Trying not to panic

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SaintSamson

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I'm not sure if anyone can identify with this problem or has experienced something similar...

I'm taking all 4 courses online this term. If I do well (A's and B's, which at the moment, I have 3 As and 1 B), I will be accepted for Spring semester at a really good academic University (it has improved a lot recently and is now being compared to Whitman College and Stanford for the west coast). Since I have a bad transcript following me from a previous college, attending this university and doing really well at it would definitely improve my application a lot.

My statistics class has been a complete nightmare. There is no homework, the syllabus outlines what chapters are covered on the exams, the class is supposed to be conceptual stats but the exams ask only applied questions, and the only helpful link is to wikipedia. Additionally, the TA and instructor have no responded to my emails or any of the other students' emails. There are 3 exams and 2 retake exams and the grade for the class is entirely dependent on the exam scores, and all the exams need to be proctored. I hired a tutor by the second week to help get me through this very unstructured class (the textbook is worthless.)

I had the 2 midterm exams and the final exam all sent to the proctor center at a local college and I used the online proctor site to orchestrate everything. I have taken one exam and I wanted to retake it to try and get as good of a grade in the class as possible, since it's an option. I schedule my appointment for the retake, the 2nd midterm, and the final for this Tuesday. The exams have to be submitted by Dec. 10th (Thursday) at 8am (so they have to be completed on Wednesday, since no proctor office is open before 8am), and the syllabus strictly says 'no exceptions'.

I got an email yesterday informing me that my appointment times had been given away to students from the college that offered the testing services, and that they had a completely full schedule on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. None of the testing centers or the proctoring help phone line are open until 8am tomorrow. I went to the proctoring website and tried to sign up for another proctor and it wouldn't let me. I finally discovered I could take it 'on-campus' at the university I was taking the course through (which is 2+ hours away), but I could only send the 2 tests that hadn't been sent to my original proctor. So I sent them both to the on-campus testing center and signed up from tomorrow and Tuesday, and there's a bunch of open spots on Tuesday at another time.
I plan to call the proctoring center first thing tomorrow to see if I can get the tests sent to the on-campus testing, even though they've already been sent out. I don't know how they'll feel about sending out proctored exams more than once, but it's obvious that they don't like to do it, since I couldn't do it online.


Sorry this has been such a long post! I'm just really freaked out that they might not let me take 2 of the tests (one of which is the final). I can't believe the other university gave my appointments away at the last minute and didn't offer me another appointment time! If I can't take the exams, there is no way I will pass the class, and there will be a huge ugly mark on my transcripts and I won't get into the university I want. I already emailed the instructor to notify him of the dilemma and that I may need him to okay having the exams sent out a second time... and hopefully, they will get to the testing center in time for me to take them and there will be an open appointment time still.

+pissed+

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what a disaster! Ok, first of all breathe, and try to relax a bit (I know, easier said than done).

First of all...are there other colleges in your area besides the one that gave away your exam time? Maybe it would be possible to have the exams transferred from college #1 to another school where you can take the proctored exam without having to request them from the school thats issuing them?

What are the guidelines for proctoring? If another school is not nearby maybe there is a library? Many online courses allow a librarian with a MS degree as a suitable proctor. Or a university professor. My point is, maybe you don't need to go to an actual testing center to take the exam?

And just so I understand completely, you're basically planning on taking all of the exams for the course on Tuesday with the deadline for the course on Thursday? That is rough.

If you cannot get the exams moved it would probably be good to plan on making the 2+ hour drive to the school where the exams are to take them. or you could drop if its still an option and re-take at a later time.

I'm not sure whats best for you, I'm just trying to present as many options as possible for you
 
Thank you for the reply :)

The proctoring website won't let me sign up for another off-campus proctor, so I wouldn't be able to find out if I can get the tests sent to another off-campus proctor until tomorrow morning. It also took about 24 hours for the tests to get to the proctor the first time, so I thought that if it's on the campus of the school I am taking the course from, they may be able to get it faster.
The final is cumulative, so it covers all the same material that midterm 1 and midterm 2 cover. I figured that if I retake midterm 1, then take midterm 2, I will be feeling prepared for the final. Ideally, it'd be nice if I could space them all out, but I'm supposed to work all day Wednesday, and I only want to ask for the day off as a last resort.
The other off-campus proctoring centers that are approved by my university are at least an hour away or more, and I know 1 or 2 people down at the school, so I may ask if I can stay the night so I don't have to drive to and from the school two days in a row.

Sadly, when I realized how terribly unstructured the course was, I immediately thought to drop it, but the drop deadline was in the middle of the second week of class (that totally caught me off guard, I've never encountered a drop deadline that was that early.) So I hired my tutor to help get me through the class, and I was feeling hopeful about doing okay in the course until yesterday.

I wish there was something I could do right now to improve the situation.
 
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awww i'm so sorry about your situation. that must be super nerve-wracking... but try not to worry about it until you have to! i'm sure you have other finals and such to study for right now. if there's nothing that can be done right now, don't fret about it. play with your puppy if you can't concentrate on anything else!
 
play with your puppy if you can't concentrate on anything else!

The best medicine in the world, especially since you did have the great wisdom to allow yourself to be adopted by the most awesome breed ever. That alone should be proof enough of your infinite wisdom for any ad com huh! :cool:
 
Haha, thanks guys! :)
I definitely have one of the three exams secured into an appointment, so I will be taking that tomorrow.

I wish ad coms were that easily won over! Maybe I can just show up and have him perform a bunch of symptoms and I can identify them and suggest possible causes and that will be enough to impress them, hah!

Sadly, my puppy has kennel cough at the moment (boo...), and he had a bout of constant sneezing/inflammation in his right nostril/swollen lymph nodes in August (rhinoscopy and a biopsy only showed that he had a lymphoplasmacytic inflammation... helpful), and it had improved almost completely until 2 days ago... now he has kennel cough, has to be on pepcid/bland diet to keep him from vomiting his doxycycline, and his lymph nodes are swollen again, his right nostril is swollen again, and he is sneezing with a vengence again. -big sigh- One more thing to worry about... So he's feeling under the weather and not much into playing at the moment...
 
So I just wanted to let everyone know that things got sorted out (YAY!!!)
I was able to contact the proctoring office, get the exams moved to on-campus and for the right day/times I needed.
Thanks so much for the support, guys, it really helped me keep my head!
 
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