This story is about a student who knew the rules, played the game, and let the bullies get the result they deserved.
Juggling Life and University
A decade ago, I started studying for my second undergraduate degree: Game Development. I was also working full time. Life was a juggling act: fifty hour work week, ten hours of class and another ten on assignments and extracurricular shenanigans. Sleep becomes optional, caffeine becomes a life source, and my social life? Forget it.
The Group Project Trap
One of the subjects I had to take was MPU 3113 Hubungan Etnik. Standard group project setup: teams of four, randomly assigned.Luck and Fate were fickle as I got teamed up with what can generously be described as a slacker squad. You know the type: Charming, ambitious in avoiding work coupled with a strong belief that someone else’s hard work would carry them.
The first meeting to divide work was a catastrophe. These three sat me down and told me straight that they were not going to do the group project. “Why not?” I asked, genuinely curious and maybe a little dumbstruck. Their answer? Priceless. “We know your reputation. You ace almost every course. You work hard. So we’ll just let you do it, and we will benefit.”
I bit my tongue. Hard, to keep from laughing. I had heard of these guys. Everyone had. They thought they could gang up on me and get away with it. I was already laughing on the inside.
“Fine.” I would graciously allow them to dig their own graves.
Knowledge is Power
I have a diploma from the School of Hard Knocks and Life: Students almost never read course outlines and marking rubrics. I did. I knew the grading policy inside out. I knew exactly how to play this game.
Here’s the rule: For MPU3113, our lecturer’s policy was to remove your lowest non-exam grade from the final grade calculation. This meant you could miss an assignment or zero out on a quiz and not destroy your CGPA.
This was my cheat code to protect my CGPA and screw these slackers over.
The Plan
My plan was simple: Ace every other assignment and assessment. I kept an eye on my teammates and their lack of work ethic showed in every class and quiz. They continued doing the bare minimum, didn’t bother to attend meetings or even check if I was doing the work, and I let them think they had the advantage over me.
Submission Day Showdown
Submission Day for the project came, and all three of them showed up, smug and ready to sign the honor code. They signed it, and looked at me with that half-smile, confident that I had carried them
Then one of them realized I’d only turned in the Honor Code. One page. Nothing else. Not like the 30 or 40 page reports the other groups were turning in. “Where’s the project?” they asked, attempting casual curiosity, “You submitted early?”
“I didn’t do the project,” I said, as flat and calm as if I were announcing the weather.
They froze. Confused, incredulous, panicked all at once. “Why not?” one finally sputtered.
I gave them my best confused look, “You guys said, ‘Do it yourself or get zero.’ I said ‘fine.’ I never said I would do any work.” Then I smiled, “Oh, you misunderstood. I’m so sorry. Let me clarify: I’m fine with getting a zero.”
Silence, then muttered swearing, shock, anger, denial, and pure chaos, all concentrated in three poor, overconfident humans. They had no idea what hit them.
Sweet Results
The results were as sweet as I expected. I got a zero. And guess what? It got dropped because everything else in the semester was at least an A. My overall grade? A-. Not perfect, but more than enough to keep my CGPA at 3.8.
Meanwhile, my teammates failed MPU3113 and had to stay local to do their internship while coming back to take one class so they could graduate with the rest of their cohort.
Lessons Learned
I giggle unprofessionally every time I think about it: I avoided an entire project of work, still got an “A” in the course and graduated First Class. They thought they could play me, and they underestimated me.
There’s also a lesson here: Learn the rules of the system and you can make them work for you. The term is “malicious compliance.”
Class Dismissed
Some of my friends think I was cruel. But I played by the rules, and I made sure that everyone faced the consequences of their choices. It was a moment where unstoppable lazy, entitled energy collided spectacularly with immovable reality.
That zero was worth more than getting an A. So I was watching their faces when they realized they had failed to play me, and would have to repeat the course.
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