about a month ago, my CS2301 tutorial class was split up into random groups of four to write a report proposal. so my group consisted of a vietnamese guy, a PRC girl, a singaporean girl and me. together, we came up with an outline for the report.

but actually, the word "together" isn't that accurate, since the PRC girl basically contributed nothing. and it's not an exaggeration to say that she contributed nothing since she didn't contribute a single word in the outline. so it was the three of us doing a four-person's share of work.but never mind, because for the actual report writing, the group was further split into two halves, the vietnamese and PRC in one, the other singaporean girl and i in another. good good, because i was hoping i wouldn't have to partner the PRC girl. but alas, i thanked my lucky stars too early because i still ended up doing most of the report by myself. the deadline was today, and i spent most of yesterday rushing the report. my partner didn't even bother SMSing me or coming online to discuss the report even though she knew we had to submit the report today. and when i told her to come online at 7pm, she didn't until 12am. good for her, because by then i had already finished the whole 13-page report by myself, and all she had to do was add any changes she might want, and send it back to me for some final editing. she said sorry for making me do all the work, and with that, she went offline. so i waited, and waited, and waited until 2am, and still she didn't return online. SMSed her, and she came online, said "yo!" and then went offline immediately. what the...? i gave up, and went to sleep my inadequate sleep. my part was done.woke up in the morning today, SMSed her to remind her to print out the stuff. and when she brought the report to class for submission, i found that she didn't make any changes at all and i also found that since each group submitted two similar reports, all four people in the group would receive the same mark for the more well-written report. so effectively, all the four people in my group would receive the same mark for the solo work that one person did, me.

but that's not all. right after this report writing project, we had to write a user manual for a piece of software called sqirlz morph. again, the class was split into various groups of three or four for this project. but since everyone came into the class not knowing anyone else, the only friends they made were their group members from the report writing project. so, i was stuck with the PRC girl and the singaporean girl again, while the vietnamese guy decided to join his vietnamese friend in another group. tried very hard not to grimace since i know it would, once again, be me doing the work of all the other group members, and this project is going to be a lot more work than the previous one. so anyway, we're supposed to have tried out the software, sqirlz morph, before turning up for class today for discussion. after all, how can you write a user manual for a piece of software when you don't even know how the software works, right? so guess whether those two other girls tried out the software, or even bothered to install it. NO THEY DIDN'T. and i'm pretty sure the PRC girl didn't even know what "morph" means.

i seriously wonder where their sense of responsibility is. shouldn't people be more responsible when it comes to working in groups? hello? it's not just YOU that your supreme slacking and poor work attitude is gonna affect. everyone in the group has to put in his or her fair share. don't expect other people in the group to do your work for you just because you can't be bothered to.