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Do you still get good grades, while using drugs?

During my period of heaviest use, I had a 3.9 in school. I know how to divide my drug time and my school time really well though - it's a skill that you've gotta master if you want to be able to do both.
 
While using drugs this past year, I had a weighted GPA of over 4.0 and scored a 34 on my ACT test (quite literally, in the 99.9% for college-bound seniors). Just thought I would take this opportunity to unabashedly brag about my brainmeats. :D
 
i made horrible grades in high school, but since beginning community college (and also since becoming progressively less sober, yay college), my grades have shot up.

i smoke pot everyday, about 0.5 to 1g per day depending. drink on weekends. eat pills about once a month, trip about 3-5 times per year (lsd & shrooms).. benzos and other pharms occasionally.
 
kittyinthedark said:
I know how to divide my drug time and my school time really well though - it's a skill that you've gotta master if you want to be able to do both.
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that's the key. i had excellent grades through high school and so far it's been the same in college, even going through some periods of heavy drug use. the main negative impact for me has been a slight decrease in motivation; in my pre-drug years, i was very on top of things, and now i am more of a procrastinator. however, that could just be me outgrowing my neurotic mid-adolescent self.
 
ive done the best when im using the most. could be because motivation is higher when there is something to look forward to? not sure really.. ive also written exams stoned and done well
 
I think the main reason theres this thing about drugs and grades (though i could be very wrong here) is that generally the people who are always getting straight A's and topping every class don't take drugs because they think it will make them go worse at school. So the result is,generally, the really high achieving people don't take drugs, and the more average workers do. So it LOOKS as though drugs cause this division, whereas in actual fact its just the types of people who choose to engage in these activites.

I decided to try and prove this idea... see i've always been a pretty high achieving student and this year ive been smoking a heap of weed as well as taking a fair bit of ecstasy, LSD, etc. And my grades haven't changed at all.

The reason some people's grades drop when they become drug users is more because they lose interest in schoolwork, rather than the drugs actually affecting the way they think.

thats what i think anyway
 
Unless you drink every night or have a serious drug dependency it won't really have an effect on your performance. This is very simplified but if you work hard enough you'll do well.

That being said at OSU there is a communications major which a drunken, heroin dependant, Downs Syndrome sufferer could graduate Magna Cum Laude.
 
I smoked weed all the time while I was in school and constantly dropped classes and such but I never got bad grades. Then I quit smoking for about 4 months and during that time I took 9 classes in one semester and got all As/Bs and started up the next semester with 11 classes and I started smoking weed again. Then I quit all my classes and moved to Seattle. I don't regret it at all but it is obvious to me that I do better academically when I'm not getting high.
 
I got good grades while smoking weed and munching hypnos everyday, though calculated mediocrity was the approach to my finance subjects.
 
i could write a book on this, seriously, and i have a lot to say but ill just say for now

Last semester i did more drugs than ive ever done in my life, hooked on opiates almost daily and multi-daily, and got the best grades i ever got in my life 17 credits, 3.85 GPA.
 
I made it through medical school and flight training while drinking and drugging heavily. I was so zapped on ketamine and ether during my surgical residency I don't even remember it.
Last week I passed out during one lady's breast augmentation, she's walking around with one huge tit. Wow. we all laughed and laughed.
 
i suppose its what drugs you use how often you use them and if you still put the same amount of effort in.
like if you did alot of brain damaging and memory damaging drugs you are not going to get the best grades. eg. if you smoke cannabis all day, do DXM and K and lots of pills you are not going to be as smart as you could be
 
partying grades? C-
non-partying avg (well, moderate more smart partying)? A

My 2nd year of school, I was partying almost every weekend, working 20-30 and sometimes 40 hours a week, balacing a boyfriend in the equation and my grades slipped hard.

3rd year - didnt work during the school year, well - did a contract job here or there. I /greatly/ cut back on my partying, and when I did party, I would prepare for it in such a way that it would have minimal effect on my schoolwork.

With MDMA/E- I find I feel very slow/stupid for pretty much the entire week after. I'll very rarely roll during the school year anymore, and when I do, its either

1. on a long weekend
2. over the holidays
3. at a slow point in the semester and I am 100% caught up, or even slightly ahead in all of my classes

With LSD - I find that it has no negative impact on my ability to function on school after a trip. If anything, i've actually found it to be kinda 'usefull'. It gives me a certian sense of strenght, focus and a 'putting my goals into a clear light and helping me work better towards them' and sense of motivation. I've also found that studying after a LSD trip has actually helped me solve problems that I had been stuck on prior.

LSD also played a pretty nice role in my creative writing class last semester.

But, like with MDMA, with LSD - I'll take certian steps prior to tripping. My pre-trip ritual is.

1. Spend atleast 2-days doing 'home-work-athon'.

For this, I'll make sure that I have all of my readings done for the next few days. I'll also make sure I've done all of the homework questions assigned, and in a good spot on any upcomming assignments. ie: if I have an essay due Monday, and still a long ways to go, I'll ensure it gets done before I trip. if its not done? I dont trip - simple as that.

But pretty much, I'll bust my ass to make sure that my tripping will NOT put me behind in my school work.

2. Clean my house, I hate tripping in a messy enviroment. I'll usually end up going outside for most, if not all of the trip - but it helps set me into the right mind set

3. Touch base with some family and friends. I tend to be close with my family, and know if I havnt touched base in awhile, the chance of getting a call out of the blue is high, and I dont want to be talking to them while tripping. And hey, its nice to have a touch of home before going to the cosmos :)

The primary one is #1 - I simply can not go into a trip, with good concious if i feel like it is going to interfer with my schoolwork. Pretty much, any homework I would of been doing on the weekend, I'll try and cram into the weds/thurs/friday before the weekend.

