Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Since my second year of university, I had been regularly seeing a therapist, and am medicated for clinical anxiety. This anxiety has definitely affected my academic performance in the past, but recently, alongside the impact of COVID-19 and my struggles with seeking employment, my anxiety has resurfaced. Many of my courses this semester have been manageable, but when I received a mark of 2 on my first assignment in this course, my anxiety heightened. I suddenly became very anxious and worried that I may not do well. This anxiety made it very difficult to perform in this course, and when we were told we could work in teams for assignments, my lack of confidence in myself urged me to work on my assignments alone, as I didn't want to be cumbersome to anyone else.

Up until yesterday, I was only aware of 2 marks in this course, the 2 on an assignment, and a 64 on the first test. I was very much not used to performing this badly in courses and so it felt like a downward spiral, where my attempts to do better felt useless and I began to feel more and more hopeless. Yesterday, I received a mark of 21 on a test I thought I did better in, and I realized that I have been suffering for too long, and should reach out to someone. I have felt very alone this semester, as resources don't feel as easy to get as they have in the past during difficult times, this includes my therapist, who is only available virtually, which does not provide the same amount of benefit to me.

Had I known the level of anxiety I would reach at this point about a month ago, I would have surely dropped the course causing it since it would have alleviated a significant amount of stress from my life. I am currently going onto 8 months of inability to find employment, having served as an unpaid intern this summer. My life does not feel in order, and I don't think this situation has helped my performance in this course at all. I am extremely anxious and worried about my sleep tonight considering my performance in this course.

Thank you for your consideration,
Alex