Horrible Lab Partner

[Obaidi]

Hey guys.

I've been stuck in Gen Chm II this entire semester with a horrible lab partner, and he's starting to get under my skin. He's the type that does not care about whether he gets a D/C, cries about how hard the course is, and rambles on about his personal life throughout the whole lab (which isn't why I'm bothered by him).

Throughout the semester, he's been making me repeat entire procedures because he does the most basic shi* wrong, for example, not labeling beakers when I ask him to and then playing shuffle with them, measuring water with a pipette when we need to be precise in our measurements. This guy even lies to our professor when the prof knows what went wrong in the experiment, WHILE I AGREE TO OUR MISTAKE.

What's worse is that he has the nerve to ask me, a day before the due date, for the lab report. I always ask if there is a question in specific that he's having trouble with, and then lies and says "yeah page x," and then copies the other pages the next day. I'm seriously contemplating sending him BS answers, so this douch* learns his lesson.
-End Rant-
Anyone else had similar experiences?

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[Conflagration]

I had an experience in Orgo I with a girl behind me that didn’t set up her fractal distillation column correctly, and her hose that was set up backwards wound up covering my entire lab notebook in water. I was LIVID.

She was a nice enough person, but I didn’t trust anything by their table for the rest of the semester.

 

[MLC45]

I think most of us have had partners that didn’t do their fair share of work. I agree it’s frustrating, when it’s your grade that’s on the line. Many times I’ve done experiments by myself. As I performed the work I would tell him the results and if he wrote it down great, if not, that was his problem. When it came to asking for answers, I would give them only that specific page, no more, so they couldn’t copy more. I would also be the first person to turn it in.
I had one girl tell the professor that I refused to work with her, so I got deducted 10% for being a bad partner. I explained to the professor that I gave her 30% of the answers because she didn’t do any work and refused to give her anymore. I got my 10% back.
Point is we’ve all be there and it even happens in the real world. People trying to get a free ride and taking advantage of others. Start learning to do things your self and practice saying NO! It’s not fair, but unfortunately it is common.

 

[caffeine jitters]

Personally, I didn't mind when I had lab partners that did not know what they were doing. I just checked to see if the steps they took were done correctly, and I kinda watched over them when they were doing their work so I could butt in if I caught anything crazy. Not in a harsh way, but as was said above, this is your grade on the line. Explain that to them if you need to. However, I would not exclude them from participating because that does make you a bad partner in my opinion... be inclusive.

 

[MLC45]

Personally, I didn't mind when I had lab partners that did not know what they were doing. I just checked to see if the steps they took were done correctly, and I kinda watched over them when they were doing their work so I could butt in if I caught anything crazy. Not in a harsh way, but as was said above, this is your grade on the line. Explain that to them if you need to. However, I would not exclude them from participating because that does make you a bad partner in my opinion... be inclusive.

I guess I should have clarified that often times they wouldn’t do the work and if I waited for them to do it I would still be there waiting for them. I agree if the partner doesn’t understand then absolutely help them become better, but if it’s because they are lazy and just what to be spoon fed the answers, then Learn to say “no”.

 

[Kurk]

1. Tell the instructor

2. Otherwise you're going to have to just deal with it. Put on your passive-aggressive pre-dent hat and just do the work yourself and tell them to *explicit* off. What are they going to do? Complain to the instructor that their lazy ass isn't involved?

 

[Iroh]

1. Tell the instructor

2. Otherwise you're going to have to just deal with it. Put on your passive-aggressive pre-dent hat and just do the work yourself and tell them to *explicit* off. What are they going to do? Complain to the instructor that their lazy ass isn't involved?

No, they are going to go to law school.

 

[Conflagration]

I think @Kurk is right- you have two choices. Grin and bear it, or notify the professor.

At my institution, him copying you like that would be an Honor Code violation. You may have a similar policy at your school. I’d look into that if he proves to be consistently slacking off and doing nothing. You shouldn’t be carrying him to a good grade because he lucked out and got someone who needs the grade.

 

[887194]

I have probably only had 1-2 good lab partners in my undergrad bio,chem,physics,physiology courses. I do my best to explain to my lab partner and work with them however, I didn't mind doing the lab myself as i learned more. But you can always notify your TA or professor if its a big problem.

 

[Symphonies]

You shouldn't be sending him your report, don't do that anymore. It's an academic violation on both of you, him because he's copying your answers and you because you're providing the answers

 

[Obaidi]

Thanks for all the input guys!
I'm definitely going to grind out these last couple of labs and be more of an authoritarian. No more responding to his "hey bro, did u do the lab" texts as well. I'll be the first one to turn in my paper, and hopefully, he doesn't go through the pile searching for it (he's a national treasure).

 

[Alpha Centauri]

Just write it off as a loss and do the work I don't see the big deal in the scenario. He'll get finessed by exams in lecture anyways. Otherwise split the work 50/50 and don't get an A in the course

 

[Dhudez]

Ohhhh ok hold on, I don't know if any of you remember my post from last semester about my issue in lab.... If not, you should probably take a look at that.... DO NOT send anything to this lousy partner of yours. Your partner seems to be pretty careless and irresponsible so really you shouldn't trust him with your report answers. If you get caught for cheating, then it'll be a REAL problem.

 

[Incis0r]

Thanks for all the input guys!
I'm definitely going to grind out these last couple of labs and be more of an authoritarian. No more responding to his "hey bro, did u do the lab" texts as well. I'll be the first one to turn in my paper, and hopefully, he doesn't go through the pile searching for it (he's a national treasure).

These people are not going away. They'll always be there. And while you're right to "grind it out" just to get through it, it could be frustrating to do it over and over. You have to set boundaries.

I remember my lab partner in OChem didn't work well as a teammate (hogged everything, stood in front of the working space so I couldn't see much if anything, was a total gunner). After seeing this for a few sessions, I pulled him aside and let him know to chill out and that we were both doing this experiment together. He became much more cooperative after that.

Point is: don't hesitate to confront if someone is doing something you don't like. You don't need to be liked by him. Just need to do your work with him.

That way, at least there's a chance he'll come around and you guys can actually work together efficiently instead of silently resenting each other for the term.

 

[helloboys]

Ahhh, the social loafer. Describes me perfectly.