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

[iloveruby]

So, I've just submitted my dissertation with 10 minutes to spare. I've been up since midnight finishing it.
My partner thinks that lots of people work like this - I think he's wrong. So, what do you think?

YABU - lots of students will be finishing in a rush
YANBU - being so close to the deadline isn't typical.

To avoid dripfeeding - I have worked so hard on this and felt I had enough time but really struggle with concentration, especially when I'm stressed. Sometimes can only focus for 10 mins at a time. I feel really disappointed in myself because I just wanted this time to be different.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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....

i always do this and I absolutely hate it

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 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

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

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

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

These - not the OP - are the students you want to murder ...
Hope it worked out okay though

A small but not insignificant number of academics still work like this.

This is so true!

Its so true that work expands to fill the time allocated! I'd never considered that before.

Thank you to everyone for their congratulations and also for sharing stories of about your last minute panics - glad I'm not alone.

Snap. Couldn't focus if the deadline wasn't looming large on the horizon.

I did a part time MBA, 2 years taught plus 16 months to submit the dissertation. All of us working full time.
Me and my mate from the course met on the final handing in date to hand in. Both of us had finished the day before. We looked at the hand in sheet. All but one had handed in that day or the day before!

Blimey OP, just reading your post has given me a surge of adrenaline. I’ve got just under sixth months before I have to submit my masters dissertation and I’m about half way through writing it.
Never in a million years could I leave it to the last minute. I’d never be able to sleep for a start. I’m aiming to get it done with at least a month to spare for emergencies.

Your post is just the motivation I need to get off mumsnet and go and write a few more hundred words. Urgh. But it’s grim. Congratulations on finishing the damned thing.

I have handed things in early but it's when there's no more work time because of other things or next deadline and I need it handed in so my focus can move on.

I don't think it lack or work not starting early enough or planning though do have dyspraxia and dyslexia so it could be but I do tend to plan more because of that - I just seem to have this optimism that more work will make it better and thus reluctance to stop to early.

Though I aim for tinkering nearer deadline rather then major re-writes and time enough to cope with printer breaking or running out of ink etc. One way to do this is lots of mini self imposed written down deadlines that I refuse to budge from and will break my neck to reach.

It's how I did it, I think I had about 20 mins to spare. I need the adrenaline to focus and get it finished.
I actually wrote mine in 3 days from start to finish and had to print and travel 1.5 hours to hand it in before noon too.
Got decent marks though.

If it makes you feel better, OP I recently did a degree and...

a) I worked from home in a easy job, so was often sat at a desk all day with time to spare
b) I STILL spent almost every pre-deadline night up until late finishing off

I don't know if it's age, perimenopause hormones, the advance of technology or what - but I am clearly less able to focus on one thing for any length of time as I did when I did my firs degree at 18-21.

My favourite phrase was
"Don't give me an extension, give me a deadline"

Please google inattentive adhd. It's a misconception adhd is hyperactive. Plenty of bright, capable calm people have undiagnosed inattentive adhd - chemical brain imbalance equalling struggling to be motivated / manage time etc.

My MSc diss was the only time I have ever gone in early - the deadline was midday on the Monday, and at one point on the Thursday evening I realised I was done with editing. Printed and bound it on the Friday and had no mates at the weekend because everyone else was up to it. But that is the only time in my student or professional life I’ve ever managed it.

Oh, lord, this is me. Every single time I'd convince myself it was going to be different, would work to a proper timetable and not have to finish in a rushed panic. Never happened.

You finished, within the deadline. Congratulations 😃