Adderall-Law school finals/studying

[4DClaw]

In undergrad I took gingko biloba before each final. It's always helped me concentrate and stay energized throughout a long and boring exam. It may be a placebo effect, but it works for me.

[onefreeneutron]

I can agree with that assessment .. They say crack-cocaine delivers an intensity of pleasure beyond the bounds of normal human experience. Unfortunately, it delivers suffering beyond the bounds of normal human experience too. The pleasure it yields is brief. The suffering that follows may be prolonged. The brain's hedonic treadmill isn't easily cheated.

The high from crack cocaine is intensely rewarding. But the experience is short-lived. Crack's euphoric effect is so extraordinarily hard to forget. If one succumbs to curiosity, and finds out what one is missing, then the rest of one's life may pall in comparison. For there is nothing in life that's naturally so enjoyable as crack. However, the user's family and loved ones may suffer the price of pleasure almost as severely as the addict.

Indeed, crack cocaine's high is so intense that it has been described as being greater than a thousand orgasms all at once ... 

[horsdoeuvre]

On the other (pre-law) board people say Adderall is great for studying and essay exams -- on multiple-choice exams it does not help because you tend to overanalyze.

There's definitely the potential of overfocusing, which isn't good for the LSAT and multiple-choice type of exams. The latter require minute analysis of the trees (OK, hyperfocus good), but also seeing the forest ... In other words, you concentrate too much on each answer (Is choice A right? Is choice B right? Is choice C right? etc.) instead of (Ok, choice B, D, E can't be right, it has to be either A or C!)

When on Adderall you tend to "think deep." But standardized tests penalize students that tend to favor deeper approaches to problem solving. Students who score highest on such tests tend to use more superficial thinking strategies than those who score in the low and moderate ranges. The lowest-ranking students employ the deep approach more often than the higher scoring ones. Standardized tests fail to measure the qualities that are truly important, reward the ability to adopt a superficial style of thinking, and in fact penalize many of the candidates with the deepest minds.

Occasionally, individual questions are defective, with the wanted answer or all of the answers being incorrect. More frequently, questions are ambiguous so that more than one answer may be defended as plausibly being "the best", and only those candidates with deep minds are likely to notice the ambiguity and be troubled by it. However, even if all the questions were impeccable, the deep student would see more in a question than his more superficial competitors would ever dream was in it, and would expend more time and mental energy than them in answering it. But the multiple-choice tests are concerned solely with the candidates choice of answer, and not with the reasons for his choise. They ignore that elusive yet crucial thing called quality.

[visaelectron]

I can agree with that assessment .. They say crack-cocaine delivers an intensity of pleasure beyond the bounds of normal human experience. Unfortunately, it delivers suffering beyond the bounds of normal human experience too. The pleasure it yields is brief. The suffering that follows may be prolonged. The brain's hedonic treadmill isn't easily cheated.

The high from crack cocaine is intensely rewarding. But the experience is short-lived. Crack's euphoric effect is so extraordinarily hard to forget. If one succumbs to curiosity, and finds out what one is missing, then the rest of one's life may pall in comparison. For there is nothing in life that's naturally so enjoyable as crack. However, the user's family and loved ones may suffer the price of pleasure almost as severely as the addict.

Exactly! Cocaine is extremely habit-forming. It is potentially dangerous when indulged in to excess. If rats or monkeys are hooked up to an intravenous source of heroin, they will happily self-administer the drug indefinitely; but they still find time to sleep and eat.

If rats or monkeys can freely self-administer cocaine, however, they will do virtually nothing else. Captive animals continue to press their drug-delivery lever for as long as they are physically capable of doing so. Their fate is similar to an intracranially self-stimulating laboratory rodent. Within weeks, if not days, they will lose a substantial portion of their body weight - up to 40%. Within a month, they will be dead.

[miranda]

Keep taking Adderall if it helps you and finds no diagreement with your mental balance. For palpable results you'd have to take it continuously over a period of time.

For tests as important as the LSAT and law school exams, it's far from cheating. In fact, you'd be cheating yourself not to. It's

a) not chemically or physically addictive

b) far more advanced than ritalin, speed, common cocaine, meth (I bet you didn't know that JP Sartre used to take an advanced form of dexedrine, Adderall's first cousin, to increase his cognitive agility when writing)

c)has no correlation towards anything life threatening or mind-altering ... you're not going to end up emptying catheter bags as a parolee, or see a plummetting trend in your life because of little adderall to channel sights. 

You know why SPEED wreaks havoc? Because it's made on the street and improperly. A real chemist in decent conditions makes it, it's going to have the legitimate effects minus the sideffects of the filler. Even the most contrian psychiatrist is going to tell you  that 25 mgs of Adderall is nothing like cocaine or methamphetamines. 

Don't let puritanical impositions dissuade you if you think the stuff increases your composure and confidence. You're using it to help you take tests, not to get a better high or a bigger ego. And if you start associating a drug with studious activity and exam prepartion, dear god, you are going to end up hopelessly addicted ... to high achievement. Who checked that box on their inpatient survey at the methadone clinic?

