"What they do in 30 minutes would take me five hours," Soto says.

Now that the learning center sits near the Peters Business Building, Soto sees more business majors acting as tutors. They must maintain at least a 3.0 grade-point average to qualify for a job and have a faculty recommendation for each subject they teach, Sanchez says. Tutors average about eight hours of work per week. They begin at minimum wage but soon earn another dollar per hour.

The tutoring budget for an academic year, including all student employees, support staff and assistants, is $66,000 plus $7,000 for computer maintenance, paper and other supplies, Sanchez says.

The center employs more than 30 tutors and responds to virtually every subject, Sanchez says, offering his pitch for students to take advantage of the help: "Think about the person next to you in chemistry class, the person you compete against here and after you leave here for a job. You have to fight for your grades, fight to be successful."

The classroom competitor next to you may be acquiring extra academic power from tutors, he says, so you had better do the same if you need it.

Sanchez contacts faculty members regularly to keep the tutoring program in mind.

Professor Robert Harper, chairman of the accountancy department, says that department is financing limited extra hours for an accounting tutor in the center.

The Craig School of Business Associates, an organization of regional businesses, contributes a portion of its membership fees for the tutor and other business school services, Harper says.

Graduate instructor Raul Hernandez encourages students having trouble in his English composition class to attend the Learning Resource Center.

"I'll give you 5 points extra for each assignment," he says.

The tutored students produce better prose, he says. They organize their papers better, and usually jump a full grade in his class, for instance from a D+ to a C+ "or even a B."