Teaching for test prep companies (Kaplan, Princeton Review, etc)

[VortexGreen]

Has anyone had experience teaching for Kaplan, Princeton Review, or another test prep company? I'm considering applying to teach for one of them as either/combination of DAT, MCAT, or ACT teacher. I would like info on the work environment, hours and pay, interview process, and reliability of the employer from people who have worked as a test prep teacher. I know this info varies from center to center. I live in the St. Paul/Minneapolis Metro area. Any advice is appreciated. 🙂

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[Breno58]

Has anyone had experience teaching for Kaplan, Princeton Review, or another test prep company? I'm considering applying to teach for one of them as either/combination of DAT, MCAT, or ACT teacher. I would like info on the work environment, hours and pay, interview process, and reliability of the employer from people who have worked as a test prep teacher. I know this info varies from center to center. I live in the St. Paul/Minneapolis Metro area. Any advice is appreciated. 🙂

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=427849 Take a look at this..it may help 👍

 

[VortexGreen]

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=427849 Take a look at this..it may help 👍

Thanks Breno, that thread is definitely helpful! I noticed that it is about 4 years old however. Have you worked for Kaplan? Do you know if the pay rates (in class time, prep time, proctoring) have changed?

 

[Breno58]

Thanks Breno, that thread is definitely helpful! I noticed that it is about 4 years old however. Have you worked for Kaplan? Do you know if the pay rates (in class time, prep time, proctoring) have changed?

No I haven't tought any classes-Not sure about the pay rates either. You could contact kaplan and probably get some information. see where it goes! Goodluck

 

[trypanosomiasis]

I'm a TPR MCAT Physics teacher. I'm assuming you're looking to teach MCAT, so here's what we do:

$20/hr is the usual starting salary, I've heard some places give more, some places give less. You will have to try out, take a qualifying exam, and then go through the training process, so get in touch with folks with your office and find out when the next trainings are. You get paid $8.10/hr for training, with no guarantee of being certified to teach. If you pass training, you will get your first class.

Teaching, tutoring, and online work are all done on a "who asks for it first" basis, so I find the working hours pretty flexible. Some markets ask for more help from younger instructors in terms of marketing on campuses, getting membership rosters, etc... But so far I've found the job to be pretty simple in terms of flexibility.

It is a huge commitment though. Especially if you are a pre-med yourself, you'll be teaching fellow pre-meds, and you have to know your stuff if you're going to survive and get a chance for more classes. This is why trainings are usually graded harder on pre-meds, because it's harder for you to command respect from a class without being a total *******. You teach 2.5 hour lectures, and need to spend time preparing for each (they will pay you the $8.10 rate for up to 2 hours of prep time per class taught).

It's very loosely organized, and if you're looking to make bank, you're not going to do it very quickly. If you're looking for a few extra bucks, it's an awesome job to have if you're good at teaching 😀

 

[Dotpats]

I taught/tutored MCAT and SAT for Kaplan. The pay is the same as TPR, $20 an hour to begin with for teaching a class (private tutoring is different). To teach MCAT, they want to see your official scores. To qualify to teach, your MCAT score has to be above 90th percentile. You can also take a qualifying exam, if need be. (The 90th percentile thing is the policy for all tests, if you want to do private tutoring your scores have to be above 95th percentile for the exam you want to teach).

The schedule is flexible, depending on where you live. If you live in a place without a lot of premed interest, it's difficult to put classes together. I believe there's a new system where they offer web-based classes, and I think you can do those long distance. It's been about a year since I worked with them, and they recently changed it up a little.

To get the job: resume, MCAT, personal statement/letter of intent, then you have to audition and give a mini lesson on a topic of your choosing. After you get the job: a significant amount of training (online and in the classroom), but it's not difficult. You get payed at a lower rate during training (not quite sure what it is, but it's above minimum wage).

It was an enjoyable experience for me, because there's a lot of flexibility in what you can do (teach, give promotional seminars, etc.) for a bit of extra cash. You can kind of do as much or as little as you'd like. It's good if you want to teach, but remember with MCAT that you are teaching premeds. If you don't like teaching, don't get along with "difficult" students, or aren't willing to drink the Kool-Aid on all the methodology, it probably will not be enjoyable.

