Well I am sitting here at 8pm with final (?) undergrad dissertation drafts to go through (due in on Thursday) and I am meeting the first student at 8am (and I live more than an hour away from uni)

Suddenly I feel much more sympathy for all of our supervisors - at least those I have to read are only 8000 words.

You sound like a wonderful supervisor - I hope all your students do well and are grateful. Sounds like they'll all be pulling all nighters tomorrow to get their dissertations ready after your feedback!

Hello, I actually had the same thought today! I suddenly feel a lot more sympathy for my supervisors! I've always been harsh on my supervisors and tutors for not being perfect. My MA supervisor and I did not see eye to eye and I held him entirely responsible for not getting work back to me, not helping enough, for the fact that I'd leave meetings feeling as though I'd achieved nothing, for the fact that his annotations on my work indicated that he cared more about spelling than anything else.. However, while I know it's not quite the same thing as being an undergraduate supervisor, today after a one on one tutorial with a student who I just cannot seem to get through to, whose work is nothing short of shoddy, who makes it as hard for me as he possibly can, I was left feeling disappointed, frustrated and angry. I just thought: this horrible, lazy pupil has been sent here to test me. Now, I have another (hard-working) student who I take for private tutorials, and after I meet with her I feel great! I never realised just how draining/rewarding/frustrating etc, being a tutor/supervisor can be. From now on I'm going to try and remember that supervisors are only human too!

Good luck with it!

Well I have just given one of them the shock of her life by phoning her to day I was sending comments on the first 2 chapters for her to start working on tonight (for 8am meeting tomorrow) and would send the rest later.  To be fair she said she really appreciates all the help I have given her (which to be honest has not been nearly as much as some wastrels I've had in previous years) - she's done an interesting topic (Social Identity as a Motivation for Mountaineers) which the Head of Department poopooed as he said no one would be interviewed by her , she wasn't up to it etc - as it is she's got 8 great interviews including one from a really famous female mountaineer I heard on Radio 4 and told her about (she tracked her down, contacted her and interviewed her by telephone (as she is based overseas)) and she has done some good analysis as well.

It's things like this that make the job worthwhile (not if only I could get rid of all the requests for extensions due to dead cats, neighbours being ill, burglaries, damaged pen drives (that has got to be the 21st C equivalent of the dog ate my homework)...)