As a student, I always put in my planner that an assignment was due the day before it was actually due. Why? Because sometimes I procrastinate for assignments I don’t like. But I also knew that I shouldn’t wait until the last minute to complete or submit the assignment. Something could always go wrong. The internet could flake out, the computer could decide it needs to do an update right then and there, or any other myriad of things.

I have a student recently who was a very good example of why you should not wait.

Halfway through the last week of class, I sent an announcement reminding everyone to submit their assignments by the deadline, as I was unable to accept any assignments after the class ends. This is the college policy, not just a random rule I came up with.

Well, 11:38PM (the class ended at 11:59PM), she sends me a message saying that she accidentally clicked the x button when trying to do her quiz online, and it counted as her only attempt. She asked if I could reopen it.

Now, if this had happened a day before, absolutely I would have reopened it. However, she sent that message 21 minutes before the class ended, late at night. I didn’t see her message until the next day, when I responded. I told her that I could not accept any assignments after the class ended. She tried arguing with me, that she’d started it before the class ended. I told her I wished she would have worked on her quiz sooner, as I absolutely would have, but due to college policy, I am not allowed to accept any assignments after the deadline.

So, I gave her a 0 for her quiz, and a 0 for a powerpoint she’d had two weeks to submit. She messaged me about the powerpoint, demanding to know why I’d given her a 0 for her submission. I simply responded with a screenshot from the digital classroom that said “No submission made by student“.

Would you like to know what she did next? If you guessed, try to get me to accept the powerpoint, you’d be right!

She messaged and said she figured out what had happened – she’d thought she’d submitted it (duh). Could she send me her powerpoint now to get the grade?

Again, I had to respond, Sorry, no, the class is still over (obviously worded more professionally).

There are a few things to learn from this example if you’re in college. 1) Don’t wait until the last minute. 2) Double check you’ve submitted your work before accusing your professor of giving you a bad grade for no reason. 3) Many colleges have a rule that assignments can’t be accepted after the course ends, so if you ask multiple times about the exact same rule, you’re going to annoy your professor and likely reduce any chance of a potential grade bump. 4) Better yet, submit the assignment as soon as you can, then you won’t stress over your last week of class, knowing you’ve submitted everything, or at least given yourself enough time to fix any problems that come up.

As a real life example, as I’m taking my current college courses (and volunteering and teaching and working several jobs), I submit my assignments by Fridays at the absolute latest. They’re due Sundays. Personally, I don’t want to spend my weekend doing school. But this also gives me enough time if an assignment is unclear or I’m having tech issues. Waiting till the last minute is never a good thing, especially when it comes to class submissions.

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