# How "bad" is college group work?



## Valac (Jul 13, 2012)

I'll soon be heading off to college. I have SEVERE SA and one of my main concerns is the nature of group projects in college. Also, I'll be commuting in a school that consists mainly of people living on campus.


How often is group work assigned in your experience?


Is it mandatory? I've heard from a friend that working in a group is totally optional. He goes to community college however.


Have you ever been assigned a project that requires you to work with others outside class?


And how did you personally deal with the anxiety associated with it?


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## catcharay (Sep 15, 2011)

It depends on your course and subjects. If you are a Business student with a marketing as a core subject, you should expect to participate in group work. 
If you are hard working and do your part of the task, no one can blame you. Put the onus on them!


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## Farideh (Nov 13, 2011)

I FREAKIN HATE college group work. I HATE IT!!!!!!!! People are not reliable at all. One time I got in trouble and had to do a presentation all by myself since my partner wouldn't answer me. She never told me she was going to be out of town. Also I attended culinary school for one year and I had to be in a group. The people in my group didn't let me do anything at all so I never really learned. Being in groups suck. Although it is nice not having to do work on your own. That's if you have a good partner to work with.


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## talkswithkeyboard (Dec 28, 2010)

I had a course in my first semester that was all about working in groups and taking turns as being the leader, or chair as they called it. There are people who won't pull their weight, it's just a natural thing that happens with group work. More than often, professors will still mark on an individual basis, it's just that the final product is something that would be too much to be produced by one person. In other courses, group work usually lead to presentations. I was the one that usually made the powerpoint and put all the hard words in other people's slides because they wouldn't do anything. lol

Working outside of class, group work I did was usually done during gaps between classes so it's better than sitting around wasting time. Otherwise, we'd just communicate by email if that's possible.

I work as hard as I can even if I'm taken advantage of. I just want a good mark. If you can pick your partners, pick people who will work!


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## applesauce5482 (Apr 26, 2012)

I dislike group work but it's* better* than high school group work. People in college seem to be more mature and such.


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## AllToAll (Jul 6, 2011)

It depends on the class. For most English classes you'll have at least one group presentation. Same goes for a lot of social science classes. 

It depends on the professor whether or not it has to be done as a group. When it comes time to meet with the gorup, though, everyone else usually wants to get it out of the way so they can go do whatever.


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## Cam1 (Dec 4, 2011)

Depends. A lot of time in classes there will be little group activities, but last year I only had 2 large group projects.


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## jay l (Jan 16, 2012)

I had to do some group work in a science class. Some groups, I would talk but in others, I wouldn't. It all depends on the people and who you are more comfortable with. Ive had about 10 classes and only one teacher had group work.


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## plsgr (Jul 19, 2012)

I'm a business major (and commuter) and I have group work in almost every single one of my classes. Actually, it's not that bad if people are randomly assigned to groups chosen by the professor. In half of my groups, we exchanged contact information on the first meetup, and the rest of the work was done through email. 

Most people in college are busy anyways, and it's hard to find a time to meet up outside of class where everyone is free. In every single one of my groups, we divide a project amongst ourselves, do our work alone, and then combine everything together and one person compiles and edits the work. If we need help, we text or email each other. The only time we talk face to face during the day of presentation or submitting the group work, lol. 

IMO, college groups are by far better than groups in high school. And surprisingly, everyone pulls their weight and does their work. 

And group work is mandatory at my school. I think group work is fine, but teaming up with only another person, ugh. Lol. There's a bigger chance of meeting up with them and talking face to face lol.


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## saltyleaf (Dec 30, 2011)

really depends on your class/professor. the only thing i hated about group work was getting unreliable ppl and flpn presentations.


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## Monroee (Aug 26, 2009)

I haven't experienced them too much yet, but the ones I have were really stressful on me. My class last semester was all about group discussions. She would put us in groups and we would have to go around and discuss our views on a certain subject. It was horrible. 

