Should I become a tutor 2nd year?

[ManBroDude]

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My school offers around $15-20 an hour to 2nd years and up to tutor students that are struggling with a class (or classes). You can charge an extra hour for "prep time". I'm hovering around the edge of the top quartile in my class and I have the opportunity to do it. I hear 2nd year has a higher workload and the money is negligible in the grand scheme of things. I'm also getting married this summer and she's moving in so I might not have as much free time or flexibility.

Does tutoring look good on residency apps/interviews? ("He's comfortable teaching, we need residents like that")

Does it help with retention for step 1?

Feedback from those who have been tutoring would be most welcome. Thanks.

 

[Kaustikos]

My school offers around $15-20 an hour to 2nd years and up to tutor students that are struggling with a class (or classes). You can charge an extra hour for "prep time". I'm hovering around the edge of the top quartile in my class and I have the opportunity to do it. I hear 2nd year has a higher workload and the money is negligible in the grand scheme of things. I'm also getting married this summer and she's moving in so I might not have as much free time or flexibility.

Does tutoring look good on residency apps/interviews? ("He's comfortable teaching, we need residents like that")

Does it help with retention for step 1?

Feedback from those who have been tutoring would be most welcome. Thanks.

I don't think it matters. And honestly, I would never do it for money either. I tutor/help MS1s in my class if they have questions whenever. It does help me retain some information and make me more comfortable with boards. But I wouldn't spend hours because it's time you should be spending actually studying for boards.

 

[DrEnderW]

Your avatar makes it difficult to read this thread at work.

 

[drotoman]

My school offers around $15-20 an hour to 2nd years and up to tutor students that are struggling with a class (or classes). You can charge an extra hour for "prep time". I'm hovering around the edge of the top quartile in my class and I have the opportunity to do it. I hear 2nd year has a higher workload and the money is negligible in the grand scheme of things. I'm also getting married this summer and she's moving in so I might not have as much free time or flexibility.

Does tutoring look good on residency apps/interviews? ("He's comfortable teaching, we need residents like that")

Does it help with retention for step 1?

Feedback from those who have been tutoring would be most welcome. Thanks.

Tutoring experiences would be a nice addition to your resume, and they show that you can teach others, which is an important attribute as a resident. But don't fool yourself into thinking that they will make a huge impact when it comes to getting a residency spot. They don't. Grades/boards/research weight much more, and I'd rather focus on those things.

Tutoring will sure help you retain some info for Step I, but it will be very low yield because from my experiences you have to know a ton of minutia to answer questions from students and actually be able to teach. Yes, you will make some bucks, but in the grand scheme of things, probably not worth the time. Also getting married soon doesn't help either.

 

[Stellar Clouds]

My school offers around $15-20 an hour to 2nd years and up to tutor students that are struggling with a class (or classes). You can charge an extra hour for "prep time". I'm hovering around the edge of the top quartile in my class and I have the opportunity to do it. I hear 2nd year has a higher workload and the money is negligible in the grand scheme of things. I'm also getting married this summer and she's moving in so I might not have as much free time or flexibility.

Does tutoring look good on residency apps/interviews? ("He's comfortable teaching, we need residents like that")

Does it help with retention for step 1?

Feedback from those who have been tutoring would be most welcome. Thanks.

I wouldn't do it. Spend time with your fiance and studying for the boards.

It probably won't make any difference on your residency app. It has an outside chance of helping with some retention for step 1 (maybe), but you will probably get tired of being asked, "is there any easy way to remember all this stuff?"

If you want to do it to help your classmates, then great, do it, but otherwise I wouldn't do it for these secondary gains that you have asked about.