# What's your experience with group projects?



## Amity (Dec 28, 2012)

Everytime we have a group project, I stay seated while around me my classmates join their friends, and I wait. I wait for someone to ask me to be in their group, or for there to be a few odd people out. Sometimes I even have to ask the teacher to be put in a group.

For me, these are the worst experinces I've had with SA. Its just a reminder that I'm unliked and unpopular. I'd rather do the entire project by myself than have to go through 5 minutes of it.

What's your opinion/experience with group projects and SA? Any advice for me?


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## x7Stopeandstare (Dec 1, 2012)

I hate group projects, especially when you form the groups and it's like what do you do and it's just so irritating because it's like you don't belong anywhere. 

For group projects, I usually hardly even say anything,so it's like I'm just there doing whatever. Besides, when I do say anything, it's like no one really cares and it's kind of insignificant to them.


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## tbyrfan (Feb 24, 2011)

What you described happens to me all the time. Now, I try to make an acquaintance with at least one person in my class so I can try and avoid those situations.


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## Owl-99 (Mar 7, 2012)

The good thing about being over 30 group projects happen less and less. My last group project was March this year, and I don't intend doing another one anytime soon.


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## Archaeron (Dec 16, 2012)

Yup, sounds familiar.

I'm also the guy who doesn't say anything during group work, so I don't contribute that much. Then they get mad and tell that to the teacher so I get lower points, bleh. But if they give me some work and let me finish it at home by myself, then they can rest assured.


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## No more Elysium (Oct 13, 2012)

I actually have no problems with SA when doing group work. Most of the time, when the project is interesting, I go into some kind of idea-firing frenzy. After that, I usually pick a subject and work on that by myself, and let others do the talking.


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## lzzy (Nov 28, 2012)

I usually end up making it all by myself (if it's physically possible) and it usually turns out a lot better, doing something in group doesn't always make it better.


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## Mani14 (Oct 23, 2012)

i'm bad at communicating ideas, so i'm not very good use during the whole brainstorming parts. but if i'm given a task to do or a portion of the project to work on that's how i'll do my part.


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## Secretaz (Sep 10, 2011)

Amity said:


> Everytime we have a group project, I stay seated while around me my classmates join their friends, and I wait. I wait for someone to ask me to be in their group, or for there to be a few odd people out. Sometimes I even have to ask the teacher to be put in a group.


This is what happens to me too.. And when i'm in some group, i don't say anything unless someone asks me something. So i'm mostly just awkwardly sitting there and listen what they talk.


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## yadx (Nov 2, 2012)

Amity said:


> Everytime we have a group project, I stay seated while around me my classmates join their friends, and I wait. I wait for someone to ask me to be in their group, or for there to be a few odd people out. Sometimes I even have to ask the teacher to be put in a group.





Secretaz said:


> This is what happens to me too.. And when i'm in some group, i don't say anything unless someone asks me something. So i'm mostly just awkwardly sitting there and listen what they talk.


this is what i usually have aswell

as for advice i don't really have any. i try to avoid these situations as much as possible, sometimes i even leave the class when i hear that something group related is coming up lol


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## pastels (Sep 18, 2012)

me doing most of the work cuz i would always get stuck with the loud mouth lazy ppl


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## Paranoid of Spies (Nov 3, 2011)

In terms of finding groups, that is not really that much of a problem except for english class, however we rarely do group work in english class anways. Every group I have been in has been one where I knew at least one guy, however for one the weird thing is that the group somehow formed where no one really knew each other. That group was a group of 5 and 2 of the members were added by the teacher later on because they didn't have a group. 

In terms of work, well in the end I usually end up picking up most of the slack but with this experience, at least I know the people that I want to work with and people that I do not.


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## JustKittenRightMeow (Jul 25, 2011)

I would just sit there and let people do all the talking. I didn't do much unless someone told me what to do, and people usually gave me the easier things because they knew me as the quiet timid girl and that I was in one special ed class, so they probably figured I was retarded lol.. I felt bad because they all assumed I was lazy but I was scared as hell...It didn't help that I felt dumber than everybody else, so i didn't want to mess anything up and risk screwing up their grades. 

