I got C plus in my easiest class!!

[ghulkhan]

So I got my final grades online all of them a few weeks ago. I got all A's this semester except for one class--my easiest class which is Sociolinguistics. I was taking it as a random elective to fulfill the restricted elective requirements.


Here is how the grade is distributed:

Mid term: 20 points

Final: 20 points

Blog: 25 points

Group Project: 25 points

all equalling 100



I received a 24/25 on the mid term, 23/25 on the final, 23/25 on the blog AND 9/25 on the group project. So I got a C plus. I could of gotten a B if I had one more point. This was my easiest class. I studied ****** off this semester shooting for a 4.0. This is my first semester at NYU. Now I have around a 3.5. All because of the ******* group project. When the groups were formed (by the TA) I had asked to be switched because I was in a group with 4 incompetent girls. Instead they tell me to just do my part and that it woudl all work out in the end. So after lots of bitching that never worked I did my ****. None of them did there **** till the last minute (we had two months to do this). It was all half assed work. One girl did not even show up for the presentation. The other walked in in the last minute of our presentation (we went last that day because most of group was running late). So we got a terrible grade which I knew was going to be the outcome. After emailing the Professor and TA about this neither have replied and it has been two weeks now.


Group Projects are ******* marsupialED!!

 

[kwilkinson]

Ouch, that's brutal man.

Good luck with the prof/TA.

 

[Thomas]

Wait until you get into the workplace. Then you'll have group projects with consultants.

Seriously, that does suck.

 

[imageWIS]

Originally Posted by ghulkhan

Group Projects are ******* marsupialED!!

Indeed, and I have 3 group projects in 3 of my classes this semester. Sigh...

Jon.

 

[kwilkinson]

Originally Posted by Thomas

Wait until you get into the workplace. Then you'll have group projects with consultants.

Seriously, that does suck.

I just started my work life, but is consultant basically another name for... oh let's say "I get to come in and tell you to do whatever the **** I want to, and get paid out the ass?"

Cause that's kinda what the consultant i'm workin with now seems like.

 

[Piobaire]

Originally Posted by ghulkhan

Group Projects are ******* marsupialED!!

Rule out any future plans for an MBA right now. And as mentioned above, the real world is nothing but one big group project.

 

[GQgeek]

Originally Posted by ghulkhan

So I got my final grades online all of them a few weeks ago. I got all A's this semester except for one class--my easiest class which is Sociolinguistics. I was taking it as a random elective to fulfill the restricted elective requirements.


Here is how the grade is distributed:

Mid term: 20 points

Final: 20 points

Blog: 25 points

Group Project: 25 points

all equalling 100



I received a 24/25 on the mid term, 23/25 on the final, 23/25 on the blog AND 9/25 on the group project. So I got a C plus. I could of gotten a B if I had one more point. This was my easiest class. I studied ****** off this semester shooting for a 4.0. This is my first semester at NYU. Now I have around a 3.5. All because of the ******* group project. When the groups were formed (by the TA) I had asked to be switched because I was in a group with 4 incompetent girls. Instead they tell me to just do my part and that it woudl all work out in the end. So after lots of bitching that never worked I did my ****. None of them did there **** till the last minute (we had two months to do this). It was all half assed work. One girl did not even show up for the presentation. The other walked in in the last minute of our presentation (we went last that day because most of group was running late). So we got a terrible grade which I knew was going to be the outcome. After emailing the Professor and TA about this neither have replied and it has been two weeks now.


Group Projects are ******* marsupialED!!

Group projects suck, but, it's partly your own fault if you really wanted a good grade. You should have played the role of the sergeant major, as I've been forced to do a couple of times. You won't be popular at the end, but who cares?

Part of working in groups is learning to get things done as a group, regardless of the talents of the other members. It's unfortunate that the others wouldn't pull their weight (if they even could), but you shouldn't have let it drag on until the last minute. You should have pushed people to submit their work and if it was no good you should have re-written it and told them what they were going to say in the presentation. You'd think that you shouldn't have to do this in university, but that's life, and I'm sure it will continue into the real world after school. It sucks to pull weight for other people, but sometimes you just have to grin and bear it so you're not penalized yourself.

I once took an organizational behavior class and the first thing the professor did was split the class up in to 3 large groups. The point was to see if any of the groups would get anything done and if any students would assume a leadership position and organize their people. After the short presentation we had to give, the professor pointed out that for those people that didn't step forward, to consider the implication on how they will go through their business careers, the implication being that those who didn't have it in them to step-up now won't step-up later.

In the same class i got saddled with an incompetent group of 5 other people. One other person actually did their work. I had to poke and prod everyone else, and eventually when they submitted their parts of the assignment, I just re-wrote the entire 10 pages so that we could submit something that was actually good. We got a 90 something but the marks had been given out as a pool with which we could decide who got what. I gave myself 100, the other guy that did his work got a 90, and by consensus of the group, we failed one guy because he didn't even try. I actually pushed to fail him as some of the other members wanted to be nice.

