Okay, so, I have a documented history of illness and I even talk about said illnesses in my personal statement. Long story short: a few years ago I had an adrenalectomy along with removal of a paraganglioma. I have also been diagnosed with a chronic, congenital disorder.
(Which, if you look at my past posts, I talk & whine about)
Both of these things cause me to miss class sometimes, which is whatever. It is what it is.
A few weeks ago, out of the blue, I developed a nasty staph infection on my leg. It evolved into a case of cellulitis and I felt like poop. Our class had an exam a few days after I developed the infection, but this kicked me back for a few days. I made up the exam a few days after getting better. I failed the exam because, frankly, I still felt like hell during the test. I ran out of time.
FAST FORWARD: I haven't missed ANY other exams (only an MS1 in semester one, so that's really not that big of an accomplishment), but woke up at 5 am morning of my most recent exam, had a migraine, can't see so good with a migraine, and asked if I could possibly come in the next day. But, over the past few days, I've realized that something (besides my sleep schedule) could be whack, since I haven't felt this tired since I had mono. I was supposed to retake the test today (which YES! I did study for...on Tuesday and Wednesday to prepare). I asked the medical education dept. to please please let me take it Monday, because besides the migraine, I overall was feeling abnormally unwell and wanted to go to the doctor. I also told them today, via email, about my adrenalectomy and how I get tired from it. I also have Ehlers-Danlos (WOOH, genetic lottery!), but I spared them that tid-bit of info today.
Anyways - The answer was no, which is fine. Initially I was supposed to come in today at 3, but admin said I can come anytime up til 530. Cool.
Well, I email the admin letting them know I'm on my way around 4:45. I sent that too soon, since I had to put my dog in her crate and then my roommate came home which delayed my departure.
ANYWAYS...I am driving, feeling like I have taken Quaaludes or something, and I end up missing my turn for the school and getting temporarily lost. When I arrived, I realized I had forgotten my computer, which we take our exams on. I arrived at probably 5:10. I go in, and say, arh I am so sorry, I'm out of it, I forgot my computer, can I take this as a written exam or run home really fast and get it? They just kind of stared at me and asked me if I had received their last email.
Which informed me that, apparently, because I was 20 minutes later than what I had implied via email, I was now not allowed to take the test and received a 0. Also, I was in the wrong for reading "come take the exam up until 5:30" as, come take the exam anytime between now and 5:30. Apparently, that verbiage meant I was supposed to be DONE with the exam by 5:30. Despite all of this, yep, I felt like crap, but I showed up, according to what I thought the directions were. But...suddenly, I receive a 0 for the test? It's worth 30% of our grade and I will surely fail the class because of this.
I feel pretty crappy about the entire situation, as in, I see that there could be better ways of navigating this (on my end), but despite looking through the college handbook and the syllabus, there is nothing that references make-up exam protocol and being awarded a zero for...I'm not sure what. Not arriving on time, when I thought I did?
Argggh. Please tell me that I'm being crazy or the administration is being whack, because I find the way that this was handled so inappropriate.
TLDR: I have sicknesses in medical school. Sometimes I miss days of class that have exams or dont have exams. I always study for my exams. I misunderstood exam makeup directions and got a 0 for an exam worth 30% of our grade. I was informed via email of my test grade annnnnd am supposed to meet with the admin higher-ups on Monday....
