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Can Ritalin really improve my grades?


zainy1993

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Good point, it's not like being a doctor requires genuine intellect or anything...Drug abuse is nothing like having a research connection btw.

 

so why should you have geniune intellect and be able to become a doctor and others not? why should you get to make a 100,000$ per year and someone else is confined to a mediocre job.. maybe serving you fries or something.

 

What if the guy thats serving you fries decides he wants to be at the high end of life, but his brain doesnt give him the intellect to be in med school? what then?

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do you guys actually think that someone like OP should take ritalin? he has no disability, he's just not happy with his marks & he does not seem to have considered the idea that maybe he is just not adept at synthesizing information. the use of pharmacological agents in this situation is, it appears, to be a pretty drastic step; he might solve his problem with either more experience or studying in a different way, both of which do not result in the incurrment of the risks involved with using something like ritalin.

 

thats like saying saying someone with developmental delay can suddenly stretch his IQ and be able to have a normal brain just by thinking about it. There is a pysiological component, has to be. I can see no other explanation.

 

but yes you are right in that point though. I dont want to call the dude 'dumb', but hey , there is a reason a kid in my high school got straight A's without having to study.

 

The ultimate goal should be to peer back and adjust the neural pre-dispositions that would make it so once he sees it the first time, everything sticks. Similar to Kim Peeke. And similar to the research Allan Synder of the Mind institute in Australia is trying to do.

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yup, that's what i've said forever, except i would call it bio-psycho-social-phenomenelogeco-empircal psychology, also, disorders don't exist, they just exist as discrete entities because of communicative value, but they're too heterogeneous and reliant on societal norms and contexts to call psychological "problems" disorders, getting up at 11 am is only a "disorder" in a society that's 9-5, if 12-8 was the social norm (as it can be in many 24/7 cities like new york, the disorder ceases to exist, because you can't qualify you're constructivism with it has to be distressing to be patient anymore)

 

hey Muse do you go to UBC?

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so why should you have geniune intellect and be able to become a doctor and others not? why should you get to make a 100,000$ per year and someone else is confined to a mediocre job.. maybe serving you fries or something.

 

What if the guy thats serving you fries decides he wants to be at the high end of life, but his brain doesnt give him the intellect to be in med school? what then?

 

 

i think you kind of answered your own question right there - life is a bell curve man, there are always going to be people who are more or less intelligent than others, just like there are people who are more/less hard working, well spoken, athletic, musically inclined, etc. etc. etc.

 

if someone's brain doesn't 'give him the intellect to be in med school', then maybe another career path is the way to go... while you may be very supportive for the french fry guy getting into med school, would you be as confident if that was the same person making decisions for your loved ones?

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your pre-ordained bio-deterministic view of intelligence is outdated, i believe it was called crystallized intelligence sometime in the early 20's. i'm infinitely more intelligent than i was 7 yrs ago… neurons that fire together, wire together, and begin to move abstract, heavily chunked, and linked information into long term memory, and all of a sudden complex informational clusters are the 5-9 single digits we have in working memory, essentially you're arguing against a machine that adapts to multiple contingencies and outcomes rapidly and with little effort. Unfortunately that sticking "Don Hebb on crack" pipe dream won't happen for a long time, if at all. Being able to integrate links faster is physiological, Susan Polgar is the archetypical example. if you want to talk philosophy, Chalmers, Koch, Putnam, Searle, Churchland, Chopra, Heisenberg... I'd be glad too… but i doubt you have the breadth (i have breadth and depth, you don't want to debate me) but getting back on topic: psychostimulants can make that happen faster, not that I advocate their use. i'm not going to argue, because i doubt i'd get anything out of it… besides i was average in school… until i was exceptional, why waste your time talking to someone who contradicts your outdated statistician psychologists theory right (points if you can guess who i'm talking about)? sorry, some people just aren't par excellance, they haven't put in the work. By the way, I have ADD, too bad for my deficiency, or gift?

 

thats like saying saying someone with developmental delay can suddenly stretch his IQ and be able to have a normal brain just by thinking about it. There is a pysiological component, has to be. I can see no other explanation.

