Manage Appeals
Petition Type: New
ID: 10336
Submitted: April 18, 2023 at 11:24:45 PM
First Name: Katharine
Last Name: Kanters
Pronoun: she/her
Student Number: 20201058
Email: 19kyek@queensu.ca
Degree Program: BAH
Plan: Con-Ed, history major English minor
Level of Study: 3
Petition Categories
Petition Categories: Request aegrotat (AG) standing in a course or courses
Code: ENGL 200
Term: Fall/Winter
Year: 2023
Petition Category: Request aegrotat (AG) standing in a course or courses
Instructor's Name: Leslie Ritchie
Petition Letter
Petition Letter: I am requesting an Aegrotat (AG) for ENGL 200 because of physical and mental health extenuating circumstances.
I would like to start by providing you with background information on the medical challenges I have been facing. I have a medical and mobility disability that resulted from a spinal fusion surgery. In the last four months, my chronic pain has been drastically increasing, and my range of mobility has become significantly limited. I have been seeing a lower back pain specialist and have been having bi-weekly phone calls with my family doctor to figure out what is causing my pain, and two weeks ago I learned that there is no hope of my pain dissipating and at this stage in my life, I need to focus on pain management.
I would also like to explain the medical reasoning behind why I am applying for Aegrotat for ENGL 200. The ENGL 200 exam poses two sets of challenges for me: during exam difficulties and pre-exam difficulties. In terms of during the exam the most significant difficulty I will face is physically writing it. I am in constant physical pain which makes sitting down to write an exam extremely painful. I am a QSAS registered student, and even through my QSAS advisor, Caroline Teske, has staggered my exam to take place over three days because of my medical developments, I know that at this point in my life I will be physically unable to do three mornings in a row of sitting at a desk trying to write an exam even if I can take stretch breaks. To preemptively address the issue of sitting through the exam being a problem, I reached out to my doctor to ask if he could prescribe me a painkiller so I could sit through it. My doctor told me yesterday that the only pain medication he can prescribe me that will effectively manage my pain is classified as a narcotic, and while it will allow me to physically withstand sitting down, mentally, I will be feeling ??high? and I will not be able to write an exam that is coherent.
Additionally, I am struggling to prepare for my exam. The ENGL 200 exam is heavily memorization based. For example, for part A I need to memorize course terms, literary periods, dates, overviews of literary periods, and why a text/ author belongs to a literary period ranging from the middle ages to the present day. Additionally, for part B I will be shown quotations from sonnets that can be from any module from September-April, and be required to identify the title, author, literary period, work??s relation to a literary period, genre, form, importance to literary history, and the literary characteristics it presents. Lastly, for the final part, part C, of the exam I need to memorize and apply the concepts of form, metre, and literary devices. If I make spelling mistakes or do not give ??a complete answer,? I will not receive full marks. For the last month, I have been trying to memorize texts and literary concepts for this exam. I do flashcards at least seven times a day, yet because I am mentally distracted by my chronic pain and am not mentally able to focus because of my medication and mental health condition, I can not recall any of the information I have reviewed. Because ENGL 200 is my last exam, I was hoping that once I cleared my other final projects and was solely doing memorization every day for this class, I could retain information better. I have used numerous memorization strategies over the last week and have been studying for hours every day but I cannot retain any information. I am a strong writer and did all the coursework for ENGL 200, but because I am mentally unable to memorize facts and sonnets because of my pain, medication, and mental health condition this exam will not reflect the effort I have put into this course.
In the case of my other classes, I was able to complete every component of the course. Because my other classes did take-home final assessments, I could physically move around, take my medication, do my physio exercises, and sleep when my body needed to; I did not have the issue of being confined in a room while being in immense physical pain. Moreover, my other final assessments were research-based; I did not need to memorize anything, and I could have the information I needed to respond to a question to the best of my ability in front of me. If the ENGL 200 exam was a take-home exam that was not based on memorization, I would be able to complete it competently.
I am an extremely dedicated student who will be applying to master's programs in the fall of this year. I am very passionate about my education, and I promise I will not need to apply for an Aegrotat again. Before the fall and winter semesters start next year I will make sure I am not in classes with in-person memorization based exams. This is feasible because this ENGL 200 exam is the first exam I have encountered that requires memorization and is my second in-person exam I have done in university. Moreover, before submitting this request, I reached out to my doctors, therapist, QSAS advisor, and academic advisor, and they all recommended I should submit this request because they also believed this exam will not allow me to demonstrate the effort I put into ENGL 200 and my writing capabilities.
I would like to start by providing you with background information on the medical challenges I have been facing. I have a medical and mobility disability that resulted from a spinal fusion surgery. In the last four months, my chronic pain has been drastically increasing, and my range of mobility has become significantly limited. I have been seeing a lower back pain specialist and have been having bi-weekly phone calls with my family doctor to figure out what is causing my pain, and two weeks ago I learned that there is no hope of my pain dissipating and at this stage in my life, I need to focus on pain management.
