Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To whom it may concern,

I’m writing this letter to ask for a credit standing for the CHEM 213: Introduction to Chemical Analysis course that I completed in the Fall 2022 semester. The course was comprised of quizzes, laboratory reports and a final examination (all worth roughly the same amount, in terms of the final grade). Prior to the final examination in this course, I had completed multiple quizzes, as well as multiple laboratory reports and had achieved an A overall in these portions of the course. This shows my dedication to learning the course material, as well as my ability to show the knowledge I have learned in a variety of different ways. However, after completing the final examination, my final grade in the course dropped very significantly to a C+. In the days leading up to this course’s final examination, I had noticed I was feeling a significant amount of anxiety and stress, however, at the time I had just thought it was typical exam anxiety and believe that I just needed to work through it and complete the exam. During this study period, I did my best to try and review all of the concepts I had learned over the course of the semester (and had previously showed an understanding based on previous assessments). However, I struggled to work through these feelings of stress and anxiety. Doing so was made more difficult as they caused me to have symptoms such as difficultly sleeping, eating properly and inability to focus on or complete even simple tasks. Once in the examination, the feelings of anxiety and stress left me unable to focus. I could describe the state I was in as feeling like I was outside my own body (not present). Due to this, during the entirety of the examination I was barely able to comprehend questions (although I know I did have a good understanding of the concepts being discussed) and thus struggled to answer the questions. I can distinctly remember feeling so overwhelmed, trying to hold back tears, almost in a state of panic because of these feelings. Thus, I left the exam feeling even worse: very upset, disappointed and furthermore worried about how my grade would be affected. These feelings were only heightened when I received my final grade for the course and I’ve noticed in examinations I’ve taken since, a certain nervousness, as the feeling of panic felt during this examination was particularly scary. However, I did not apply for a credit standing sooner as I had not realized the severity of the effect that my mental health had on that final examination until recently when I began to work with a therapist regarding my mental health and getting academic accommodations for all my further studies at Queen’s. Since receiving this help, I have learned how to handle my stress and anxiety, so that I do not have these severe episodes of anxiety (such as the one that occurred when in the CHEM 213 final examination) that leave me unable to focus on my examination and instead be hyper focused on the unknown danger that my brain is perceiving and presenting as anxiety. Working with my therapist and now successfully making it through the Fall 2023 exam season, being able to work through my stress and anxiety, all while maintaining the grade I had going into the examinations, I know that the 3-hour examination in question was not representative of the knowledge I had worked to gain and effort I had put in over the semester. As I have been contemplating applying to graduate programs in the next year, and am also applying for academic scholarships, in order for my transcript to more holistically represent my semester in this course, I would like to receive a credit standing for CHEM 213: Introduction to Chemical Analysis.

Thank you for your time and consideration,
Mikaela Coleman
20271189