It is possible to use drugs and still do well at school, its just a matter of setting your priorities right (IMO: School is #1 above pretty much everything, including friends, boyfirneds, and at times - even family).

Have a test comming up the week after? - Dont roll on the weekend
Have an essay due? get it done before getting high

But pretty much, make drugs the last priority on your list - and you should be fine.

For me, I found with weed (I'm pretty much a daily weed smoker).

1. Dont get stoned and go to class. Its a waste of a high, and a waste of a class. If your going to get stoned, you might as well just skip the class.
2. Dont smoke until you are 'done for the day', if I get in from class and its 5pm and I smoke up, I pretty much know I wont get any homework done. So, I generally have a rule of thumb 'from after class, till about 10pm, is homework time' (Regardless if my last class of the day is at 11am, or 6pm), 10pm and on - get stoned, relax, watch tv, listen to music, play games, whatever

Depending on workload and how much homework I get done, that may creep up to 8 or 9pm, but my rule of thumb is "Get any homework I need to get done for the day done before I get stoned"

Last school year, I rolled maybe 4 times during the school year, did shrooms quite a bit, and tripped on lucy at least once a month it seemed like, and I still managed to do very well. I pulled my avg up from a C- avg to an A avg actually.
------

And also, some general rules of thumb that I started to follow last year, and served me well.

1. Start studying for a quiz 2-3 days before the quiz (ie: minor quiz)
2. Start studying for larger tests about 5 days before the test
3. Start studying for mid-terms 5days-2 weeks before the midterm
4. Start studying for finals 2-3 weeks before the final
These dont need to be 'intense 5 hour study sessions', even just 30-60 mins every other day or two is a big help. Even if I feel like I know the material inside and out, I'll still try and stick to this. It really helps get over the 'self-defeatist' attitude while writing the test.
5. For any major essay, or major assignment - aim to have it done 3 days before the due date

By that day, the bulk of the work should be done. If its an essay, there should be no new material being added to it, no new arguments, nadda. The last few days should be spent on making sure that your arguments tie up to your thesis, that you have good transitions, make sure that spelling/grammar/etc work correctly. Use that buffer day to put the spit and polish on the essay, turning it from an "OK" essay, to one that stands out.

For other assignments like programming projects/etc - pretty much do the same. The stuff should be as near done as possible 3 days before its due, and then the remaining days are for spit and polish.

Most of my friends are supprised by how 'relaxed' I am during the school year, but its just a matter of managing your time correctly and taking the extra time to prepare a few days (if not weeks) before major tests instead of trying to cram everything into a 2 night study session the night before the test.

6. Do not study the day of any test/exam. I'll generally set like, an '11pm deadline' for my studying of the night before the exam. After that, I'll sit down, relax, unwind a little bit. I wont try and study anything new the day of the exam, I'll just hangout in the hallway before the test with my mp3 player blasting and ignoring everyone else around me. I find when you try and study the day of a test, its always 'fuck, I didnt study this, or this, or this' and you just psyche yourself out.

the above stuff is what I did lastyear, which seemed to work like a charm for me, and hopefully I can pull my GPA upto a 4.0 this year, still enjoy shrooms/lucy now and then, with the odd roll for big events (new years eve, halloween, etc)
 
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Not really noticed a change in my grades. Did'nt do any drugs (bar drinking) during my GCSE's and did fairly well. Started taking pills during the first year of 6th form and got an A + 3 B's with same grades the next year (although i think i got slightly higher marks in the exams).

Into uni i think my drug use increased a fair bit again but still managed to get around 70% in my course overall. I do believe i should have done better but i will blame that on foolish use of klonopin during my revision period. Mind i could also blame it on the fact that i didnt really do any work and never really have put alot of effort in. Probably ought to start.
 
all i have to say is :

it's totally possible to party and maintain a high GPA. just know ur limit and make sure u get everything done. u have the rest of ur life to party (to an extent)..get the 4 (or 4+) years done and be happy with your results!
 
Many people abuse drugs because of a perceived varioation between their actual achievment and desired (expected??) achievment levels. Escapism will never lead to the best results, and we all know this, however those that are contented will generally do well.

I know that if I wasto try going straightedge that I would have drugs on my mind all day and would never do anything, I try not to get too high before exams but things generally seem OK.

When I first did A-levels I was smoking afair amount of pot and drinking a lot, I achieved fuck all and dropped out (for many reasons) this year I did As and A2 levels combined whilst smoking much, much more (amongst other things) and I did a lot better. I didn't have tuition (because of time restraints) for much of my courses, but got no worse than a B, and had enough points to go to Oxford/Cambridge if I felt that way.

A smart person will know if drugs are fucking them up, and that is the key thing, knowing when enough is enough. I did go into my exams sober, but I would smoke the night before to relax and immediately after as a reward. If anything I think pot at least helped me. Pot helped me relax, unwind, and see things from different angles, although I did find that my writing was more coherent sober.

I would say do whatever you feel you can, but when your exams are actually going on it is better to enter them sober(ish)

I have been a wreckhead as far as most of my year at college was concerned, yet I did as well as any of them did in half the time. Of course this doesn't work for everyone and again I would suggest doing what works for you.

UK (A Level exams) are extremely simplistic if you have a genuine passion for what you are studying and people should concentrate more on being happy in themselves than stressing out about something that is at best a terrible measure of intelligence. Get what you need, but don't beat yourself up, resits are an option and if you aren't stress you will do better.

Moving across for uni on Saturday and cannot wait:)
 
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