I kind of enjoyed when we could pick groups but that slowly faded because it happened in classes my friends weren't in or they knew so many people in it that I was that awkward kid standing their alone and the teacher had to throw me into a random group.

There were instances where people I didn't talk to often would ask me to be in their group and for the most part, kids in my classes were friendly and nice.


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## Monotony (Mar 11, 2012)

Amity said:


> Everytime we have a group project, I stay seated while around me my classmates join their friends, and I wait. I wait for someone to ask me to be in their group, or for there to be a few odd people out. Sometimes I even have to ask the teacher to be put in a group.





Secretaz said:


> This is what happens to me too.. And when i'm in some group, i don't say anything unless someone asks me something. So i'm mostly just awkwardly sitting there and listen what they talk.


:ditto

At least I get to spite them. :lol

"Hey you know the answers right?"
"Yep"
"Can you tell us them"
"No"


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## pati (Aug 15, 2012)

Sat there until someone either invited me to be in their group or got put in one by the teacher. Then proceeded to do all the work as to avoid trusting & communicating with someone else. Lol.


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## vanishingpt (Mar 9, 2012)

I don't get many group projects in University but if I do, I usually go with friends lol. I trust them well enough to do their jobs well and efficiently, and we communicate well when we're in a group. We can turn on work mode quite easily and not be distracted luckily :b.

In high school though if there were group projects, again I'd usually go with friends. Otherwise I'd just ask people around me if I could join their group, or if they had a reputation of not working well then I'd try to find a group that I knew would work hard. Sometimes though I think the saying is true, "if you want something done right, do it yourself" lol some people don't always follow through.


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## SnowSunRainClouds (Dec 3, 2012)

I know how you feel. Group work is absolutely terrible. As much as I want to make friends in university, I'm combing through all the outlines and swapping out classes with group work (or more than 2 essays). That's how much I'm trying to avoid it. 

I also have a really hard time sharing my ideas (or at least ones my group even remotely likes), so people don't like working with me, even if I am super reliable. 

I haven't had any 'real' group projects since grade 12 English. Let's say that didn't go to well...(I had foods class though. I had a really good friend in that class, so I got really, really lucky) 

I did group discussions in my sociology tutorial and history lecture. Those were ok I guess. I almost cried though in my first history group discussion because no one asked me to join them, so I had to ask three groups before I found one that wasn't full. (That reminded me of high school social studies where everyone was in pairs except for me. I almost burst into tears. Luckily a guy came back from writing a test and paired up with me.)


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## queenbanana (Sep 5, 2012)

Haha, I used to hate them when I was in high school for this same reason, but there's usually another quiet person that you can join. Try to talk to at least one person in every class to avoid being in such a situation. Try finding that other shy quiet person that you can approach and work with them in group projects! 
When you get to college though you don't have as many group projects and when you do, it's almost always just choosing the people closest to you or assigned, since most people don't really know each other. I still hate them though because I just sit there being quiet. I can't bring myself to say anything unless I'm asked. And if/when I do try, nobody seems to hear me... then I get worried that maybe somebody did hear me and it would have been better not to say anything at all because now they pity me blah. 
So, now I simply try to appear bored, uncaring of my surroundings and nobody really acknowledges me this way. I'm completely ignored and I completely ignore. Eh, whatever.


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## SecretMe (Dec 16, 2007)

Group projects are the worst thing ever, aside from presentations. I do the same thing; I sit and wait for the awkward moment when someone agrees to let me in their group, because I am sitting all alone and they feel bad for me. Then after I very quietly agree, I usually sit there as my heart is racing out of my chest and I feel like I'm going to puke on them and I don't say a single word. WORST THING EVER


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## Josefz27 (Oct 26, 2012)

It can be hit and miss for me. If they're all guys I can somewhat try to connect and say my ideas and not act too awkward. It's when there's girls in the mix, then I'm screwed. Even one girl and all the guys might be making jokes with her except me and then I become the quiet one. But that's mostly High School. I was assigned to a recent group in Uni and it sucked b/c it was all guys, ...I wanted to see if I improved lol.


