KirStang

Hey all,

I'm in law school, and in your first year, your exams are your life. Make the A? Get the plush firm job. Get a B? You're nothing. So the pressure's pretty intense.

As is true with most law students, I have a study group. I kinda put this one together, and it sorta just fell in to place too. Eitherway, there's three of us, incidentally all asian (one japanese, me taiwanese, the other colombia-japanese). We get along *VERY* well. I was lucky to come up with a group with great chemistry. The study group eats lunch and dinner together near exam time--so we see a lot of each other (hence why chemistry is important). Eitherway, we mesh well.

So here's the problem--we have a new member, he's polish (hereinafter "he"). At first, he was pretty cool, we all worked well, no problems. HOWEVER as of late, he has been TOO MUCH. Here's the problem--he's incredibly selfish. He takes, destroys, annoys, and never realizes he's doing it.

When we first started studying together--the four of us, we were all great. However, the new guy has been acting incredibly obnoxious lately.

First and foremost, he WILL NOT SHUT UP. I dropped hints at first. "Hey, you're cutting me off, you need to stop that." Then I dropped stronger hints, "Listen, Let. Me. Finish." Then, when we were alone, I told him straight up, "Look, you're toe stepping, you need to be more considerate." [As a guy, and an adult in professional school, I never thought I'd have to say this--I thought people will be more polite automatically.]

The problem with him NOT shutting up is that--as a study group, we're losing productivity. I'll ask the colombian-japanese guy to explain something, and the new guy just cuts in. And he's loud. If I try to read some really dense passages/concepts/rules he'll start blabbering about how he understands it, and again, I can't make sense of what i'm reading.

Second, he takes and takes and takes. Destroyed my dry-erase marker ("Dude, you don't have to press so hard" reply: "What...it was already like that" [it wasn't. He was drawing like an excited child on the board, and, the marker bled out all over his hands]). I buy some snacks for the study group, with the thought that this will last until the end of the day. It doesn't. He fucking finishes the whole thing. "OMG THIS IS SO GOOD" Nom nom nom nom nom. I bought a pack of chips for myself. He has the gall to pick it up, take it to his seat and just proceed to eat 80% of it. Same with gummies. He destroyed a friend's pen. I'll ask if something left behind is anybody's and he'll claim it just because...he can always use extra (it was another member's pen). Bought a cookie. Took it out. Bam. He finishes it. I don't even get to nibble on it.

Gas money. None. Always wants to study somewhere outside of campus (College Park and other librarys are (a) far away, and (b) are risky places to meet as a study group since we require four plugs, four seats, and a place where it's ok to talk. (So we end up losing hours of productivity driving around looking for seats and plugs).

My main concern is that, he's dragging me down. He's like a whirlwind of buffoonery and I'm getting caught up in it. When I confronted him again, he told me he was on anti-depressants and that was the cause (I hope so, because if not, then he's very ill socialized). The next day he continues the obnoxious behavior. [To clarify, he did badly on an oral argument assignment, then, apparently feeling shitty tried to get back with his ex in class. Me feeling bad for him buys him some starbucks to cheer him up. But apparently he decided he needed psychiatric help. Bam. Antidepressants (seriously?)].

I'm not sure what I should do. I think I'll get more work done studying alone, but I know for a fact that my study group has been great for (a) moral support (b) clearing up concepts i'm cloudy on. Furthermore, I don't want to burn bridges by telling my study group I'd rather study alone.

Any help guys?