Groups Good/Bad

When I graduated from high school two years ago I was under the delusion that I would not have to work in groups in college. I quickly came to realize that of course you still work in groups in college especially in labs. It seems that no matter how many good group experiences you have with hard working, easy to get along with group members the bad group experiences always overshadow them by far.

Most of my lab partners have been cooperative, easy to get along with and work with, responsible, and conscientious. I am always very thankful when the groups turn out that way. It seems though that I always get the good groups when it is a short term project. I get stuck with a bad group or partner when it’s going to be for the entire semester or a really big project. My biggest pet peeve with group work is working with a partner who is not prepared or organized, but acts like they know everything. I work hard for my grades, and I do not like to be penalized for other people’s lack of motivation and caring.

The answer to the “bad” group problem should easily be solved by evaluations right? Teachers always believe this is the “easy fix” and will eliminate undeserving grades either too high or too low. Unfortunately this generally does not help. I personally cannot fill out an evaluation right in front of the other members of my group and give them poor scores (especially if you know them outside of class and/or they are genuinely nice people just awful partners). Other times I have filled out evaluations that did not have the criteria that related to why they were bad partners. Frustrating…

My advice for myself and you:

You cannot change the way your partner acts so just try and act like their annoyances aren’t fazing you. I recount my bad group experience with someone later. Usually when I say my story out loud I decide it wasn’t really as bad as I made it out to be at first. It always could have been worse. (And generally the retelling makes me laugh.) If your partner is really outrageous I would go beyond the evaluations and straight to the TA so they are aware of the situation. It is not fair for one or two of the members to be doing all the work, but everyone to be benefiting from their hard work. Finally always try to remember the great group experiences :)