Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: a. The Request:
I am requesting for my PSYC 443 midterm mark (worth 25 of the course) to be excluded from the calculation of my final grade in the course. Instead, I am asking that my PSYC 443 final exam be reweighted to include the weight of the midterm (an additional 25). As such, my final exam would weigh a total of 50. I feel that this is a valid request as I experienced a panic attack during the midterm and was unable to focus during the writing process or complete the exam.

b. Explanation of Extenuating Circumstances:
Going into this midterm, I felt the same as I typically do going into the majority of exams that I write- nervous but prepared. I always feel a little bit of stress before beginning an exam, but once I start writing, I am extremely focused. The duration of the midterm was an hour and a half long. I began to write the midterm and starting experiencing unfamiliar symptoms including extreme anxiety and chest pain. I tried to persist and push through the discomfort but my head got increasingly more disorganized. Less than hour an hour into the midterm, I realized that there was no way I could continue writing with the level of discomfort and angst that I was feeling as my chest was extremely tight, my head was blurry and I could not contain my tears. I excused myself to go to the washroom to try and clear my head with every intention of returning to class to complete the exam. By the time I reached the bathroom, I could not contain myself, and I had a panic attack. I was unable to calm myself down in the bathroom and was therefore unable to return back to class for the duration of the midterm. This was an isolated incident that has never happened to me before, and as such, I had no way of knowing that it was going to happen ahead of time. If I had known something was wrong prior to beginning the test, I would have approached the professor to explain the situation. I am an extremely diligent student and met with my professor days in advance to ask her questions about the test material. As well, I have taken a class with this same professor in previous years (i.e. same teaching style and similar material), and received an A+ in the course. As can be seen on my transcript, I typically receive grades in the A- to A+ range in my psychology courses, and am very capable of handling the material when I am in the right frame of mind. I circled answers for the multiple choice questions, but only answered two out of five of the short answer and did not complete the essay question. I do not believe that this grade should be counted towards my final mark, as it is not an accurate representation of my knowledge of the material or of the type of student that I am.

c. Future plan:
I spoke with a counselor last year about my stress levels and anxiety and had seen an improvement in my anxiety. I intend to continue to see my counselor at HCDS to work through my anxiety to ensure that this situation never happens again. I have never experienced a panic attack during an exam before, and want to ensure that I take every precaution to ensure that it does not happen to me again as it was a terrifying experience.