Buddy?

Anyone who has been to University will know the extreme pain associated to the topic I am going to rant about.

Group.Work.

Seriously, it is the thing that makes me groan about university the most.

Now, this is not because I am a xenophobic, socially illiterate person who wanders around in black.

This is because of the impracticality, the uneconomical time usage and the crawl of progress that is common within those who partake in group work assessments.

This starts with the initial meeting. I am currently part of a group for university where we have to make a simple pamphlet. Honestly, making a double sided, 3-way folded pamphlet is simple enough for just an individual to achieve. Factor in two people, and it makes it much easier I suppose; you do one side, and i'll do the other then we'll review it as a whole and make any changes before we hand it in. 
But you honestly won't guess how many people there are in my group.

Six.

That's right. Six people to make a pamphlet. So what's that, like, one column to one person? I hardly think that this type of system involves much learning or actively doing some work by most people. My group isn't even the worst one. We're small compared to other groups. Others have been forced to have 8 people to a group.

I am telling you now; this only calls for people to slack off.

This of course, poses the now age old question that students ask their teachers. Every year, every semester, every week, every stupid piece of assignment that involves group work;

"Why can't we just do it ourselves?!"

And of course, the answer is always;

"Because in the workforce you'll be forced to work with people you don't like, or even know. This is good practice to sharpen those skills."

Yes. But, there is a clear and very simple distinction.

When people slack off during group work in the workforce, you don't give a fuss. Because they'll only be fired/warned/de-promoted and all of the other lovely consequences given to a slacker.

But when this happens in university, the one who actually cares about their future is up til 2am the night before it's due, trying to fix up the mess that their so called group member created.

And who get's a share of the incredible mark at the end?

The slacker.

It's just much better to work individually. Let the slackers fall through the hole and the people who actually work, shine on their own.


(And I might just add in here that teachers have tried to counteract this from happening by including 'Peer Reviews', but I'll just say now that the teachers still give everyone pretty much the same mark. What they don't know is that students actually realise that they also have another 5 classes they're teaching at the same time, so why would they focus on giving everyone individual marks, when there's a perfectly good average score to use anyway? Students take advantage of that.)

(Sorry for this rant, but really had to get this off my chest!!)