Cramming In College Student Essay

Words: 850
Pages: 4

Stimulant use also has negative effects on the user academically. By popping a stimulant the night before a test, a student is cramming all of the information into their brain. Cramming, also known as massed practice, is not an effective method for retaining information. By only studying all the information the night before a test, the student will not retain a large majority of this content for future use (Wheeler). In college, students are taking courses in preparation for a job in the field they are majoring in. If students crammed for tests by using stimulants, once they get a real job, they may find it hard to recall valuable information from college courses. For example, it will be critical for a nurse in practice to recall all of the …show more content…
Research has been conducted by McCabe, et al. to find where the stimulants are coming from and they found, “54% of subjects medically prescribed for a stimulant reported being approached to distribute their medication to a non-prescribed user” (qtd. in DeSantis 447). The study shows that over half of people with a prescription for drugs like Adderall and Ritalin have been asked to illegally give away their own medication, which they medically need. Additionally, a 2010 study done by Garnier, et al. found that one-third of students have actually sold or given away their prescription of study drugs (qtd. in DeSantis 447). This means that 1 out of 3 people who have received a prescription from their doctor have actually sold or given away their own prescription to people who have either asked or bribed them to do so. From this data, it can be seen that students who have prescriptions are under intense pressure to sell. There may be an increase in this statistic due to individuals who receive a prescription for a study drug by convincing a doctor they have ADHD or ADD. However, the majority of people being approached actually have ADHD or ADD and need the drugs to