Adderall: The academic steroid
Raskolnikov. Rodya. Rodion.
Svidrigailov. Zossimov, Zamyotov, Lebezyatnikov.
Those crazy Russians and their patronymics, their confusing nicknames, their horribly long and dreary novels. Awash in a sea of consonant clusters at 4 a.m., a student finds those names alone might inspire a Raskolnikovian surge of nihilism. Why, it's almost enough to drive someone to the point of insanity -- to murder an old lady just to get some sleep.
It used to be that if you battled the biblical-length "Crime and Punishment" with less than 48 hours to go and a term paper hanging...
I take Adderall because I have ADD. I got my BS degree WITHOUT the drug and I had a C average. I then started to go back for my Masters now and started taking Adderall in June of 2008 and I am SHOCKED at the vast difference in how well I am able to concentrate, study and actually retain the information I spend hours studying. In the past, before the medication, I would study just as hard for just as long and retain very little. But now my grades are already in the A/B category. For me, Adderall brings me up to the level that others without ADD can be at with just hard work and effort and therefore levels the playing field.
If you use it and you don't need it, your test scores aren't a reflection of how smart you are, or how well you behaved responsibly by studying, or by doing all your work, or really understanding the concepts, or especially how worthy you are of the job your degree gets you. Your grade is really a reflection of how good the cheat method is that you used over another. So that 'A' someone may get is an 'A' for the method of cheating they used (hidden notes, copying from another student, using Adderall) rather than their true worth.