Do you feel as though the pay is good for the amt of work you have to put into it? How many hours per week do they give jobs for part timers? And also, how hard is it to pass the audition? I just got into med school and am looking for a nice way to make extra cash..and at this point, this is the only thing i've been able to come up with...
I was offered a job by Kaplan and turned it down based off friends' advice who were instructors after I auditioned. If you have free time Im sure it would be a great job. I believe they pay 20/hour with collateral for grading exams/written statements. However this was back in April 2006 when the CBT wasn't mandatory so this may have changed. If you took the MCAT recently, it is even better since a good portion of the material should still be fresh. Just keep in mind that as in instructor you will need to study similarly (albeit not as hardcore) as the ones taking the class so you can answer their questions- this is of course dependent on how well you know the material. Audition isnt hard (i passed it)- just keep it interesting. If you want ideas- go to www.howstuffworks.com they have a myriad of things that would be interesting to lecture on.
I would NOT recommend it if you are in med school right now. Simply because of time constraints. I am teaching an LSAT class right now (didnt do well enough on the MCAT) but it is pretty time consuming. Dago pretty much covered it. You get paid to prep 7/hr which you can do anywhere but it does take time. They stress THEIR methods more than actually knowing the material but if you think you can work 20 hours per week along with med school go for it. Actual teaching you get paid more 15/hr in Indy but prep time is only seven/hr. I would recommend proctoring though since you could study for school and get paid for it at the same time just to show up halfway coherent. PM me if you have any specific questions about the job.
Kaplan blows!!! DO NOT TEACH FOR KAPLAN! It is not worth the money. The stuff they have you teach off of is ALWAYS full of mistakes. They make you waste so much of your own time preparing for the class. The money is not worth it. The other weekend, I turned down teaching for $25/hour because it is that big of a waste of time. F*CK KAPLAN!!!
I've been teaching for Kaplan for awhile, and would not recommend it. The money is pretty bad for what you have to do, the classes are LONG (3 hours is a bit much), you are forced to recite from a script, you spend way too much time in lesson doing ridiculous calculation-heavy problems that don't even appear on the MCAT, you have to constantly dodge phonecalls and e-mails from supervisors asking you to sub for this or that (and they don't take no for an answer), and your students are generally ingrates who don't even bother doing their homework and then get upset when they don't know what the hell is going on. Oh yeah, and once you start working for Kaplan you can't quit and go work for another prep company- they make you sign a Non-Compete Agreement that bars you from working as an instructor/tutor for anyone else for a year. If you really want to teach, try Examkrackers.
When I started teaching for Kaplan, I already had extensive teaching experience and worked for other places. 5+ years ago, my start rate was $30/hr, and I didn't need to do prep because it was a topic that I had taught for many years before. So it worked out for me. Even with all that, IMHO, teaching Kaplan classes is quite stressful. Mainly because you have to cover an entire semester or two in just 9 hours of instruction. Are you kidding me!!!?? Anyway, for my own MCAT prep, I signed up with TPR not Kaplan.
Congratulations on your acceptance! They're not that selective because it's tough to find MCAT teachers. If you have the scores and can speak okay in front of an audience they'll give you a shot. My first time though the course was pretty rough--it had been two years since I took the test so I had forgotten everything. I had to spend seven to nine hours prepping for some of the tougher classes, but usually averaged three to five. Now that I've jogged my memory, relearned everything, and seen the lessons a few times, I usually spend an hour or two prepping for each class. To me, the compensation is really good. I teach off-site so I get an extra hour of teacher pay for each class. I get to bill three hours of prep for each class. I can hold pretty much as many office hours as I want per week (2-6 hrs) paid at the teacher rate. Out of class is 7/hr, teaching is 26/hr. I think teaching rate is determined by education, teaching experience, test scores, and how your trainer thinks you'll do. In my area it starts at 20 and goes up from there. If you want a chill job, get into MCAT teaching and get your pay rate determined based on that, and switch over to GRE or something--the work will be way easier but your pay won't change.
i've done a lot of private tutoring on my own for the mcat, will this count as formal experience? also, are they negotiable on the starting salary?
I have to say that I absolutely adore teaching for Kaplan. $22/hr starting teaching pay. I am teaching 4 classes concurrently right now. I have 5 tutoring students as well. All in all I pull in a very nice paycheck. I think it is the perfect job to have while waiting for med school to start. Yes, there are mistakes here and there in the material but after your first run through it, you learn how to teach it effectively.
I really don't think they care about experience. Like a previous poster said, if you've got the scores and speak slightly better than GW Bush, you're good to go into training. About negotiating for salary- who knows. I have heard that Examkrackers pays like $50/hr.
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