Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Associate Dean,

I am appealing to late drop PSYC 100 (Fall/Winter 2021). I was shocked and very upset when I received an email from my PSYC 100 Professor on the 6th of May, 2021 informing me that my written answer responses for my final exam would not be accepted for grading because I had submitted them 30 minutes after the grace period. Within the email, my Professor had stated that even with an extenuating circumstance, a student will still have to submit an academic appeal for either a CR standing or a late drop. The reason I submitted my written answer responses was due to some problems I was having with the wifi connection at my off-campus housing near the end of the exam. It was very frustrating and nerve-wracking waiting for the issue to be fixed so that I could submit my exam written responses. The multiple-choice portion of the exam was submitted automatically once the exam was over. The written answer responses were worth ¿ of the final exam results, so the best I could do was fail the exam. That exam was worth 40 of my entire psychology grade and, upon failing that exam, I failed the whole course as I needed to pass the exam to pass the course.

I have to admit that I had a very difficult time during both semesters of the course due to online classes and COVID-19, and my grades suffered as a result. I do not mean to make excuses for my poor academic performance, but I would like to explain the circumstances. I knew that registering for 5 courses in the Fall and 4 courses in the Winter would require a lot of me, but I needed to earn the credits to be on track to graduate on time. I thought I could handle the workload, but I sadly could not because I had done poorly in PSYC 100 in the Fall term as well. I know I should have dropped the course early but after finishing poorly in psychology in the first semester I thought that I could work hard and finish well, I could not have predicted that I would fail the course entirely due to my careless mistake.

This is my first failed course as a Queen¿¿s student and, I don¿¿t like that it is on my transcript. Due to some previous mistakes, my GPA has been lacking so I tried my best to increase it during this year. I¿¿m afraid of how this grade will look on my transcript because I plan on trying to pursue further education after my undergraduate degree. I plan on taking PSYC 100 again in the future during a summer term, where I will be taking a lighter course load, so I have more time to focus on it and improve my grade significantly. Also, I have met with academic Counsellors to help with the planning of my courses and course load for the upcoming semesters so that I will not do as poorly again.

Sincerely,
Elvis Duru