 

[ghulkhan]

^^^^ Yes but here was the situation in my group:

It was a project which required lots of field work about language in minority neighborhoods. Originally we were going to do Harlem. I was fine with that however the three girls who were Spanish speaking pushed for Spanish Harlem. Well there needed to be a 5 interviews done. That was the major part of the assignment. I had tried various times to get interviews but its kind of hard to get all five when most of the people barely speak English. You cant get them to say anything in English except "yes". I tried pushing the girls to do their part (I did everything I could of done) I just need the interviews and I would of done everything else for all I cared. They kept on telling me they were going tomorrow. They never went. They only picked up their phone once a week and came to class maybe once a month so it was hard to get in touch with them. Its hard to push people when there are communication problems. The interviews were literally finished the afternoon of the day the presentation was due. This is why one girl did not show up and the other was late. The one girl who had finished hers the day before (I told her to send me her write up and all that, she never did) She said she was going to on the phone and then never did and never picked up my phone calls. I got the entire write up 15 minutes (Which I had asked for several times a week before--I just wanted a rough draft from everyone because I was planning to rewrite the whole damn thing and make it flow) before it was due. Since we were having terrible communication problems in the beginning, I had forced everyone to pick a part of the project to get moving. The three spanish girls had to do the interview since mine and the other girls were not working to well. They didnt do the work even when I tried pushing them to do so. Its hard to assume a leadership role when you cant seem to communicate with your group or ever see them in person.



Also ---when I meant that group projects are ******* marsupialed--what I meant is in a classroom setting where it is being graded and it is a big part of your grade. It does not represent anything at all in some cases.

 

[Piobaire]

Originally Posted by ghulkhan

Also ---when I meant that group projects are ******* marsupialed--what I meant is in a classroom setting where it is being graded and it is a big part of your grade.

Again to my prior post. Forget an MBA and real life is just one big group project...where you are graded and money is the grades.

 

[Concordia]

Business school typically gets a lot of these situations, and the temptation to be a "free-rider" hits a lot of people.

For my core strategy class (with a tough professor that I really wanted to do well for), we had something like 5 case write-ups-- 3 solo and 2 with a group determined by ourselves. Somehow, I got sucked into a partnership with a complete dork, and we brought in a third guy (Karl) to fill out the ranks. Dork-man was worse than useless. Didn't understand the analysis we were trying to do, didn't deliver paragraphs promised, did lousy edits, etc. So Karl and I basically wrote the papers. If there had been a lot of leg-work or real time-consuming research, that wouldn't have been possible. But we were able to bash it out. And got As.

The happy ending, which is possible when classes are small enough for the professor to know everyone-- I got honors for the class, and Dork-man didn't. He never knew why, and was pretty angry about it. Don't know how Karl made out. He was a good guy and very solid.

 

[gdl203]

Just to repeat what's been said already - group projects are the hardest for over-achievers (because of free-riders) and could be frustrating.

However, this is also part of the assignment: exhibiting leadership, motivating people to do their job or a better job, bringing everything together, and if necessary when all else fails, carry an outsized part of the workload to ensure the success of the project (i.e. do their jobs if they don't)

At this stage, the only recommendation I have is to go talk to the professor and the TA, separately, in person (no emailing) and explain to them that:
(a) you feel that you were unlucky in your team and some members didn't carry their load,
(b) you tried to change teams as soon as you realized this,
(c) this is a very important class for you and you really want to do well,
(d) you've worked really hard and your individual grades show that,
(e) you kindly ask them to give you a chance to make up for the team grade and
(f) that you're happy to take on an additional project, paper or exam in order to get a better grade.

 

[chronoaug]

You buy all that raf, jil and margiela as a freshman? I guess nyu freshman.

Anyways, that sucks about that class. This is my last year here at UF and group projects have always been painful for me. I usuallly just take charge or join with the 1 other competent person since i tend to get in stupid groups at time. Just come up with a plan, delegate, and then check their contributions and add to it. During group presentations, i'm very conscious of expanding on group members' ideas who don't fully express what i think we need to to get an A.

So far, all but 1 of my B/B+s at UF are in stupid classes i could've easily done better if i wasn't a lazy ass. My freshman year, i thought i didn't have a shot at an A, so i didn't do the make up quiz or the extra credit assignment (only class i've ever had with extra credit. weird teacher). Another one was some Russian Literature class that i had an A on all the assignments but he marked me off for attendance even though he never mentioned it was a part of the grade. Oh well.

You'll recover though. It's still really early in your college career. The only advice i can offer is to take care of business in those easy first 2 year courses when you can. Because those classes with all the different grades like that should be Easy As. In the upper level classes (if you're in a non-concrete class like math/science), depend very much on the professor and if he lectures really poorly or designs his tests/grades papers with a desire to put all you young whippersnappers in their place.

 

[ghulkhan]

Im a junior. I transferred from GW. I should be a senior (not behind because I transferred but because I took a year off)

 

[kakemono]

I had the same issue... Group project that I spent around 100 hours in the lab working on, and that probably exceeds the other 4 poeple's portion combined. The Team Leader even went and told the proffesor I deserved an A despite what the rest of the team got (this was before grade assignments). We all got B's.

 

[Piobaire]

Originally Posted by kakemono

I had the same issue... Group project that I spent around 100 hours in the lab working on, and that probably exceeds the other 4 poeple's portion combined. The Team Leader even went and told the proffesor I deserved an A despite what the rest of the team got (this was before grade assignments). We all got B's.

You seriously need to work on your GPAPH (TM).

Grade Point Average Per Hour. 100 hours is going to just sink your GPAPH (TM)