With the beginning of the new semester all the new group projects start. And with that the chance of having a wonderful, interactive and insightful experience of knowledge and ideas coming together. Or maybe rather a stressful and annoying time, because either group members don’t participate or participate really badly. Which leads to a lot of extra work for you and the remaining group members. But like every new start, you get a chance to start from zero again. And for that new start I have 5 tips for you on how to have a successful group project.
1. Start early with the project
It sounds cheesy, everyone always says that, but it’s really true. If you sit together with your group members in the first weeks and divide the work, you will feel less stressed. Everyone can then work in their own pace, no matter if that means doing the work on the night before it’s due or weeks earlier. In the first weeks of the semester you’re also less stressed than you’ll be in late October/ November, with less other assignments and midterms to think about.
2. Have multiple due dates
Most students work better under pressure. So if the structure of your class not already has multiple due dates for the group projects, make up your own. Make your own deadlines for parts of the project, to make sure you’re making progress and will be finished on time.
3. Do check-ups
Especially when you don’t know your group members it’s important to do check-ups. Do multiple meetings during the semester to see if all group members are still on the same page about ideas and what you’re writing about. And check if the style of your writing matches up, so you don’t have to deal with that in the last week, when the project is due.
4. Let an outside person read the end product
While writing about a certain topic for weeks you can easily get a tunnel vision. You’ve reread your and your group members text hundred times so you might oversee the spelling errors and other mistakes. That’s why I’d advise you to let an outside person read your end product. It doesn’t matter who, maybe someone’s mum, sibling, grandparent etc. This person can you give you from an outside perspective really insightful feedback, you then can use to make your project even better.
5. Calculate enough time for the last corrections
That’s a part a lot of people underestimate. The last corrections. The feedback from the outside person, the spelling errors or simply matching up the texts from different people. Calculate at least a week, when you have a chance even two weeks in for that. Then you’ll have enough time and won’t be so stressed. Good luck!