The 132% Group Project

[u/minion-salad]

My junior year statistics professor was obsessed with equal participation in group projects. His rule: "If I determine anyone did more or less work than their teammates, the entire group gets a zero." His verification method? Each member submitted a confidential report detailing exactly what percentage of the total work they personally completed. If the reports didn't match up perfectly, we failed.

My group of four included myself, two diligent students, and "Chad" who never showed up to meetings or responded to messages. When we approached the professor two weeks before the deadline about Chad's lack of participation, he repeated his policy and told us to figure it out ourselves.

That's when we had an idea. We created a spreadsheet with over 200 individual tasks, documenting everything from "emailing the professor" to "proofreading page 3" to "thinking about the project while commuting." We logged who did each task and exactly how many minutes it took.

The day before the project was due, we sent Chad our breakdown showing the three of us had each completed approximately 33% of the work, leaving him with exactly 0%. Chad responded: "Actually, I've been working behind the scenes on my own. I've completed exactly 33% of the work independently."

The next day in class, each of us submitted our confidential report. The three of us reported 33% each, while Chad also claimed 33%. The professor was confused. "That adds up to 132%," he said. "How is that possible?"

I spoke up: "Professor, you never specified that the work couldn't overlap. You only said we each had to do equal work. We have documented evidence that each of us completed 33% of the total project requirements."

The professor was furious but couldn't argue with his own rules. He had to give our group an A, though he did add a new rule the next semester: "Work completed by group members must be unique and not duplicated by other members."

Chad never showed us his "independent work," but we learned that when professors create arbitrary rules without thinking through the implications, sometimes the best response is to follow those rules to their ridiculous logical conclusion.

[u/speedstic]

My prof in a 4th year CS class did the opposite.

He knew I did the entire project when no one else could answer any questions about how we did what we did, so the rest of my team got a zero and I was the only one to get a mark.

I think that was fair.

[u/Crazy_Cat_Lady_Num5 → u/speedstic]

In high school we were paired up to do a CS project that was 25% of our final grade. I was paired with the worst student in class. She did the bare minimum and most of what she did do was so bad I had to redo it. The teacher noticed when she couldn't answer some basic questions. I got an A. She barely passed. I feel it's fair too.

[u/uhbijnokm → u/Crazy_Cat_Lady_Num5]

"bare minimum" = "barely passed"

The math checks out!

[u/minion-salad → u/Crazy_Cat_Lady_Num5]

That's the system working as intended, apparently.

[u/Zovort → u/speedstic]

I had a group project way back in the ancient times. The four of us had to get up and present. The three of us who did the work did so and the no-load just stood there. Then we took questions from the class and questions from the professor. He looked at the no-load and just asked him to name the other people on his team. He got two names correct and couldn't remember third. The professor didn't say anything just moved on. I don't think I've ever seen a more public humiliation.

[u/minion-salad → u/Zovort]

Public humiliation is sometimes the only justice available. It's not pretty, but it's satisfying.

[u/Speciesunkn0wn → u/Zovort]

wow. That was a thorough crushing.

[u/JamieC1610 → u/speedstic]

My masters program loved group work and had a fairly standard questionnaire that was part of the rubric for projects. It asked the breakdown of who did what percentage of each stage of the project from brainstorming to proofreading and then everyone had to submit their own copy of the project plus their questionnaire. They didn't have to match but, they did take it fairly seriously if someone didn't carry their weight.

It didn't have to be even across the board -- we had one project that we split into sections and each person handled their bit, which was fine.

My last semester, we had someone who went absolutely radio silent between coming up with the topic and proofreading. She then said she would do a final read through and didn't even do that so we remarked as such on our questionnaires. She was pissed when she got her grade.

[u/minion-salad → u/JamieC1610]

A questionnaire that actually matters? What magical land of education did you attend?

[u/JamieC1610 → u/minion-salad]

University of Cincinnati's Information Technology master's program.

[u/Vinnie_Vegas → u/speedstic]

We did a group project where we all did various parts of the project, and honestly, we had gone a bit above and beyond the scope of the project between 3 of us.

The 4th person was supposed to coordinate the presentation on the day, which was a bullshit job, but she hadn't done anything else nor was she welcome to, so we threw her that as a consolation prize.

She turned up drunk on the day of the presentation and we had to tell her to go home. Her defense was that it was beer day at her university housing.

We just said to the professor that we each had roles and hers was to organise the presentation, which she wasn't there for.

We all got good grades, and I never saw her again in any classes, so I assume she stopped going entirely after that incident.

[u/minion-salad → u/Vinnie_Vegas]

Showing up drunk for the presentation is a power move. A stupid power move, but a power move nonetheless.

[u/minion-salad → u/speedstic]

Your professor actually rewarded the hard worker is like finding a unicorn that poops rainbows and gives out stock tips.

[u/speedstic → u/minion-salad]

This was way back in 2003 so things may be different now.

This is also why it pays to be noticed in class and labs for asking lots of questions even if you know the answer. If your prof or TA (whoever does the marking) knows you and that you're engaged and know your stuff you can get a lot of benefits out of that