Maybe I’m alone in this, but I hate group projects. You would think the project would be more fun because the work is broken up equally and you get to have fun with people in your group. I have never had this experience.
In college, everyone has a completely different schedule and it’s difficult to plan around it. I’m not a fan of meeting at 7 in the morning to accommodate one person’s schedule. I like my sleep. One person always does a majority of the work and a good amount of time, that person is me. I would rather do the work than let my slacker partner do it and get a failing grade.Â
Last semester, I had a partner who just sat in class, looking at sports statistics the whole time, while I constantly asked him questions to help our project be a little better. I took charge of the project and I would ask him to do simple little parts, like emailing someone to ask them an easy question. I asked him during the next class if he emailed the person and he sat in the chair, looked at me and said, “No, I didn’t get a chance to do it.” Then he went back to looking at stats.Â
I got fed up and did everything by myself. It made things easier. I switched partners and got a partner who did her share of the work and it was like pure magic. I loved it.
It is hard to determine who will or will not be a good partner. I guess you have to test the waters and see who will bring what to a group. My suggestion is to not rely on anyone. Chances are, you will get hurt in the end and your grade will possibly suffer. We work too hard in college to let our grades suffer because our partners don’t care about their own grades. Your partner might even make you do all of the work, but I would rather do that to be honest.
I wish everyone luck with their group projects!