Strange, been pretty much the same here - always been in the top 5-10% on courses by blending in. Well, I think the verbal safety is going to "R" here. I'll give you some examples of people on my Recruit course. First things first. In my squad alone, out of 36 people that started, we had about 10 of us (myself inclusive) who were ex-Reservists. There was the one guy who was always out there trying to "help us along" - volunteering for this and that and generally accomplishing the square root of diddly squat. He was loud, always going on about what he knew and where he'd been, etc. I believe he held the CFRS record for numbers of recourses in Basic - last I heard he finally graduated after about half way through my 6 month French course. Of course, he's an extreme, but there's always at least one per course. We were in fact going to move his kit for him, but weren't allowed. There was another dude who started to emulate him - that lasted about a week, then he woke up. The rest of us did what had been suggested to us - blend in. While doing that, we helped out our fellow candidates in the stuff we were strong in, including leadership issues when they arose. Oddly enough, those of us that kept our mouths shut or kept things to a dull roar were generally the ones that ended up as squad and course seniors. All but 2 guys in my squad that ended up as squad/course knobs were the ex-Reserve crowd and all were the one's (again myself included) that showed that being a grey man pays off. We always had excellent course assessments, did well at most stuff and strangely enough, didn't have to bag lick, be constantly standing there with our hands out for more stuff to do - we just found what needed doing and made it happen.
I liken getting noticed to that knob we all know and love who wanders the workplace with a clipboard of paper and a pen in hand all day long. This person makes him/herself look important, on a mission and like they're doing something; hopefully the bosses take note of this and they are seen to have initiative. However, the really crafty boss will actually look at the pad of paper before they decide on how good this dude/ette is and then let him/her know they were noticed...
Spleen back in rib cage.
MM