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If you ever want to ruin your best friendship, destroy the trust, and flush everything you cherished in human connection down the drain, I’ve got a tip for you. Why don’t you try a group project together?
Formerly known as a killer assassin to both the project and the group, it’s still the holy grail of schools, universities, and any education institutions that promise you a cool diploma and a nice job, in turn making your mom proud.
And trust me, people who have survived a group project once are no way doing it twice. So let’s take a look at what it is about these seemingly innocent gatherings meant to do good and only good that make them the most hateable assignments. From being the only cast member in the tearful PowerPoint film to switching groups halfway like a track and field athlete, these are some of the examples that have terrorized generation after generation.
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#2
Queen Jackson. 5 years ago
Some people were being bossy and didn’t listen to other people. They were gonna suggest y’all just shoot him.
It’s no secret that few things about education irk people as much as group projects do.
In reality, the idea of a group project is really meant to do good—to teach kids and college students responsibility for themselves and their actions. Plus, this model of cooperation is supposed to promote teamwork, but often does the opposite.
In fact, a study by the University of Oklahoma showed that the design of group papers “encourages social loafing, limits group cohesiveness [...] and increases student stress,” reports Psychology Today.
#4
Samantha Lomb 5 years ago
Honestly, being terrible at group projects seems to be a culturally specific thing. My Russian students do group projects all the time. All the group members do their bit ( you can tell cause sometimes they don't make the font the same) and when I give them a choice they chose to work in groups.
#5
ognistykamyk 5 years ago
"First of all I just want you to know I have o boyfriend. Remember I have a boyfriend. It's important having boyfriend"
There are a number of reasons why group projects may be inherently flawed. Eberly Center at Carnegie Mellon University suggests that it may have to do with “students not understanding teachers’ expectations,” “students having very different knowledge and skills,” “group composition being problematic,” and “grading scheme not promoting meaningful teamwork.”
Meanwhile, in “group work,” the learning focus is on a content-based objective, but the Redesigning High School initiative suggests that such an approach is destined to fail. “If we want students to learn to collaborate, we need to put them in a situation where they NEED to collaborate.”
As a result, the initiative believes that in order for a group project model to work, students have to be given “big, complex, open-ended problems to solve.”
#9
Vic 5 years ago
Of course! Black Market fetches the best price (heard from a friend)
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Jo Johannsen 5 years ago
If s/he doesn't care about the group project, they probably don't care about their family either.
WilvanderHeijden 5 years ago
And make a loss? Wouldn't risk it. Instead I'd hand in my part of the project and make a note that regrettably the rest of the project is still a work in progress.
Damon Gates 5 years ago
Even better, say "Here is the draft presentation; there are blank slides where your slides are needed. They will state 'Slide to be provided by [name]' until you supply me with something else."
Carole Hamilton 5 years ago
Depending on the family they come from, this might not be effective
bored human 5 years ago
Desperate times call for desperate measures. The Duolingo owl approves.
Viviane 5 years ago
Plus not a good business move. The person who posted had to pay the other students to take back their families.
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#11
nanashi 5 years ago
the worst person to be in a group project for me was that girl back in uni who turns up at every meeting, but doing nothing to contribute. not talking, not paying attention. nothing. just silently listening and/or staring at her phone. we tried to get her to participate but it didn't get us anywhere. then at the end presentation we were to list out the tasks each member did and we purposely listed nothing for her. she was pissed at how our professor pointed that out, crying that it's not fair; she went to every meet-up. yeah, that's all you do. you WERE there but at the same time you WERE NOT.
#14
Leo Domitrix 5 years ago
One group project, the three jocks who grabbed me for their group sat around and laughed about how they'd get an A now. I got an A. They got a D. The work was B-minus. Teacher told the angry jocks he split the difference of the real grade between the four of us.
