Help me settle a dispute - finishing MSc dissertation with 10 minutes to spare

I could not have dealt with that level of stress. I submitted my MSc with at least 4 days to go

Kind of normal, except that I had to take it to be bound so couldn't still be writing in 10 minutes before handing it in. I was writing until about 10 minutes before I had to set off drop it at the print shop, then picked it up 9am the next morning to hand in by 10.

This is a

ZOMBIE THREAD

just woken up by a spammer.

I'm a lecturer and have supervised several hundred dissertations and thousands of essays.

I can tell you for a fact that lots of students work like this.

You got it in, well done. I can't live like this, but my youngest handed his in with minutes to spare and was passed on his way back by others running up the hill to hand theirs in. Don't beat yourself up, but I wouldn't make a habit of it.

Exactly! And Thank God for that - I got a distinction in the end!

I recall sitting up very late to finish typing mine, a long time ago, and in it I'd referred to 'the greatest living Mathematician, Bertrand Russell', when I woke up the following morning, all prepared to take it into College, I heard on the news that he'd died! Convinced myself I'd fail, but I didn't.

Congrats on finishing your dissertation OP. I bet it's brilliant!

Gotta say though I have ADHD and your experience is giving me the willies :) I am always worried I'll forget to submit an essay if I leave it too close to the wire, so always submit a day or two before. This means, probably that essays etc don't get the extra work they could get - but by that time tbh I'm usually sick of them and very pleased to get rid!

DD gets really stressed about missing deadlines so she does as much as she can when she can (she has CFS)
She handed her BSc dissertation in a day before the deadline because she was worried about Wi-Fi issues and missing the deadline.

I submitted my masters' dissertation with less than a minute to spare. If I had had Internet connection problems, I wouldn't have made it. It was horribly stressful and I had tried so hard to avoid leaving it until the last minute, but my brain just doesn't seem to get into gear until the end.

I am currently awaiting assessment for adhd and am virtually certain that this is my problem.

Not ideal really (not saying that in a pious way) but quite common.

My flatmate was still writing content about
half an hour before and my anxiety was through the roof!

You automatically lost 10% for late submission - I could barely breathe and it wasnt even mine :-)

@shrodingersvaccine I think you are an unusually kind department! We got absolutely no truck with late submissions owing to tech failures at the 3 unis I attended. It was capped at 50 for my masters. I once called the department secretary in Hysterical tears the day before a deadline and got mitigating circumstances but no one would be getting an extension if they submitted it late because of tech.

My flatmate’s uni had a deduction system so you could submit late but had to be penalised a few percent of your mark which increased per day.

Yikes 10 minutes is extreme. Plenty of ‘morning of’ essay submissions at my end, usually after a 4am finish and a 9/10pm check over for a missing deadline- but actually finishing 10 minutes before must be incredibly stressful. Especially for a dissertation!

I don’t think it’s a good thing to normalise - I wrote a lot of MA essays in less than 24 hours and they were all fine/good and it’s not about professionalism - but I really don’t think anyone will do as well as they could have done if they were right to the wire. I know for me it’s a deep-seated form of self sabotage and protecting my esteem (oh well I did all in one night anyway vs. see I’m great I can bash out a distinction in no time at all) and in terms of reaching my potential I know I could do better by making some changes to the way I do things.

I think they knew, kimfox! They just very kindly ‘gave’ you the extra day.

Laughing at all the people who think age brings some magical power over time.

Go on to the Mature Study and Retraining board:

www.mumsnet.com/talk/mature_students

and see just how many posters found, as I did, that middle aged study was hampered by a strange inability to sit up all night, or to work productively for hours on end.

By the close of the taught section of my MA I was beyond exhausted - the five weeks that followed when I was completing my portfolio were the most terrifyingly painful (intellectually and in terms of energy) of my life.

I sent mine in right on the deadline and my supervisor said, "Oh think you have sent a first draft by mistake", I hadn't but inadvertently & very luckily got a days extension and finished all the hideous referencing properly overnight. So your experience sounds very familiar.

yes but i don't think most of these examples are using the time fiully.

Changing it all around and adding things to it last minute is very different to a final sense check - reading outloud to spot word choice errors and clumsy sentences.

if you are adding stuff in last minute, you will add in more mistakes (and not have time to correct)

I remember running up to the door
of the department office where I had to hand one of my dissertations in as they were about to lock it! I’d had printing and transport problems but finally made it! In terms of work progress though, we had regular sessions with a tutor throughout the year and staged deadlines (title finalised, bibliography researched and submitted, first draft submitted etc) and I had regularly emailed myself the latest version so I had something backed up.
Also, unless there are practical problems like disability or childcare issues, I think why not use the full time available?

It was the same for me and I had to hand in a bound paper copy by (I think) 4pm.

that makes me sound ancient but it was only 2006! Mine took ages because of course there was only two places you could get a dissertation bound and every course wanted there’s on the same day. God I’m getting palpitations just remembering it!

Congratulations on submitting on time.

Why give yourself a hard time? You managed it 'just in time' JIT which is all that is really required. JIT is a recognised system in manufacturing and other industries.

Might it have been less stressful to get it done sooner ? Maybe. Maybe not.

Some people thrive on deadlines, others not so much. [says a self confessed adrenaline junkie].

In working life, in some roles there might well not be the luxury of 'allowing plenty of time'. I'm in media/technology and this is just how it is. Not everyone can survive in this kind of environment. The trick is to find the kind that suits you.

When you end up having to pull and all nighter to get something in, it's good to have some stories to share with colleagues about 'just how close to the wire it went' on previous projects and how it all worked in the end. Or to know that that is not for you, do you know to steer clear of that kind of field

Congratulations again. Now is your time to celebrate your success in submitting. Enjoy.

with work thoigh you always need to build in a ton of buffer so you can still hand in X when you are also asked to do y at last minute, it looks a bit rubbish if you avoided doing x for a week, then now can't do it due to y.

So you may get away with it most times, but not all the time. then you look not so professional as you need to let something slip.

I also can't think that something re-eidited up to last second, would not be a bit better being done 24 hours earlier, then re-read with fresh eyes and last minute silly errors removed. Thats the marks that gets you from 68-72 and across those grade boundaries.

@flossyfloss432 i don't really care about your work, go ahead and fill your team with people who think and work exactly like you for all I care. Neurodivergence of course need not apply.

I've always worked like this. Even when I've been finished well in advance, I have to have that last-minute panicked check, change and submit thing.

May I ask your age?

Having done degrees at 19-22, 24-27 and 28-29 (well, BA, MA and then PostGrad), I think it was really typical for people to rush their hand-ins during undergrad, but less so at Masters level and beyond. When you're younger you're still learning time management and self-directed study, but when you're older you're expected to be a bit more on top of it. I'd be unsurprised at a friend handing it in so close to the deadline at 21, but if a friend of 30 did it I'd be looking at them a bit askance!

You're robbing yourself of the opportunity to digest it and look at it with fresh eyes, to let the material percolate in your head and come back to it with new insights. You've also giving yourself an awful lot of stress and adrenaline that might not lend itself to doing your best work. Handing it in the day before is fine, but ten minutes before is a massive gamble as you just don't know what could happen in that ten minutes. I've known people's printers fail, transport break down, suddenly witness an emergency, all sorts. You have to build in some buffer! Bit too late now though I know.