Petition Letter
I am a student living with a learning disability, and a registered student at the learning disabilities centre at Queen's University. In my Queen's file, it is written by my psychologist that I have test anxiety and that sometimes I suffer anxiety attacks before or during some exams.
During my PSYCH 100 summer course, I did exceptionally well on all my assignments and discussions and never did I once receive a grade under 75 on any assignments. I was extremely dedicated to this course day in day out for the entire summer and I was very happy with my progress in the course. I can say that without a doubt, my assignments are a proper representation of my skills in the course. I took this course in hopes of achieving a B- so that I could medial in both sociology and psychology at the end of the summer, as I am currently just a Socy major.
In this course there is a midterm exam worth 20 and a final exam worth 30. When my first proctored midterm exam came around, I suffered a terrible anxiety attack while writing my exam. When I have anxiety attacks while writing exams, the information I have spent many hours learning all of a sudden becomes blocked and I am left in a paralyzed state of mind, unable to reach the information that was in my head moments before. As a result of my anxiety attack, I did not do well on my midterm exam and scored in the 30's on the exam, which was an extremely poor and disappointing score, as I am adamant that this exam was not a reflection of my skill level in this course.
Refusing to give up, I contacted a professional psychiatrist who specializes in test anxiety in young adults, and together for the next month leading up to the final exam we worked on my test anxiety by going through exercises and different learning strategies so that when the final exam came around, I would hopefully get through the exam without having another anxiety attack. The reason I sought out help is because I am well aware that psychology is always going to be an exam based course, and I knew that if I wanted to succeed in psychology in the future, I had to find a solution and a way to cope and improve my test anxiety.
My final exam finally came around in July, and after countless sessions with my psychiatrist and hours spent studying and preparing, I ended up doubling my previous midterm score on my final exam and achieved a 63 which was the average exam score of the class. Needless to say, my test anxiety has really improved and as a result I did much better this time around. My final grade for the course ended up being a C+ which I told was just shy of the cut off for the medial grade for psychology. I am extremely disappointed with this grade as I have worked incredibly hard this summer in hopes of getting the entrance grade to medial in psychology. My midterm resulted in an extremely poor representation of my skills as shown with every other grade I received in this course and as a result it was the only grade in my course that ruined my chances of getting accepting into the medial program. It is unfair to me that my one shot at getting the B- was taken away all because of my midterm and an uncontrollable anxiety attack. I am asking for a re-read of all my grades in this course, so that whoever reads my marks can see without a doubt that my assignments and final exam marks are an accurate representation of my understanding in this course. I have decided to not give up just because of my extenuating circumstance, because I know I was meant to be accepted into this medial program. I know that the rest of my grades in this course will exemplify my claim and that hopefully the readers reviewing my marks will see this and understand where I am coming from. One grade caused by something beyond my control, cannot possibly consume my chances at getting into the medial program.
I have provided in this appeal, documentation of my anxiety attack that occurred during my midterm exam. Thank you.
During my PSYCH 100 summer course, I did exceptionally well on all my assignments and discussions and never did I once receive a grade under 75 on any assignments. I was extremely dedicated to this course day in day out for the entire summer and I was very happy with my progress in the course. I can say that without a doubt, my assignments are a proper representation of my skills in the course. I took this course in hopes of achieving a B- so that I could medial in both sociology and psychology at the end of the summer, as I am currently just a Socy major.
In this course there is a midterm exam worth 20 and a final exam worth 30. When my first proctored midterm exam came around, I suffered a terrible anxiety attack while writing my exam. When I have anxiety attacks while writing exams, the information I have spent many hours learning all of a sudden becomes blocked and I am left in a paralyzed state of mind, unable to reach the information that was in my head moments before. As a result of my anxiety attack, I did not do well on my midterm exam and scored in the 30's on the exam, which was an extremely poor and disappointing score, as I am adamant that this exam was not a reflection of my skill level in this course.
Refusing to give up, I contacted a professional psychiatrist who specializes in test anxiety in young adults, and together for the next month leading up to the final exam we worked on my test anxiety by going through exercises and different learning strategies so that when the final exam came around, I would hopefully get through the exam without having another anxiety attack. The reason I sought out help is because I am well aware that psychology is always going to be an exam based course, and I knew that if I wanted to succeed in psychology in the future, I had to find a solution and a way to cope and improve my test anxiety.
My final exam finally came around in July, and after countless sessions with my psychiatrist and hours spent studying and preparing, I ended up doubling my previous midterm score on my final exam and achieved a 63 which was the average exam score of the class. Needless to say, my test anxiety has really improved and as a result I did much better this time around. My final grade for the course ended up being a C+ which I told was just shy of the cut off for the medial grade for psychology. I am extremely disappointed with this grade as I have worked incredibly hard this summer in hopes of getting the entrance grade to medial in psychology. My midterm resulted in an extremely poor representation of my skills as shown with every other grade I received in this course and as a result it was the only grade in my course that ruined my chances of getting accepting into the medial program. It is unfair to me that my one shot at getting the B- was taken away all because of my midterm and an uncontrollable anxiety attack. I am asking for a re-read of all my grades in this course, so that whoever reads my marks can see without a doubt that my assignments and final exam marks are an accurate representation of my understanding in this course. I have decided to not give up just because of my extenuating circumstance, because I know I was meant to be accepted into this medial program. I know that the rest of my grades in this course will exemplify my claim and that hopefully the readers reviewing my marks will see this and understand where I am coming from. One grade caused by something beyond my control, cannot possibly consume my chances at getting into the medial program.
I have provided in this appeal, documentation of my anxiety attack that occurred during my midterm exam. Thank you.