 

but yes you are right in that point though. I dont want to call the dude 'dumb', but hey , there is a reason a kid in my high school got straight A's without having to study.

 

The ultimate goal should be to peer back and adjust the neural pre-dispositions that would make it so once he sees it the first time, everything sticks. Similar to Kim Peeke. And similar to the research Allan Synder of the Mind institute in Australia is trying to do.

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people with very high intellects often have terrible jobs, the workplace pays for skills… you can't be too smart for that… medicine isn't intellectually difficult, it just requires tremendous dedication to volumous material… get a philosophy phd and tenure track job… that requires insane intellect.

 

so why should you have geniune intellect and be able to become a doctor and others not? why should you get to make a 100,000$ per year and someone else is confined to a mediocre job.. maybe serving you fries or something.

 

What if the guy thats serving you fries decides he wants to be at the high end of life, but his brain doesnt give him the intellect to be in med school? what then?

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Ive rolled some Adderall before if i wasnt prepared for an exam, its decent stuff but its not necessary if you plan your time. And as for doing better it just helps you focus you can pull an all-nighter and study for 12-15 hours or longer with no food breaks, side effect i get is intense dry mouth. Not condoning it but its your body. Also its not hard to find you just need to start looking, most university campuses are swimming with it especially around exams.

 

If you do end up doing, start with a low dose or else it will have the opposite effect and your basically on speed. The format i get them in from my friend is 30mg pills, i split them up weigh out a dosage of like 15 mg on my scale and parachute it.

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weird, adderall just totally calms my mind down (although i'm really awake b.c. of it, it is a stimulant, my thoughts aren't racing, they're just slowed down and a lot more organized and structured and i'm way less impulsive), and i take 45 mg a day plus 5 mg dex in the morn, i guess that

kind of exemplifies the differential effect if you have add… although concentration is also still enhanced, there's no real pns properties, in fact my hr actually slows down sometimes on it...

 

Ive rolled some Adderall before if i wasnt prepared for an exam, its decent stuff but its not necessary if you plan your time. And as for doing better it just helps you focus you can pull an all-nighter and study for 12-15 hours or longer with no food breaks, side effect i get is intense dry mouth. Not condoning it but its your body. Also its not hard to find you just need to start looking, most university campuses are swimming with it especially around exams.

 

If you do end up doing, start with a low dose or else it will have the opposite effect and your basically on speed. The format i get them in from my friend is 30mg pills, i split them up weigh out a dosage of like 15 mg on my scale and parachute it.

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Finally after few months of posting/researching/asking around I got my hands on adderall (although only half a pill).

 

I'd say it wasn't exactly what I expected but it was still good... Didn't make me want to study impulsively but I was definitely able to concentrate better. And when I got rolling, I was surprised at how long I studied continuously without distraction. (I didn't even notice it until few hours later)

 

I would love to get some more but I bummed off my friend who couldn't get anymore now....

 

 

I'm thinking about walking into a walk-in and straight up tell the doc I want to try adderall because I can't concentrate on my studies... Will that work ?

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I'm thinking about walking into a walk-in and straight up tell the doc I want to try adderall because I can't concentrate on my studies... Will that work ?

 

No.

You'll most likely need to have an appointment with a psychiatrist (perhaps Adult ADHD specialist,) who will interview you/fill out some some questionnaires, and ask you to provide documents from <8-10 years of age that exhibit you had problems with school/teachers/etc/etc/etc/etc.

 

Honestly, it is best not to use drugs for studying. Drugs are bad, mmmkay.

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seems like the majority of posts here are indifferent to this adderall/ritalin use, or support it. i'm surprised. any opinions from current med students? how many/ proportion of med students used this stuff before admission/ still use it during their MD studies?

 

It's funny when you see people who want to be physicians promote the use of drugs without prescription.

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It's funny when you see people who want to be physicians promote the use of drugs without prescription.

exactly my thoughts, but I fear getting bashed on... I hope it's a small fraction of pre-meds who are voicing their opinions here.

 

medicine is about continual education.. if you can't learn and reach the proficiency necessary for MD admission, without drugs, are you going to be able to perform as a physician without drugs?

