Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Dr. Jenn Stephenson,

I am appealing to change my grade in ECON 310 to Credit Standing.

I am appealing the grade I received in this course as it was severely influenced by a single test which I wrote under extenuating circumstances: the final exam, which made up approximately 60 of my final mark. During this test, I experienced severe anxiety and believe that I had an anxiety attack (something which I've never had before) which drastically affected my performance. Due to this anxiety attack and poor performance on this exam, I ended up finishing the course with a mark that underrepresents my knowledge of course content and diligence as a student. This mark being so low affects me in two key ways 1: it lowers my total GPA 2: it reflects poorly on me as an economics student, which is integral to my future success in admissions to graduate studies or even to a seminar, as this is a core course in the Economics program.

Some relevant background information: I have taken this course before with a different professor in a full 5-course semester last year. Due to my poor time allocation and an unfortunate exam schedule (this was my last exam after multiple days in a row), I failed the course and needed to retake it. I retook this course during fall semester 2018 as my only course while on internship since this course is requisite for all fourth-year economics courses, I needed to achieve a passing grade before returning to full-time fourth-year studies. Unlike my first attempt of the course, I studied very diligently, completing all assignments to a high degree, and really put a focus on my success, especially for the final exam. My peers and coworkers can attest to my work ethic in this course. My housemate and long-term friend decided to drop out of school and move out the day of my exam.

On the day of the incident, about 20 minutes before I left for the exam, my childhood friend and housemate, a then 5th year engineering student informed me that he was dropping out and was also moving back home. This of course completely rattled me, as I was desperately wondering what had happened to make him decide this so abruptly. Given that I had a major exam upcoming, I had no choice but to let him leave and try to move on towards my test. Upon arriving at the exam after studying quite hard for almost two weeks, I felt quite prepared. However, upon reaching the second question (after breezing through the first), I was faced with a very strange sensation that I can only describe as blanking out. I tried various means of calming myself down, all of which only left me feeling more anxious and disoriented. This exam was by no means meant to be easy, it was long and it was challenging, even for someone in a completely calm and focused mental state, but in the mental state I was in, it was nearly impossible. I stuck around for the entire 3 hour duration and managed to regain some composure by the final 45 minutes or so, by that time it was too late to recover from the lost time. I had been more prepared than I had been for almost any exam I've ever taken, but in writing it I experienced FAR more anxiety or stress than I ever have before. I felt extremely dejected.

Within the next few days, I spoke with Spring Forsberg-Lewis about this incident and my options going forward. She recommended I speak with the Arts and Science embedded counselor, Allison Lavigne, and fill out this appeal. Allison seemed to believe that what I suffered may have been a panic attack and corroborated Spring's suggestion to move forward with the appeal.

Going forward I am actively looking into exam-stress management techniques and selectively taking courses in which I will have more natural successes. This was my last core course in Economics that I foresee having this level of theoretical math and an exam format like this, so that should also alleviate some of the stress. As well, now that I've spoken to my friend I doubt that another long-term friend will be abruptly dropping out of school.

Sincerely,

Skyler McArthur-O'Blenes