If you have any specific questions, you can PM me.

 

[URHere]

I teach Biology for TPR. This information is very accurate:

I$20/hr is the usual starting salary, I've heard some places give more, some places give less. You will have to try out, take a qualifying exam, and then go through the training process, so get in touch with folks with your office and find out when the next trainings are. You get paid $8.10/hr for training, with no guarantee of being certified to teach. If you pass training, you will get your first class.

Teaching, tutoring, and online work are all done on a "who asks for it first" basis, so I find the working hours pretty flexible. Some markets ask for more help from younger instructors in terms of marketing on campuses, getting membership rosters, etc... But so far I've found the job to be pretty simple in terms of flexibility.

It is a huge commitment though. Especially if you are a pre-med yourself, you'll be teaching fellow pre-meds, and you have to know your stuff if you're going to survive and get a chance for more classes. This is why trainings are usually graded harder on pre-meds, because it's harder for you to command respect from a class without being a total *******. You teach 2.5 hour lectures, and need to spend time preparing for each (they will pay you the $8.10 rate for up to 2 hours of prep time per class taught).

It's very loosely organized, and if you're looking to make bank, you're not going to do it very quickly. If you're looking for a few extra bucks, it's an awesome job to have if you're good at teaching 😀

A few other tidbits of information:

Qualifying to teach:
The application process generally involves a written test (a compilation of "hard" MCAT questions for the subject you want to teach) and a 10-20 min, oral "sample lecture". Some offices will require to lecture on a science topic, and others will ask for a non-science lecture. If you pass both components, you are invited to a training weekend. These weekends involve lessons on difficult subjects, general teaching advice, etc. They also involve 1-2 graded "lectures" and passage reviews. In order to teach for TPR, you need to pass. Also, be aware that you may need to leave your city or state to attend training - I had to fly from Portland to San Francisco for mine.

Note that your MCAT score is not as important to TPR as your test/presentation score and your educational status. For example, if you have a PhD, you get bonus points with TPR.

Other paying positions:
In addition to teaching lessons, TPR allows instructors to grade essays, proctor exams, or attend marketing events. These things generally pay less than teaching ($8-$12/hour). Many MCAT instructors also end up as 1-on-1 tutors. This pays slightly better than the large group courses ($23-$25/hour to start).

Teaching frequency:
This will depend on how many students sign up for your course. In some places, you may teach one course per year. In others, you may teach 5-6 courses per year.

This also depends on how many certified teachers are in your area. For example, if 2 people are certified to teach MCAT O-Chem...you may each teach 1-2 classes per year...or one person may serve as a stand-in while the other takes on most of the teaching. This will depend on how long each instructor has taught, what previous instructor feedback was, etc.

 

[VortexGreen]

Thanks for all the info guys, very insightful! I've graduated, have another job, and will have a gap year here, so this sounds like a good additional part-time job for extra cash (as well as something good to talk about in interviews). I'm actually most interested in teaching the DAT as I am a pre-dent, but would be willing to teach the MCAT as well (I took the MCAT too). I thought, correctly, that I'd be able to get some good info here. Thanks again!

 

[DeVry Cum Laude]

*** Two tough questions here, so I don't expect much of a response but if you could forward this to someone who might be able to answer it, I would really appreciate it.

I recently got an email from "Next Step Test Preparation LLC" -- gauging my interest in teaching MCAT for their company. Has anyone heard of this company before? Are they respectable/ do they compensate well? How are the student outcomes?

I bring this Q to you, because I was unable to find any of this info with a Something.com search -- except for the testimonials on their website and some other seemingly fake "pre-med advisory" websites. SDN didn't show any previous mention of this group. They found me on Linkedin, because I teach Bio for The Princeton Review.

This brings me to my second question in the title: Is it legal to teach MCAT test prep for multiple companies simultaneously or does this fall under some sort of IP infringement?