Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: When taking STATS 263 over the summer term, I went into the exam with a grade of A in the course. After writing the exam I ended with a grade of D+. Until the end of the 2017 winter semester, I've never had an issue writing exams. During the winter exam period I went through a traumatic experience which had a tremendous impact on my mental health. A close friend of mine attempted to take their own life and during exams I had to take the time to support them and visit them in the psychiatric ward of the hospital. I come from a family home where suicidal threats are not uncommon and as a result this had a particularly adverse effect on me. I was unable to write my exams at the time and rescheduled them. It now seems that any exams are triggering a similar response. When attempting to write an exam I now experience a tremendous amount of stress and am unable to sleep for days surrounding the exam. I have tried to take melatonin supplements to mitigate this without much success. As a result of the lack of sleep I experience memory issues and panic attacks. I didn't realize it would have such a lasting effect. I have been seeing mental health professionals up to and throughout this experience. This includes counselling and doctors as I was on anti-depressants at the time. Much of this is on record with the Faculty of Engineering's student services.