Why do teachers always say that group projects prepare us for the real world? That reasoning may have worked when I was a naive high schooler and college student, but I’ve been in the real world for quite some time now, and it isn’t nearly as annoying as group projects.
Here are my usual team members:
1. The over-eager over-achiever who invents a new day so you can meet 8 times a week
2. The slacker who’s work you do and isn’t even nice about it
3. The girl (sorry girls, it’s usually you!) with zero opinion whatsoever
4. The foreign exchange student who doesn’t speak english
I’m taking night classes now for a professional certificate, and the teacher gave us a group project. Luckily, everyone this time around is pretty cool. But we all have full time jobs, we’re just taking these crappy night classes to make our resumes look better. We don’t have time to coordinate group projects, especially when you don’t give us time in class to work on the projects with our group. Arg!
Okay. Rant over.
And you HAVE to blog, too. Jeez!
Your list of usual team members is frighteningly similar to mine! Glad that you didn’t get stuck with the usual suspects this time around. Still, group projects are less than fun. Good luck!
You clearly need an over-eager-over achiever to magically create more time for you all!
Don’t get me started.
I’m also in group project hell right now. All with full time jobs and other obligations, now we have to find time outside of class to meet?
The reasoning in college was always, “We do group projects because employers are telling us that graduates don’t know how to work in groups.”
You know how many group projects I’ve done since graduating college? ZERO!! The only things I’ve ever done that could be considered group projects are those collaborative things where everyone had a given job and if they didn’t do it, they got fired. In college, you got a lower grade unless you picked up the slack of the people who didn’t do any work.
Grad school should never include group projects when we all have real life to deal with. Just sayin’.
As a guy who fits #2 to a tee, I’d say something here….but I think I’ll wait for you to say it for me. bitch.
HUGS…
Group projects are the biggest crock of shit ever forced upon students. I always wound up getting fucked over and had to do the entire project myself. Like you said, no one has the time to meet up for these projects. You go to school and then you go to work and when you arn’t working or at school you’re sleeping from how exhausted you are.
How ironic…my current Calculus group is made up of some of those people…(except me, the girl, is pretty much the “normal” one) We’ve got a foreign student, a jock, and…
… the jailbird. One of the guys in my group just got arrested, and may be facing jail time. The jock just stopped showing up, so now it’s me and the foreign guy. *sigh* I hate group projects.
Have you seen the commercial for Kinkos? A group is getting ready for a presentation and the leader rattles off each team members weakness. Very funny but oh so true. I always hated group projects, you do the other guy’s job and he gets the same grade.
I agree with you and everyone else about “group projects”. It’s pretty much more proof that most high school teachers and college professors have no clue about what goes on in “the real world”.
No time in class? What sort of crack is she on anyway?
I would say… That is a good pet peeve to have…
Night school and giving a group assignment?
What’s she smokin’?
Agreed. Bossy does not play well with others.
That can’t possibly be the group you’re always with because that’s the group I was always stuck with and I never saw you there. Maybe you’re my descendent in the group?
Group projects are a wonderful way to make new friends, especially if you are running out of parts from the old ones.
As a probably #1, I HATE GROUP PROJECTS. I’m the one that organizes most of it, works on my stuff, finds out no one else has started, and does their stuff too. Then when we get a B- on everything, everyone whines. I’m really trying to find out how to make money as a hermit when I get older so I don’t have to put up with people. (I’ll have internet on my island… That’s all the connection I need. >D)
Group projects, especially group papers, are evil!
People are just not on the same (or similar) level. The ideas don’t flow, contents are lousy, grammars are messy. It takes me much more time to fix the mess than doing the whole project on my own.
95% of the time, I ended up doing more work and getting lower grades in group projects than individual assignments.
I hate group projects also. I’m grouped with three other people who are pretty much done for the day at about 4. Yet, they choose to meet up every week at 8 at night. I just wanna meet up as early as possible and not have to work at night. It’s such bullshit.
