There's always one Clever Bastard...
I'll tell this one to start the ball rolling: I suspect Bearded Whumpus may be able to add to it, as he also knows this guy.

The joy of being on a science or engineering degree is that you quickly realise everybody else in your year group is just a weird as you are, if not weirder. It also means that there will be one or two potential geniuses amongst you.

We had a couple of these, of which one - let's call him D - was a twat.

At heart, D meant well. It's just that he knew how clever he was, and he wanted to make sure everybody else bloody knew it, as well as holding the opinions that:
1. Only an idiot could fail an exam
2. Any subject other than fiddly, highly mathematical, theoretical physics was "a soft option."

Another example: turned out that D and I were both applying for phds at the same time.

Me: "Well, I'd quite like to stay with this department, but I'm just going to apply to as many places as possible and wade through the rejection letters until someone makes an offer."
D: "Oh, I'm not sure whether to stay in physics or maths. They'd both have me, but the physics department would offer more funding. However, I may be able to get the maths department to offer me the same amount of funding given the leverage I've got."

I left that conversation gobsmacked. The last time I saw the arrogant cockdonkey he delighted in telling me that the supervisor he would have had for the maths phd "cried when [D] declined his offer."
(LongJohnBaldry, Thu 24 Jan 2008, 12:28, 3 replies)

Or the fact that
as year rep (whinges (or doesn't, more on this later) to the department when things go wrong) he decided to send us "motivational" emails before our finals, and making some smug comment (in gaelic, the pretentious twat) about "preparation being two thirds of sucess".

Which most of us who were desperately cramming still took to mean "You haven't done enough work, now you're fucked, whereas I am excellent and have done more than enough."
(This lead to us putting up posters of "Remember kids, the other 1/3 is cramming.")

In terms of the year rep thing, remember what Crow said about struggling to see how others could fail an exam? This is not helpful when lots of people say "We can't understand this lecturer" and the guy whose job it is to tell the department this says "Well, I can't see the problem." Twat.

*sniggers about leverage*
(Bearded Whumpus In chav Britain, schoolgirl offers sweets to YOU!, Thu 24 Jan 2008, 13:15, closed)

What a tosser.
Surely he knows that PhD funding from research councils is pretty much set and only a few manage to wangle extra (and it has nothing to do with leverage!). Plus both physics and the more physicsy side of maths are funded by EPSRC, and ergo give the same amount of money! (and 3 1/2 year funding mmmmmm)

have a click for being a scientist ^_^
( catness, Tue 29 Jan 2008, 16:05, closed)

Cheers,
It wouldn't surprise me if the wangling of 'extra funding' was merely a cover story for telling me how brightly the sun shone out of his arse.

As for being a tosser: he didn't invite his mother to his graduation.
(LongJohnBaldry, Tue 29 Jan 2008, 16:51, closed)