High school students try to strong arm their top-of-the class compatriot into doing the entire group project for them, he refuses forcing them all to fail : 'You said do all the work or get a 0%. I choose 0%'

Students in lab coats look through microscopes while making notes
A top student turned the tables on their freeloading classmates by exploiting a grading policy

Group projects in high school teach us an important lesson: whenever you gather a group of strangers and task them with a common goal, the result is likely to be chaos and nothing being accomplished.

This, of course, is why juries are the backbone of the justice system.

Everyone has not-so-fond memories of their time in school doing group projects. 

Seemingly, everyone has a story where they were the member who was made to do a disproportionate amount of the work. But why don't we ever hear stories where people admit that they were the lazy ones in the group who didn't do any of the work? Whatever happened to those people? The only conclusion I can safely come to, the only explanation that makes sense, is that some people are liars.

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Author image for Brad Dickson Brad Dickson
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  • 01
    Students work together on a school science project
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

    The image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

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  • 02
    In high school I was in a science class that I did very well in. I was top of the class and scored nearly 100% on every test and assignment. The teacher assigned a big group project that would take about a week to complete with a team of four students. Groups were randomly assigned, and unfortunately, I was paired up with three kids who were barely passing the class.
    via wheresmychin

  • This student was a top performer in their high school science class. When they were assigned a major group project with three failing classmates, the classmates' great idea to save their grade was not to do it themselves and get a passing grade; no, they decided to strong-arm the high-achieving kid into doing the project for them. This, of course, was a masterful plan; the ambitious student would never willingly take a bad grade. 

    But, the thing is, the ambitious student in this case stood nothing to lose; the class had a policy where your lowest score would be struck off your final grade for the class, and even if this wasn't the case, they could have failed the project and still passed the class. So, the injustice they faced also presented a chance to get even. The decided they weren't going to do any of the work and take the 0% but also make their sandbagging group members fail as a result.

  • 03
    In high school I was in a science class that I did very well in. I was top of the class and scored nearly 100% on every test and assignment. The teacher assigned a big group project that would take about a week to complete with a team of four students. Groups were randomly assigned, and unfortunately, I was paired up with three kids who were barely passing the class.
    via wheresmychin
  • 04
    In class we are given time to make plans together as a group to divide up work, examine the instructions, schedule times outside of school to meet up, etc. It was at this point my teammates decided to tell me that they weren't going to do any work on the project. I asked why, and they said they knew I really cared about my grade, so they figured I would do it on my own.
    via wheresmychin
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  • 05
    They were so lazy they were banking on the fact I wouldn't tank my own. grade, so they could benefit off of my hard work when I inevitably got a good score on the project. I was ped and said that was unfair. They dug in and said "Too bad. Now you either do this project yourself or you'll get a 0%." Cue malicious compliance.
    via wheresmychin
  • 06
    Now, I could have gone to the teacher and he probably would have sorted this. out, but a better idea struck me. So I said "Fine, you win. I'll do what you say." They smiled smugly and thought that was that.
    via wheresmychin
  • 07
    But you see, this teacher had a policy that at the end of the semester your lowest grade (excluding finals) would be taken off your record. So, if you forgot to turn in an assignment or did really bad on one test, you got a mulligan so it wouldn't ruin your final grade. I had never done poorly on an assignment all year, so I never needed my mulligan. However, I knew that these shitheads all did. If they got a big fat zero on a crucial assignment, they would probably fail the class.
    via wheresmychin
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  • 08
    So, I did exactly as they instructed. I did no work on the project all week. Just sat on it and bided my time. At the beginning of the next week all the students turned in their assignments. My team watched as I sat in my chair, unmoving.
    via wheresmychin
  • 09
    Finally one said: CLASSMATE: Hey OP, aren't you going to turn in the project?" ME: Oh, I didn't do the project. They were shocked and asked why the h I didn't do it. ME: You said do all the work or get a 0%. I choose 0%.
    via wheresmychin
  • 10
    They were all royally ped. They all had to do credit recovery over the summer. They hated my guts, but I couldn't have cared less. It was the most satisfying failing grade in my entire life.
    via wheresmychin
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  • 11
    A group of high school students present a science project
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

    The image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 12
    SunfireAlpha01 I've done this before even without the mulligan. I just ate the zero. I was written up and sent to the principal. Principal said "you'll get a zero", I replied "that's fine, I'll take a zero, I have straight As in the class, I don't care". He says "go back to class and take your zero then"
    via wheresmychin
  • 13
    I got a zero. The rest of the group also got a zero. They failed the class and had to repeat it because that zero dropped their already low grades below the cutoff. I got an A in the class anyway because I aced all the tests.
    via wheresmychin
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  • 14
    MedievalMousie I did this with a group project in college. I ended up needing a weird distribution credit in a 100 level class my senior year. I took it with a prof I'd had multiple times before. I was so bored. I'd done all the extra credit, got As on everything,
    via wheresmychin
  • 15
    and had more than 100% in the class. I didn't bother going to the prof. If I got a 0, I was still going to get an A. Although I didn't turn anything in, I still got an A on the project. Confused, I went to office hours to ask about it. The prof said that he couldn't imagine I hadn't done the work and turned it in, so he'd figured he'd misplaced our assignment, and just gave us all As. He fixed our scores.
    via wheresmychin
  • 16
    MightyClimber I was once in a group of 4 where two of us did all the work, one guy copy and pasted some Wikipedia blurbs (including citations lol) which I refused to use, and one guy did nothing at all. When I handed it in, it only had our two names on it. The other guys were SOL. I regret nothing.
    via wheresmychin
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