Last week, the Association of American Medical Colleges announced dramatic changes to the Medical College Admissions Test. These changes, which will be implemented in 2015, plan to test aspects of psychology and sociology in addition to the exam’s traditional biological components, and will increase the length of the test from four to six hours. According to the association’s website, “the changes preserve what works about the current exam, eliminate what isn’t working, and further enrich the MCAT exam by giving attention to the concepts tomorrow’s doctors will need.”

The new MCAT exam will include new sections focusing on critical analysis, reasoning skills, and the psychological, social, and biological foundations of behavior. To make room for these extra sections, the test makers also eliminated a writing section included in previous years. ”These changes should signal that someone who was a psychology major, or a cross-cultural studies major, or an English major has as much potential to enter medical school as someone who majored in chemistry,” Dr. Stephen Ray Mitchell, the Dean for Medical Education at Georgetown Medical School, said.

Mitchell said the whole medical school application process is a “system that, at a lot of different levels, is flawed.” Georgetown Medical School alone received about 11,700 applications last year for a total of 196 slots, making it the sixth most selective medical school in the United States.

However, in such a competitive environment, admissions counselors lack adequate time frames to holistically review each applicant. Admissions counselors must instead resort, largely, to numbers––grade point average and MCAT scores. The decision made by the Association of American Medical Colleges strives to replace this balance between scores and an overall behavioral understanding that they believe a doctor should possess.

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The trick is making it into a useful series of tubes

Usually the combination of the finals and the internet results in bad, bad things. Things like spending 36 hours on the computer and finding you have a grand total of 250 words written. But the internet isn’t all time-suck! Check out Vox’s list of internet tools that will actually boost your finals productivity.

First and foremost, for the distracted: there are a few solutions to keep you from using the internet as a glorious tool of free-roaming mischief, and instead to stay on task for that deadly 20 pager you’ve only just begun. Actually, within the realms of pages you’d find on google, the internet also offers a solution for your scatterbrain. Dr. Wicked has a prescription for your internet hyperactivity, and it isn’t a few doses of Adderall: Write-or-Die. Just let this internet-based program know that you want to complete a certain number of pages in a certain amount of time, and if you don’t live up to your potential, your screen will start flashing and your speakers will resonate with terrible music. Apparently you don’t want to piss this program off.

More helpful programs after the jump!

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