For every subject I am studying, there will be at least one assignment ad more often than not, the lecturers choose our groupmates for us; be it by our ID numbers, names in the alphabetical order or our seating position. This is because we are still new babies who just started university and need their guidance. Because of this, I have had the honour of working in 7 different groups so far. This is what I can conclude from my experience (or rather, inexperience) of completing assignments in a group.
1. The Dream Team
If you are put in this group, congratulations! Thank your lucky stars because this group is what people hope for. In this group, all of the members are cooperative and help each other out whenever they can. They also make democratic decisions so that it does not burden any member. This is the group that lecturers often praise for having “great teamwork” and “putting much effort to finish the assignment on time”.
2. Laissez-Faire
This group is only active if someone pushes them to do something. These people are the laid-back bunch and have no prominent leader. The members do the assignment alone together, which means it is every member for himself/herself until they compile the work towards the deadline. This is a bit problematic if one of the members forgets or decides to slack off because then, the assignment would be incomplete.
3. Procrastinators United
“Deadline lama lagi la….” “Chill first la, got time” The members of this type of group would have this mindset. They are a bit like the laissez-faire group but in this case, all the members do not have proper time management, which will often result in late submissions of assignments and tons of last minute work. This group is one of the things that keep me up at night, I am not even kidding.
4. Slave and The Freeloaders
I have noticed that most of the assignment groups are this type. In this case, only one or two members will do all the work while the others just look on. Sometimes, the members do not even come for the group meetings or even reply to the WhatsApp group messages. Other times, they will only print the assignment out or provide food and drinks during the meetings to say that they have contributed something.
5. Autocratic Regime
You know how in every group assignment, the lecturer wants us to elect a group leader and we would choose either the oldest, most experienced or most confident one to be the leader? Well, sometimes, this person we elect as the leader would let the power go to their heads and start dictating what to do instead of guiding and doing it with us. More often than not, this person does not even do much, other than split the task.
6. Pressure Cooker
In this group, everything is super intense. From Day One of getting the assignment, these people would be stressing over it. These people will complete the task LONG before the deadline and still fret over it being not good enough. Usually, this group comprises of perfectionists. To anyone from this type of group reading this, please tone it down, it cannot be good for you, physically and mentally.
7. “You Tell Her to Tell Him to Tell My Grandma”
Three words: lack. of. communication. These people rarely meet up, do not have a WhatsApp group and probably know only one of their groupmates. The bigger this group, the harder it is to complete the assignment. These people communicate by word of mouth and this can lead to miscommunications and some members may not even be aware of any modifications done to the assignment.
Whichever types of assignment groups you have been in, do not loathe your group members or wallow in self-pity. Remember that everyone is different and you cannot expect everyone to be the same. Assigned assignment groups have taught me who I work well with and who to avoid for my next assignment. I also made lots of great friends through these assignments. So, it is not all that bad.