ack! a smartypants!

Yet again, a student who took AP chemistry last year in high school has wandered into my freshman-level "for those scared to death of chemistry who have to take it anyway" survey class.
Sigh.
You would think that might be helpful for the other students, but that is never how it plays out.
Never.
Perhaps partly that is my "fault". I encourage students to ask questions as I lecture, so any misunderstandings can be clarified right away.
However, the former-AP-chemistry student will always ask questions which are ahead of the lecture, to show off how much they already know. Sadly, those questions always tend to slow down the lecture and confuse many of the other students.
Always.
Tonight, after that student interrupted me for the fourth time to ask a "see how smart I am as I lead the direction of the lecture" question, I'd had enough.
Especially as that student's questions were obviously disruptive for others, who had been following along but were becoming confused about the topic at hand.
That would not do.
So I shut that student down, not naming names, being careful to be looking around the room and addressing everyone. In response to a different student's question, I replied with the following.
"I know I seem to be explaining things with a lot of small steps to be taken, but this is a survey class. That means we will be covering a lot of material, but not in as much depth as a science major needs. I take care to show all of the small steps so that when you are doing the problems in the homework assignment, you will be able to look back at your notes to see how to start solving the problem and not freak out. Not everyone in this class had AP chemistry in high school last year."
All was said with me addressing the class at large and no one student in particular.
But the braggart student who had been so disruptive shrunk behind the student in front.
And the class, as a whole, breathed a silent sigh of relief.
And we accomplished the desired goal of completing that night's lecture without any more unhelpful interruptions.
That's not to say there weren't more questions.
Of course there were.
But these queries were on-topic.
That makes all the difference in the world to the flow of lecture, especially to those students who are "scared to death of chemistry but have to take it anyway".
For Chem1151, that is the vast majority...
and those students are the reason I am here.

For the record, I wish that former-AP chemistry student well.
Contrary to what one might expect, those over-prepared students do not always do well in this "introduction to inorganic chemistry" class. I have no knowledge of which students fall into this category, either, unless they inform me of their background.
One such student, from Fall of 2010, was an engineering major who had mistakenly enrolled in Chem1151 instead of Chem1211. I had informed her of her error on the first day of that semester and advised her to sign up for the correct class for her major.
Sadly, she did not believe me.
However, when time came to be advised about the Spring semester classes, she found out I had been correct and the Chem1151 would only be counted as an elective for her. She still had to take the Chem1211 and now she would be a semester behind in her program of studies. She lost interest in the class and finished the term with a mid-range "C" as her grade. With that hit to her GPA, she probably was not accepted into the engineering program.
After that, I became especially diligent about checking the majors of prospective students. Better to cut them off early on, before classes begin, was my policy. Most students disappeared from my roster without even a backward glance. Every now and then, though, one would take the time to respond to my preemptive email and thank me.
That rarity was nice and greatly appreciated!
No more poorly-advised students came to my classroom. That meant the number of over-prepared students dropped, too.
Even so, in the Spring of 2012, I had a nursing-major student tell me that she had taken AP chemistry just the year before, her senior year in high school. I cautioned her that the material might move a bit slowly to her, but to be persistent.
She dutifully came for all lectures the first two weeks. Doing well on the first test - which is the use of the metric system and the Periodic Table - she must have felt overconfident. She stopped attending regularly, only showing up for the tests.
Big mistake on her part.
When her grades started slipping, did she modify her attendance pattern?
Not one whit.
She just barely managed to pull her "D" into a "C" by semester's end.
It really broke my heart. I knew she had the potential to be an "A" student, but she did not apply herself to the material until the final exam.
She did not get accepted into the nursing program, either.
Nowadays, I'm especially alert for this type of student. They're so accustomed to pushing hard in school, and being with other students in that same category, that many of them cannot adapt to a normal classroom setting. They even fail to comprehend that their behavior is having an adverse effect on others who do not yet share that knowledge base. If they would only apply their advanced learned state to helping their fellow classmates, that experience would be so much more beneficial than making their classmates feel inadequate.
Let's hope this one learns how to better be part of a class effort, instead of being just another solo honor student.
Being part of a team is essential in the health professions.