Finals Week is one of the most dreadful weeks a college student can go through. But what is worse than finals you ask? Group Projects. Group projects during finals week can be a pain. If you ask any of your friends how they feel about group work, they’ll most likely say they hate them. Honestly, group work is what stresses me out the most and here are some of the reasons why.
1. Getting stuck with horrible members
For starters you can get stuck with one of “those” groups. As in, the groups that have unmotivated people who don’t want to do anything. Work should be distributed evenly and collectively as a group. Everybody has their jobs and everything is split equally. The level of motivation as a group and as an individual is the first problem that comes with group work.
2. The Grading Policy
Another problem is the grading policy. Let’s say you have a group that has not been working together or has not been active throughout the process, you’ll end up picking up all the slack just so you won’t get a bad grade. This becomes a problem because instead of only focusing on your part, you also have to focus on everyone else’s part. But in the end whatever grade you get will be the same grade everybody else gets as well. It is unfortunate because one person can work so hard compared to the rest of the group while the other one slack off and in the end will still end up getting that same grade without having to do any work.
3. Timing
Timing is another big issue when it comes to working with others. Whether you’re having a hard time trying to link up or people are showing up late, it all affects the stress that comes with group work. I’ve been in groups where either someone will show up incredibly late, even though I was there on time and ready to start working, or one has class during the time the other one is free. Other reasons can be that someone has an event to go to, a meeting, or won’t be in town for the weekend. Whatever the case may be, there is typically always a problem with meeting up which can be quite annoying and stressful.
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4. Presenting
Presentation day. That is another huge problem. Presentation day is usually when most of your group members decide to sleep in or get “sick”. What a coincidence. But the worst thing that comes from having some of your members absent, is having to conduct the presentation all on your own.
Don’t get me wrong though, there are groups who can work together so brilliantly and get a lot done. Bless those groups who are motivated and help out when needed. But in the end, if you are in a group that is not as productive as you would like it to be, here are some ways to make it less stressful.
- Try talking to your group and telling them that they need to help out more.
- Talk to the teacher outside of class and let them know what is going on.
- If nothing else works, pick up the slack as much as you can. If you know your information and the rest of the group doesn’t, it will reflect pooorly on them.