Petition Letter
To: Queens University Associate Deans (Studies)
Hello,
I am appealing to request credit (CR) standing in MATH 111B (Winter, 2015) and MATH 121B (Winter, 2016).
I have chosen to appeal these two grades now as I was not aware that an option to appeal grades was possible or provided by the university.
During the 2015 and 2016 academic years I struggled with maintaining my mental health as I was not able to find a healthy balancing mechanism to transition to university. In 2013 I was prescribed 50 mg of Adderall by a psychiatrist to help me cope with my ADHD, at the time I adjusted well to this medication and had never experienced any adverse effects from it, until I began university. During my first year in 2014-15 I was not able to develop a healthy routine where my sleep, diet, and exercise were in balance. Having been used to getting about nine hours of sleep every night prior to university, in my first year I was sleeping at most for about four or five hours while also missing most meals during the day and getting almost no exercise. A combination of sleep deprivation, poor diet, and zero exercise began to impact the effects of my medication. My medication was not affecting me in the same way that it used to because of my diminishing physical health. It began to make me feel extremely anxious and induced periods of prolonged and sporadic migraines. I was no longer feeling sharp and attentive during lectures as I would constantly either be dealing with the intrusive thoughts of my anxiety or the headaches that hindered my ability to feel normal in my attitude and behaviour in my everyday life. This psychological imbalance perpetuated further into my academics as I was obsessively second-guessing myself with the quality and correctness of my work and often failed to push myself to me work past the debilitating headaches.
At the time I did not think to reach out to my parents, family doctor, or staff and peers at Queens as I assumed that my experience was no different than that of other first years, since during frosh week we were told repeatedly that the transition process from high school to university is a difficult one. I continued to take my medication despite the symptoms it was causing me to experience as I was instructed strongly by my psychiatrist, family doctor, and parents that I was not to cease taking it.
My first-year grades all reflected lesser than my potential as this damaging cycle effected all aspects of my life. More so in MATH 111 and 121, I was interested in finding out if I would be able to pursue a career in engineering and believed that, despite having a very basic background in math from high school, one that was not to the expected standard of first year University math courses, with the taking of MATH courses I would be able to determine whether an engineering degree was a plausible option or not. I struggled immensely with the assignments of MATH 111 in my first year and with every failed test and later exams my confidence in mathematical ability diminished and eventuated in a failing grade. By my second year, I was still determined to see out any possible engineering potential and enrolled in MATH 121, however, having still not addressed my mental health issues from the previous year, I fell into the same habits as first year and my assignments, tests, and exams in MATH 121 reflected my poor psychological well-being. I was also not able to drop either of these courses as the deadline for dropping full-year courses tended to be before the return of exam marks from the first semester.
These two failing grades led me to get in touch with my family doctor to seek out help, as I finally came to understand that my lack of improvement was due to my unstable mental health. I began to see my family doctor regularly in the summer of my second year and with her help I instilled conducive habits to my physical health that resulted in me no longer experiencing the same adverse symptoms from my Adderall that I used to.
In the years after my first and second, I became progressively better at being able to realistically gage my potential in the courses that I enrolled in. I came to realize that the anxious states and chronic headaches that I was experiencing clouded my judgment and often persuaded me to challenge myself in ways that I was not prepared for, at the time I rationalized that I had to take difficult university courses to challenge myself in order to develop my thinking or intelligence. I have since learned that this is not the case, I realized that while challenging yourself is important and conducive to self-improvement, the fact that it is challenging does not render it conducive. With the ongoing help of my family doctor, I prioritized my physical and mental health as I understood that my academic success depended firstly on my personal health and omitted any further MATH courses that I knew I would not do well in.
Furthermore, I plan on taking a fifth year to retake other courses on my transcript that I achieved lower marks in to improve my GPA as I feel confident that I have successfully been able to adopt a healthy routine that yields strong academic performance.
