Is this type of group-based outcome common among aspies?
swbluto
Veteran

Joined: 26 Feb 2011
Age: 38
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,899
Location: In the Andes, counting the stars and wondering if one of them is home to another civilization
Hey, this is one of my recent journal entries relating to a group project that I *mysteriously* recently failed. I was wondering if this life event is common to aspergers students? Everything in the group seems to be going fine, there's no "out of the ordinary problems" as far as you can tell (You weren't angry or contentious with anyone), no problems were mentioned, you complete all of the assigned functionality, then your team fails you at the end while someone who put in substantially less work passes with flying colors.
I'm just wondering if this might hint of tale-tell signs of aspergers or something else that relates to poor social insight. Or maybe I'm just a dislikable person with impoverished social insight, but not necessarily autistic? My IQ is definitely above 130, so it's definitely not due to a lack of (measurable) intelligence.
[Please disregard all mentionings of my suggestion that I might have autism in my journal entry. I would rather for someone to make an objective assessment than to be too influenced by my subjective judgment.]
Anyways, here's the journal entry.
=================================
I put in the same or more amount of work into the group project as my team members, but yet somehow I ended up with the grade of 2.0 which effectively fails me, and the only person in the past who has failed this course ( At least according to the teacher) was someone who didn't show up to meetings and didn't work on the project at all. And the kicker is, I got a 4.0 in every other computer science class. I am suspecting either memory factors ( and it would have to be really really bad and I don't think my memory is that bad; if it was, I would think it would have impacted my other courses' grading, unless somehow it relates to speech production and group interaction.) or autism; Since this course's grading depended on peer evaluation, I am thinking that autism might've affected my social dynamics in the course which affected their evaluation of me, regardless of my actual work output. I am thinking if this is an accurate prognosticator of my future employment regardless of the amount of hard work and dedication I put into the project, then I really hate my life and I really really want to cry. Except I don't, because if that is the case, then it is fate, and fate is merciless and I accept that despite the best of my intentions, hard work and efforts. There are some things that humans cannot control, and usually I am not this fatalistic, but it really seems to be the case this is something I cannot change, even though I will remain as hopeful and optimistic as I can and optimize where I can. That is the best I can do.
[given how bewildered and clueless I am (intuition wise) about how exactly I obtained a 2.0, this implies a significant lack of social insight, which itself heavily implies autism.]
I just got a response from one of my team members and he said that he didn't see anything wrong with my involvement in the course, and his only remark on the social dynamics was that I might have been a bit shy. So now, I have chao and the team leader, and also the input from the teacher to gather.
what is funny, is that the team leader graduated this quarter and his peer evaluation was the most significant, so if he had an ax to grind or there were something he really disliked about me, this would be a fine time to effectively throw the ax in my chest.
okay, I just got a reply from my teacher and he arranged for a meeting on the first day of school. Apparently, the team Captain thought there was a problem at the beginning and he thought he could resolve the problem as the course went on, but apparently it didn't. this is incredibly funny because I was not aware of any problems and I had completed all of the assignments assigned to me and they were completely working and during debugging, there were absolutely no problems that came up. Even looking in hindsight, I don't even see where there were any problems. Granted, there was a time when there was a problem with the layout of the software, but I had corrected it when told about it.
of course, when I am talking about "Assignments" and associated problems, I'm talking about the actual problems assigned to me and their corresponding deadlines. there might have been problems with the communicational dynamics, though, and this may have been related to expressional/receptional deficits or autistic deficits and I have the feeling this might have significantly affected their perception of the situation (or, yeah of course, mine.).
Anyways, the teacher noticed that the difference in perception between mine and my teammates are vastly different. So, there is definitely something awry and it is incredibly funny I wasn't even remotely aware of any problems until after the quarter concluded and saw my grade. it is one thing to be a slacker and for the team captain to berate the slacker, and the slacker is ultimately aware of his slacking, but is entirely another when you think you've completed a significant amount of work, you complete all that which is requested of you, and you think everything is hunky Dory with your team and your involvement in it (as far as completing the assigned functionality; the "social dynamics" might be another story),and then at the end, you find out that they didn't think so and you had no idea until the *very* end.
It would not be unusual for someone with AS to struggle in a group environment with respect to things like this.
A potential solution is for the person with AS to learn how to become a group leader such that they are aware of everything that needs to be done and they define the channels of communication within the group, so there is no ambiguity, and they can ensure everyone knows what needs to be done.
I had a situation similar to yours with a course. I got average points for class participation when I know I participated in class more than most of the students. I can only speculate that despite my participation, the instructor was not satisfied with some aspect of the quality of my participation. I didn't have time to dispute my grade before it was officially posted. It was a good grade but could have been better, and though I feel he was generous in his grading, I couldn't help but be a bit irked on principal.
Another thing that bothered me about the course was that he took attendance, which in itself did not bother me, but most of the students had befriended at least one other student and though I couldn't prove it, it was common practice for people to skip class and have their friend sign their name for them so they would still get attendance credit.
I had happened to be taking a light load at the time, and enjoyed the course sufficiently as to not to miss any lectures, but had I been taking a heavy load and had a need to miss a course should I have had to complete assignments, or study for another, I would have been at a vast disadvantage, as all of those students who had friends willing to engage in acts of dishonesty would have gotten credit, despite their non attendance, that I would not have.
Similar Topics | |
---|---|
Why does stuttering seem common in ASD? |
03 Jun 2025, 12:26 pm |
Type 2 Diabetes |
15 Apr 2025, 10:34 pm |
Hello. New to the group. |
18 Apr 2025, 4:52 pm |
Leaving The Group Home |
29 Mar 2025, 3:38 pm |