Getting stuck with the "Smart" kids

In one of my math classes, our tests were done in groups. Sometimes, we would pick out our own groups. Other times, our teacher would choose our groups for us.

I have never been a social creature. Making friends and fitting in was never easy. When we first had to select our own groups, I had no idea who to turn to. There were a couple people in my class who invited me to join them. Once they found out that having me in their group was good for their grades, I joined them regularly.

Perhaps they were using me a little bit. I didn’t mind and I still don’t. I feel that I handled these group tests the way that I was supposed to. I worked with my group and helped them understand. They were nowhere near the top of the class. They might not have picked up what our teacher was telling them, but they seemed to follow what I was saying.

When my teacher assigned groups for a test, I wound with with some of the more advanced students. Although my grade was the top in the class, I was surprised when my group members finished before me. Rather than wait on the inferior student with a higher grade, they had me copy their work. The group concept doesn’t work as well when you have all members working independently and the fastest student has the others, including the student with the highest score, simply copy the work.

During the test, members of my group complained about previous assigned groups that they had worked with. More specifically, they were talking about the two students that I normally worked with. Apparently, those two students were ruining test scores. I even heard talks about asking the teacher to take those tests off of their grades. I found this to be a huge annoyance since I actually scored quite well when I worked with them.

After we were done with the tests and had them scored, I found out that it was my worst test of the year. I looked through some of the questions that I had missed, and there were some surprising errors. I remember that there was a question involving a plane making a one degree descent. My group thought that meant a nosedive. Perhaps if I had actually done the test myself instead of copying my group I might have caught the mistake. Better yet, maybe if I had taken the test with the dumb kids instead of the smart kids, I would have received a better grade. I guess smart people just aren’t as smart as I had previously thought.