Thank you for your consideration,
Soheila Azimi
10153728
Hello,
I am appealing to request credit (CR) standing in MATH 111B (Winter, 2015) and MATH 121B (Winter, 2016).
I have chosen to appeal these two grades now as I was not aware that an option to appeal grades was possible or provided by the university.
During the 2015 and 2016 academic years I struggled with maintaining my mental health as I was not able to find a healthy balancing mechanism to transition to university. In 2013 I was prescribed 50 mg of Adderall by a psychiatrist to help me cope with my ADHD, at the time I adjusted well to this medication and had never experienced any adverse effects from it, until I began university. During my first year in 2014-15 I was not able to develop a healthy routine where my sleep, diet, and exercise were in balance. Having been used to getting about nine hours of sleep every night prior to university, in my first year I was sleeping at most for about four or five hours while also missing most meals during the day and getting almost no exercise. A combination of sleep deprivation, poor diet, and zero exercise began to impact the effects of my medication. My medication was not affecting me in the same way that it used to because of my diminishing physical health. It began to make me feel extremely anxious and induced periods of prolonged and sporadic migraines. I was no longer feeling sharp and attentive during lectures as I would constantly either be dealing with the intrusive thoughts of my anxiety or the headaches that hindered my ability to feel normal in my attitude and behaviour in my everyday life. This psychological imbalance perpetuated further into my academics as I was obsessively second-guessing myself with the quality and correctness of my work and often failed to push myself to me work past the debilitating headaches.
At the time I did not think to reach out to my parents, family doctor, or staff and peers at Queens as I assumed that my experience was no different than that of other first years, since during frosh week we were told repeatedly that the transition process from high school to university is a difficult one. I continued to take my medication despite the symptoms it was causing me to experience as I was instructed strongly by my psychiatrist, family doctor, and parents that I was not to cease taking it.
My first-year grades all reflected lesser than my potential as this damaging cycle effected all aspects of my life. More so in MATH 111 and 121, I was interested in finding out if I would be able to pursue a career in engineering and believed that, despite having a very basic background in math from high school, one that was not to the expected standard of first year University math courses, with the taking of MATH courses I would be able to determine whether an engineering degree was a plausible option or not. I struggled immensely with the assignments of MATH 111 in my first year and with every failed test and later exams my confidence in mathematical ability diminished and eventuated in a failing grade. By my second year, I was still determined to see out any possible engineering potential and enrolled in MATH 121, however, having still not addressed my mental health issues from the previous year, I fell into the same habits as first year and my assignments, tests, and exams in MATH 121 reflected my poor psychological well-being. I was also not able to drop either of these courses as the deadline for dropping full-year courses tended to be before the return of exam marks from the first semester.
These two failing grades led me to get in touch with my family doctor to seek out help, as I finally came to understand that my lack of improvement was due to my unstable mental health. I began to see my family doctor regularly in the summer of my second year and with her help I instilled conducive habits to my physical health that resulted in me no longer experiencing the same adverse symptoms from my Adderall that I used to.
In the years after my first and second, I became progressively better at being able to realistically gage my potential in the courses that I enrolled in. I came to realize that the anxious states and chronic headaches that I was experiencing clouded my judgment and often persuaded me to challenge myself in ways that I was not prepared for, at the time I rationalized that I had to take difficult university courses to challenge myself in order to develop my thinking or intelligence. I have since learned that this is not the case, I realized that while challenging yourself is important and conducive to self-improvement, the fact that it is challenging does not render it conducive. With the ongoing help of my family doctor, I prioritized my physical and mental health as I understood that my academic success depended firstly on my personal health and omitted any further MATH courses that I knew I would not do well in.
Furthermore, I plan on taking a fifth year to retake other courses on my transcript that I achieved lower marks in to improve my GPA as I feel confident that I have successfully been able to adopt a healthy routine that yields strong academic performance.
Thank you for your consideration,
Soheila Azimi
10153728