Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Alexandra MacDonald
Student : 10139209
13am217@queensu.ca
May 9th , 2017
Re: Request for credit standing in course (econ 310)
Dear Associate Dean,
I am writing this letter to request a credit standing for a course I took this past semester (winter 2017). Upon receiving my final grade for third year microeconomics (econ 310) I was quite disappointed and I feel that this is not an adequate representation of my knowledge of the course material. Throughout the course I put in a lot of effort and felt as though I had a good understanding of the material.
There was an extenuating circumstance that adversely affected my performance in this class. I have struggled with severe exam anxiety in calculus based course in the past couple years, in order to try to alleviate the effects of this disorder I have sought help on campus and now have accommodations for my exams. During the exam period I experienced a panic attack just before writing my exam. This impacted my performance, in particular, my memory and concentration. Although I spent weeks studying for my microeconomics exam, it was difficult for me to retain knowledge during this state of panic. It felt as though all of the hours and effort I put into studying went to waste because I was not thinking clearly.
This is an ongoing occurrence for me and I have taken the necessary steps to solving this issue. I have met with my family physician that has prescribed me with mediation to help stop my panic attacks, as well; I have met with a psychologist in attempts to use cognitive behavioural therapy to address this extreme exam anxiety in a mindful way. In addition to these strategies, I met with student accessibility services to review the current accommodations that I have for exams and how we can improve them to ensure I do better in future exams.
If a credit standing is granted by the University I will continue to use cognitive behaviour therapy to change my mindset around exams, work on study strategies that better fit my needs and use my updated exam accommodations as a way to cope with my issues.
In sum, I believe that the effort I have put into this class is not reflected in my final grade and in order to be admitted into a seminar for my final year this standing would be very beneficial.
Sincerely,¿¿Alexandra MacDonald