#17
Patrick James 5 years ago
Umm, he's not getting an A. He has the historically lowest approval rating ever at this point in a presidency
#20
Clara Knaub 5 years ago
😂 😂 😂 that poor person. In my groups we usually don’t have problems like these. We are allowed t pick our partners and we always pick ones that we get along with. Then we assign roles and everybody does their part.
#21
Perfumista Perfumista 5 years ago
We had a team member who contributed nothing, advised the professor. Unfortunately she was the flirty type and the loafer who never showed up was a good looking guy. She accused me and the rest our the team, all girls, of scapegoating.
#22
#23
Foxxy (The Original) 5 years ago
Oh dear I pictured something completely different to a scooter.
#26
#27
#28
Theron Roberts 5 years ago
i don't get why people have to act like they're better than everybody else just because they searched up "iq test" on google and got a high score on the first link they clicked.
#29
Leo Domitrix 5 years ago
If you'v ehit the point of group projects, it's past the drop period, isn't it?
#30
nanashi 5 years ago
I really wish group text was a thing when I was in uni. it saved a lot of stupid time I wasted on going to every one of their dorms, knocking on their door, to ask how's it going with the project, only to be met with those incompetents somehow to have forgotten all about it.
#41
Foxxy (The Original) 5 years ago (edited)
Is that something mouldy? EDIT: NVM I just realised it is a nugget of weed lol.
#47
E Menendez 5 years ago
I am not sure why if someone legitimately had an emergency that makes them a bad partner. They did let them know. The person did leave the country and isn't sure they will be back, so...
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What do you think ?
nanashi 5 years ago
what even is the point of group project except to face with the reality that a lot of people are just very incompetent as a team member? "learn to work together" ffs. all I learned was that I hate working with other people.
Liam Walsh 5 years ago
You can end up with these scenarios in work. I had an important project to work on and complete for presentation at a conference and I had to chase my colleague constantly. She did nothing. Wouldn't even meet when we were all at the conference centre so I could share the work I had done. I did everything and she stood silently next to me at the presentation. The stress she caused me... 🤬
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Leo Domitrix 5 years ago
Retaliation. If you're still in high school, it can be very brutal.
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Shelp 5 years ago
Recently, I had to do a group project with other students. One of them did not participate at all, did not answer his phone, did not text back, did not do anything. We ended up reporting him to the professor, who then told us that they had had him in their sights for a long time, and that if he wasn't even able to work on the group projects, it was a real problem. He had to have a talk with a more powerful teacher about his future in this university, we did the presentation without him, and it was very satisfying.
Zophra 5 years ago (edited)
In graduate school, I was put into a group with 3 others. We had to research on historical styles of education or something. We were to submit a paper and do a presentation. One member was adamant that our presentation be made into a skit with singing. Thankfully, this didn't happen. I have always hated group projects.
CatWoman312 5 years ago (edited)
I’ll admit in college I was horrible at attending classes, but whenever there was a group project I didn’t want to be labeled “that person” so I would step up for that at least. It’s literally free to be considerate
Craig Silberman 5 years ago
Since the disastrous nature of group projects is widely known, why do teachers keep assigning them?
Miss Cris 5 years ago
Because they have to work less, as correcting one project from each group is far less than correcting one from each person. Their excuse: "heterogenius groups" (that's putting togetber morons with good students) are now in fashion in education (yes, this exists) so the teacher will be seen as a better teacher by his/her director and school. Plus, it's suposed to make magically that morons learn by the others. They have an evidence: finnally they get the same grade :S.
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Catherine Spencer-Mills 5 years ago
I hate college group projects. I worked in IT for 20 years. The people were great, the projects were done without whining. No one was fired or even reprimanded. College groups (two degrees one before the career and one after) suck. One time, 4 people in the group myself and one other got As, the other two got Ds. Another time, 3 people in group. One lives an hour away and is a full time teacher with projects to complete at work. Another is local but has a job and 3 more classes all with projects. Yours truly did most of the work. The final presentation sucked as we had no time to rehearse. Nothing about a class project is anything at all like a work project.
