Petition Letter
I am appealing my final examination mark in CISC101/ final grade in CISC101 (winter 2022). As you need to pass the final examination to pass the course.
During the final examination for CISC101 I had some technical difficulties that significantly affected an accurate representation of my understanding and effort towards the course. Going into the exam I had a 78% in the course and have devoted hours upon hours of my time to this course throughout the semester. I have worked very hard in this course and devoted a lot of time to the course content. As I mentioned, I experienced several technical difficulties throughout the online exam. This caused me to be very stressed. I quite honestly did not want to waste a single minute I had during this exam; under this amount of pressure, I did not even think to email my professor during the exam as I was just so focused on fixing these technical issues and completing the exam to the best of my ability under these circumstances. As soon as I handed in the exam, I immediately emailed the professor to make her aware of my technical issues, and to ask if there is anything I could do to compensate for my loss time during the exam, such as completely retaking a new exam or any other available options. The email I sent was as follows:
??Hello, I just submitted my final exam. I was unable to finish and complete the exam to the best of my abilities because I was having a lot of technical difficulties. My WIFI was not working for most of the exam, so I had to hotspot myself for exam, which significantly slowed down my computer when tethering off of my cell phone. My computer crashed 3 times during the exam, and I had to fully restart it. Just wondering if there is anything I would be able to do to improve my mark or make up for this exam. Thanks.?
IT concluded the following from my exam:
-The length of time you were given for the exam was 4 hours and 30 minutes
-You entered the exam at 2:04PM
-There is regular movement between exam pages until 2:13PM
-There was a gap until 3:32PM where onQ specifies a quiz re-entry (a possible sign of tech issue where you could not access the exam).
-It then shows regular movement between pages until 3:52 (with no entries or writing).
-There was another gap until 4PM, with a quiz re-entry marker in onQ.
-It then shows regular movement between the pages (but again no writing) until 6:39PM, at which point the exam was over
Overall, this shows a possibility of a loss of time of about 68 minutes on the higher end, over two separate incidents (3:32PM and 4PM)
He also noted that the following message was at the bottom of every exam page:
For Technical Support with your exam in onQ, please contact:
ITSC Exam Support Chat https://examchat.queensu.ca
ITSC Exam Support Phone Line - 613-533-6666
??While it is clear that you did lose roughly one hour of a 4 hour exam, there was extensive time when you did have access that you were not answering questions.
There was also very clear instructions on every exam page indicating what to do if technical issues arose.?
Though I now understand that at the top of every page there were ressources for me to contact during the exam for technical support, I was in such a pannick throughout the exam that I overlooked it. I struggle with testing anxiety and as soon as the technical difficulties began, my testing anxiety was heightened. My first instinct as things started to go wrong was to work as hard as I could to resslove my issues and attempt to complete the exam with the time I had remaining. A point also mentioned was that ??here was extensive time when you did have access that you were not answering questions?. This is not due to a lack of understanding but simply the type of work that was required to be submitted into the text boxes within the online exam. These questions needed to be written in the python program first then copied and pasted in the appropriate questions text box to ensure the indentation was correct and the program ran and functioned correctly, therefore yes there is extensive periods where there is no typing within the exam, because all the code for each question is written in a separate program. With the loss of over an hour of time, I did not have access to the questions and all the crucial details within these questions within this time as well.
I have worked very hard in this course and would really value earning the credit, and I have worked very hard to maintain a good GPA and a 0 in this course will significantly affect my GPA for the next four years.
During the final examination for CISC101 I had some technical difficulties that significantly affected an accurate representation of my understanding and effort towards the course. Going into the exam I had a 78% in the course and have devoted hours upon hours of my time to this course throughout the semester. I have worked very hard in this course and devoted a lot of time to the course content. As I mentioned, I experienced several technical difficulties throughout the online exam. This caused me to be very stressed. I quite honestly did not want to waste a single minute I had during this exam; under this amount of pressure, I did not even think to email my professor during the exam as I was just so focused on fixing these technical issues and completing the exam to the best of my ability under these circumstances. As soon as I handed in the exam, I immediately emailed the professor to make her aware of my technical issues, and to ask if there is anything I could do to compensate for my loss time during the exam, such as completely retaking a new exam or any other available options. The email I sent was as follows:
??Hello, I just submitted my final exam. I was unable to finish and complete the exam to the best of my abilities because I was having a lot of technical difficulties. My WIFI was not working for most of the exam, so I had to hotspot myself for exam, which significantly slowed down my computer when tethering off of my cell phone. My computer crashed 3 times during the exam, and I had to fully restart it. Just wondering if there is anything I would be able to do to improve my mark or make up for this exam. Thanks.?
IT concluded the following from my exam:
-The length of time you were given for the exam was 4 hours and 30 minutes
-You entered the exam at 2:04PM
-There is regular movement between exam pages until 2:13PM
-There was a gap until 3:32PM where onQ specifies a quiz re-entry (a possible sign of tech issue where you could not access the exam).
-It then shows regular movement between pages until 3:52 (with no entries or writing).
-There was another gap until 4PM, with a quiz re-entry marker in onQ.
-It then shows regular movement between the pages (but again no writing) until 6:39PM, at which point the exam was over
Overall, this shows a possibility of a loss of time of about 68 minutes on the higher end, over two separate incidents (3:32PM and 4PM)
He also noted that the following message was at the bottom of every exam page:
For Technical Support with your exam in onQ, please contact:
ITSC Exam Support Chat https://examchat.queensu.ca
ITSC Exam Support Phone Line - 613-533-6666
??While it is clear that you did lose roughly one hour of a 4 hour exam, there was extensive time when you did have access that you were not answering questions.
There was also very clear instructions on every exam page indicating what to do if technical issues arose.?
Though I now understand that at the top of every page there were ressources for me to contact during the exam for technical support, I was in such a pannick throughout the exam that I overlooked it. I struggle with testing anxiety and as soon as the technical difficulties began, my testing anxiety was heightened. My first instinct as things started to go wrong was to work as hard as I could to resslove my issues and attempt to complete the exam with the time I had remaining. A point also mentioned was that ??here was extensive time when you did have access that you were not answering questions?. This is not due to a lack of understanding but simply the type of work that was required to be submitted into the text boxes within the online exam. These questions needed to be written in the python program first then copied and pasted in the appropriate questions text box to ensure the indentation was correct and the program ran and functioned correctly, therefore yes there is extensive periods where there is no typing within the exam, because all the code for each question is written in a separate program. With the loss of over an hour of time, I did not have access to the questions and all the crucial details within these questions within this time as well.
I have worked very hard in this course and would really value earning the credit, and I have worked very hard to maintain a good GPA and a 0 in this course will significantly affect my GPA for the next four years.