tutored/taught for Kaplan? Forum

[cinefile 17]

I'm asking for responses ONLY from people who have taught/tutored LSAT for Kaplan. Please don't waste your or my time by replying if you do not fit this description.

I know there are already some threads on this, but it's hard to find straight answers b.c. most of them are over-run with anecdotes from people who do not have personal experience or with criticisms of Kaplan's technique/hiring practices.

I've auditioned with Kaplan to be a tutor and been offered an interview. What I'm wondering from people who have WORKED FOR KAPLAN...

1. How much do tutors (not teachers) make?

2. I'm planning on re-taking the LSAT in October. Would learning the "Kaplan method" through their training mess with the methods I already use and hurt my personal October test prep?

3. What is training like?

4. Do you recommend it? Also, feel free to add any other information that is relevant.

[dominkay]

I'm sure your students will be very lucky to have been "teached" by you.

[Nulli Secundus]

I see what you "doed" there.

[cinefile 17]

I'm sure your students will be very lucky to have been "teached" by you.

LOL , true that. Good thing I won't be tutoring spelling/grammar then. I have a feeling I'm not going to get any serious responses from this (Oh TLS how I love/hate you).

Anyway.....

[Kretzy]

I taught for Kaplan for a while, full-time actually, as both an instructor and a teacher trainer. I liked it a lot, and though Kaplan gets a bad rap around here from some folks, I do think it has a lot of good things about it as an LSAT program for certain students.

1. How much do tutors (not teachers) make? I made the same as my teaching salary, which was $38/hour.

2. I'm planning on re-taking the LSAT in October. Would learning the "Kaplan method" through their training mess with the methods I already use and hurt my personal October test prep? I found I was scoring similarly using both my hodgepodge methods and the methods with which I taught. It depends on the person.

3. What is training like? I taught at one of the three "high stress" centers (think top Ivy League campus-adjacent), so training was fairly intense. Five hours in class a week for 5 weeks, with cuts for those not doing well each week. We started with 8 in the class (MCAT and LSAT) and 4 became teachers, with 1 more able to tutor (the standards are lower).

4. Do you recommend it? Also, feel free to add any other information that is relevant. I had a great experience teaching there, including as a teacher-trainer for 6 months. I think that Kaplan is quite good for students who are scoring in the low 150s and want to jump 8-10 points, and there's a good gamut of folks who are doing more poorly than that as well. I worked very hard in my classes, which some Kaplan instructors don't, and I always felt like I was doing well by my students (everyone improved from their diagnostic, one by 19 points). If you find the right center and trainer, you can become a very effective teacher there.

[LSAC Proctor]

Former Kaplan instructor turned LSAC proctor here:

1. 60hr full service. 120hr greek. 200hr GFE

2. Yes and we would not tutor you if we found out that you had used another method. Either you're a Kaplan or you're not.

3. It doesn't matter, because you chose not to use us.

4. You are probably more cut-out to be a para-legal. Also, Kaplan does not hire "re-testers," or Gentiles.

[whuts4lunch]

I'm asking for responses ONLY from people who have taught/tutored LSAT for Kaplan. Please don't waste your or my time by replying if you do not fit this description.

I know there are already some threads on this, but it's hard to find straight answers b.c. most of them are over-run with anecdotes from people who do not have personal experience or with criticisms of Kaplan's technique/hiring practices.

I've auditioned with Kaplan to be a tutor and been offered an interview. What I'm wondering from people who have WORKED FOR KAPLAN...

1. How much do tutors (not teachers) make?

2. I'm planning on re-taking the LSAT in October. Would learning the "Kaplan method" through their training mess with the methods I already use and hurt my personal October test prep?

3. What is training like?

4. Do you recommend it? Also, feel free to add any other information that is relevant.

I don't recommend working there at all. Kaplan pays you well below minimum wage (you are asked to bill 4 hours for work that truly takes between 8-10 hours to complete) and forces you to sign a non-compete that specifies that, even if you are fired, you cannot tutor/teach on your own for a year. I smartly got out before I was bound by the agreement, started tutoring on my own, and made a few thousand dollars on the side doing that for about half a year.

Also, a major aspect in which your teaching (maybe not tutoring, I was only involved in teacher training) is how often you say Kaplan during your lectures, which I found wholly unprofessional and counterproductive to what should be the purpose (effectively teaching the LSAT) of an instructor.