[dmitrik4]

that's all well and good, but what happens when actual focus and mental work is required and there are no pills available..."sorry boss, i gotta wait until next week to work on that memo; need to stock up again if i'm going to be able to concentrate"?

not to mention that obtaining prescription drugs w/out a prescription was still illegal last time i heard.  wonderful start to a long and ethical career.  but i guess if you don't think you have the mental chops to succeed without it, go for it; i haven't seen any evidence that it really helps at all.

[studentloan]

The high from crack cocaine is intensely rewarding. But the experience is short-lived. Crack's euphoric effect is so extraordinarily hard to forget. If one succumbs to curiosity, and finds out what one is missing, then the rest of one's life may pall in comparison. For there is nothing in life that's naturally so enjoyable as crack. However, the user's family and loved ones may suffer the price of pleasure almost as severely as the addict.

Don't tell the kids, but there's a dirty little secret about crack: as with most other drugs, a lot of people use it without getting addicted. In their zeal to shield young people from the plague of drugs, the media and many drug educators have hyped the very real dangers of crack into a myth of instant and total addiction ... That doesn't mean it's safe to play with crack, or with most other drugs, legal or illegal. Addiction is a slippery slope. But what worries a growing number of drug experts is that the cry of wolf about instant addiction may backfire.

[french kiss]

Keep taking Adderall if it helps you and finds no diagreement with your mental balance. For palpable results you'd have to take it continuously over a period of time.

For tests as important as the LSAT and law school exams, it's far from cheating. In fact, you'd be cheating yourself not to. It's

a) not chemically or physically addictive

b) far more advanced than ritalin, speed, common cocaine, meth (I bet you didn't know that JP Sartre used to take an advanced form of dexedrine, Adderall's first cousin, to increase his cognitive agility when writing)

c)has no correlation towards anything life threatening or mind-altering ... you're not going to end up emptying catheter bags as a parolee, or see a plummetting trend in your life because of little adderall to channel sights. 

You know why SPEED wreaks havoc? Because it's made on the street and improperly. A real chemist in decent conditions makes it, it's going to have the legitimate effects minus the sideffects of the filler. Even the most contrian psychiatrist is going to tell you  that 25 mgs of Adderall is nothing like cocaine or methamphetamines. 

Don't let puritanical impositions dissuade you if you think the stuff increases your composure and confidence. You're using it to help you take tests, not to get a better high or a bigger ego. And if you start associating a drug with studious activity and exam prepartion, dear god, you are going to end up hopelessly addicted ... to high achievement. Who checked that box on their inpatient survey at the methadone clinic?

Adderall suppresses all spontaneous behavior. In healthy chimpanzees and other animals, this can be measured with precision as a reduction in all spontaneous or self-generated activities. In animals and in humans, this is manifested in a reduction in,

(1) exploration and curiosity;
(2) socializing, and
(3) playing.

Adderall increases obsessive-compulsive behaviors, including very limited, overly focused activities.

Animals and humans cross addict to methylphenidate, amphetamine and cocaine. These drugs affect the same three neurotransmitter systems and the same parts of the brain.

[professional demeanor]

Anecdotal evidence suggests that you may not know clarity of mind and emotional stability until you've had your first dose of Adderall! It's like every light in the stadium has come on. And it also includes tuning into a radio and paying attention to it!

However, Adderall will make you think! You will get a ton of stuff done. You will read and read and read! BUT, you ability to interact socially is essentially gone. GONE!!! Sentances or thoughts that flew out of your mouth before will be like trying to put a sentance together with two hands and a flashlight! Also there is an emotional downside if taken too many days in a row. It, like all stimulants, builds up a tolerance in the body.

Adderall can be your best friend and your worst enemy. If you do not take breaks from Adderall, you'll build tolerance.

[MONIKA9]

Adderall suppresses all spontaneous behavior. In healthy chimpanzees and other animals, this can be measured with precision as a reduction in all spontaneous or self-generated activities. In animals and in humans, this is manifested in a reduction in,

(1) exploration and curiosity;
(2) socializing, and
(3) playing.

BUT, you ability to interact socially is essentially gone. GONE!!! Sentances or thoughts that flew out of your mouth before will be like trying to put a sentance together with two hands and a flashlight!

Adderall stifling creativity?! Hello?! "Amphetamines gave me a quickness of thought and writing that was at least three times my normal rhythm," Sartre, once remarked. When people write on the drug, it is like they have a choir of angels sitting on their shoulders. Lots of talented people like Auden and Kerouac have taken amphetamines precisely because they find them inspiring. Kerouac and the Beats ingested the drug in such heroic quantities that it didn't just make them more focused, it completely transformed their writing. According to legend, "On the Road" was drafted in a 120-foot-long single-spaced paragraph that burbled down a single continuous scroll of paper.

Unlike steroids Adderall has no long-term health consequences. Provided that is not snorted, injected, or taken in excessive amounts, it's not addictive.