Zavia Pittman

Opinions Writer

Preparation is a word you often hear as a college student. It is the main reason why most of us are here. Regardless of all the debt, time, and suffering, we at least hope to be ready for the challenges we’ll inevitably face once we pursue our careers. You could argue that many colleges fail to prepare students and teach them only how to memorize, which doesn’t produce career-ready people. However, that is an argument for another day.

I want to talk about a practice that consistently fails to prepare students for anything other than stress. And that practice is group projects.

Professors love to give students a group project. You’ve probably had at least two every semester you’ve been here. And no matter what department they are from, I have rarely met a student who didn’t groan at the mention of those two words. Usually, when a professor gives a group assignment, they attempt to sell the idea to their students. 

Maybe they’ll use “collaboration” or the statement, “This will prepare you for the real world.” Many will also try to give some sense of insurance by saying, “If you have a lazy group member, you can remove them from the group.” These sentiments are great but do little to change the outcome.

Some of us are lucky and get decent people as group members. Everything runs relatively smoothly, and you get a good grade. The rest of us get group members who either put in zero effort or make working on the project a living hell. In the past, I tried to hold out hope that it would get better, but that hope dissipated the closer the deadline came.

You could do as much as you can with a project, but if you have members who don’t do their part, it will incidentally affect your grade. You can communicate with them and help them along the way, but it’s still up to them to do something. If you’re like me, I refuse to let my grade go down because someone else is lagging, which means I and whoever else cares about the grade will have to do most of the work. 

The idea of removing a group member is a farce. Even if a group managed to shed a bad group member, they would still have to fill in the gaps. You may feel vindicated knowing that the useless member faced some consequences, but you’re in the same position as before, just without the dead weight. 

My biggest gripe with group projects is that they often account for a large portion of your final grade. These assignments are typically involved and have several moving parts, so it makes sense that a professor would group people to make it easier. But, this has the potential for a student’s grade to suffer the consequences if they have unhelpful group members. Is it fair to jeopardize a student’s grade for an assignment?

As exaggerated as that sounds, many students feel this way, especially those serious about their academic performance. Some are fine with “Cs get degrees,” but some folks want to have a high GPA to get into grad school or meet their standard for themselves. 

I may be biased from my many negative experiences regarding how I see group projects. But, I would be lying if I said I hadn’t had a couple of good ones and even made friends with the group members who put in the effort. Typically, we bonded over the stress caused by the other members. 

I doubt this article alone will end group projects, and I wouldn’t want it to. However, if professors wish to have group projects to be fair and effective, they should make some changes. Not having them count for so much of a student’s grade would be a start. That way, their final grade reflects their abilities as a student. Additionally, professors should set guidelines in the event of a team member not doing their part. And those guidelines should go beyond removing the student in question. Other team members should at least get some support to help pick up where the other member left off.