Grades Slipping. Drop Scribing?

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MaybeDr

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Very sorry to hear of your poor luck. That VR score is lethal. Are you ESL?

Proper time mgt skills are a must in medical school. You're taking 12 credits, working 20 hrs in the lab, and scribing, but a B is not lethal. You must figure out what your priorities are. Scribing is a good experience and getting paid is even better. BUT, if it's going to affect your grades, the scribing has to go. You can always find clinical experience elsewhere. It doesn't always have tobe in a hospital.



I'm currently having a minor dilemma and a string of really bad luck.
I have had a 4.0 for 2.5 years with a cGPA of 3.71 and I fear that this quarter it may change for me.
I'm currently taking 12 credits. One is independent research for a grade(takes up about 20 hours a week in lab for 3 credits) with a grad student that doesn't like me, Molecular genetics (a really hard UD), and Virology. My grades in these classes were fine until A. I got my MCAT score back, a lackluster 29 (12/5/12) and B. I started training to be a ER medical scribe. I took the 2nd midterm for genetics monday and did not do as well as I wanted to. Likely somewhere around 75/100, I got a 98/100 on the first test. What was different is I had to go to 20 hours of scribe training Sat and Sun. So I bombed the exam (in my opinion) and the material is only getting harder. The scribe job requires me to do 5 10 hour training shifts in the next 3 weeks. Finals is also in 3 weeks. My problem is I lack clinical experience outside of my clinical research that honestly maybe had 80 hours in a patient setting. There are little opportunities near me to get more, so this is really option readily available to me to really stock up on hours. Secondly I need money over the summer to pay for the MCAT material I have to buy. I could take out a loan though.
My old work (the clinical research group) may have work for me but he's unsure if he can hire me back. These classes are just killing me after getting rocked by the MCAT, getting way below my AAMC avg. Getting 2 B's (one in research and one in Molecular Genetics) would just be the cherry on top.
I'd finish would with 2 B's and 1 A, destroying my upward trend if everything were to go wrong.

Should I drop scribing and just tell them to put me in on the next round of training? Does scribing really look that great or would it be better to do a hospital volunteer position (though not easily obtained)?

People might inquire "Why does you just wait till you hear back from your old boss?" The soonest he can let me know is next week and I need to let the scribe company know by Friday if I'm pushing my start date.

What should I do?
TLDR version- may get 2 B's, destroying my upward trend partially due to the fact that my scribing job wants me to work 50 hours in 3 weeks, 20 hours (2 days in a row) a day before my genetics final, the class I just bombed a test in. Should I drop scribing even though I have minimal clinical experience?
 
Stop scribing. Your grades and MCAT are far more important than this clinical job. These entry-level clinical jobs are dime a dozen. They won't set you apart, and definitely will not make up for poor grades and MCAT score. Drop it, and stick to time-friendly things like hospital volunteering.
 
I'm not ESL. I thought I bombed Physical Science, Ha.. 95 percentile. That sent me into a minor panic because I know the answer to almost every question but one or two for certain (had an AAMC avg on PS of a 13.33). On top of that the finger scanner bugged out costing me 2 or 3 minutes I came back from break with 9 seconds left on break to get to my computer sit down and put my earplugs in. That sent me over the edge.

It just feels inhumanly possible to write a 6 page research manuscript, study for 2 really hard finals exams, defend my research in front of a committee and do 2 10 hours shifts all in one week. I don't even think time management is the issue doing all of that and getting straight A's is just literally impossible without being a genius.

Another factor in it is I have the opportunity to be a tutor that teaches classes on campus, but I only have shot at the job if I get an A in this molecular genetics class. I just had an interview for it today and it seemed like it went really well.

I feel like being a tutor plus volunteer experience at a hospital looks better than just scribing but that could just be me. Leadership+clinical experience+grades or high stress clinical experience+pay+meh grades.
 
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