Those people show up in professional schools, too. I remember them from my English lit days as a undergrad, people who felt they had to display their own thorough understanding of something we read by hearing themselves talk. I was astonished to see those same clowns in grad, post-grad and now medical school.

This year in my pharmacology class, there's a student on the second row who has a pharmacology degree, worked for three years as a pharmacist, and is now in med school. When points that he feels need emphasizing come up, he frequently turns in his seat and begins lecturing the class, which is immense. We've begun complaining, and his study group is about to oust him for being such a buffoon. But the people who really need to step in are the professors and lecturers he usurps. He seems to do it mostly on days when we have non-native-English-speaking profs or lecturers, and he relies on the element of surprise, too. If all else fails, we're going to get a student group up to go talk with him, tell him how he's coming off and assure him we didn't pay $15K to hear him talk this semester. Or we're going to bust him out to the dean, who's our main professor. The dean could take care of him in a heartbeat. He has a Nobel prize in pharmacology/G-protein research, but, sadly, he's mostly our professor in name only. The lesser beings do the real teaching work.

Anyway, I hear you, Jagged. And I feel your pain.