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exactly my thoughts, but I fear getting bashed on... I hope it's a small fraction of pre-meds who are voicing their opinions here.

 

medicine is about continual education.. if you can't learn and reach the proficiency necessary for MD admission, without drugs, are you going to be able to perform as a physician without drugs?

 

I do not support drug use as well, but I find the above sentence highly subjective.

 

As we all know, there are easy and tough majors in university. And even between universities, I think we know which are the tougher universities and which are the easier universities to attain a high GPA, even though the Adcoms don't discriminate much.

 

Does meeting the requirements for MD admission at an easy major/university equate that of a tough major/university?

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I do not support drug use as well, but I find the above sentence highly subjective.

 

As we all know, there are easy and tough majors in university. And even between universities, I think we know which are the tougher universities and which are the easier universities to attain a high GPA, even though the Adcoms don't discriminate much.

 

Does meeting the requirements for MD admission at an easy major/university equate that of a tough major/university?

 

Unfortunately, at most schools, a 3.95 in basket waving is better than a 3.94 in Engineering.

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It's funny when you see people who want to be physicians promote the use of drugs without prescription.

 

It's funny when you see physicians who know nothing about various drugs thus won't prescribe because they are clueless, outdated and refuse to educate themselves.

 

I've had to edumacate more than a few physicians in my life...

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I do not support drug use as well, but I find the above sentence highly subjective.

 

As we all know, there are easy and tough majors in university. And even between universities, I think we know which are the tougher universities and which are the easier universities to attain a high GPA, even though the Adcoms don't discriminate much.

 

Does meeting the requirements for MD admission at an easy major/university equate that of a tough major/university?

Yes I know it's a contentious argument, but that's not relevant to this issue, I think. Varying standards is true, but are you suggesting that those at a tougher university are justified in taking these drugs because their university is tough? The general reason for taking the drugs is to improve academic performance to pass a level needed for admissions in general, not to pass a level in order to equalize with other universities..

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If you're thinking about substance abuse prior to even beginning medical school, how do you think you will choose to deal with a tough medical curriculum when things are intense? It's easy to really get carried away with drugs trying to enhance your performance, and it's all silly. You don't need to do drugs to succeed in medical school. Some people actually do need these medications for their daily lives, but if your only reason for looking at this is to boost your grades, then you are about to take part in setting a dangerous precedent for yourseslf.

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Yes I know it's a contentious argument, but that's not relevant to this issue, I think. Varying standards is true, but are you suggesting that those at a tougher university are justified in taking these drugs because their university is tough? The general reason for taking the drugs is to improve academic performance to pass a level needed for admissions in general, not to pass a level in order to equalize with other universities..

 

Not quite the point I was trying to get at, and I'm not about to attempt to justify their reasons for using drugs.

 

What I meant to say is that people resort to all sorts of ways (underhand or not) to attain what they want, and that's just life. We have to accept it that the playing field is never fair.

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Not quite the point I was trying to get at, and I'm not about to attempt to justify their reasons for using drugs.

 

What I meant to say is that people resort to all sorts of ways (underhand or not) to attain what they want, and that's just life. We have to accept it that the playing field is never fair.

 

I hope I am dead before we start accepting that.

 

This is why athletes are disqualified after their urine is tested positive for drugs(Even things like marijuana which probably does not even increase their physical strength etc).

 

As a society -we do not accept this. full stop.

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I hope I am dead before we start accepting that.

 

This is why athletes are disqualified after their urine is tested positive for drugs(Even things like marijuana which probably does not even increase their physical strength etc).

 

As a society -we do not accept this. full stop.

 

Athletes? Really? Man, wake up please.

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not sure how i can make it more clear for you??????

 

cant you connect the dots

 

its not legal in athletics and its not legal in academia (see university rules on possession of illegal drugs and its illegal to have ritalin without a prescription)

 

The poster was saying that we should all accept that people will use illegal methods to get ahead - and I dont think we as a society do accept it because of the examples above.

 

And by the way - if you dont agree with something why dont you just say so instead of saying, wake up.

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