Kelly Murray 5 years ago
I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings....but group projects never end.
Tim Douglass 5 years ago
In a drama class in college (1980s) we had to do 2 person sketches for our final project. Got to performance day and my partner didn't show up. Can't find him anywhere. No one knows where he is. Get a week of grace from the prof. and try to locate him. No joy. Drop from A to C+ because of it. He finally shows up. Turns out he was doing 15 days for a DUI and possession of MJ. Never partner with a stoner, no matter how good an actor he is!
Amparo Rodriguez Bogosian 5 years ago
This reminds me of two situations I had at uni. I was with 4 others in a project. We divided the work and I was the one putting everything together in a comparative table. One misunderstood the assignment, the other "forgot" the timeline, the other did everything right and the last one had SUCH A HORRIBLE ORTHOGRAPHY I should re-write his part. At 3am (4hs before presenting the work) I was finishing the project while this last moron was asking me every 3 min if I was done and if I could send him the final work. Lab project, a partner who already took the class. He did everything by himself and didn't send me anything. The prof gave us the work which had an average to low score. My partner went MAD and left the lab. Prof came to me to discuss "our" project... I had to tell her that I had NO F*** IDEA what that paper had written on. She just laughed, understood that my partner was a psycho and gave me a new timeline to present the project again.
Roni Ingram 5 years ago
How weird..not sure about these days, but when I was at uni,in the UK, group projects just aren't a thing!? Everyone does their own work!
Monika Rhodes 5 years ago
I never understood those group projects. We never had those and they seem like a lots of stress.
Madison Feehan 5 years ago
I used to have this problem all the time in group projects. Simple solution: Take all of your courses online, and just do the individual tasks yourself. I do a better job anyways!
Nameless 4 5 years ago
Everyone here is complaining about slackers in group projects, and I'm sitting here wishing I had groups to do projects with
Leo Domitrix 5 years ago
Group projects are great ways to end friendships and infuriate people.
Jennie-Lind Normand 5 years ago
In college I had a group project for my Crisis Intervention class. I didn't really know anyone so I approached one group because it was the smallest. One girl in the group lived in my dorm and had a major s**t fit over me joining. She only kinda knew me from my private life off school time and admittedly I did go out a lot. So in order to appease little miss b***h face we all signed contracts stating we would pull our own weight etc etc, out of the group of six, two of us didn't all the work and miss conniption fit did none of it.....I hate group projects!
chi-wei shen 5 years ago
My group projects at college always were done by two students, and it's difficult to let the other one down. In the worst case your project partner might complain to the professor and submit the project under his name only. I guess in bigger groups its much easier for a single member to do next to nothing.
Foxxy (The Original) 5 years ago
I am so glad that I only ever had to do one group project and that was with a friend.
Marta Kęska 5 years ago
It makes me irritated but amused at the same time when I read all the complaints about group projects lol. That's how your future jobs will often look like: dealing and working with people that are lazy, stupid, always late, (insert your favourite flaw) on a daily basis on the same projects. It's not only about "learning to work together" but about dealing with the worst kind of people and still succeeding.
Cat 5 years ago
Fresher year at uni. Group project for the first semester. 2 members got together a few weeks into the group project, cool. And they broke up a few weeks later when we were about half way through the semester. They hated each gut. Guess who didn't do much after that? Both of them :/
bored human 5 years ago
I wish I could upvote the whole post and maybe send it to certain people...
Dianna Siever 5 years ago
I've got to say, the last group project I did was in a "Business and Management" class and the biggest challenge at first was that each of us were expecting to lead it.
Dorothy Parker 5 years ago
My daughter had a partner on a project in sixth grade. They needed to talk at night, but the partner's sister had starred in some successful kid films so the partner wouldn't give my daughter a phone number and she never called. Teacher didn't care. Hollywood!
