Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: I am writing you with the request to review the potential to drop the courses Math 121 Fall/Winter and Chemistry 112 Fall/Winter from my 2013-2014 academic transcripts due to extenuating circumstances. This past year, I suffered through one of the worst periods of time with respect to my general anxiety disorder. In addition to this, I did not meet the pre-requisite high school requirements for the program, and faced a very steep learning curve as I was never presented adequate material in high school. In spite of this, I worked diligently both semesters to reach the level of my classmates with the use of a tutor. Even with the countless amount of work done, the greatest obstacle remained my anxiety. The adjustment to university is not easy for anyone, but adjusting on top of dealing with my anxiety made academic success very difficult to obtain. I experienced two anxiety attacks in residence over the course of the academic year. I assumed they were merely stress-induced and that every first year student has to struggle through the same conditions. It seemed that no matter how hard I worked, my anxiety was constantly creating a mental block, most notably during tests and exams. This made it very difficult to successfully focus in class, study on my own, and perform on exams. I sought counseling from Health and Disabilities Services and was granted accommodations for exams including alternate exam locations and extra time.
During the first semester exam period, I lost a significant amount of weight due to the anxiety, I barely slept, and as a result I failed to post a successful grade in both the CHEM112 and MATH121. I still did not finish three of my five exams in time, including math, and struggled immensely trying to stay calm and collected throughout the tests. During my Chemistry exam, I completed a large portion of my bubble answer sheet incorrectly. When I caught this mistake following the Holiday break it became evident that if I had filled it out correctly, I would have scored much higher, resulting in a passing mark. By the time I saw this, it was too late to rectify my error with the professor. It was this exam haze caused by my anxiety that has greatly hindered my thorough efforts to overcome this illness.
I am asking the university to drop these courses, which I am willing to retake, from my first-year transcript given the circumstances and the severity of my condition. I would like to thank the University for the consideration of my request and any necessary documentation to support my reasoning will be provided with my submission.

Kind Regards,
Maura Condon