Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: I wish to drop Math 111 without having any academic or financial penalty. I dropped the course hours after the deadline. I would have dropped the course before the deadline if the professor had communicated to me earlier about why my assignments were not marked. When he did tell me that I realized that my struggles in the course were out of my control, caused by poor visual motor integration as shown in my Psychoeducational Assessment Report. Math 111 was the only course of the 5 that I dropped because it required handwritten assignments, which caused me unreasonable stress. The anxiety was linked to the course and was present when I was taking it, dropping allowed me to be in a state to improve my mental health. If I had known about that before the deadline I would have dropped the course. At the time I was also struggling with the transition to living away from home, starting university, online classes, and unmedicated/undiagnosed ADHD. This gave me a lot of anxiety from trying to focus and organize myself when I did not have the tools and knowledge that I do now.

In October, when I became overwhelmed I went to my family doctor who recommended me to get ADHD medication and to see a neuropsychologist. I now go to a psychologist to help with anxiety bi-weekly and see a ADHD specialist in my hometown. I am also using queens mental health resources to help my mental health.

In the future I will use my new knowledge of myself and the conditions that affect me, so I can effectively take the course. I will also communicate with the instructors the circumstances effectively so I don't run into this problem again. I also plan to take a limited course load of 4 courses next year, and carry on with my mental health resources. For the writing for Math 111, I can use LateX which I am familiar with from other courses.