One of the most groan-inducing things to come out of a teacher’s mouth is “get into groups for your next assignment.” Although picking your partners makes the task a little easier, group work is still a challenge. It doesn’t matter how close you are with your friends, working with them on a project is guaranteed to be at least a bit of a struggle. As much as I hate to be a bearer of bad news, working with others as common in the real world as it is in classrooms so it is just something we all need to deal with.

Top Tips for Surviving Group Projects

Understand the project

Make sure you know everything that needs to be done for your project or assignment. Once you have a handle on what everything is and what everyone can do, it makes it much easier to divide the work – which can be a much better system for you group.

Use an agenda

Without leadership and structure group projects can quickly become chaotic, overwhelming and stressful. To make that easier, make sure every meeting has a goal and everyone has a chance to speak. Laying out what needs to be covered beforehand makes meetings run much smoother and faster. Plus, it is an easy way to ensure that everyone is on the same page.

Utilize different strengths

The best part about working with other people is that they bring something to the table that you may not. Some people love design while others love to write, if you can incorporate each person’s interest into the project you can get the best reward – in the case of a class project that means an A+.

Be positive

Seems like a silly reminder but people often get frustrated during projects. If everyone stays positive and focused it will be a much better experience and you can get the job done without any added pressure!

Good luck!

Kirsti McNabney, Class of 2015
Originally posted on http://www.notyourhistory.com