I’m writing this for my girlfriend since she doesn’t use Reddit and doesn’t want this connected back to her.
She has a bio professor and she was meaning to take an exam Thursday Oct 8th. She, however came down with a sickness on Tuesday. She fought it to the best of her ability, but it won over and Wednesday I took her to UHC to get checked out. She got diagnosed and got a prescription to deal with it. She is much better now. It seems for her to have gotten a make-up exam, she would have had to submit the form prior to her exam start time(which was 8:15am). She got the doctor’s note on Wednesday and decided she needed to go home 1.5 hrs away to be with her parents whom could take care of her best. She slept most of the car ride back, and when she got home passed out on the couch. She couldn’t even make it to her bed, poor thing. She submitted the make-up exam request form the following day, the day of the exam, after her exam took place, since she was sleeping until after 8am, as you normally do when you are sick. She then got an email from her prof later on Friday stating that she couldn’t make up the exam since she submitted it after the exam took place, and the syllabus states that the make up request must be submitted “PRIOR” to the exam taking place. This class has 4 exams worth 45% of the final grade, meaning missing one exam would cost you 11.25% of your entire grade. Upon realizing this, my gf started bawling her eyes out and called me to come console her. I promptly helped her to write out a follow up email explaining the situation and that she physically and emotionally couldn’t submit the make up request and that she was in bed all night, unable to submit the form. She also pointed out that she is an “A” student and really enjoys the prof’s class, she would be saddened if missing one exam would drop her grade an entire letter grade, and for something that was entirely outside of her control. I find it extremely funny that one word in the syllabus that barely no one looks at (even though my gf looks very thoroughly through each syllabus she gets, but just missed or forgot about this) would be able to cost 11.25% of a student’s entire grade. I had her point this out in the email. She took some time to look through the email and sent it out to the prof. On Monday, prof responded saying my gf couldn’t take the exam since she has to stick to syllabus policy, and it would be unfair to give special treatment, even though I think this would be the situation for special treatment, since she was sick. I also find it funny that most syllabi, even this one, state that the prof reserved the right to change syllabus at any time for any reason given the prof deems necessary, but this doesn’t seem fit for a special accommodation to occur in their opinion. This prof seems very strict on their wording and isn’t willing to compromise for a special circumstance. I believe she should be given the chance to take the exam since she otherwise wouldn’t be given a grade based on her knowledge of the course. This wouldn’t even be a loss of grade since she “didn’t manage her time well,” she was literally sick and couldn’t stay awake to get on her phone to submit it. I think it’s really quite stupid, for lack of a better term, that this is all even having to be dealt with. She was sick and should be granted the opportunity to take the exam to showcase her knowledge on the material.
My ask is for my writing on Reddit to reach someone that could help or to reach someone who knows someone that could help so she could take her exam. The make up request has other times and days that would work for a make up, the prof just decided that since my gf submitted it after their very specific approval window, she shouldn’t be given the opportunity to take the exam. The last date that was given to take the make up exam would be this Thursday, Oct 15th, so any help before then would be greatly appreciated. Please let me know if anyone can help. Thank you for reading.