Here’s a response to your usual group member 3:
you know why we don’t have any opinions?
Everyone is always so full of bullshit opinions. There is always one person who does not like the idea that everyone likes, and if you give an idea, there will always be criticism about the tiniest details, but never anything on how the idea might work. Why give out my opinion if you’re just gonna bitch about it? I think we should just stick to one fucking idea that people like you give, because if you think so fucking high of yourself and so fucking shitting low of other group members, then maybe there isnt any opinions to give. I’ll happily carry out your idea and do all the work if it means we can get it finished fast–with no arguments and shit.
I went to buy a fucking board for our stupid fucking gameboard project. In the end i didnt buy anything beacause that’s what the fucking group member finally decided on. SHit
And next time when you find yourself revising everyone’s work–don’t think so highly of yourself! You probably got a low grade because you change everyone’s fucking idea around.
Trust me. I’ve been in enough groups to fit into ALL of the categories that you listed. I’ve been a zero opinion girl when everyone else in the group had too many fucking opinions; I’ve been the “slacker” when I have other shitting projects and homework to do in addition to my LIFE that I have to live (to the over-achievers: I don’t want to fucking pull an all-nighter the entire fucking week!!! And guess what? I’m not online to discuss because i didn’t fucking sleep because of you last night!!!!!)
I’ve been the over-achiever when I was PLACED in a group of guys or bitches that won’t fucking talk to me because they’re sexist, or judge people based on their appearances. They always fucking put aside the project until the night before its due date, and when i fucking tell them to do something, they get angry and fucking let me do all the fucking work–then we get a bad grade, they hate me even more and we ignore each other until the next time we’re placed in a group together. The cycle repeats.
FUCK and my best friend right now is an ass that likes to think she the best fucking person in the whole fucking world. She acts like she wants to be the fucking group leader, but when we ask her what to do or if its ok she answers “I don’t know.” Then, when we carry on and do things by ourselves, she fucking gives opinions, talking behind our back: “So-and-so writes so fucking bad, I don’t want to be in a group with her, her grammar sucks and she can’t fucking write. ARGGHHH” FUCK. IF YOU THINK YOU’RE SO GOOD, THEN WRITE THE WHOLE FUCKING ESSAY; DO THE WHOLE FUCKING PROJECT!!!
I’ve been in the same class as her for 5 fucking years. The more I hang out with her, the more fucking bitchy she gets. And guess what? Everyone else is a fucking bitch to me just because I’m a little shy, a littel short, and a little overweight (not fucking obese, just a little bit more fat than them) Even more interesting is that we’re all asians, so one person with one fucking abnormal characteristic is considered an outsider. I fucking hate conforming. I can’t wait to get her and everyone else in this fucking school out of my face.
I cant stand them. Theres a project due tomorrow and of course as fucking usual im doing everyones work for them. We had so much time to do it and ive been done with my part the whole time and kept telling my group members to write their fucking parts of the project and despite the ample amount of class time (which they spent watching videos and wasting time)today is when everyone was rushing to get their parts of the project done. Theres also two papers that we have to turn in and theyre supposed to be the work of the WHOLE group but of course i did both of them because theyre not only lazy but too dumb to do anything. Ive been working on this shit for five hours and waiting for them to send me their parts (3hours late as of right now) and I cant do shit until I have everything. FUCK!! Good thing theres a peer review im fucking ripping them to shreds and letting the teacher know i litteraly did at LEAST 95% of the fucking work. I dont give a fuck if they dont care about their grades but be considerate enough to do what youre asked to do especially when Ive babysat you the whole way and putting all of it together for. I better get an A on this and they better fucking fail the class im so fucking pissed. IDC if no one reads thisjust needed a place to rant while im waiting haha. I dont understand why teachers thing group projects are a good idea they should know by now that theyre not ” a good way to provide a positive and supportive work environment in which people use eachother’s strengths to achieve a common goal”. They just mean lazy dumbasses profiting of the hard work of a motivated student. FUCKING SHIT!