If you’ve ever taken classes at a relatively small high school or college you’ve probably run into a few that have a group project aspect to them. These can easily be the best or worst part of a class, all depending on the dynamic of people working together. Due to the range in personality types that you’ll end up working with, you’re going to run into at least a few of these kinds of partners by the time you graduate. This also means you’ve definitely been “that guy” to other people in a group project as well.

The first type of partner, that you hope won’t be in your group, is the random kid that never shows up to anything. “What was that kid’s name again? Are they still even in the class?” By the time it’s all done you forgot that there was supposed to be another person in your group to begin with. You have to work with a man down but chances are they wouldn’t have been much help if they actually showed up anyway.

You may have encountered someone that does his or her part of the presentation and was really helpful but then doesn’t show up to actually present it. Because of this you end up reading their slides off the PowerPoint word for word. It doesn’t count against you personally, but the presentation would have sounded a lot better with them there. You don’t quite get how someone can do all of his or her work and not stick around to get credit for it.

There’s also that one person who takes over and does everyone’s work for them. Either they’re calling you incompetent or they’re just scarred from past projects and know not to put too much trust in the group. They live by the rule: “if you want something done right, do it yourself.” You might feel guilty about not doing your share of work but you’ve definitely lucked out if you have this type of group member over some of the others.

Usually there’s someone that’s really bad at public speaking and forgets everything that they were supposed to say. Yikes. It definitely makes for an awkward presentation but you’re mostly just happy it wasn’t you.

The group would not be complete without the person who just talks the whole time and doesn’t actually do anything. This may be the only person you remain friends with after you aren’t forced to meet with these people to work on the project. They’re fun to have around and usually somehow know what they’re talking about even though you’ve never seen them do any actual research.

There’s someone that always has a scheduling conflict. They’re way too busy to meet with the rest of the group. If you finally find a time that no one has class, a club meeting or a sudden sickness that person can only stay for a half hour tops.

Sometimes you’re with someone that is super stressed out and freaks out about the project the whole time. They hype up the teacher to be a super hard grader and assure you that the project you’ve been working on isn’t good enough. Both of you will be a bag of nerves by the time you actually stand up in front of the class, and in the end it won't actually have been so bad.

The person that is not at all worried about how it’s going to turn out. “We got this guys.” This is usually the same person that brags about never doing any of the reading or homework because they are good at making stuff up on the spot in class. Having someone so laid back can be good to have around if there’s also a really stressed out group member.

So, which one are you?