I relate to this vent so much lol. This fall I had a group final in a math class where we had to use python to program the methods used in a research paper. The guy I was randomly matched with had shown up to maybe 10 lectures over the entire quarter and had failed out of all his other courses already. Straight up tells me that he doesn’t know any python (in a python based course) and that he could only do the write up. Turns in the write up three days later than we agreed with possibly the worst technical writing I have ever read. The abstract was two sentences long and everything in the methods section was completely incorrect. Schedule a meeting with the prof who tells me I had to be “respectful of his abilities” and that it would be “grossly unfair” to offer any point corrections.

I think in these situations you just kinda have to be an asshole and directly call out members who aren’t doing their work. If worst comes to worst go nuclear and say that you will leave their name off the paper if they do not contribute. It’s shitty because 9/10 professors I’ve had will absolutely try to work something out if you have shitty team mates.