We all have that one irritating person in class that never shuts up, asks too many questions, and sucks up to the professor all the time. If you can relate to the majority of these things (or know someone who does), well, that's a sign.
1. You're dressed up.
How are you wearing a skirt with tights in 40-degree weather? Tights take an average of 15 minutes to pull on, so anyone who has that kind of time in the morning needs to reevaluate. Secondly, you probably have on a real bra. The only time I wear a real bra is when all of my sports bras are dirty (i.e. I’ve worn them 12 times each without washing them), so that’s about once every other decade. I’m perfectly content in my baggy sweatpants and 5-year-old Uggs. I can almost always be spotted sporting my signature I-just-rolled-out-of-bed look, and I promise it’s all the rage these days.
2. You laugh at all the professor's jokes a little too hard.
If you have that much to laugh about, there’s either something wrong with you or you’re too happy to be sane. If it’s anytime before 10 a.m., my vocal cords haven’t woken up enough for me to speak above a barely audible whisper. It’s especially gruesome if you have one of those loud, obnoxious laughs that sounds like Chanel West Coast.
3. You ask stupid, inappropriate questions.
Or you ask questions you already know the answer to just to seem smarter. As Abe Lincoln once said, "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt." Whoever said there's no such thing as a stupid question is a liar.
4. You're a know-it-all.
You don't need to raise your hand to answer every single question, even the rhetorical ones. If you're going to answer a question, get your point across and stop talking. The rest of us don’t care how smart you think you are. Don't take up five minutes of class time talking about something no one else wants to hear about.
5. You don't do your part in group projects.
One thing I've noticed as I've gotten older is that people have gotten progressively worse about helping with group projects. If you aren't willing to collaborate with other people, then you might as well not go to college, because group work here is inevitable. Show up to class when you know you’re going to be working in groups that day. Work with the people in your group to find time to meet outside of class. Don't be the person that lets everyone do your work for you.
6. You skip class for four weeks and then ask for extra credit.
This is self-explanatory.
7. You brag about your grades.
This is one of the worst. Yes, I can see you peering from behind me at my test score. No, I know you're not just asking me what I got on it because you're curious; you're asking so you can tell me that you got a better grade. Congrats on getting two points higher than me on the final exam, but that's not something to be proud of when we both failed it.
8. You eat during class every day.
Eat before or after class, on your own time. It's harder to pay attention to the professor while the person next to me is loudly munching on what sounds like nails. By all means, bring a water or coffee to class, or quickly eat a snack before class starts, but crunching on food during class just makes everybody else around you hungry and annoyed. The same goes for smacking your gum all the time.
9. You play music through your headphones during class.
If you want to talk about something that's distracting, this is one of the biggest. Just because we're in a huge lecture hall and the professor can't see you, doesn't mean the rest of us can't hear you. If you're going to listen to music instead of even attempting to pay attention or take notes, then you might as well just not go to class. I don't need to hear Fetty Wap croaking in my ear while I'm trying to learn about the Bataan Death March. It doesn't quite set the mood.
10. You always say "Did you know...?" to the professor.
I'm going to go out on a limb here. Since the professor has a doctorate in the field and you're in an introductory course, I'm going to guess that yes, he or she did indeed already know that.
11. You never have a pencil...
Or paper. Or your textbook. Or a Scantron. Or your homework. And you never know when anything is due. Ever. Why are you even in this class?
It's like the ugly person in a group of friends. If you don't know who it is, it's probably you.
