College student is forced to do group project alone without help from partners, gets rewarded by professor when he discovers who did all the work: ‘I got an A, and strangely, they stopped talking to me’

Author image for Bar Mor Hazut
Bar Mor Hazut • Senior Editor
Jul 11, 2026 2:00 PM EDT

Have you ever taken part in a group project in which everybody did an equal share of the work?

If you have, well then, congratulations, you are truly one in a million. Most of us, the unlucky regular folks, usually find ourselves doing all the work for people we barely know, just because we want a good grade and can't trust others to do their part.

Unless you belong to those who have no issue letting other people do all the work for them, you probably know what we're talking about. Whether it was in high school or college, group projects are a big part of class, and finding partners who are willing to put in as much work as you do is rare. Try as you might, you are most likely to find yourself doing all the work while your partners take credit for it. 

After you become the victim of this setup one too many times, it's best to have a plan B. Something that would ensure that even if you were the one doing all the work, other people wouldn't be able to take credit for it. That is exactly what this college student did in the story she shared on Reddit's r/MaliciousCompliance.

Not only was this student roped into doing a project on an extremely boring subject, but they quickly found themselves working all alone. Even the girl who chose the boring project never bothered to do any of the action assignments. So, this student decided to make it clear to everyone, including the professor, that no one else worked on the project but them, hoping that it would teach the lazy partners an important lesson.

During the class presentation, the student memorized all the details and left the rest standing quietly without anything worthwhile to add. Even during the Q&A, the lazy partners were frozen in place while they had to look at the student for answers. The professor immediately realized what had happened and made sure that only the one who worked on the project got the grade they deserved…

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  • 01
    Young college student presenting a project alone.
    via Getty Images

    Young college student presenting a project alone.

    Subject is a model.

  • 02

    How I Handled Being the Only Person in a Group Project Who Gave a Single S

    Long ago, I was a university student majoring in literature -- naturally, I had a schedule packed with lit classes, and this group project took place during a course entitled Madness in Classic Literature.
    via Sensitive_Nature2990
  • 03
    It was fun; the professor was zany, and the topics. were rather interesting. Then, one day, the dreaded group project assignment arrived, where we were to split up into groups of three and do a 30-minute presentation on madness in any era of literature.
    via Sensitive_Nature2990
  • 04
    I ended up with two studious-seeming partners, one of whom was emphatically invested in doing our project on madness in 1800s Scotland.
    via Sensitive_Nature2990
  • 05
    She was persuasive, we were convinced, but when we told the professor, he kind of...winced? Then he held us after class, asked us if we were sure, she certainly was, and he kind of absently nodded and said he'd help us find a couple of sources since literature in 1800s Scotland is apparently more scarce than one would think.
    via Sensitive_Nature2990
  • 06
    We ended up with permission to cover Lord Byron by association, along with an incredibly long and dry text about some guy who is either hallucinating or having an existential reli_ous experience with the devil himself.
    via Sensitive_Nature2990
  • 07
    Now, I've read some boring texts in my day, but this piece was far and away the most mind- numbing collection of words my brain. has ever scraped itself against.
    via Sensitive_Nature2990
  • 08
    To make matters worse, it soon became very, very apparent that neither of my partners, including the girl who was gagging over 1800s Scotland to start with, had a single intention of doing any of the work for this project.
    via Sensitive_Nature2990
  • 09
    A group of students studying together in a coffee shop.
    via Brooke Cagle

    A group of students studying together in a coffee shop.

    Subjects are models.

  • 10
    They didn't even read the material, not even the relatively short Lord Byron poem. Woe. So, I just dove in and did the entire project myself, including the required handouts that we were supposed to print out for the class to follow along with our presentation.
    via Sensitive_Nature2990
  • 11
    That's when I decided to get petty. I didn't want to be that student who rats on fellow students, but I also didn't want my partners (especially the girl whose love of Scotland forced me into this mess) to get off entirely scot-free.
    via Sensitive_Nature2990
  • 12
    So, I memorized everything. I mean everything. And for the worksheet, I basically wrote down bullet points that revealed nothing about the texts or their contents.
    via Sensitive_Nature2990
  • 13
    The day of the presentation arrives, and I meet my partners in class and give them the worksheets.
    via Sensitive_Nature2990
  • 14
    They're relieved that I seem to know what I'm doing and suspect absolutely nothing. Our time comes, and we stand up in front of the class, with them on either side of me, and I pass out the worksheets and proceed to talk about madness in 1800s Scotland from memory, going into exhaustive detail on Lord Byron and whatever the f protagonist (I think his name was Tim) from the other text.
    via Sensitive_Nature2990
  • 15
    My partners were silently, gravely nodding along for the entire 30 minutes. I finished speaking, and then came the Q&A portion of the presentation -- fellow classmates were encouraged to ask us questions about our era/authors/etc...and it lasted about 15 minutes.
    via Sensitive_Nature2990
  • 16
    So, I picked a student who asked something about the reli_jous aspects of the dry af text.
    via Sensitive_Nature2990
  • 17
    I could have answered, but instead, I paused a long, pregnant pause, and gave my partners a chance to answer instead, if they so wished.
    via Sensitive_Nature2990
  • 18
    I let the excruciatingly silent seconds drag on every single time, looking slowly to both of them with each question and taking my sweet time before jumping in.
    via Sensitive_Nature2990
  • 19
    Within a couple of minutes, it became incredibly evident to everyone there that I was the only person in our group project who knew a single god d ed thing about madness in 19th- century Scottish literature.
    via Sensitive_Nature2990
  • 20
    So sure I did the whole project, and let them think it was fine up until it wasn't.
    via Sensitive_Nature2990
  • 21
    Petty? Absolutely. But by god, if I had to read that awful story because someone else watched Outlander too many times, then I'm going to comply maliciously.
    via Sensitive_Nature2990
  • 22
    Edit: I'm happy to report that the professor pulled me aside after the fact and said that, given our performances, he would be grading me and my partners separately.
    via Sensitive_Nature2990
  • 23
    I got an A, and strangely, they stopped talking to me after that group project, so I have no idea what grades they received.
    via Sensitive_Nature2990
  • 24
    Bad enough to cut contact, though. Bless.
    via Sensitive_Nature2990

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studying students presentation work group projects grades Professors college student entitled people
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