Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Dr. Johanne Bénard,

My name is Hassan Aljohani and I am a 2nd year Life Sciences major here at Queen¿¿s University. I am writing to appeal the grade I received in PHYS 117 Course (6units). I believe there were situations that were beyond my control that contributed to my low grade, and had circumstances been more typical of a normal PHYS 117 Course I would have scored a much higher grade than the D that was posted.

I went to a non- English High School back home where we did not use English in any of my classes except English classes; English classes were twice a week. I was a very good student and as a result I got a scholarship to study English for a year and then start at one of the universities in Canada. When I started studying at Queen¿¿s, English gave me a hard time and to do a homework or an assignment that usually take an hour, I would take three to four hours just working on one thing because I had to translate back and forth. I was afraid to speak in classes or to ask about anything, and I was only staying at my room in the residence. After a while, my don realized what I have been through and she advised me to contact Elizabeth Racine, Health, Counselling and Disability Services and that was in the last week of the fall semester. I worked with Elizabeth for 8 weeks which helped to pass the courses. I also, was not allowed to use a dictionary or even to get an extra time because I am an international student and not an exchange student according to the exam office. If you take a look to my marks in PHYS 117 you will find that I was working hard and I got A+ in the assignments and the labs but the exams lowered my mark .The other courses were affected too like Biology 102 and 103 but since most of the words were Latin words , it was ok because my teacher back in high school asked us to memorize the words and the explanation for them. I was only translating and memorizing which I believe caused me to get a bad mark in Biology because I took to much time translating, but PHYS 117 was a completely different language where only one word can completely change the meaning of the question.

I would greatly appreciate it if you would look at my record at this year and see the difference. Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,