Avoiding Recurring Nightmares

Via Rachel Held Evans, I learned of this recent XKCD comic:

Instead of having these nightmares, you can actually avoid them by taking some simple steps while a student: Read the syllabus. Put deadlines into an electronic calendar like Outlook, and put a reminder alert scheduled for as long before that deadline as you need, in order to have enough time to research it and write it properly. Better still, put a deadline in by which you will expect yourself to finish a first draft, a good week before the actual due date.

And of course, once you’ve done due diligence to seek the answers already provided by the professor, then ask intelligent and well-thought-out questions to get clarification from the professor.