Trying to ‘get the edge’ over your classmates is fleeting at best. In the end, each design student’s main competition is with themselves. Design is not track level F1 racing. There are designers on the F1 team of course, but if you’re trying to apply downstream racing tactics at the upstream project level, crashing and burning are an inevitability.
The smart students are the ones who enjoy themselves, learn how to give and receive feedback from all different manner of sources and take risks in order to explore and learn new things. Anyone can pour their energy into preening their work and its presentation. The studio reality is that some crits and presentations are better than others. If you focus too much on the other guy and his work, you will fail to advance your own development as a designer. Do not let others work irritate you. Do not let others work force you to project your own insecurities. A good prof who knows his/her students can pick up on this and apply course changes accordingly.
Learn to appreciate the efforts of others. Learn to appreciate talent and ability when you see it. As a designer it is imperative to continually absorb the ideas, techniques and skills of others. Doing so will get you far further and leave you time to explore the next horizon that leads to the next inspiration. Inspiration is something that designers can never get enough of, and as they age, if they have learned to appreciate the talents and abilities of others in their career, you will not have to worry about keeping your edge sharp and inspiration will always be there when needed to energize the creative process.
A good designer makes it look effortless…Letting them see you sweat detracts from your design’s value.