working for kaplan during med school

[prolixity29]

Anyone work for kaplan or another test prep company teaching the mcat while in med school? I've been accepted for a job with them but the pay is lower than I had hoped for.

Apart from the money, though, does anyone who has taught the mcat while in medical school feel that it helps them in any way academically? I'm starting first year this fall.

I realize that the material on the mcat is quite different from what you learn in medical school, but I am wondering if these test-taking skills and perhaps even the fundamental concepts/principles you would constantly review while teaching might make STEP 1 easier.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Renaissance Man]

The MCAT and Step 1 are very different animals. I am a rising MS2, but from what I can gather Step 1 scores are sort of a function of how much raw information you can cram into your brain and the recall. IMO, the MCAT required some memorization (obviously) but it was also a thinking man's game. In any event, multiple choice test-taking skills would help in both.

I wouldn't do Kaplan unless you really needed the money. Your time (and future Step 1 score) would be much better served just by studying for medical school classes.

 

[mirimonster]

Anyone work for kaplan or another test prep company teaching the mcat while in med school? I've been accepted for a job with them but the pay is lower than I had hoped for.

Apart from the money, though, does anyone who has taught the mcat while in medical school feel that it helps them in any way academically? I'm starting first year this fall.

I realize that the material on the mcat is quite different from what you learn in medical school, but I am wondering if these test-taking skills and perhaps even the fundamental concepts/principles you would constantly review while teaching might make STEP 1 easier.

I haven't started med school yet (starting Monday!), but I have taught for Kaplan and I would say it's not worth it. 95% of what you'll teach is content review which is way too basic to help with your med school classes. The tiny bit of test-taking that you do teach is for the verbal reasoning section, and I wouldn't consider it to be a particularly useful general skill. Kaplan changed it up about a year ago so now the strategy sessions are taught exclusively live online by their top-rated teachers. Classroom teachers are there to go over bio, chemistry and physics.

Focus on med school at least for the first semester, especially if it's not worth the pay. Then if you have tons of extra time to pick up a job, go do research.

 

[Rirruto]

Anyone work for kaplan or another test prep company teaching the mcat while in med school? I've been accepted for a job with them but the pay is lower than I had hoped for.

Apart from the money, though, does anyone who has taught the mcat while in medical school feel that it helps them in any way academically? I'm starting first year this fall.

I realize that the material on the mcat is quite different from what you learn in medical school, but I am wondering if these test-taking skills and perhaps even the fundamental concepts/principles you would constantly review while teaching might make STEP 1 easier.

I can't speak for Kaplan, but I did some MCAT teaching during MS I and plan to continue during fall of MS II. The material won't help much for med school, so the main benefit would be the $. Another benefit is exposure and ability to parlay teaching into private tutoring. Time commitment depends on your own study habits; I had to keep the time commitment minimal - only 1 or 2 1/2 weekend days per month during the school year. Depending on your summer plans between MS I- MS II, you can increase your time commitment (and earnings) significantly.

 

[laconfidential]

Worked for Kaplan for a long time.

Prepping for class takes a TON of time and you're reimbursed pretty poorly for it. The material will not be a review at all for your m1 classes.

Long story short, not worth it. If you we're already teaching for them I would say being on their roster for backup could work but don't commit yourself to that kind of time sink when you need to worry about doing well in your classes. Whatever you might make teaching for them won't put a dent in your tuition anyways.

 

[ChanHoParkMD]

Anyone work for kaplan or another test prep company teaching the mcat while in med school? I've been accepted for a job with them but the pay is lower than I had hoped for.

Apart from the money, though, does anyone who has taught the mcat while in medical school feel that it helps them in any way academically? I'm starting first year this fall.

I realize that the material on the mcat is quite different from what you learn in medical school, but I am wondering if these test-taking skills and perhaps even the fundamental concepts/principles you would constantly review while teaching might make STEP 1 easier.

Used to work for Kaplan during medical school and residency. Taught and tutored students in MCAT and USMLE Step 1.

It really doesn't help much for medical school or for the USMLE. Only benefit I can think of is that it allowed me to have access to Kaplan USMLE prep material.