How to deal with an incompetent classmate?

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Warning: Rant

My classmates and I were assigned to do a teaching presentation on COPD (there are 4 of us). We were supposed to turn in our research material to the group leader last Friday. One of the girl didn't follow the instructor's guidelines (sources must be published after 2005, have several cited reference, etc) Even worse, all she did for the last 3 weeks was how difficult it was for her to find material on her assigned topic (prognosis of COPD and Asthma). When the group leader addressed those problems to her, she just didn't reply. The group leader ended up doing the girl's research as well.

Today is the rehearsal day, we were supposed to meet at 12:00 o'clock sharp to do a practice run to make sure our presentation was within the time limit. She didn't show up until 12:15. When she appeared, she said she has to leave at 12:30 because she has to go shopping with her mother. It's important that her mother must go shopping on Friday at 12:30. Everybody did their lines thoroughly and within expected time. When it was her turn, she said she can't do it because she doesn't have notecards. I asked her to try it without the notecards (bc there is a powerpoint afterall); she reply she doesn't know the material well enough. Near the end, I reminded everyone that it's critical that during tomorrow's presentation, we should know material well enough so that we're not reading off the powerpoint (or else points will be subtracted). She immediately jumped in (probably offended and felt the instruction was meant for her) and reply, "Why don't you do your job tomorrow and I'll do my job! ok?!" The group was quiet after she spoke.

I cannot tell the instructor about any of this because if there is any conflict within our groups, points would be subtracted. I can only bite my tongue right now and wish to never be in a group with her again. Besides that, there's no other solution.

How would you guys handle this?

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Are you all getting the same grade? In other words, if the Prof see's that everyone is prepared and does a great job with their part of the presentation, yet this fourth team member obviously doesn't know the material, will all of your grades reflect her incompetence?

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yes, we're all getting the same grade.

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It's tough with this being the last day before the project is due.

In the future, you might e-mail the prof the general question of, "how should we deal with a classmate who just won't do their fair share?"

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I would be tempted to tell her off, before and after the presentation.

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BTW, I had a similar situation. I do not remember exactly how we got points deducted for "nonharmony" in the group, but I wrote a page long letter to the instructor (I had to because of the circumstances) and let the instructor know what the problems were. The end result, as far as I know, was that the person who caused the problems skated by with no repercussions. I was livid.

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I would be tempted to tell her off, before and after the presentation.

Well sure, that would feel good:yeah: but other than that, what would it accomplish? It sounds like the OP is in the beginning of their nursing program, there's a lot to get through yet.

I would likely send an e-mail (written as unemotionally as possible) to the student though, stating my concerns (as factually and objectively as possible, including the attempts made by the group leader to send reminders) with their preparation for this project.

My program handles group projects very differently. We each get our own grade, which is partly derived from the feed back from our team members. Two assignments that are part of every group project are a mid-term team health check evaluation, and then the final team evaluation.

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Specializes in telemetry.

I had to deal with a classmate like this last semester. We were assigned to groups, and my groups had to answer questions and do a presentation on AIDS. They even gave us class time during skills testing to work on it. Well, there were five of us in the group, and only two of us bothered to meet to try to get it taken care of before Spring Break. Over the break, two of the others called us, they had answered their questions and done their sample care plans. The last person changed her number, didn't bother to tell us, and every chance we had to work on the presentation during skills testing, she would leave the room talking on her cell phone.

We were in the same boat. We were told too bad, so sad when we said something. The instructors option was that there are always going to be people that don't do their job and pull their weight. So, when we met over Spring Break, we typed up everything and made our questions into a skit with four people. The first Tuesday after we came back, she came over worried when we volunteered to go first. What did we do (cause we had to let her do something)...We let her hold the poster in the corner of the room. It sucked that we got full points for the project, and because of that, she passed the class with no room to spare. I can understand your frustration b/c we had to do her work too. Just do what you have to do for your grade. Thats what matters to you. It really sinks, and this semester when we were able to make our own groups and she asked to be in mine, she was told no.

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Even the group leader strongly suggested me to hold my tongue, which is why I'm here ranting. :banghead:

"I'm doing this for me. I'm doing this for me."

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Even the group leader strongly suggested me to hold my tongue, which is why I'm here ranting. :banghead:

Who is the group leader? Another student? A Prof?

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Who is the group leader? Another student? A Prof?

just another student

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I would wait till after this is done (next week maybe) and approach an instructor for guidance in a hypothetical situation that a student just flat out refuses to participate in project work and see what they say.

I think for tomorrow....that ship has sailed unfortunately.....

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