I would also like to explain the medical reasoning behind why I am applying for Aegrotat for ENGL 200. The ENGL 200 exam poses two sets of challenges for me: during exam difficulties and pre-exam difficulties. In terms of during the exam the most significant difficulty I will face is physically writing it. I am in constant physical pain which makes sitting down to write an exam extremely painful. I am a QSAS registered student, and even through my QSAS advisor, Caroline Teske, has staggered my exam to take place over three days because of my medical developments, I know that at this point in my life I will be physically unable to do three mornings in a row of sitting at a desk trying to write an exam even if I can take stretch breaks. To preemptively address the issue of sitting through the exam being a problem, I reached out to my doctor to ask if he could prescribe me a painkiller so I could sit through it. My doctor told me yesterday that the only pain medication he can prescribe me that will effectively manage my pain is classified as a narcotic, and while it will allow me to physically withstand sitting down, mentally, I will be feeling ??high? and I will not be able to write an exam that is coherent.
Additionally, I am struggling to prepare for my exam. The ENGL 200 exam is heavily memorization based. For example, for part A I need to memorize course terms, literary periods, dates, overviews of literary periods, and why a text/ author belongs to a literary period ranging from the middle ages to the present day. Additionally, for part B I will be shown quotations from sonnets that can be from any module from September-April, and be required to identify the title, author, literary period, work??s relation to a literary period, genre, form, importance to literary history, and the literary characteristics it presents. Lastly, for the final part, part C, of the exam I need to memorize and apply the concepts of form, metre, and literary devices. If I make spelling mistakes or do not give ??a complete answer,? I will not receive full marks. For the last month, I have been trying to memorize texts and literary concepts for this exam. I do flashcards at least seven times a day, yet because I am mentally distracted by my chronic pain and am not mentally able to focus because of my medication and mental health condition, I can not recall any of the information I have reviewed. Because ENGL 200 is my last exam, I was hoping that once I cleared my other final projects and was solely doing memorization every day for this class, I could retain information better. I have used numerous memorization strategies over the last week and have been studying for hours every day but I cannot retain any information. I am a strong writer and did all the coursework for ENGL 200, but because I am mentally unable to memorize facts and sonnets because of my pain, medication, and mental health condition this exam will not reflect the effort I have put into this course.
In the case of my other classes, I was able to complete every component of the course. Because my other classes did take-home final assessments, I could physically move around, take my medication, do my physio exercises, and sleep when my body needed to; I did not have the issue of being confined in a room while being in immense physical pain. Moreover, my other final assessments were research-based; I did not need to memorize anything, and I could have the information I needed to respond to a question to the best of my ability in front of me. If the ENGL 200 exam was a take-home exam that was not based on memorization, I would be able to complete it competently.
I am an extremely dedicated student who will be applying to master's programs in the fall of this year. I am very passionate about my education, and I promise I will not need to apply for an Aegrotat again. Before the fall and winter semesters start next year I will make sure I am not in classes with in-person memorization based exams. This is feasible because this ENGL 200 exam is the first exam I have encountered that requires memorization and is my second in-person exam I have done in university. Moreover, before submitting this request, I reached out to my doctors, therapist, QSAS advisor, and academic advisor, and they all recommended I should submit this request because they also believed this exam will not allow me to demonstrate the effort I put into ENGL 200 and my writing capabilities.
Documentation
Professional Letter: Letter from Professional-25.pdf
Decision Letters
Amendment to Appeal 10336
Relevant Petition: 10336
New Information: I would also like to add a bit more information regarding my circumstances. I am the recipient of the GSO funding dedicated to a disabled student attending Bader College's Interdisciplinary Studies in Global Health and Disability program. Regarding my three summer classes I am taking at Bader, I will not encounter the issues regarding sitting for an exam and being required to memorize information I am facing with my ENGL 200 exam. My courses are participation, presentation, and paper-based so I will not be physically required to sit for an exam. Also, I reached out to my instructors and they confirmed that I will not need to memorize any information for their courses. Additionally, because the ISGHD program is about how to support people with disabilities, and I am the disabled GSO recipient, my instructors are willing to provide me with any accommodations I need because of my disability to support my academics and physical and mental well-being in their classes.
Moreover, I began experiencing my extreme pain after the March 5th drop deadline. While I have had chronic pain most of my life, I have never been in this much pain and lacked the ability to memorize information before, so I could not have predicted myself being in this extenuating circumstance. My extreme pain began around March 13th, and I was prescribed my medication on March 29th. Additionally, I was not informed that the exam would be memorization based until March 24th, and I did not realize I am incapable of memorization until I began studying for it after I learned it was memorization based. I could not have dropped ENGL 200 before the drop deadline because of my medical circumstances because I did not begin experiencing my severe medical problems until after the drop deadline. Additionally, because I am a third-year Con-Ed student, I would not be able to graduate on track and continue my BEd if I had to retake ENGL 200.
Moreover, I began experiencing my extreme pain after the March 5th drop deadline. While I have had chronic pain most of my life, I have never been in this much pain and lacked the ability to memorize information before, so I could not have predicted myself being in this extenuating circumstance. My extreme pain began around March 13th, and I was prescribed my medication on March 29th. Additionally, I was not informed that the exam would be memorization based until March 24th, and I did not realize I am incapable of memorization until I began studying for it after I learned it was memorization based. I could not have dropped ENGL 200 before the drop deadline because of my medical circumstances because I did not begin experiencing my severe medical problems until after the drop deadline. Additionally, because I am a third-year Con-Ed student, I would not be able to graduate on track and continue my BEd if I had to retake ENGL 200.
Student Number: 20201058
Documentation
Professional Letter Detail: Already sent
Documentation Detail: Proof of medication being prescribed on March 29th