I think (as far as OOC vs. IC goes), the hardest thing for me to get a grasp on is what my charrie should and shouldn't know in CLASSES. Most classes are presented in a way where a question is asked and a correct answer is at least hoped for. Options at that point are to either play your character as not knowing and therefore handing out some random thoughts...OR play your character OOC and google the answer.

I've played two characters back-to-back that were started in their first year, and option one really only worked for me during that first term for them. I found that after that, most of their peers in the same year were giving out correct answers, and the personal perspective from that was that if I continued to play my charrie as not knowing the answer, she'd be played as falling behind her peers. So from second year on out, I began to shift to a slightly OOC way of answering in class to make it what I assumed was more realistic.

I do have a tough time answering IC in class, because a lot of times, I feel like my charrie SHOULDN'T know what's being asked, yet there are only so many posts I can make where she's simply thinking and not really contributing.