I'd say that about 60% of my appeals have gone through, I have an example of one down below. First of all, chill out, everyone has bad grades. Lord knows I had my fair share of them. Now the actions you take depend on what your status is. If you failed a course and want a passing grade, consider the following. How were your marks prior to the exam? Are you just appealing because you slacked and you're just trying your luck with the prof? Odds are, if you had a useless performance prior to the exam, your appeal is as good as garbage. If you had a generally good semester, ok marks, did all the assignments, tried your best, then its worth the effort.

Talk to the prof!!!!! Email, call, fax, courier, whatever it takes. Ask them what they think about possibly upgrading your mark. Professors usually dont beat around the bush, they'll tell you straight up if you have a shot in hell of a grade increase. If your prof is cool (like Ferworn, Mastoras, Nagendra to name a few) they may be a tad lenient. When you DO appeal and ask them to increase your grade, tell them WHY. Dont just ask them "yo, I need a D-, hook it up yo?". Tell them what you did during the semester. You attempted all the assignments, you went to office hours, you did the labs, etc... Show them why they should consider this. If you still cant get the appeal, try talking to head honcho's at Computer Science. Book an appointment with Lan or Sadeghian and explain your situation. Failing that, move on to step 2!

Turning it up a notch. Now its serious, you have to fill out a formal appeal. Check out the link to the appeals forms in my links on the side. Fill out the first level appeal, which goes to your department head, usually Professor Sadeghian for Computer Science. You can appeal on compassionate ground, medical, academic and racism (I think). Unless you're appealing some marking errors, usually choose compassionate. You have to kill this appeal, the best way to do this is to write a brief 4 or 5 sentences saying you want to appeal the mark. Next is to, in point form, list as many reasons as you can why you should get a higher mark. And I'm talking about 6-10 GOOD reasons. Usually medical illness, family problems, and freak circumstances go over well (I've tried them all!). What you dont want to do is bad mouth the prof, it goes back to them for review. Unless the prof REALLY sucked (i.e. SOUTCHANSKI) then stay away from blasphamy. If at this point Sadeghian decides your appeal is too weak or has no grounds, move on to step 3, but it doesnt look good!

Uncharted waters. You dont want to be here, this is where you're dealing with the upper level Ryerson people. The appeals committee now decides the fate of your appeal. I've never had to take it this far, I've usually quit after the first appeal. Basically your original appeal is sent to the committee and you'll have to attend a formal hearing with your prof and the committee and basically pow wow this appeal. Not good! Listen, unless this courses decides your fate at Ryerson, dont go here! If you decide to go through all this hassle and STILL dont get your mark, there's one more appeal process, the Dean. Yep, your appeal goes directly to the Dean. I'm not even touching this one!

Generally, appeals are viewed as bothersome by prof's and they'll do their best to dismiss the appeal as best as possible. The best way to avoid all this, of course, is to do well in your courses. Try and make yourself known to the prof, ask questions and talk to them so they remember your face or name. I know it sounds like being the brown noser, but at this level, sucking up to profs goes a LONG way. Some of them you'll even love hanging around (Ferworn!!). The best advice is to talk to the prof. I can remember at least 6 marks that I had changed by just emailing the prof and explaining why I think I deserved a better mark, and they did it hassle free. In a few cases, they said they recorded my mark incorrectly! If you need some serious advice from me about appeals, just Email Me and I'll be glad to help. I've been around the block with appeals, so feel free to ask.

Sample appeal letter: Download Now (yes, I really am appealing a B- !!)

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