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.

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 :-)

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.

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.

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!

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.

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

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.

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.

This is a

ZOMBIE THREAD

just woken up by a spammer.

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.

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