Petition of the APS106 Exam Retake

Dear Prof. Bussmann, Prof. Cristina Amon and other members of the faculty.

We, 1st year students, at the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering, are writing to you concerning the situation with repeating the final examination for the APS 106 (Fundamentals of Computer Programming) course.

We understand that the reason for the retake of the exam is that you believe that a fair grade cannot be assigned to the students because of the problems during the midterm and final examinations seating arrangements problems and fire alarm respectively.

We feel that this action decreases fairness to the students, who budgeted their time accordingly for the first exam and now have other commitments (final examinations in other courses, final presentations in APS112 course, family arrangements, travel arrangements etc.), which are time consuming and may affect their performance on the make up exam.

Furthermore the fire alarm incident took place only 20-25 minutes into the exam. Nevertheless the students were told to continue writing the exam. After brief period of discontinuation of the exam process and room relocations (in some cases) the examination was fully completed and supervised by the university staff. We feel that if the examination was considered unfair, the exam should have been stopped at the time of the fire alarm. Otherwise all the work and time spent by the students was in vain. Also please consider that the announcement about the examination retake came four days after the exam was originally written.

During the writing of the midterm exam there were problems with seating arrangements. The rooms allocated to writing the exam were not large enough to accommodate all students. As a result, a large amount of students had to be relocated and wrote the exam under varying conditions and under increased stress and anxiety. Consequently, the response was different for all students from those who wrote the exam in the allocated rooms to the students, who wrote the exam in other lecture halls. Nevertheless the examination results were not omitted and a retake exam was not issued.

In addition, the information on the universitys Petitions and Appeals website states: Deferred examinations and re-writes (for courses offered by the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering) in the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering are not standard practices. (http://www.undergrad.engineering.utoronto.ca/support/registrar/petitions.htm).

We feel that the problems during the final examination are not students fault; nor do we blame the faculty for it. We simply ask you to consider this letter and the inconvenience and anxiety that students have to face due to the fact they have to study and rewrite a major 2.5 hour exam, while other examinations and academic assignments are not completed. This will affect not only the students performance on the retake exam, but in all remaining academic assignments for the first year.

1st year students at the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering at University of Toronto.