120 replies to this topic

[Referos]

Nay, I tend to do all the work alone, since I get crappy grades when I let other people collaborate.

[IB Prodigy]

I love group work when we get to choose our own groups... that way, I can work with people who I know will pull their own weight in the group AND who are my friends.

It's more of a toss up when the teacher chooses groups... I've had teachers group the brighter students together, which works fine even if the people I'm working with aren't particularly close friends of mine.  But I've also had teachers who match brighter students up with students who are... shall we say, "not quite as bright"... which is always horrible since I end up doing most of the work.

[greaterthaninfinity]

I know one of the factors to success in IB is teamwork but I absolutely DETEST it. No one works at the same pace with me (I either work incredibly slower or incredibly faster) so I can't find that "equilibrium" with anyone around with me. I especially hate working with friends because it's hard for me to protest against their ideas. But I'm working on it. We get bombarded with a crapload of group stuff in IB afterall.

Edited by greaterthaninfinity, Oct 25, 2008 - 17:49.

[Mark]

TeeBlake, on Sep 10 2008, 07:29 AM, said:

same things happening to me..

G4, i'm always the one breaking the ice, i emailed the people, no reply...so when experiment comes, i do the who design and they go "omg i feel bad though"
guess what? you should be, and i doubt you do because if you did feel bad, you would be working instead of talking....

venting is done

in IB, i like group discussions, but not group IAs...like for geo field study, i just wanna collect the data alone, not with a whole bunch of people..

hear hear! I'm not the only one! Group 4 is over now, and I picked out my group carefully-ish.... I got 3 people I definitely wanted to work with, they are hard workers and were prepared to listen to me, because I was the only person in my class who read how to do the group 4 project properly, i.e. how to fulfill what's required in the markscheme. However, the teachers assigned us another girl who didn't have a group and I thought she was okay (she was getting good marks in IB1) but she turned out to be such an overly arrogant non cooperative....thing! That she wasn't prepared to listen to anyone in her group (just because she was the only person who was doing a science at HL out of us 5).... I bombarded her with e-mails in the last days before the deadline (i was on a french trip in Paris) begging her to change her write up so that it complies with the group 4 project markscheme... but no, all others in the group tried to reason with her... but no.... So our group handed in 4 good group 4 project write ups and 1 completely random one that shows no group work collaboration whatsoever. I just hope my marks won't suffer from this.... I'm just really angry that I had to argue relentlessly with a rock!

Yeah, actually group discussions rock! I frequently have group discussions in TOK and History and it's a lot of fun and productive!

[IBdoc]

Nay!! I work a lot better when I'm alone. When you're in a group some ideas are ruined. Plus, it depends who you're working with, if you get hardworkers with you it's a lot better. But unfortunetly, most of the time the teacher chooses for us and she balances the groups for fairness.

[Paul]

Yay!

Learning to work in a group is very important when thinking about your future. Sure, there are some people out there whom with you'd rather not work, but I think that just shows that you and them have to learn a bit about groupwork.

Plus, working in a group usually stimulates people to be more accountable and diligent!

[Juampi]

I love studying in groups but sometimes I think is better to study alone becuase with a group you might het distrcuted.

[Haney]

i've recently completed the Group 4 assessment- and i am against group work.
totally, utterly and without question.
i wil do it without complaint if i have to, but i always breath a sigh of relief after it is done
so many traumas, bitching and clashing of personalities
hypocritical comments..etc
at least if you do badly in an individual project you can blame yourself- in gourp situations you can't blame anyone!

[KiwiFruit]

I am a fan of individual work becasue if someone is the group is bad it will bring the whole group down. If you are
by yourself you have no one else to blame if its bad, and you can bask in the glory yourself.

[Cmertin]

greaterthaninfinity, on Oct 25 2008, 12:48 PM, said:

I know one of the factors to success in IB is teamwork but I absolutely DETEST it. No one works at the same pace with me (I either work incredibly slower or incredibly faster) so I can't find that "equilibrium" with anyone around with me. I especially hate working with friends because it's hard for me to protest against their ideas. But I'm working on it. We get bombarded with a crapload of group stuff in IB afterall.

I agree with your "equilibrium" statement and not being able to work with friends. My teachers don't give many group projects though, although I prefer to work alone anyways. I've tried working in groups with people on things that were supposed to be a single person assignment (Darn I just can't think of that word   ) and they gave me sh!t paragraphs (2 sentences a question, with many errors) while mine were a couple pages answering 3 questions. Also, it's bad for me because I like being creative with my work (I try to be creative whenever I can).

Edited by Cmertin, Nov 30, 2008 - 03:25.

[alereyes228]

i'd rather work alone or be able to choose the group.

assigned groups for me are a big no no

[Alfabeta]

go solo!

[Aether]

Never a lover of work in groups, but it can be quite fun depending on what the subject is (for example, cooking for english class haha)  and what people you are doing it with.

[Chesire_Cat]

I despise group work. I find it so unnecessary! What always happens is that one person only wants a B or a C (and therefore doesn't care about doing the work well), and the other one who wants a better grade ends up having to do most of the work by herself (which is usually me). I also hate when teachers pair you up with people you know are way dumber than you and who you know will not do anything productive, and then, when the group's work gets an A+ (or A*), the teacher congratulates the person who hasn't done anything and tells them how much they've improved.

I think I will make the uselessness of group work my EE topic. I find it a fascinating topic, I seriously want to prove all those teachers who say that two brains are better than one wrong. It never works like that.

[bryana_nc]

i hate group work!
it seems like im never paired
with another 'smart' person.
cuz teachers like to spread us out
with the dumb kids
like its gonna make em smarter.

the only group im happy with
is my tok presentation partner,
bhavika!
she's smart.

half of my math class is retarded
so i dont want any of them.
english isnt so badd,
but theres like two really dumb ppl
who ask the dumbest questions.
;/

ughh,, cant wait til senior year,
when they drop out[:

[Alouette]

For the most part: Nay. Extremely nay. Nay nay nay.

In IB, most of the instances where I have worked in a group, the group work has been shoved upon me. I get really tired of it, but I feel like no one else will do it if I don't, and then we'll all get bad grades just because no one was pulling their own weight... Now I have a mentality that no one's dependable, and I usually try to do everyone's work even before they can start disappointing me. For my psych IA, the group I was with did nothing, and I was the one contacting teachers and asking permission to use their students as samples in our experiment, and the one creating/purchasing materials. So yeah, nay for group work, since most of the time I am stuck with people who don't care or who do care but don't feel like working.

There has only been one time when I was in a group that worked really efficiently, and it was a great experience since we were all striving to be the one person in the group who did the most work... The project came out perfect because of such great team work! And it was fun! But again, this was only one instance out of about twelve. So I still say nay, for the most part.

[thechorusgirl]

I usually sincerely dislike groupwork. Like others have said, it's hard to find that normal pace between everyone in order to work effectively. Most of the time, my group members don't pull their weight, either. It's not fair to the people in the group who actually WANT to work.

[Justanotherstudent]

I am only a fan of group projects when I have a group that is SERIOUS, but that almost never happens because of my poor luck. Personally i perfer working alone because you have to rely on yourself to do a good job, so then you have something to propell you to do the work and put in some effort .

[Frank Lee Spoken]

nay

[Haney]

i have a really bad memory, so forgive me if i've already commented on this- it does sound abit familiar
Group work just does not work for me. I'm both dominant and laid-back, but if i get someone who is too dominant or too laid-back, the opposite half-side of me just enflames and i get really frustrated at them, me and the situation