hi all!
I have a major exam coming up in the next month, its an endurance type exam over nine hours(with short breaks) designed to test your mental reasoning. Obviously enough, four hours into it anyones’ brain would start to go a little mushy!

On top of this i do shift work so I’m tired and therefore have been prescribed Modafinil (Provigil) as my sleep patterns are awol. I believe that this has some cognitive enhancing effects but can anyone recommend a fast acting nootropic for this type of exam to keep my brain from crashing? And one that wont interfere with the modafinil

Thanks
K

You must be American. Only that can explain the ease with which you speak of taking prescription drugs and switching drugs around to accomodate your life-style. My first advice to you is: Don't take any drugs, period. Our brain has 100 billion trillion cells or so, and we use up only 10 percent of its capacity throghout our entire life on average. Give your brain a break and instead concentrate on cultivating its awesome capacity. Secondly: Ask your doctor for this kind of advice. Don't trust a website's forum for advise on medicine for your brain. The internet is just a graffitti wall: Anybody can be an expert on anything.

I agree about being careful with drugs, but I must take issue with the 10 percent brain myth. Here are some debunking sites:

http://www.snopes.com/science/stats/10percnt.htm

http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/tenper.html

http://www.brainconnection.com/topics/?main=fa/brain-myth

A nine hour exam is an unusual stress, but you can build your endurance. First, have good overall health. Vigorous daily exercise and a balanced diet are essential to building stamina. Professional chess players know this, but they go only three to five hours at a time, for several days in a row.

If your work circumstances are such that you still feel a drug boost will be helpful, I suggest the safest stimulant, caffeine. Take 100 milligrams (tablet form) every two or three hours with lots of water, as caffeine is a diuretic and will dry you out (with lots of urination visits to the bathroom). As a last resort, consider the (perhaps illegal, but possibly by prescription) alternative of 15 to 30 milligrams of amphetamine sulfate taken an hour before the exam. Amphetamines are very habit forming, so this should be only a one-time deal, with perhaps one practice session so you won't be surprised by its effect.

I'm not an expert, and when I took the graduate record exam (GRE) I did not use amphetamine. However, both caffeine and amphetamine are proven in the medical literature to significantly improve mental performance. This is only an idea to consider.

Um, I mean, "like someone else pointed out", not "something". Sorry!

Ok, I now see you are referring to 10% of brain's capacity instead of 10% of brain. The two are not equivalent and I interpreted your post as suggesting we use 10% of our brain, when in fact you meant 10% of the brain's "capacity". Fine, my replies above missed the mark; however, how do you measure "brain capacity"? What exactly does that term even mean?