From elementary through to grad school, group work tends to be a dreadful exercise in learning and personal relationships – interesting at the best of times, frustrating at the worst. For slackers, it's a way out of work; for the rest of us, it's the fate of a lower grade. Whilst there are many benefits to studying in groups, system-assigned groups can be challenging, to say the least, bringing together different and sometimes clashing personalities, conflicting study habits, and varying skills and knowledge.

try not to lose your cool, avoid speculation and gossip, and encourage everyone to do the same

Making it work for everyone

Group work is not all bad news, as two heads or more can be better than one. By working in a group you can gain alternative perspectives, new ideas, evolve ideas and solutions, make new friends, increase confidence, improve communication and interpersonal skills, and practice project management. Moreover, working within a group has the added advantages of an assessment piece requiring less effort for higher quality, if the group and the work is managed well. The following are some points to consider which could be shared and expanded upon with your next group:

• Brainstorm and plan ahead on day one. Establish and agree on understanding the assignment's requirements, divide and allocate work, and finally, set priorities, due dates and meetings.


• Create a group calendar and keep it up to date. Add all meetings, due dates and reminders immediately when they are agreed upon. Google Calendar syncs well with most desktop and mobile calendar apps and is easily shareable. If you're concerned about signing up to such a service, create an alias account and use that for study-related activities.


• At the beginning of each meeting, provide a summary of your progress so far and any challenges you've encountered. This practice will encourage honesty, transparency and the opportunity to fix issues early.


• Breakdown the work into manageable and cohesive pieces, then ask the group about their strengths and knowledge. Breaking down an assignment can be tricky, but chunking parts into topics, skills or interest is a start. It's best to avoid sequential parts where one person or pair works on a piece, then when that's finished another person works on top of that, and so on. Too many sequential parts can lead to stress, missed deadlines and low quality due to limited time.


• Pad tasks with enough contingency time. In the first one or two meetings, consider each part or task in detail and add a day or two. Someone may fall sick, have an unexpected quiz or visitors, or drop the subject entirely (it happens).


• Allow each person to speak in turn without interruption. If someone has nothing to add, grant them a meeting off, but encourage them to contribute at the next. After each turn, clarify what the person said by rephrasing it and taking notes.


• Record meetings if necessary. Use a mobile device and set a timer so that it's easy to backtrack and listen to the recording at a later date. Share each meeting's recording on Dropbox or Google Drive as soon as possible.


• Set expectations on the get-go. This goes further than completing each assigned part of the work, but also what grade is desired and expected, as well as the fact that poor contributions and cooperation won't go unreported.


• Editing should be accounted for when scheduling parts or tasks. A few days should be given to one or, at most, two people to be charge of. Gluing together different writing styles and individually created work can be as challenging as research and writing, and a disjointed paper that doesn't flow or gel well can be the difference between one grade to the next.

Ironing out the kinks

When things turn sour, and they often do, try not to lose your cool, avoid speculation and gossip, and encourage everyone to do the same. Once in the workplace, the shuffling of resources (including the human kind) generally goes smoothly without bickering or finger-pointing. This is because as soon as life comes up, it's noted and someone else is appointed to the task. And because reasons are legitimate, they're accepted, people move on, and the cogs keep turning. Even in grad school, somehow professionalism is lost when it comes to group work, but why waste time and energy arguing when instead you could be making up for the loss or fixing the issue?

• Like in the workplace, it's important to provide feedback when given the chance. If something has gone terribly wrong, someone has consistently been apathetic or troublesome, you were beaten against all odds but turned out to be in the right at the expense of the assignment, say so. If you've been transparent throughout the assignment, providing this feedback should come as no surprise. You'll feel better about it and may have a chance to redeem yourself or the group's grade.


• You may feel more pressure to produce quality work, but remember that if everyone puts in the effort, the result could be much higher than expected or possible alone.


• If there's one or two people that stir up tension in the group, invite a mediator to chair each meeting or at least until the mood improves. Ideally, the mediator would be a lecturer or teacher, tutor or someone else either familiar with the subject or mature and calm enough to manage group discussion.


• Be transparent and proactive about difficulties faced. If you've hit a roadblock, inform your partner and/or group, seek assistance and adjust expectations. Usually there's someone who's committed to achieving a high grade, so they'll be keen to help.


• Don't allow clashing personalities get in the way of making progress. A group of quiet people clashing is a rare sight, but if you have overly domineering characters in your group that steer the assignment on the wrong path, say so. Often, leader-types are compensating for quieter voices, or so they think. But the reality is that they'll more than likely be willing to listen to other opinions and may be relieved about sharing a self-appointed leadership role.


• Avoid bullying and never, ever take the side of the bully to save yourself – it's a selfish act that doesn't work in the long-term. Appreciate that others may be going through a difficult time and not want to share their problems with a group of strangers or acquaintances. If there's someone that can't commit to a large piece of work, consider giving them the role of project manager or minute taker. This person's role could be keeping the group on track, sending reminders about upcoming meetings, gluing together or editing the final draft, providing commentary on drafts, summarizing articles, and so on.