AITA for removing my groupmate’s name in a group exam because she did not contribute anything throughout the course?

A Reddit user (21M) shares his frustration with a groupmate who continuously failed to contribute to any group tasks throughout their university course. Despite multiple chances, the groupmate didn’t participate, even skipping the group exam.

After being asked during the exam if she was still part of the group, the Redditor decided to remove her name from the project entirely, leaving her upset. He’s now wondering if he was wrong in excluding her. Read the full story below.

‘ AITA for removing my groupmate’s name in a group exam because she did not contribute anything throughout the course?’

I (21M) am a senior in university. For one of our courses, we had a group exam, and it was that thing where you choose your grown group. We needed to be a group of 5, but we were only 3, so this one girl asked if she could be in our group.

She had a reputation for not being actively involved, but since we needed to be a group of 5, I reluctantly agreed. Throughout the course, we had group projects, to which she contributed absolutely nothing. In fact, during those group projects, she would ask us if she was a part of our group, but still contribute little to nothing.

I still added her name to our group, but I became increasingly frustrated as time went on. Then, our midterms came along, and it was a group exam where we had to be onsite to take it. To nobody’s surprise, she informed me through our class representative that she wouldn’t be going to class.

In the middle of the exam, she had the nerve to ask me if she was a part of our group, as if we did not include her the first, second, third, and fourth time. At that point, I just gave up and excluded her totally. I did not reply to her message because we wanted to focus on the exam (it was time-sensitive).

Then, afterwards, our class representative talked to me, and she sent me a screenshot of this girl asking her why I am not replying. To this day, I still did not reply to her messages and now she is pretty upset at me. So, AITA?

Here’s the comments of Reddit users:

atealein −  NTA, but if it was me I would have replied “What do you think you did that was your part of the group project?” and leave it open ended to see how she would reply. But I understand that not replying is actually probably better for your energy and nerves.

redfoot33 −  NTA. This is one of the reasons I hate group projects. I once worked a group presentation, where one student made no effort and did not meet up for meetings. At the end of the presentation, we had to submit a hard copy of the data. We only put his first name on the cover, as we never learned his last name.

flyeTwaddle −  NTA. Sounds like you handled it well, except maybe giving too much slack early on. Group projects in school where one person doesn’t do their part is unfortunately a very good life lesson for the work world, across almost every industry.

The group should agree on expectations early, and agree to call each other out when those aren’t being met, but don’t make it personal or petty.

SavingsRhubarb8746 −  Well, you could probably have handled it better – maybe given her a warning after the first time and eliminated her from the group after the second. Possibly you could have taken the problem to your instructor for advice.

Either approach would have eased the feeling you have that you are being spiteful. But NTA – I hate group projects because they so often have a slacker in the group, and it can be hard to deal with them.

Cloverose2 −  NTA, but you definitely should have taken this to your professor ASAP. Maybe if you were generous you could have given her a few assignments while tracking her participation.

But by the time the midterms rolled around you should have contacted the professor, showed the messages and asked to have her removed from your group.

LK_Feral −  ESH.  You missed the point of having group projects: You learn to handle people like Little Miss Slacker. When she failed to do anything on the first project, the group should have called her on it.  You could have communicated expected deliverables to team members.

Set mandatory meeting times for group work.  When she failed to deliver/show up, go to the professor and explain why she needs a new group, or ask for advice on getting her to engage.  Mentorship. 🙂

Or, if the group project deliverables are certain percentages of your grade, give her ownership of the lowest percentage task.  Let her fail spectacularly and publicly. If you get high enough scores on the other sections, you’ll still pass. I’ve done the latter before.  The professor understood immediately why.

Forward-Dingo1431 −  NTA. Although, I do have questions. Why did you repeatedly tell her she was part of your group, even after she continued to NOT contribute anything to the project(s)? Did you ever tell her that if she doesn’t start contributing and participating that you would remove her from the group?

I’m not saying that an adult should have to be told these things. It’s Obvious, she’s entitled and/or oblivious or just plain lazy, but why let it happen from the start? She should have been called out the first time and told you’re out of our group or contribute like everyone else or you’re out.

TJ_Figment −  NTA. Group projects are always a pain in university especially if you end up with someone like that. For one module on my course 95% of the marks were for a semester long group project. We were in groups of 6. 5 of us did all the work with the 6th member doing a small amount that we had to redo.

We all had to indicate which parts of the project we worked on. Remember that other 5% of the marks. That was for a viva or spoken exam where the lecturer asked a series of questions about the work you’d done and the topic as a whole.

You had to pass both parts to pass the module. Guess who couldn’t explain the work they’d supposedly done or any of the module’s content. Our 6th member. The rest of us passed and they failed

finding_my_way5156 −  So the only purpose of group projects in school is to teach you to be collaborative with others, and it simulates a real world working environment – or at least as close as it’ll get at school.

NTA but also perhaps if you plan on working in teams at a company later, if you work on your leadership skills and team management skills, this will only help you later on in life.

The type A person in the group who insists on doing everything is nearly as annoying as the one who doesn’t do anything as they take charge but tend to edge everyone else out in fear of getting a bad grade. Unfortunately this tendency to not work well with others will count against you later on in life.

Hypatia415 −  NTA College instructor here. I require that only the people who worked on the project get their name on it. Each semester of group projects this comes up and I have no problem giving a zero to someone who left their teammates in the lurch. They can talk to me if they want to make up the work.

Do you think the Redditor was justified in removing the groupmate’s name from the exam, or was he too harsh given that they needed her as part of the group? How would you have handled the situation? Share your thoughts below!