Is taking "study drugs" cheating?

[SOONERMAGIC]

Great article, please read and give your opinion.

 

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/health/hc-college-ritalin-cheating-20101028,0,4427830.story

[Kevin.Rocks]

I always felt that it was. It used to frustrate me when my peers in college would blow through an exam in a quarter of the time expected because they were still in insane focus mode due to Adderall. Seemed like an unfair advantage. At the same time, I figured it would catch up with them after college and in the work place when they couldn't rely on drugs to enhance their work performance when under stressful deadlines. Or maybe they could continue using it throughout their lives? Who knows, I stopped caring at some point. I'd personally not rely on some sort of crutch to live up to my perceived standard of myself.

Would you consider smoking pot or dropping acid "cheating" for philosophy or psych majors?

Or in the finance/stocks/trading world, is using cocaine to keep kicking during long fast paced days/nights cheating?

[jorgesgolf1]

I don't think of it as cheating, but from a practical standpoint - when does it stop? After "this test"....After College....Big presentation....report due....? I was never able to pull all-nighters and never really needed to. You keep up with your studies and you're fine.

My first year of my PhD was the most academically challenging I've had (as was the same for many/most of my peers) and no one I knew used them. I actually only knew of one person in college that used them, so perhaps people that are my age may have been a little behind the curve with this stuff.

[highergr0und]

I can kind of see the academic argument that the drug itself is not cheating, after all the drug does not make you smarter in any way.

However, if you look at it from the perspective of the drug giving an unnatural advantage in the amount of time that someone could use to become smarter, it comes back to academic cheating for me. It's kind of like PEDs. The nature of some of those drugs is not to literally increase your strength/stamina, however when taken, they greatly increase your ability to improve.

[PSUH]

I don't think it's cheating at all. I also don't think a drug like [color="#1C2837"]Adderall gives any type of advantage on taking test. You either know it or you don't. [/color]
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[color="#1C2837"]Quick story, back when I was in college I had to study for a very important exam. My buddy was prescribed Adderall and was always told by everybody how great it was too study on it. I decided since this was a very important exam, I would take one and study all throughout the night. The stuff made me all jittery, and could not study nor could I get a good nights rest due too the lack of sleep. When exam time came, I obviously was still feeling the effects of the drug, didn't eat, still feeling jittery, and come to think of it, it was the first exam I have ever failed in college. So do I think it's an advantage? HELL NO! I never once used it again for study purposes, and I passed all my undergraduate courses with honers. [/color]
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[color="#1C2837"]I feel it may be just a placebo effect for others, the mind is a very powerful thing, and if you can trick your mind into thinking you have a magical drug to help consume information, why not and go for it. [/color]

[teamarctic]

i personally dont use it, and never will. i will say that my roomate has used it before for finals. he took one at about 7pm the night before his finals day. i didnt see any off his test results but from what he said, he was really jittery till about midnight, then once he got his mind to focus on studying, thats all he did. he said he did remarkably better on his exams that day.

i dont think i would consider it cheating, as its insanely easy for everyone to get some of it. so its out there for everyone to use. i cant count how many times ive been asked if i wanted some around final exam time. people posting it for sale on facebook, friends of friends, etc.

i think if youre going to use it, you just have to make sure youre going to be able to focus all that "drug energy" on studying, and not playing video games or anything else.