Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Associate Dean (Studies),

I am writing to appeal my final exam grade of 60/130 obtained upon completion of CISC 101 (Summer 2017) which is five marks below a passing grade and am requesting a formal re-read of the final exam.

Throughout the course, I devoted great effort towards learning the course content and demonstrating my capabilities. With the effort that I put into the course, I was able to obtain above average grades on my quizzes and assignments. Despite my accomplishments throughout the duration of the course, I encountered a series of difficulties while studying for the final exam that ultimately contributed to my poor performance on said exam. Considering my performance throughout the course and given that I was just a mere five marks away from receiving a passing grade, I feel it would be reasonable to request a remark of the examination. Although I was quite capable throughout the majority of the course, I was unable to perform to my potential during the final exam due to aggregated stresses and extensive family pressures.

My parents were not able to gain a sense of how difficult a computer science course is nor the amount of distress I experienced because of it. To obtain the high marks I received throughout the course, I was required to work extremely late into the night, multiple days of the week. My parents would often scold me for my behaviour and limit the time that I was permitted to spend on my computer without an understanding of what I was going through. Not only did their actions made me feel unsupported, but I also started to feel incapable, as I became increasingly frustrated because I did not understand material that others seemed to grasp easily due in part to my restricted computer use. For a period of time, I thought that placing extreme pressure on myself would be helpful as I believed that it would make me more motivated to study. However, the effects of this approach have proven to be more negative than I had expected; the pressure that I placed on myself resulted in a less than desirable grade. Not only did my stress reinforce the idea that I was incompetent, but it also made me feel overwhelmed as I was unable to understand the content at the rate at which the course presented it. I also feel that an encounter with the professor earlier on in the course may have created a negative bias towards me which may have resulted in an unfair assessment of my final exam.

In the future, I will make many changes to my study habits as well as make an effort to re-balance my academic, extracurricular, and personal workload. I also plan to continue learning computer science on my own as I realize the timelines set out by school courses are too short for me to be able to fully comprehend and understand the material clearly. As I do feel that I am capable of learning the subject and as I am genuinely interested in the field, I will continue to do so outside of my regular classes and schedule. I have already enrolled in a 30.5 hour online course filled with 304 lecture videos so that I can take the amount of time that I need for myself to study and succeed.

Thank you for taking the time to consider my appeal. Please let me know if there is any other information that you need me to provide to assist in the appeal process.