Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Dr. Stephenson,

I hope that this letter finds you well, especially during these times. I have decided to appeal my final grade for ECON 255 - ¿¿Introduction to Mathematical Economics¿ and am requesting a review of instructors' decisions on grading of the final examination, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. I have reached out to Professor Ludo Auger with my concerns, and I do not believe that they were adequately addressed. My concerns are two-fold: 1) Exam Structure and 2) Exam Curve and Weighting.

Structure of the Final Exam
Before the exam, it was made clear that there would be 11 questions, and that you would not be allowed to revisit any questions once you advance in the test. I had hesitations about this ruling before the exam, especially considering that this was a math exam, and much of math is about your thought process and how you achieve your final answer, but I decided to give it a shot. After I completed my exam, it was evident to me that this ruling proved to be a very significant barrier and unneeded stress during the exam.

My first concern is that I was unable to see all of the questions from the start of the exam. Under normal circumstances, I preview all of the pages, and flag the questions that will prove to be more difficult and thus take up more time. This is especially critical in a math exam, as I need to ensure that I allot an appropriate amount of time to each question. I was unable to see where the most difficult questions were placed within the exam, thus impacting my ability to pace myself.

Additionally, another barrier that I faced during the exam was the inability to go back to previous questions. I found that many of the most challenging questions for my version of the exam were located within the first half, but alongside my first concern, I was only aware of where the relatively more challenging questions were after I completed the exam. I found myself second-guessing the amount of time that I was spending on these questions in the first-half, but I was unaware of what was to come. This ultimately led me to a tough choice between continuing to use up more time (unsure of what the following questions entailed), or leaving the questions unfinished. As an example, I got to the final question on the exam, expecting it to be difficult, which took me around 2 minutes, but I still had about 15-20 minutes left on my exam time. I was unable to use my allotted time, and was forced to uncomfortably submit my exam. Under normal circumstances, I would have benefited from being able to use this time to finish up or double check earlier questions. I also recognize that each question had it¿¿s point value noted with the question number, but there was no summary at the start of the exam with the point values clearly laid out, which meant that the point values were useless in informing my pacing. thus impacting the timing/ pacing issue previously noted.

Finally, I found it very difficult that the exam (composed only of multiple choice/ fill in the blank) did not provide me with the ability to show my work. Showing work is a crucial component, especially in a math exam, as it demonstrates that you understood the overarching concept, but may have made a small error in a calculation, or performed a step incorrectly. I understand that small errors can be avoided, but with time constraints listed above, I felt myself scrambling in many calculations, without time to double check my work. I think I would have benefited from being able to scan in/ take a photo of my work, to be used for part marks, in the event that my final answer was incorrect.

For comparison, my ECON 250 Statistics course modified the normally exam-based final exam into an assignment that is open for 5 hours. I had the ability to view all of the questions, show my work, and to scan and submit my work through OnQ, which I think is a fair alternative. As a result, I believe my mark suffered as I received a 40 on the final exam, after the curve designated by the professor.

Curve and Weighting
The final exam was initially worth 45 of the final course mark. This is a heavy amount, significantly impacting a final mark. As the average was significantly lower than previous years, the professor made two adjustments: 1) ¿¿curved the final exam so that the average is consistent with what a final exam average would look like under normal circumstance¿ which was intended to ¿¿alleviate a lot of the concern about the final exam format since everyone was affected in the same way¿ and 2) ¿¿shift weights away from the final to the midterm so that every student that did better on midterm can get a higher mark¿

In order to address the curving of exam averages equitably, I believe that previous exam averages should not be the sole reference point given the extenuating circumstances. I believe that a student¿¿s experience and previous performance in the course should be taken into account. Throughout the year, I put a high amount of efforts into assignments, as well as the midterm, and that effort was reflected in my grades for those assessments. To address the weighting, the midterm weight was increased 5 and the final exam was decreased 5. This left each exam to be weighted at 40. This is still an incredible amount of my final grade, and heavily impacts my final mark in the course. Had the final exam been under ¿¿normal¿ circumstances, I believe that my performance would have been more reflective of my midterm mark (86) than my final exam mark (40).

This course has been one that I have enjoyed the most in my undergraduate experience at Queen¿¿s thus far. I enjoy math, and have enjoyed many of the topics that have been covered in this course. When in-person classes were cancelled, I read and engaged with all the material provided by Professor Ludo, including annotated slides, the voice recorded slides, previous assignments, and previous final exams. I also accessed Khan Academy resources (as was suggested by the professor) to make sure that I could prepare to the best of my ability for the final exam.

I made an effort to reach out to Professor Ludo as I was not satisfied with my grade, and I don¿¿t think my concerns were appropriately addressed. When reaching out to the professor, he mentioned that I only completed 4 out of the 7 required assignments, thus missing the content from some of the later exams. It was made clear that only 4 of the 7 assignments were required in the class for a mark, and this does not discount the fact that I completed the remaining assignments, I just chose to do them for personal gain, and not to submit to be graded.

I firmly believe that this exam was not an accurate depiction of my effort and even more frankly, my high interest and curiosity in the course. Thus, I do not believe that my final grade is an accurate, or fair reflection of my performance in the class. To me, a 40 grade (post-curve) in normal circumstances reflects the grade of someone who did not put in effort, did not understand the course material, or had other extenuating circumstances. I don¿¿t believe that was the case for me, at all. I unfortunately can not use the pass/ fail option for this course as it as a requirement for many upper-year economics classes. As well, I am looking to pursue a career as an Actuary post-undergraduate degree. This is a career that does not require grade-school, instead, the completion of 7 actuarial exams after my undergrad is necessary, alongside an intro-level job that depends heavily on my GPA.

I recognize that these times are unprecedented, and all efforts were made by the professor to finish the course material, but I believe that it is important to take every student¿¿s concerns and circumstances into account when publishing a final grade.

Regards,
Matt D¿¿Alessandro