If you have decent people skills, you don't need Kaplan to find you students that they can charge $125/hr to and then pay you only a tiny fraction of that. Find your own and charge $50/hour.

[whuts4lunch]

Former Kaplan instructor turned LSAC proctor here:

1. 60hr full service. 120hr greek. 200hr GFE

2. Yes and we would not tutor you if we found out that you had used another method. Either you're a Kaplan or you're not.

3. It doesn't matter, because you chose not to use us.

4. You are probably more cut-out to be a para-legal. Also, Kaplan does not hire "re-testers," or Gentiles.

huh?

[skip james]

I'm asking for responses ONLY from people who have taught/tutored LSAT for Kaplan. Please don't waste your or my time by replying if you do not fit this description.

I know there are already some threads on this, but it's hard to find straight answers b.c. most of them are over-run with anecdotes from people who do not have personal experience or with criticisms of Kaplan's technique/hiring practices.

I've auditioned with Kaplan to be a tutor and been offered an interview. What I'm wondering from people who have WORKED FOR KAPLAN...

1. How much do tutors (not teachers) make?

2. I'm planning on re-taking the LSAT in October. Would learning the "Kaplan method" through their training mess with the methods I already use and hurt my personal October test prep?

3. What is training like?

4. Do you recommend it? Also, feel free to add any other information that is relevant.

1) depends on experience and performance. with zero teaching experience, you're looking at something like 18/hr + prep time (min wage-ish). I was offered something like 25-30 with my prior teaching experience.

2) Kaplan sorta sucks, unfortunately. I was pretty turned off by their lack of distinguishing between necessary and sufficient assumptions, and their methodology as a whole was a big part of why I decided not to continue after about a month.

3) mock classes, with trial lessons and stuff. a trainer teacher will ask you a bunch of silly questions and pretend to be dumb (unrealistically so, in my opinion) and you have to guiding by careful questioning which is not 'leading'. Personally, I found the unrealistically dumb acting to be a little silly, but I think there was a lot of value in thinking about what sort of thoughts students are likely to have, and which sorts of probing questions you can ask them to (1) think about the issue at hand while (2) not handing them the answer on a silver platter. part of it is to ask them questions they should theoretically be asking themselves during the test, or while solving a problem at home, that do not presuppose prior or existing knowledge about the stimulus or game.

4) i think it would be worth it if you have a sub-70s score, since you can't realistically work anywhere else. maybe it'd be worth it if you had a 70+ score if you've never taught before and you'd like the teaching experience to pad your skill-set/resume to move somewhere bigger and better. i privately tutor, and lemme tell you, the amount of time i spend developing materials and organizing problems into coherent sets that a student can learn from optimally, reduces my hourly rate to the point where i might be working at starbucks or something (not that bad, but it probably halves my hourly rate). personally, i think that's what it takes to be a good private instructor.. not to mention to differentiate yourself from the glut of private teachers who just act as an LR/AR/RC explanation bank without really facilitating learning (and charge exorbitantly while doing so). so, if you're not willing to do that sort of work, then kaplan is prolly a decent way to go since you wouldn't have to independently develop anything.

[Audio Technica Guy]

I taught for Kaplan for a while, full-time actually, as both an instructor and a teacher trainer. I liked it a lot, and though Kaplan gets a bad rap around here from some folks, I do think it has a lot of good things about it as an LSAT program for certain students.

1. How much do tutors (not teachers) make? I made the same as my teaching salary, which was $38/hour.

2. I'm planning on re-taking the LSAT in October. Would learning the "Kaplan method" through their training mess with the methods I already use and hurt my personal October test prep? I found I was scoring similarly using both my hodgepodge methods and the methods with which I taught. It depends on the person.

3. What is training like? I taught at one of the three "high stress" centers (think top Ivy League campus-adjacent), so training was fairly intense. Five hours in class a week for 5 weeks, with cuts for those not doing well each week. We started with 8 in the class (MCAT and LSAT) and 4 became teachers, with 1 more able to tutor (the standards are lower).

4. Do you recommend it? Also, feel free to add any other information that is relevant. I had a great experience teaching there, including as a teacher-trainer for 6 months. I think that Kaplan is quite good for students who are scoring in the low 150s and want to jump 8-10 points, and there's a good gamut of folks who are doing more poorly than that as well. I worked very hard in my classes, which some Kaplan instructors don't, and I always felt like I was doing well by my students (everyone improved from their diagnostic, one by 19 points). If you find the right center and trainer, you can become a very effective teacher there.

