Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: I am writing this appeal for two courses both BHEM 218 and CHEM 281. My concussion occurred on December 3rd due to a soccer injury and this was the 7th concussion I have gotten from my soccer career. Due to my history of concussions, every concussion I have gotten has only gotten worse and left me with harder effects to manage so it took a lot of rest to recover. I first went to Kingston General Hospital since it was a Sunday when I went to see a doctor which diagnosed my concussion. I then went to the Student Health Centre saw a doctor and my occupation therapist, Natasha DeGroot so she could document my paperwork and contact my teachers. I went to my occupational therapist and on December 11, 2018, and she wrote a form to my BCHEM 218 professor so that I could defer my exams. I then stayed in contact with John Carran my CHEM 281 professor and he told me he would let me write my exam in January after the winter break. So when I got back from the winter break I went to my occupational therapist Natasha and she wrote a form that I would be writing my final examination for Chem 281 on Jan 19th. It took me a few weeks of lying in a black room trying to recover but also holding onto the stresses of having to study, the time I was losing and complete my courses during this time. This greatly affected my mental health and I built a lot of anxiety during this time that I am currently recovering from, but I am seeing a psychologist for this reason. I am also a very good student and I usually strive for high marks, so I did not feel that I could study as efficiently and as much during this time. I tried to set 30-minute timers and study a bit each day, but I would feel dizzy, nauseous, get headaches and have to take a break. I really do regret the stress I put on myself during this time and if I could go back I would try to take more time, but due to the circumstance I had to get these exams done and I had to do them in this timeframe. Therefore, I wrote the final exam for these courses early in January right after the winter break. I was doing well in both BCHEM 218 and CHEM 281, but both these exams dropped my mark very low. For these two exams, I wrote them with as much effort that I could put into studying, but I was unable to perform at my normal ability due to my psychological impairment. Therefore, I was not able to achieve a mark in both BCHEM 281 and CHEM 218 that represented my ability due to my brain injury. It greatly impacted my ability to do well in focus, catch up on missed lectures and study in the timeframe that I had to work with. If you observe my other marks or my overall GPA minus these two courses and or my third-year marks, you can see the student that I am and I am not happy with these two courses negatively impacting my GPA as they are a reflection of my injury and not me.