Slackers tried to pile a group project on straight-A student — but he ensured it backfired spectacularly on them

Academic assignments are always a struggle to complete, but it's more frustrating when you are paired with a group of kids who slack off in studies. This situation has put a lot of us in trouble since the studious kid ends up bearing the entire load. However, this Reddit user shared a story on September 27, detailing how he found a way to teach his lazy teammates a lesson that they would never forget!

u/wheresmychin shared a hilarious way in which he maliciously complied with classmates who expected him to do their group work — alone. The author, who was in the Science Stream during high school, did well in studies and was the topper of his class. During one incident, the teacher assigned the class a big group assignment, which would take a week to complete. When the groups were randomly assigned, the Reddit user was unfortunately paired with three students who slacked. When the team members were expected to pitch their plans and divide their work for the assignment, his team decided to load all the work on the Reddit user. They knew he cared about his grades and hence expected him to do all the work alone. "Too bad. Either you do it yourself or get a 0%," they said.

The straight-A student didn't see this coming and was frustrated about his teammates being lazy and trying to benefit from his hard work. Although he wanted to inform the teacher, he decided to devise a plan instead to make them — pay.

Maliciously complying with their demand, the Reddit user decided not to do the work and received a 0% grade. He told his teammates, "Fine, you win. I’ll do what you say," as they smiled smugly, unaware of what he had planned early on. Unbeknownst to the teammates, the teacher had a policy where each student's lowest grade, except for the finals, would be dropped. Hence, if a student who has been consistently performing well in the entire academic year fails to do one assignment or does poorly on a test, it would not affect their final grade. The Reddit user, who was a topper and had never missed an assignment in the past, did not need a mulligan, unlike their classmates, for whom this assignment was a crucial test. Without it, they would fail the grade.

The Reddit user followed exactly what his teammates said; he did not do any work, and when it was time to turn in the assignment, he sat as his teammates kept asking him where the assignment was. Then he shot back, "You said do all the work or get a 0%. I chose 0%." All hell broke loose as the teammates had to do credit recovery over the summer. The Reddit user's experience mirrors the study authored by Burhanuddin Yasin, Omar Khalifa Burhan, Ika Apriani Fata, Faisal Mustafa, and Endang Komariah in 2022, which explored the impact of free riding and social loafing on group discussions in cooperative learning settings. The researchers found that such behaviors negatively affect group dynamics and individual perceptions of fairness, leading to decreased engagement and productivity.

Soon after the post went viral, several Reddit users hailed the student for delivering a reality check to people who enjoy free riding on others' efforts. u/Honest-Pepper8229 commented, "Sometimes the nuclear option is the only option. Deliciously applied in this case."

u/ConstructionSlow8872 wrote, "Sometimes I enjoy seeing a repeat; this is one of those times. Brilliant!" u/zaubercore commented, "To be fair, it's really, really, really stupid of the kids to ignore the fact there's a mulligan and also just outright tell you to do it by yourself instead of just not contributing good stuff."

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