I know I'm not a Kaplan instructor, but I do know a few and nobody sniffs anywhere near $38 per hour for years there. Maybe that was how it used to be, but I can tell you with absolute authority, that the starting rate is $18.

[x47point6]

I tutored for Kaplan SAT and am not doing it privately. You're better off going solo or working for a very small independent tutoring outfit. Hourly pay is better, less BS.

[Kretzy]

I taught for Kaplan for a while, full-time actually, as both an instructor and a teacher trainer. I liked it a lot, and though Kaplan gets a bad rap around here from some folks, I do think it has a lot of good things about it as an LSAT program for certain students.

1. How much do tutors (not teachers) make? I made the same as my teaching salary, which was $38/hour.

2. I'm planning on re-taking the LSAT in October. Would learning the "Kaplan method" through their training mess with the methods I already use and hurt my personal October test prep? I found I was scoring similarly using both my hodgepodge methods and the methods with which I taught. It depends on the person.

3. What is training like? I taught at one of the three "high stress" centers (think top Ivy League campus-adjacent), so training was fairly intense. Five hours in class a week for 5 weeks, with cuts for those not doing well each week. We started with 8 in the class (MCAT and LSAT) and 4 became teachers, with 1 more able to tutor (the standards are lower).

4. Do you recommend it? Also, feel free to add any other information that is relevant. I had a great experience teaching there, including as a teacher-trainer for 6 months. I think that Kaplan is quite good for students who are scoring in the low 150s and want to jump 8-10 points, and there's a good gamut of folks who are doing more poorly than that as well. I worked very hard in my classes, which some Kaplan instructors don't, and I always felt like I was doing well by my students (everyone improved from their diagnostic, one by 19 points). If you find the right center and trainer, you can become a very effective teacher there.

I know I'm not a Kaplan instructor, but I do know a few and nobody sniffs anywhere near $38 per hour for years there. Maybe that was how it used to be, but I can tell you with absolute authority, that the starting rate is $18.

My teaching salary, per hour, was $38. I started teaching there within the past year (though I no longer do, as per my statements above). I should know (moreso than "folks you know), I was the one getting the paychecks.

Sorry, you might be trying to help, but I really can't stand when people around here make "I know a guy who says you're wrong" statements and wants people to take them as fact over someone who actually did the exact job a person is asking about.

You may be thinking of the starting SAT salary, which is $18/hour at many centers for those without prior teaching experience. Graduate test teachers make more (at my center, LSAT and MCAT made more than the GRE, which in turn made more than the SAT, etc.)

[skip james]

I know I'm not a Kaplan instructor, but I do know a few and nobody sniffs anywhere near $38 per hour for years there. Maybe that was how it used to be, but I can tell you with absolute authority, that the starting rate is $18.

with zero experience, i believe. starting pay isn't written in stone, and i was absolutely offered way above that because of my prior teaching experience. i wouldn't have bothered to consider working there without some sort of respectable offer.

[Audio Technica Guy]

[
My teaching salary, per hour, was $38. I started teaching there within the past year (though I no longer do, as per my statements above). I should know (moreso than "folks you know), I was the one getting the paychecks.

Sorry, you might be trying to help, but I really can't stand when people around here make "I know a guy who says you're wrong" statements and wants people to take them as fact over someone who actually did the exact job a person is asking about.

You may be thinking of the starting SAT salary, which is $18/hour at many centers for those without prior teaching experience. Graduate test teachers make more (at my center, LSAT and MCAT made more than the GRE, which in turn made more than the SAT, etc.)

Did you have multiple years of teaching experience? I guess I should have been more clear when I said you don't sniff that kind of money for years, I meant either years at Kaplan or years of equivalent teaching experience.

[Connelly]

Former Kaplan teacher/tutor/teacher trainer here. I taught the LSAT for a year, maybe a little less, and I typically taught 2 courses of it at the same time.

1. How much do tutors (not teachers) make?

I taught in a small market in the south, and we paid ~$19/hour. Maybe a dollar or two off there either way. There were not astronomical jumps that I know of. I certainly hope that the poster above who got $38 was telling the truth if he worked in Boston, NYC, DC, SF, or somewhere like that. The market would be ENTIRELY different in those places, not just due to cost of living, but to the proximity to extremely good undergraduate and law schools. $38 does not surprise me at all, but I have no first-hand knowledge of what the pay in such a market is like.

