Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: I recently finished writing my deferred POLS 250 final exam. I recently lost my grandfather who was my main guardian. I was in Newmarket from November 25th until December 8th, and then I went back to Newmarket December 9th. Due to this I was not able to go to any classes/ final exam reviews. Although I tried my best to concentrate on my studies, the sadness and stress took a toll on me, making it difficult to focus, study or even engage with the material in a meaningful way. This left me in a state a bad mental state, which has undoubtedly had a negative impact on my grades. His death had an impact on me emotionally, mentally, and physically, and I find myself in a state of deep grief and sorrow. I have a doctors note that requested time off due to the mental state this put me in, if proof is needed. This happened during the crucial period of our end-of-semester exams and, understandably, adversely affected my academic performance.

On top of that, I don't think my final exam was graded in a fair manner which affected my final grade. Even when I got my exam deferred a final grade of an F was put in instead of an IN which affected my overall GPA and added more stress on my part because I've requested the professor to change it (like early January) and it was not changed to this date. I was told it'd be changed however seeing it as an F caused me to overthink while grieving which resulted in me trying to blurt out everything I tried to remember from the lecture slides posted. Reading over the lecture notes is not the same as actually attending the lecture and understanding the concept. Tutorials were also being graded and I was not able to go to a few due to me being in Newmarket, I'm not sure if my TA was notified.