[T]he key to amphetamines and Ritalin is to stop thinking of them as stimulants, and to think of them as reinforcers.

Let’s conceptualize how these drugs work. Imagine getting a brain scan while you are performing a task. The parts of your brain you are using for the task will light up, brighter than those you aren’t using.

Now you drink coffee. The whole brain lights up brighter, proportionally.

Now you take amphetamines. The parts of your brain that you are using light up brighter, but the parts you aren’t using go darker. Get it? Caffeine is a global brain stimulant, while amphetamines focus your attention, reducing distraction.

This is entirely selective and controlled by you. You have to decide what you want to focus your attention on. If it’s reading, the reading parts of your brain will be brighter. But if you stop reading and decide to talk to your friend on the phone, you know, the hot one with the hotter roommate, then you’ll be more focused on that (obviously). Attention is always decreased when it is split among several tasks. In other words, you can only concentrate on one thing at a time, even though it may feel like you are doing two things at once.

While amphetamines and Ritalin do stimulate you and keep you awake, using them to pull an all nighter completely subverts their awesome power. If you want a stimulant, drink coffee or Red Bull. Amphetamines should be saved for reinforcement.

You want to set up a study situation that as closely as possible resembles your testing context. Do you take tests in the middle of the night? Using multicolored highlighters? With The Daily Show on in the background and eating Doritos? Then you’re a pig, and you deserve to fail. You’re dead to me.

You should study in the morning, at a desk, under the same “fed” conditions as on test day. (So you would have eaten before taking the test, not snacking at the test.) Quiet room, no distractions. Remember, attention is decreased with multiple stimuli in normal conditions, but on amphetamines, this will be be greatly magnified. Studying while talking to your friend means your “talking to friend” parts of the brain are brighter while your “”studying” parts of the brain are darker. Same thing with listening to music and studying.

Take the amphetamine (takes about 30 minutes to “kick in.”) Study, straight, with no distractions or interruptions, for about four hours. Quit. You’re done. Amphetamines give you about 4 hours tops of great concentration. Go to lunch, the gym, watch a movie, etc.

This is Leary’s “set and setting” understanding harnessed and put to work.

It should be noted that all this probably works without amphetamines almost as well. I’m beginning to understand that brains are all about reinforcement and habit.

Drugs are tools, just like guns, or computers, or shovels, or pencils. Drugs cause enormous damage because the drug war forces us to treat them like an enemy, and they reflect that back at us. The only people “studying” drugs are hedonists, losers, and violent criminals.

Incidentally, many of the comments are useful and informative, but then, many are not. You will have to step carefully to avoid the mines and cowpats, but they’re worth reading.