I'm not sure if I'm posting this in the right place - so apologies in advance.

Anyway, here's my story (i'll try to make it quick):

I started taking Concerta as a freshman in college (54 mg of Concerta, once daily), and am going to be a senior this fall.

My quality of life has greatly improved since taking the medication - I'm able to concentrate more, accomplish tasks, etc., in a way that I was never able to in high school. I also have a lot of personal accomplishments that I'm very proud of.

The problem is, my grades are terribly average. Mostly C's, rarely A's or B's or D's, but never F's.

I work incredibly hard, I easily put in literally 3x or 4x as much time into my studies as any of my friends, we're talking 4-6 hours of studying a night during the week, and 6-8 hours a day on weekends, yet they always do better than I do.

For the last three years I thought my grades suffered because I wasn't working hard enough, studying the right way, etc., and that the medication was doing all that it could. Tests are especially bad - I tend to fail or barely pass all my tests, and make up for it by doing well on projects, papers, and class participation.

Now, as I enter my final year, I'm starting to think that I could be medicated differently. I'm thinking that maybe I need to up my dosage, or add another medication on top of the Concerta?

I like what the 54mg does for me, but I find that if I take it in the morning before classes, then by the time I'm ready to do homework at night, the medication has worn off.


Is there anything I can do to help my situation? Will adding another medication help me study better at night, even if its low dosage?


Any other options or ideas?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Your doctor will have to help make that decision but you might see about getting a ritalin IR prescription to give you a few extra hours you need. I know that something like that helps other people so you might bring that up.

I second that. The regular Ritalin is the same med as Concerta so they won't interfere with each other.