Take The Tab’s STUDY DRUG survey

Everybody knows Easter Term is a black hole of exams, they remorselessly drag you in with no chance of escape. Yet though exams may be over in a matter of days, the revision encompasses gruesome weeks. And students at university it seems, are increasingly resorting to study drugs to cope.

Common study drugs, such as Ritalin and Modafinil, are prescribed for other uses (ADHD and narcolepsy respectively), yet have been found by people who use them to study to boost concentration and endurance when studying.

A study conducted by Cherwell at Oxford found that 15.6% of students there have used study drugs. This resembles the broad estimates that researchers looking at the effects of study drugs have made of their use in universities, which is from 10-15%.

Given Cambridge is known for its tough academic expectations, we want to find out what the study drugs usage is like here. Not only do we want to see what percentage of Cambridge students have used them, we are also looking into whether usage differs across subjects or years. The Tab, as ever, is also interested in your opinion on study drugs usage.

You can help us by taking our short and completely anonymous survey here.