Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: I am writing to appeal my MATH 121 grade, as given extenuating circumstances during the time of the final exam I was unable to perform at my normal academic level, and I think that I should be given credit standing for the course.

I have suffered from migraines since I was seven years old. A normal week for me consists of at least two headaches, some of the worst lasting up to three days straight, and on top of that; a normal month has at least two migraines. I have tried every over the counter headache medication there is, and none have the effect of relieving my headaches. In the many years I have suffered from headaches, I have found the only cure for them: sleep, and a cold washcloth on my forehead. Often, even this doesn't work, and I am forced to just wait until the headache is over. Headaches normally cause a moderate level of discomfort and pain, but I am normally able to attend classes, and continue on with my day, however I try to sleep it off as soon as I can. With migraines, however, this is not an option for me. The pain is significantly more severe, and they are always accompanied with significant nausea. If I don't go to sleep as soon as I can, I will start to throw up. Migraines normally start out feeling like a normal headache, and then progress towards a migraine.

During the exam period, I had a headache that lasted three days, and overlapped with two of my exams, one of these exams being my calculus exam on April 15th. When I left to write the exam, it felt as though it was going to be a normal headache. As I sat to write the exam, I was hit with a wave of nausea and realized that this headache would soon be a full-blown migraine. Not wanting to have to leave the exam hall to throw up, I finished my exam as quickly as I could and as best I could considering how badly my head was hurting at the time. Leaving the exam room after only an hour, I went home, went to sleep, and even through all of that I woke up with a headache the next day. I recognized at the time of the exam that I was not going to perform at my normal academic level given the pain in my head and the nausea. Having the migraine while trying to write the exam makes it very hard to focus on the questions, and I often feel as though all my thoughts are jumbled and mixed up, which is not ideal when trying to write an exam for a course that requires a great deal of concentration.

A migraine I had in early February pushed me to meet with a neurologist, as it presented with a visual aura (visual blurring), which I have never had before. I was put on Gabapentin, which is a daily preventative migraine medication. I was told that the medication would take three months to begin to work, and then would take several months beyond that to cause a significant decrease in the amount of headaches and migraines I get. That being said, at the time of my calculus exam, I was only two and a half months into my medication, meaning it had not yet started to work. The migraine prevented me from answering any of the questions to the best of my ability, and I therefore received a mark that does not reflect my knowledge in the course. This can also be demonstrated through the fact that the exam grade is much lower than the grades I received for the other course work.

Given these extenuating circumstances, I strongly believe that my performance on my final MATH 121 exam did not accurately reflect my knowledge in calculus, and had a significant negative impact on my overall grade. For this reason, I believe I should receive credit standing for this course.