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.

Many - yes.
Most - unsure and haven't seen research.

Lots of people submit with little time to spare, but for most it's a case of frantically reading it one more time and fixing any mistakes rather than actively writing new content.

In any case, congratulations, it's done!

Yep, this is exactly how I operate. Was having my undergrad dissertation bound an hour before hand-in. Genuine fear is my only real motivator.

During my BA we had 2pm deadlines and hard copy submission on the other side of campus. I once walked in to the library at 09.30, grabbed some books off the shelf, opened them up and started typing. I made the deadline and got a great grade, too.

The next semester, I thought that perhaps pacing myself would get even better grades. My marks went down. I have to have pressure to do my best.

No it’s not ideal, and I couldn’t work like that as I’d be too anxious to press ‘submit’ but the main thing here is that you’ve done it! You might be disappointed because you wanted to work differently, but YOU’VE DONE IT!! Well done 🍾😊

😂😂 was literally about to post that I wrote both my dissertations in my final year in one weekend on no sleep, fuelled by pro-plus and Red Bull, ran to submit them and then straight out on the piss. Sussex student!

No, what it actually shows is that everyone works in different ways and some are more deadline-driven than others.

I had two terms to complete my dissertation. I wrote the whole thing in four days and handed in the hard copy 15 minutes before the deadline. I also handed in all my coursework essays to similar timescales for the duration of my degree course. In most cases we had to hand them in at 9am, and I pulled all-nighters to get them done.

And guess what? I also got a 1st.

People all produce their best work under different conditions. That's why some people perform really well in timed exams and tests - it's the ticking clock and the need to just do it now that spurs them on to produce their best work.

Once your actually working handing in projects and data in with 10 min to spare when you have a deadline will not go down well.

It depends on the kind of job you do. For your kind of role, then I'm sure your approach is best.

But I work in a field where we have to turn round very accurate and well-written work at very, very short notice, so being able to get stuff done in a mad dash at the eleventh hour is an absolute must. People who are more comfortable with a lot of pre-planning and finishing things days before they need to submit them really, really struggle in my line of work and don't perform well (plus it's horribly stressful for them).

When we recruit, we get candidates to complete a timed task at their interview, based on material they've never seen before - if we asked them to plan or prepare something in advance, it wouldn't test the skills we need to see from them.

We're all different. What's right for you isn't necessarily right for everyone.

completely common - including pulling an all nighter to edit :-)

Well it's may be not ideal, but you have done it. Just be proud of yourself.

I had several uni friends do this. I remember one having to get a taxi to the university to hand it in as he didn't have enough time to walk there!

I couldn't do it - I learnt not to when I had a recurrent illness so I could never guarantee being well enough to do something. So it got me into the habit of doing things early, which also took the pressure off and allowed time to do other things.

And, also, it often ends up costing more if done at the last minute. And I was on a v limited budget. Especially in the days of hard copy submissions if you had to pay for an express service (or a taxi!). I remember handing in my MA dissertation a week early as I had to book train tickets to take it in and make sure it was printed and bound well in advance of that as I couldn't have afforded to pay for a walk up train fare.

I don't know if you are unreasonable or not but I do know my son got his submitted with seconds to spare. I still have heart palpitations at the thought of what he would have lost if the system had glitched and it had been late! I don't know how people can live with that level of stress!

I'm marking MA dissertations right now. I can see that almost half were submitted in the hour before the deadline!

Also like @shrodingersvaccine says, if you can't submit because of technical problems you screenshot everything, email it to your supervisor, and you won't be penalised.

Why not take all the time you have available? There's nothing particularly virtuous about submitting early.

Whilst I agree that 10 minutes before does definitely mean you met the deadline it's worth bearing in mind you may not get leniency in future situations if, say, there's a last minute IT failure. Eg Our job applications portal closes at a specified time, so if you submit even one minute after that your application wouldn't be considered.

No, what it actually shows is that everyone works in different ways and some are more deadline-driven than others.

I just read this and laughed out loud.

Any one who agrees up leaving it until the last minute because they work differently is not some one to take advice from. As others have said what happens if you have a technical difficulty or some thing crops up, you miss your deadline and fail. Your playing with fire and its not some thing to be proud of, this just backs up the current culture of taking no responsibility for your actions and not some one I would be looking to be part of my team either.

Whilst I agree that 10 minutes before does definitely mean you met the deadline it's worth bearing in mind you may not get leniency in future situations if, say, there's a last minute IT failure. Eg Our job applications portal closes at a specified time, so if you submit even one minute after that your application wouldn't be considered.

Why not take all the time you have available? There's nothing particularly virtuous about submitting early

That was always my view. I had deadlines before and after my dissertation deadline, plus exams, so it made no real sense to finish it early. I had other priorities before that.

How dramatic. I lead a team of professionals, and I have no idea how early or late they were in submitting their dissertations. I also don’t care how close to a deadline they submit work to me, as long as I have it by the deadline. That’s kind of the point of a deadline!

I remember going to the library the night before mine was due, at 4am, thinking it'd be dead. The library was heaving with stressed students, red bull and coffee in every desk.

For my first degree, yes, absolutely normal. Wrote my dissertation from scratch the night before and handed it in minutes before the deadline. Wouldn't recommend it but loads of other people were similarly challenged so it didn't feel particularly unusual.

For my MSc I was a mature student with young children so still wrote at speed, but tended to get things done earlier than the deadline as there were fixed parameters to my study time due to childcare. DH took the dc away for 3 days while I wrote up my dissertation in a marathon sprint, and I actually handed it in a few days early because once the dc were back that was it - I couldn't have made use of any extra time. Most people on my course were much younger than me and without dc so worked right up to the wire though!

Mine too, imavingoops, mine too! He was sendining it from home because of Bloody Covid, so we’re had half the family standing in the doorway shouting ‘Press the bloody button DS!’ at 11:59.

His mate actually missed the deadline the year before and got the thesis mark capped at 40% for it. DS knew that. Still went to the wire. My nerves!

Ha me too!

@ReadyToMoveIt Says more about you then me then, I suppose my definition of professionalism is at a higher level than yours.

@flossyfloss432 or you have unrealistic expectations, seeing as many of us other senior professionals are firmly in the last minute club. If you can't account for people's different working styles then you aren't a good manager.

you miss your deadline and fail

Far as I know or have experienced there was never any immediate fail for missing an academic submission deadline - it just meant that your would lose marks for every day beyond the deadline. Which would obviously matter for your grade but wouldn’t usually be all or nothing.

The more frightening thing was the stories recounted to me by an Apple ‘genius’ one summer, of the numerous people who had lost their entire dissertation / thesis through some tech disaster. Pressed the wrong button and wiped everything. (How?) Or watched their billion £ laptop just scramble three years work - that wasn’t backed up anywhere else. Or had their device stolen. Not backed up.

Nowadays I write two paragraphs and email them to myself. If it’s particularly important I email the documents to someone responsible, not living in the same building, with decent smoke alarms …