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## Abenthy (Oct 9, 2011)

I haven't had to endure group work for a while, but when I do, my experience is usually that of me doing most of the work. I tend to have trouble in science labs though. Everyone just wants to get done as quickly as possible. There's no time to ponder and absorb. Just get it done. It strikes me as a giant waste of time to just rush through it. Oh well.


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## Fledgling (Jan 1, 2013)

I was never a fan of group projects. I'd rather take on a really hard task by myself rather than participate in a group. At lab class in high school, every person I was partnered with each time (we worked in duos) had to shoulder about 70% or more of the workload just because I was so withdrawn. I had Biology lab in college a year and a half ago and I was significantly better, but I still don't like groups!



SecretMe said:


> Group projects are the worst thing ever, aside from presentations.


Urgh, this. :no


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## s12345 (Jul 11, 2011)

Let me keep this short. Group projects (at university) have been like this for me:

1) I nearly got twice into a physical fight with the members. The tension was so horrible that it was about to happen but I did my best to keep my cool. I wanted to pin them to the wall and punch their throat.

2) Best of all: I failed twice with group projects. Imagine.. a group full of programmers. Yeah, go figure. Those who are programmers know what I mean. They are arrogant ********. No one ever let me talk. No one gave a **** about my ideas. Here's an even bettter one: at my uni, students are allowed to grade one another and it matters for your final grade. Imagine you have 65%.. you'll end up having 48% or something.  Sure is fair! Do you know what this means? If someone in the group, or better yet, if the whole group doesn't like you, you're guaranteed to flunk because the grades will be manipulated by them. I've stepped to this to the uni administration board and no one gave a **** about my report. They are all corrupt. The dean is bribed through the rich parents of the rich kids. Nice world we live in huh?

3) I have *never* had success in group projects. Ever.


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## s12345 (Jul 11, 2011)

Cerberus said:


> haha I haven't had to program with other people yet, but, yes, I've noticed that programmers tend to be arrogant.


I did a research on the internet about "why are programmers so arrogant". You'll see many interesting responses (including one on stackoverflow I think).

Programmers are lazy, selfish, arrogant. That lazy part I have experienced to be true because there were some groups that didn't get things done because group members were lazy.

Have you ever been on IRC.. to let's say.. programming channels? I try to avoid that hell place. Even forums. Heck, anywhere where programmers are. I prefer stackoverflow because it's strictly moderated and programmers there can be generally more mature.

My experience with IRC programming channels:
1) If you are a novice person and you come in there ask something simple or basic, you get banned without reason with some insulting line like.. "google it, b*tch."
I feel really sad when I see aspiring new programmers enter channels like #java and they get scolded and insulted on. Programmers are very frustrated and arrogant beings. Especially the ones who know a lot about programming. They think they are some elites or whatever.

2) If you tell them what you're studying, they start calling you a "dumb sh*t" and tell you to go google it. Ah whatever, you get my point. They are ********. Whenever I have problems with programming I try to solve them as much as I can by myself. I really hate to go and ask other programmers. -_-

p.s.: that is one cool avatar. Wonder if it's from a movie.


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## some lazy hermit (Jan 6, 2013)

I know the feeling, and that's basically the world I'm returning to tomorrow. I'm always the one who gets tacked on to a pre-existing group, which sometimes makes me feel like I'm resented for intruding, which in turn makes me feel annoyed at the idea of cooperating with people who don't even want me there (which may or may not be accurate). I think the best thing to do is just to go ahead and ask a group or person who you think you would work well with if you can join them. In the beginning of last year I did that and from then on I always worked with that group, which was so much easier and much less stressful. Also, If you do your best to contribute others will value you as part of their team and you will feel more accepted. If they don't appreciate you, forget them and try to work with other people next time.


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