Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear whom it may concern,

I am writing this letter because my first year of university was a very tough one for me due to personal circumstances which detrimentally effected my grades, mainly in the winter semester.

For the months of February, March, and April I went through severe anxiety that caused me to be unable to focus accurately on my work and do my best in my academics. I would sit there for hours trying to get it done and just barely scrape by with doing the bare minimum. This is something which i have never experienced prior which made it very difficult to cope. I also was not sleeping well at night or eating very well.

This got even worse during the last week of February when my mom got into a very dangerous accident causing her to be hospitalized for several weeks. This took a huge toll on me mentally, as I was already dealing wth anxiety and now this big life changing event going on in the middle of March when all my tests, quizzes and major assignments were due. I had to go back home to visit my mom the week of March 19-25 which was a very busy time making me fall behind in class.

I have always been a great, hardworking student and seeing the marks I got in these classes due to my personal challenges really disappointed me. French especially has always been my best subject, something I've always gotten 90s in and was hoping to major in. I did all of the work for the class but I was just not able to focus during my studying due to the circumstances which made my mark drop so low.
For Geography,I had one test and two labs which I could not complete to the best of my ability as they had taken place right in the midst of my mom's accident (end of February to end of March) and because of that stress plus anxiety I just couldn't focus on my work as mentally, it just wasn't my top priority.
In History, my anxiety really deterred my from attending all the tutorials, which substantially lowered my mark and when I went back home for a week, I had a major assignment due at the same time which was negatively impacted by this.

I knew this was becoming a really big problem for me so I went to see a counsellor on campus, we talked about why I was feeling the way I did and she confirmed the anxiety that I've been having. She also gave me a letter of accommodation on April 1st. It was nice to talk to someone about it but I still didn't know how to deal with the anxiety plus the extra stresses of exams and my mom's recovery. I went back another day for a short session, but I couldn't take anymore as they were fully booked.

During April my anxiety was at its worse, plus I was having more trouble sleeping. During the day I would spend hours at the library trying to study but I would be unable to pay attention or focus, and at night I wouldn't be able to sleep well either, making me even more drained and not pay attention. This very negatively impacted my study habits and exam results, resulting in my very poor marks in these classes.

I've always been very privileged not having to deal with any mental issues or life changing family emergencies so when I've experienced this the past couple months I didn't know how how to cope and unfortunately my grades took the blow for it. I have learned from this experience and have gotten help to better myself and my grades next year and I'm really hoping that the low grades I've gotten due to these events out of my control will not effect the rest of my academic career.

Sincerely,
Sarina Khan