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To clarify, being too much like a student can mean one of the following:

  • insistent on being "right" rather than flexible/diplomatic
  • (at workplace) passively waiting to be assigned "homework" rather than actively participate
  • (at workplace) overestimating what they can do with the knowledge gained at school
  • being too much of an idealist/perfectionist
  • ....

Roughly speaking, anything that's related to the naive aspects of being a student can fall under this list. I know it might sound a bit vague, but you can think of it just like "childish" as to "child" and "girlish" as to "girl". However, as far as I searched there is no such word as "student-ish", so does there exist a word that means "student-ish"?

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    Student-like, or the same without the hyphen Oct 8, 2017 at 13:36
  • @Clare thanks. This is acceptable but I just wonder if there's a more single-word (or less artificial) option.
    – Vim
    Oct 8, 2017 at 13:38
  • studious is the adjective from student, but it does not convey the negative aspects you are listing; and 'unstudious' only conveys a lack of studying.
    – Nigel J
    Oct 8, 2017 at 13:54
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    Sophomoric covers a lot of that.
    – Phil Sweet
    Oct 8, 2017 at 14:21
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    Perhaps Bookish? Oct 8, 2017 at 14:52

3 Answers 3

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sophomoric

1 :conceited and overconfident of knowledge but poorly informed and immature a sophomoric argument 2 :lacking in maturity, taste, or judgment sophomoric humor

However, a single word may not describe all the bulleted traits. Each is likely a different word.

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I think the word itself conveys the well known negative aspects of student behaviour.

In the same vein, one might say, 'You are behaving like a teenager !' This sentence could, in fact, be addressed to a teenager, implying that the person was not progressing through their teenage years towards adulthood.

It is in accord with the parallel which the OP states regarding 'child' and 'childish'. Some words convey within them the characteristics - and they may be negative ones - of that which they describe.

So a 'student' is someone whom we expect to behave in a certain way. If they do not, we may refer to them as 'a good student' or 'an exceptional student' but, for the time being, they remain 'a student' with all that that implies.

The OP states, 'too much like a student' and that underlines the fact that we all know how students tend to behave.

We neither need, nor have, another word to describe the adverse side of student behaviour because so many students, well, behave like students.

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Novice

a person who is new to the circumstances, work, etc., in which he or she is placed; beginner; tyro

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