Session 58 If you are not a traditional student entering the medical field on your terms, you may have had some hiccups along the way but now you’re ready to change course and serve others as a physician. This podcast is here to help answer your questions and help educate you on your non-traditional journey to becoming a physician. In this episode, Ryan takes a question directly from the OldPreMeds.org forums and delivers the answer right here to you. Today’s question comes from a  student looking to figure out if he needs to do some extracurricular activities while studying for the MCAT as well. OldPreMeds Question of the Week: “I’m currently studying for the MCAT. I graduated two years ago in 2015 and after working in the emergency room as a medical scribe this past year, I realized becoming a physician was my calling. I stopped working as a scribe in August 2016 and returned back to school in September 2016, taking a few courses that I thought would help me with the MCAT. I also took the MCAT prep course which began in October and I had hopes of taking the MCAT in January. But unfortunately my scores are not where they need to be. As a result, I pushed my MCAT back to the end of March. With that being said, I was planning on taking it in January and have other things lined up between now and March, such as a part-time job and volunteer work. I am concerned about putting more things on my plate while approaching the MCAT and I am wondering what would be the best course of action. I could either continue studying for the MCAT for another two months with little else to show on my resume besides that (i.e. any extracurricular activities for six months and just studying for the MCAT). Or I could take on those extracurricular activities , such as volunteering and the part time job and try to balance it all out while studying for the MCAT. I feel like focusing on the MCAT is the best course of action and not getting bogged down with other activities but I am worried that med schools will look at this six-month time period and wonder -- ‘what else were you doing during this time period’?-- as if studying for the MCAT was not enough and I should have been doing extracurricular activities as well. Any advice would be great. Thank you!” --- Jacob Here are my insights: (4:10) You shouldn’t worry about what medical schools are going to think. If you are new to this podcast, I encourage you to go back and look at the forums at OldPreMeds.org. The first person who commented on the forum basically said the same thing; you shouldn’t worry about what medical schools are going to think. However, there is one caveat: med schools will see this break and wonder why there was this break, if you really wanted to become a physician. I would say, though, that six months is okay only if as soon as you take the MCAT, you pick it right back up so that while there is this break, you are continuing to do it. Don’t drop it completely and then apply and then have this break that ended a year from when you actually submit your applications. (5:12) Doing some extracurricular activities MAY help your MCAT score. If you can step away from the books a bit and clear your mind, you give yourself a “brain break”. It will also help during those times when you are bogged down studying for an eight hour practice test, frustrated that you didn’t achieve the score you wanted and you are ready to give up; doing those extracurriculars and being around physicians is going to shine some light on why you are going through the journey in the first place! Having some variety will be good for you and allow to break the monotony of just studying for the MCAT. You will come back refreshed, ready to learn and perform better. (6:15) If your practice test grades are not increasing, go check out Next Step Test Prep. Their job is to figure out why you’re not doing well on the test. Their tutors are not there to help you learn the content; rather, their job is to help you with the tes