There was one huge group project in one of my classes. I tried but I ended up freaking and couldn't do it. So I withdrew from the class. It was at the END of the semester. I was doing great, but once that huge project/presentation was assigned, I just bailed. I took it this summer as an online course just so I could escape the project. :|


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## GirlGristle (Nov 23, 2008)

My last group work nearly scarred my soul. I was with a girl and it went well until our group had to take in one more due to an uneven class. Well the guy we took in turned out to be a complete jerk. After our presentation, he turned to me and said "You are the worst speaker I have heard in my life. Please drop out or something before my ears explode." and then he asked people near him and said "That girl really sucks at talking I can't believe I had to work with her." 

Thankfully my female partner defended me but man that guy is utterly toxic.

In another class, we had to work with partners for French. The first two weeks went all right before my partner suddenly decided to sit somewhere else. One day I overheard her saying "Oh, she doesn't talk much". Quite frankly, she was the one going on and on about practically nothing and I chose not to continue our "conversations" since they were lacking in context.


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## Invisiblehandicap (Jul 31, 2011)

Large groups are terrible! The least people the better.. Id prefer pairs actually. Its much easier to organize. I suppose only a few people is okay though.


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## Banzai (Jun 4, 2009)

For me, I don't think it's a matter of SA. I just don't have...group work skills.


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## pita (Jan 17, 2004)

I had to do it only a handle of times. It wasn't that bad at all, actually. I found that people usually liked my ideas.


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## yna (Jul 27, 2012)

Lots especially when you get to your 3rd and 4th year, I heard. I hate it, too. I had an English class during my first year at uni and everyday the prof gave us a task and made us work on it in a group. Ugh, it was terrible. :mum

Most of the time I don't handle it well (I have pretty bad anxiety myself), but it helps a little bit when I try not to think about it and just go on days I know from the syllabus that there will be something group-related. When I do this I find my thoughts are more collected/I'm not so scatterbrained and I'm actually able to contribute. Having studied helps, too. 

Lol I'll be in my 3rd year soon and so far the only class I've had that involved no group work was Accounting. Only reason I took the class haha


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## the fella (Jul 28, 2012)

It depends on the class you take and your professors. Expect more of it in your language courses (I HATE this aspect of my German major). In my German courses, it's limited mostly to getting into groups of 2-3 and reading text aloud to each other. Since I hate a stutter, I dreaded this. In the final quarter (we start semesters next month), we had to do a project and present it to the class (my professor was accommodating to me in that regard). I was the only person assigned my particular topic, so I didn't have a group, but most other people did. My prof. let me stay in my seat facing her and just go through the slides that way; which was helpful. I also had one biology "professor" (and I use the term professor loosely) make extensive use of group work. He didn't teach. He expected us to get in our groups and teach each other. Basically, we doing his job for him and paying him for the privilege. Lol. No one really took the groups seriously. We basically sat around and bull****ted. I tore him a new one in his evaluation and I know I'm not the only student who did so. We also had group work on occasion in my organic chemistry classes, it wasn't an everyday thing though. Outside of the language courses, and the occasional science course, I've not had much in the way of group work.


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## VisualAttraction (Jun 12, 2012)

I hope it's not excessive, like how some teachers in high school loved to assign groupwork every week (they are truly the bane of my existence). I'm also starting college this year and I'll be a music major, so I'm reeeeally looking forward to ensembles and rehearsals and whatnot (sarcasm). I'm just hoping that the whole "college people are more mature" thing rings true, but then again, where do you think most the high school kids go after they graduate  I would assume there is much less groupwork in courses involving math as opposed to something like theater.


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## jennij (Feb 15, 2012)

oh gawd....personally i hate group work. there is always that one person who never show up to help and do his/her part plus it's awkward working with people you don't really know. and being the shy person that i am if somebody's idea is god-awful i can't outright say so. :c


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