2. I'm planning on re-taking the LSAT in October. Would learning the "Kaplan method" through their training mess with the methods I already use and hurt my personal October test prep?

This is possible, if you're an idiot like me. I qualified to teach the LSAT based on a practice test at the Kaplan center. I didn't know the Kaplan methods at the time and scored just enough to start teaching. After teaching the LSAT for a few weeks, I decided to go to law school and thus take an actual LSAT. I sat down to take my first practice test, and I had no idea how I had solved the logic games (my best score on my original practice test) prior to teaching the LSAT. This was pretty scary. So I taught myself the Kaplan method for logic games and worked my way up from getting about 5 right per section to the occasional perfect section within a month (while teaching 3-4 nights a week on top of my 50 hour/week day job). A few more weeks of practice, and I think I would have been able to get all LG questions right on the actual LSAT, but I didn't want to put the LSAT off another 3 months. The Kaplan methods definitely helped me on the LR section (missed 1 on each section on the actual LSAT), but the RC never really took with me.

3. What is training like?

I thought training was great, but a LOT of this will depend on your center and your teacher trainer. We had a fantastic training program where I was, and I not only felt I was extremely prepared for my first class, but I also felt like I became a much better public speaker/presenter because of the experience. Our trainers kept it very positive and always encouraged us to do things to become excellent - not berate us on things we missed. It was mostly very practical. You prepare, get up in front of the class, go through a fake class, and then your performance is analyzed.

Something was mentioned above about the Kaplan propaganda. Yes, you do have to brand a lot of the things you mention, and it seems silly, but it really was no big deal to me. What was worse was when they tried to get you to say other cheesy one liners (e.g., "If I mis-bubble, I'm in trouble"). I generally tried to keep everything in the classroom light-hearted, so it was easy to slip this stuff in. Often the silliness would stick with students, and they would remember later what a goofball I sounded like saying it, so, to me, it worked.

4. Do you recommend it? Also, feel free to add any other information that is relevant.

It depends on who's working at the center where you would be and what your other options are. In my case, the people at the center were fantastic. Since Kaplan is run like a bunch of terrorist cells, I could see how working in different centers could produce wildly different experiences. And where I worked, there wasn't a whole lot of competition. So I could have worked for a higher-paying company, but making $40-50 an hour when you're only teaching 2 hours a week doesn't really help. At Kaplan, I could generally pick up as much work as I could handle for the LSAT alone. I also cross-trained to teach the SAT, GRE, and GMAT, and I was a teacher trainer briefly. So 4-5 nights a week at 3-4 hours (along with the slave labor wage for prep time) resulted in more money overall than the competitors. The math on this would be very different (though not necessarily ruling out Kaplan) in larger cities.

[Kretzy]

Did you have multiple years of teaching experience? I guess I should have been more clear when I said you don't sniff that kind of money for years, I meant either years at Kaplan or years of equivalent teaching experience.

I did not. As the poster above alluded to, Kaplan does pay much better in close proximity to top UGs. And his/her descriptions of Center culture and training are fairly spot on.

[Audio Technica Guy]

Did you have multiple years of teaching experience? I guess I should have been more clear when I said you don't sniff that kind of money for years, I meant either years at Kaplan or years of equivalent teaching experience.

I did not. As the poster below alluded to, Kaplan does pay much better in close proximity to top UGs. And his/her descriptions of Center culture and training are fairly spot on.

Is it top UGs or is it high COL cities (SF/Bos/NYC)? The city I'm in is a very large city, has two top UGs (one is in the top 20, the other in the top 40) and Kaplan doesn't even come close to starting people out anywhere near $30 unless they have significant experience, because the COL is relatively low for a large city here.

[Kretzy]

Did you have multiple years of teaching experience? I guess I should have been more clear when I said you don't sniff that kind of money for years, I meant either years at Kaplan or years of equivalent teaching experience.

I did not. As the poster below alluded to, Kaplan does pay much better in close proximity to top UGs. And his/her descriptions of Center culture and training are fairly spot on.

Is it top UGs or is it high COL cities (SF/Bos/NYC)? The city I'm in is a very large city, has two top UGs (one is in the top 20, the other in the top 40) and Kaplan doesn't even come close to starting people out anywhere near $30 unless they have significant experience, because the COL is relatively low for a large city here.

PM'ed.