MSc Dissertation Tables & Figures Errors submitted

Question

I submitted my dissertation yesterday, one day before the due date. Upon reading back through the dissertation, I noticed quite an error in my methods and discussion. Unfortunately, due to adding a number of extra tables in my methods which in turn automatically were updated, I now have elements of my methods which is referring to the wrong table. This also occurs in my discussion.

Example: "As shown in table 1 a p-value of....". When in fact that is actually number as table 2.

I have a couple of hours so I could resubmit but I'd be cutting it very tight. Do you think I will lose many marks because of this? I estimate referring to the wrong table occurs 6-8 times between methods and discussion but some references are on the same page so are clearly seen.

I emailed the lecturer but I haven't heard back along with a fixed copy.

Thanks for any help

Answer 1

I would go ahead and have it corrected and prepared ready - if they then say "submit a corrected version now or by 4pm" then you have it ready.

However, if they say have it corrected for final submission in 2 weeks then you are still ready.

Answer 2

Pretty much everybody has had a story like that. Honestly this is “small potatoes.” A reviewer might comment on it, but no rational reviewer is going to say “This was an A thesis, but you had the wrong internal cross-references, so you only get a C.”

However, I would caution others that if it’s caught before the final required submission deadline, you can at least try to send the corrected version to the faculty reviewers as an email. The worst that can happen is they’ll ignore it.