Lauren Elise 5 years ago
I did this once, just to be petty. I did 90% of the project while my group mates were just annoying. So I put my name on all the slides I did (7-8) and presented them and they each only had half a slide of work I said I wouldn't edit unless my name got our on it too. I got a 100. They did not
Grumble O'Pug 5 years ago
My favorite story is from my student employee. Her group had one guy who was always out partying, drinking, and ignoring the project. The couple weeks before finals it was due and suddenly he's all "we are meeting here and at this time" etc. They told him they were done and basically turned it in w/o him. The day after the final was given she and a couple people in the group get a text from the guy asking what time the final is at. LOL.
Russian Otaku 5 years ago
F*****g love group projects. Always fun to see and have people forced to interact. Also you can just do the work and accept cash, cookies, snu snu, trade assignments for another class and so on for your teammates part
nanashi 5 years ago
what even is the point of group project except to face with the reality that a lot of people are just very incompetent as a team member? "learn to work together" ffs. all I learned was that I hate working with other people.
Liam Walsh 5 years ago
You can end up with these scenarios in work. I had an important project to work on and complete for presentation at a conference and I had to chase my colleague constantly. She did nothing. Wouldn't even meet when we were all at the conference centre so I could share the work I had done. I did everything and she stood silently next to me at the presentation. The stress she caused me... 🤬
Load More Replies... Leo Domitrix 5 years ago
Retaliation. If you're still in high school, it can be very brutal.
Load More Replies... Shelp 5 years ago
Recently, I had to do a group project with other students. One of them did not participate at all, did not answer his phone, did not text back, did not do anything. We ended up reporting him to the professor, who then told us that they had had him in their sights for a long time, and that if he wasn't even able to work on the group projects, it was a real problem. He had to have a talk with a more powerful teacher about his future in this university, we did the presentation without him, and it was very satisfying.
Zophra 5 years ago (edited)
In graduate school, I was put into a group with 3 others. We had to research on historical styles of education or something. We were to submit a paper and do a presentation. One member was adamant that our presentation be made into a skit with singing. Thankfully, this didn't happen. I have always hated group projects.
CatWoman312 5 years ago (edited)
I’ll admit in college I was horrible at attending classes, but whenever there was a group project I didn’t want to be labeled “that person” so I would step up for that at least. It’s literally free to be considerate
Craig Silberman 5 years ago
Since the disastrous nature of group projects is widely known, why do teachers keep assigning them?
Miss Cris 5 years ago
Because they have to work less, as correcting one project from each group is far less than correcting one from each person. Their excuse: "heterogenius groups" (that's putting togetber morons with good students) are now in fashion in education (yes, this exists) so the teacher will be seen as a better teacher by his/her director and school. Plus, it's suposed to make magically that morons learn by the others. They have an evidence: finnally they get the same grade :S.
Load More Replies... Catherine Spencer-Mills 5 years ago
I hate college group projects. I worked in IT for 20 years. The people were great, the projects were done without whining. No one was fired or even reprimanded. College groups (two degrees one before the career and one after) suck. One time, 4 people in the group myself and one other got As, the other two got Ds. Another time, 3 people in group. One lives an hour away and is a full time teacher with projects to complete at work. Another is local but has a job and 3 more classes all with projects. Yours truly did most of the work. The final presentation sucked as we had no time to rehearse. Nothing about a class project is anything at all like a work project.
Kelly Murray 5 years ago
I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings....but group projects never end.
Tim Douglass 5 years ago
In a drama class in college (1980s) we had to do 2 person sketches for our final project. Got to performance day and my partner didn't show up. Can't find him anywhere. No one knows where he is. Get a week of grace from the prof. and try to locate him. No joy. Drop from A to C+ because of it. He finally shows up. Turns out he was doing 15 days for a DUI and possession of MJ. Never partner with a stoner, no matter how good an actor he is!
