When I read posts from people who claim to study +15hours/day for several days in a row…I question how much information a person can possibly retain. Ritalin and adderall are becoming very popular in the law school/med school+residency areas and I was wondering if CFA candidates have any experience with it. Please understand I am talking only about legitimate prescriptions, please do not discuss illegal substances in this thread.
I was self subscribed this during college a few times. The effect is there.
FYI. Ridalin is still illegal if you are taking it without prescription.
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A lot of posters on here are full of shit and make specious claims. This can range from “I didn’t study at all and I passed, so you shouldn’t study either!” to the opposite extreme “I study 20 hours a day and so should you!”
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If you’re qualified to enrol in the CFA program, you have gone to school and know what studying method works best for you. Stick to that. If you have terrible study habits you’re not magically going to change for the CFA. Get involved in a study group and have people call you out if you’re slacking. - A lot (probably most) people fake having ADHD to get perscriptions - probably more than people who have talked themselves into believing they actually have ADHD when they’re just not disciplined enough to study as much as they want. It’s easy to do so and doctors generally don’t contract the patient because there is no definitive test. - If you’re faking it and/or legitimately have it, taking speed (which is really what Addreall and Ritalin are) is going to catch up to you. Plenty of investment bankers and traders do coke (or whatever the current drug of choice is to boost their stamina). If you rely on it, it catches up to you eventually and then you’re headed down to Lindsay Lohan country. Whether you think that’s worth the risk is up to you. Most sensible people don’t.
I took it for all three levels. I’m not sure how much it helped with retention or anything like that except that it was easier to force myself to sit down and spend 4 hours a day on CFA
Tea and sometimes coffee.thats all i had. smoked cigarettes. never heard of these medicines.
hence my post “legitimate prescriptions”
this is a good post in general.
however the only ppl doing coke for stamina at work these days…are just tying to keep their bender from the night before from catching up with them.
Much better legal stimulants available with fewer side effects. I am not speaking from experience, I just have several close friends early in their medicine careers and they encounter this type of abuse frequently. I was wondering how prevalent it was in the CFA.
I know at times, I definitely wish I could stay dialed in longer. It seems my attention span/retention capability is capped at about 3-4 hour blocks. On weekends, I am able to put in a 3-4 hour session in the morning, and maybe another 2-3 hour session in the afternoon. Anything more than that, i get bored and burnt out.
I drink a ton of coffee during study months. I believe i averaged 64oz/day
I am down to 32oz (french press) now.
I probably should but I still don’t take any meds…
Try antihistamines instead
No way. The active ingredient in there is pseudoephedrine. This is not meant to be taken for long periods.
not to mention all of the other drugs that are usually combined with it such as acetaminophen. Do not take this stuff for any other reason than allergic reactions.
Mr. Hacksaw is right. I did the same thing.
Adderall is similar to steroids. Steroids don’t make you stronger, but they help you recover quicker, so you can lift weights 3x per week instead of just twice (EG).
Without adderall, I found that I could study for about 3 hours before my concentration ran out. With adderall (depending on dosage, and whether it was XR), I could go for 5, 6, or even 8 hours. It didn’t make me smarter, but I was just able to study twice as long.
Adderall and Ritalin are diluted version of the street drug speed. They’re not steroids. You don’t need anything more than coffee and some B vitamins to study for 6 hours or more. Like with everything, you have to pace yourself. You do a mix of problems of varying level of difficulty, and you can last 6 hours or more. No drug or sheer force of will can enable you to do hard problems for 6+ hours consistently. To claim otherwise just puts you in the bullshit category of “I did’t study at all and I passed!”.
they are not diluted versions of “speed”
in many cases they are concentrated and extended doses of versions of “speed”
I agree with the rest of your post for the most part however.
Either you didn’t understand my points or you are deliberately trying to obfuscate what I am saying.
No, adderall is not a steroid. I was trying to draw attention to the fact that they are both Performance Enhancing Drugs that have similar effects in their respective uses. It was an analogy.
And no drug can enable you to do hard problems for 6+ hours, but not all studying is hard problems. Just like when lifting weights, you don’t lift for 1 hour. You lift for twenty seconds, then take a two minute break, then lift for another twenty seconds. Similarly (and this is another analogy), with studying, you do hard problems for 30 minutes, then read/watch videos or do some other passive activity for an hour. But you can keep this up for a lot longer when you are on Adderall as opposed to not being on Adderall.
Coffee and B-vitamins are not a substitute for Adderall. Doctors don’t prescribe coffee and B-vitamins to kids with ADHD. I’m not saying that adderall is a panacea for all study ills, but to suggest that you can derive the same benefit is ludicrous.
Coffee for studying. 5 hour energy for exams. Works every time.
I love the self righteous people on this forum scoffing at Adderall but advocating for coffee… If the only reason you think that’s better is because it’s legal without prescription you’re not bright, you should stop studying and hacksaw. Saying someone is going to become Lindsey Lohan because they take Adderall is ridiculous.
Adderall is a low dose of amphetamine. It “works” great, but if you need to be good at this stuff for your career, are you expecting to spend your entire career on a low dose? I personally can’t believe they hand that stuff out to 6th graders.
investment industry emphasizes ethics all the time, so legality is kind of a big deal. Not to be self righteous or anything :).
Firstly, ADHD is a bullshit made up ailment for rich parents who’d rather stuff their undisciplined kid with pills rather than do the hard work of being a parent to them. The vast majority of kids “diagnosed” with ADHD are affluent kids on the ivy-league school track - especially those headed for law school, med school or investment banking. Sorry, but if it was a real disease, it would affect the population randomly, not just those people who conveniently want to be hot shots. Secondly, it’s not hard to get a legitimate perscription from a doctor; all you have to do is to bother to learn to fake the symptoms convincincly. So the dividing line between “legal” and “illegal” here is meaningless. Lx - Since you seem to think that coffee and speed are comparable, maybe you should review your high school chemistry notes.