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

From both sides of the writing / marking perspective ...
I did it, and about 1 in 5 of my undergraduates would. There's no correlation with academic ability. There can be a correlation with achievement because things can go wrong. We see less (but not none) of this at postgraduate level because longer term projects are more vulnerable, done this way. A small but not insignificant number of academics still work like this.
There may be compensatory strengths. You may have developed more independent working habits because you work to your own time frames. You may be excellent at working under pressure.

The ADHD referral may be useful because you may eventually hit a wall, especially if juggling more responsibilities without structure. This way of life works best for students with few obligations, and worked well in the past for senior male academics with wives / valets / college structures and servants to manage for them. It's unlikely you'll benefit from this sort of privilege.
So, this is a useful pointer to tools you might need later in life but for now, well done. The quality of the work is what matters now, and the fact of having submitted on time. Enjoy your success and don't worry - see what new strategies you can add now you've achieved this

Just be happy you've finished and move on. Well done.

I'm a university lecturer. Judging by my students YABU!

I had written my msc dissertation quite a few weeks before. Aim to have to handed in few days before. I had taken annual leave from work as was doing this whilst working full time. I could enjoy some rest.

But in a moment on madness rewrote it and handed it in 30 mins before the deadline

Wot, no trigger warning?!

Bloody nightmare. Was emailing things to the printers in my home city all weekend before the 2pm Monday deadline for MA portfolio submission. Raced to pick the bound copies up on Monday morning. Five of the six things - the sixth I was writing on the train to the city I studied in. Was still typing on the crappy institutional computers at 1pm (because for some reason you could only send to their printer via their computers). Of course I couldn’t get the blessed printer to work. The universe sent a kind person from my course who sorted it out for me - just in time. Submitted portfolio with 15 minutes to spare.

But there were plenty of other people wandering around the building looking drained and apprehensive on the day.

Distinction, btw …

i always do this and I absolutely hate it

I thought I was doing well having handed my MSc thesis in for binding with 2 days spare, but one of my readers came back to say I had mixed up common law and civil law (and assigned the wrong one to Ireland and UK compare to most EU Countries).

So on the morning it was due, I had to reprint, rush to binders and get rebound, on their express service (costing an arm and a leg), and handed it in about 20 minutes before the deadline.

As others, in the days before online submission so 4 fully bound (hard covers and stitched) physical copies was the requirement.

I met 2 others from my class (of 16) walking in as I was walking out....

When I was at uni if we had something due in at say 10am, half the class wouldn’t turn up for the 9am lecture because they’d all be in the library rushing to finish it.

I always handed my reports on with a few days to spare as I hate last minute mad panics. Lots of people do like taking it to the wire though - like the guy in charge of a big contract bid that we were grabbing off the printer and binding 45 minutes after I should have left to catch the flight to hand deliver it.

With my Masters Project, I started in the September, handed in April? May?

Was definitely doing the final checks and
printing the day before. The final Colour copy was early hours of the morning I'm sure. (We had to hand in a Colour and B&W copy, the departmental secretary binded them and we signed the form. Office door closed at 10am sharp, we had to be in the office by then to be On Time.)

I remember minor essays being over nighters. Going to evening job and then to the library... A lot of my work was done around midnight as I needed the more powerful computer, by Undergrads were lowest priority for it.

With OU they they pointed out on-line could have issues so close to deadlines and at time I was doing it there were no exceptions with late hand ins it was seen as our issue- so most people did it hours before not 10 minutes.

DH students often go that close - there's a grace period after deadline so there
are fewer issues being that close.

Though DH and other lecturers are increasingly thinking the longer and longer grace periods are actually working against the students - it did due to covid get up to 7 days after deadline with no adverse effect on marks - which then impacts on other deadlines and DH says seems to have effect on quality of work.

I don't remember being quiet so close when I was at physical universities at time less on-line submissions more physcial hand ins and it was my main focus- though working as late as possible and going all night often with minor formatting taking ages wasn't unknown.

I do tend to find though that work expands to time alloted.

Everyone's different. I submitted my MSc dissertation a week early, because that's when I finished it. I have never been someone who drafts and rewrites, so when it was done, it was done, and I got it printed, bound and submitted so that it was out of my mind.
With my BSc dissertation I submitted it a day before the deadline cause I was a) less organised that year, and b) striving for the perfect work so that I could get a 1st. I did, so it was worth the time.
With my MSc, all I needed was a pass so I wasn't worrying so much about it.

YABU. Work expands to fill the time available for it. Sometimes in the weirdest way. For my PhD (filing two copies on special paper) I thought I'd anticipated all contingencies, even had a boyfriend in tech support get me a spare toner cartridge just in case. On the day sure enough ran out of toner, only to find out BF had confused the printer model and the cartridge didn't fit! Made it to Grad Division with a similar ten minutes to spare, there to be told to take another leisurely look and come back the following Monday 😀

Don’t feel sad, you did it! If you think you have ADHD then there are almost certainly different coping strategies you can try. But please don’t beat yourself up. Thinking about how to do better about deadlines can wait for another day. For now can you plan a little celebration that’s it’s done and submitted?

@iloveruby Well done any way, my comment was just being honest. Far to many people may just comment to make you feel good. Just use this as a learning experience, like me you may need to take longer. I always tell my boss I may need a little longer due to my disability but I always endeavour not to need it. We learn and we grow, good luck with your results.

Normal but ughhh my stomach is in knots just reading through title of you post! 😖

Don’t feel sad OP! Feel proud for getting it in. The best dissertation is a finished dissertation. Done is so, so much better than perfect!
And I bet it’s better than you think. And even if it isn’t - who bloody cares, it’s over! Go and celebrate (or sleep!) Congratulations!

Ah, fond memories of legging it along a busy city street from the library to hand in my undergraduate dissertation, held together with a series of staples as there wasn't time to get it properly bound. By the time of my MA dissertation either I'd learnt my lesson (slightly) or the hand in time was later in the day, because I managed to get it finished by lunchtime and make use of the spiral binding machine. Got a First/Distinction on both so obviously the last minute pressure worked 😇

I'm going to make an effort to go to my graduation and acknowledge to myself the results of my hard work, because I often focus on the negatives like how I have to do everything in a panic

I was ‘ lucky’ in the sense that I was not required to submit hard copies in addition to the online submission (pandemic).

However, if you are actually talking about reviewing and checking the final submission with one that has been previously checked already in the portal, then I guess you are not bu. But if there’s nothing in the portal then I guess you are.

Don’t be sad, you handed it in! That’s what matters.

I was just about to comment about how it's normal for me but I have adhd.

It gets easier to burn out with the last minute rushes, as you get older, I find.

Did my dissertation in a few days. I have ADHD , that makes me leave important things til the last minute.