Amparo Rodriguez Bogosian 5 years ago
This reminds me of two situations I had at uni. I was with 4 others in a project. We divided the work and I was the one putting everything together in a comparative table. One misunderstood the assignment, the other "forgot" the timeline, the other did everything right and the last one had SUCH A HORRIBLE ORTHOGRAPHY I should re-write his part. At 3am (4hs before presenting the work) I was finishing the project while this last moron was asking me every 3 min if I was done and if I could send him the final work. Lab project, a partner who already took the class. He did everything by himself and didn't send me anything. The prof gave us the work which had an average to low score. My partner went MAD and left the lab. Prof came to me to discuss "our" project... I had to tell her that I had NO F*** IDEA what that paper had written on. She just laughed, understood that my partner was a psycho and gave me a new timeline to present the project again.
Roni Ingram 5 years ago
How weird..not sure about these days, but when I was at uni,in the UK, group projects just aren't a thing!? Everyone does their own work!
Monika Rhodes 5 years ago
I never understood those group projects. We never had those and they seem like a lots of stress.
Madison Feehan 5 years ago
I used to have this problem all the time in group projects. Simple solution: Take all of your courses online, and just do the individual tasks yourself. I do a better job anyways!
Nameless 4 5 years ago
Everyone here is complaining about slackers in group projects, and I'm sitting here wishing I had groups to do projects with
Leo Domitrix 5 years ago
Group projects are great ways to end friendships and infuriate people.
Jennie-Lind Normand 5 years ago
In college I had a group project for my Crisis Intervention class. I didn't really know anyone so I approached one group because it was the smallest. One girl in the group lived in my dorm and had a major s**t fit over me joining. She only kinda knew me from my private life off school time and admittedly I did go out a lot. So in order to appease little miss b***h face we all signed contracts stating we would pull our own weight etc etc, out of the group of six, two of us didn't all the work and miss conniption fit did none of it.....I hate group projects!
chi-wei shen 5 years ago
My group projects at college always were done by two students, and it's difficult to let the other one down. In the worst case your project partner might complain to the professor and submit the project under his name only. I guess in bigger groups its much easier for a single member to do next to nothing.
Foxxy (The Original) 5 years ago
I am so glad that I only ever had to do one group project and that was with a friend.
Marta Kęska 5 years ago
It makes me irritated but amused at the same time when I read all the complaints about group projects lol. That's how your future jobs will often look like: dealing and working with people that are lazy, stupid, always late, (insert your favourite flaw) on a daily basis on the same projects. It's not only about "learning to work together" but about dealing with the worst kind of people and still succeeding.
Cat 5 years ago
Fresher year at uni. Group project for the first semester. 2 members got together a few weeks into the group project, cool. And they broke up a few weeks later when we were about half way through the semester. They hated each gut. Guess who didn't do much after that? Both of them :/
bored human 5 years ago
I wish I could upvote the whole post and maybe send it to certain people...
Dianna Siever 5 years ago
I've got to say, the last group project I did was in a "Business and Management" class and the biggest challenge at first was that each of us were expecting to lead it.
Dorothy Parker 5 years ago
My daughter had a partner on a project in sixth grade. They needed to talk at night, but the partner's sister had starred in some successful kid films so the partner wouldn't give my daughter a phone number and she never called. Teacher didn't care. Hollywood!
Lauren Elise 5 years ago
I did this once, just to be petty. I did 90% of the project while my group mates were just annoying. So I put my name on all the slides I did (7-8) and presented them and they each only had half a slide of work I said I wouldn't edit unless my name got our on it too. I got a 100. They did not
Grumble O'Pug 5 years ago
My favorite story is from my student employee. Her group had one guy who was always out partying, drinking, and ignoring the project. The couple weeks before finals it was due and suddenly he's all "we are meeting here and at this time" etc. They told him they were done and basically turned it in w/o him. The day after the final was given she and a couple people in the group get a text from the guy asking what time the final is at. LOL.
Russian Otaku 5 years ago
F*****g love group projects. Always fun to see and have people forced to interact. Also you can just do the work and accept cash, cookies, snu snu, trade assignments for another class and so on for your teammates part
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