Kaplan does require at least an 11 on the MCAT in any section that you want to teach. Most instructors are medical students (or pre-meds who are about to start medical school) and have taken the MCAT, scoring 33 or better, and the rest of us are graduate students. Some of the grad students have also taken the MCAT, and others only teach in their own field and take the Kaplan diagnostic test to prove competency in that field.
To all of you who are considering whether you want to teach for a test-prep company like Kaplan or TPR: while it's important that you know the science well, and score well on the MCAT yourself, please consider that there is more to being a good teacher than having good test-taking skills. We have all had experiences with professors who were brilliant people, but who were not particularly good at teaching. You should evaluate whether you have the interest in teaching MCAT skills to other people, which is very different than studying them for yourself.
Here is a sample of skills that would be helpful if you want to be a successful instructor:
1. You need to be comfortable speaking in front of groups of strangers, some of whom might be older than you are. You must be able to think on your feet and follow a lesson plan with people constantly interrupting you and asking you questions. You will have notes to jog your memory, but you should not read to the students, which is boring for them. The best teachers have a dialogue with their classes, asking questions, moving around the room to help students, and otherwise interacting with their classes rather than just standing there like a lump at the podium.
2. Ideally, you should enjoy working with other people and helping them set goals and work toward them. Many of your students will come into your class having different backgrounds, levels of preparation, and learning styles than yours. You need to be creative and work to help students who learn things differently than you do find ways to solve problems. You need to be patient and understanding with students who may not grasp concepts quickly. And you need to handle irritating or disruptive students maturely and professionally; you must be able to keep your temper in check and never belittle a student, regardless of the provocation. These things are all examples of how you should show respect for your students and treat them with consideration.
3. You must be responsible about preparing for your classes properly and showing up on time to teach them. It is inexcusable to ever stand up a class due to "forgetting" that you were supposed to teach that day. As the instructor, you are the face representing your test prep company in your students' eyes, and your level of effort can make their classroom experience terrific or horrific. You should be open to receiving fair criticism of your teaching style and abilities, and accept other people's suggestions with a positive attitude. You should also evaluate your own teaching, and work to improve it as much as you can.
4. You need to be able to do all of the above QUICKLY. Test prep classes cover a semester's worth of material in just a few hours, and you also have to have time to do practice passages. The Kaplan classes last 3 hours each, which can seem like a very long time for the people who are sitting there listening to you. You should keep in mind that your students are busy and have other obligations. Running over time is a big no-no for this reason. So you need to be able to follow a strict time limit and not allow the class to get bogged down over minutiae of science or questions. You need to be able and willing to be the leader, the person who is in control of the class.
If still feel that you'd love to be an MCAT teacher after reading this post, then you should contact the company of your choice for an interview and audition. Also, feel free to PM me with any further questions about teaching MCAT classes.
