Annoying Classmate

In my life I have had a great number of classmates, and most of them never say a word. Those guys are the best. Some of them have said a few words, and mostly just to fill the awkward silence, those guys are pretty cool too. But then there are the few people, who feel the need to add their own input to the lecture, or ask above the scope of the course questions for no apparent reason. Those guys are really annoying.

These people can easily be picked out within the first day of the class, with quotes such as "just out of interest", or "I realize you can't, but suppose you could...". Another great way to identify them is by perhaps their most annoying trait, asking a question before thinking about it enough to actually ask it. You can tell this has happened when after being called on they say "umm" at least 3 times before talking, and stumble around with their first sentence for what seems like an eternity for both you and the professor.

Another common aspect of these people is that they seem to be very arrogant about their knowledge on the subject. In college, the question "why did you come to this class if you already know everything" comes to mind. Now with the arrogance, if you have to work with them at some point, you must be very careful. They will seem to know what they are doing because they truly believe they do, thus it is hard to believe they do not. They put off an aura of proficiency in the matter, but in my experience, they often are very lacking.

Instead of gaining a wide knowledge of the subject (through following a well planned lecture on a broad subject perhaps), they tend to dive head-first into a very small section of the subject matter. This leads them to have a decent knowledge of one point, but little knowledge of the whole. And what is worse is that they usually only have one source, which may or may not be outdated. So do not trust their knowledge, as it is often not as perfect at they might have you believe. And if you find yourself in a class with them, just nod and smile when they talk, it seems to please them when you pretend you know what they are talking about or agree with them, because if you don't, they will not stop arguing with you until their point is proven(or facts have been given to prove them wrong).