Dear Ms. Bremen,

I have read your blog for a number of years and enjoyed it throughly. I have not felt compelled to write until now. I have not seen my situation appear and I am hoping you could assist me. I have learning disabilities that have made school very hard. It has been more than 15 years since I was last in college. I returned in the fall of 2015 in hopes of completing an associates degree and then transferring to a university to finish my undergraduate degree. I have completed almost all of my classes for my associates degree. I have 3 classes left. I always meet with each of my professors at the beginning of the semester and found tutors at my school to help me. The remaining classes are in math. I knew they would be the hardest for me and left them until the end. I took a placement test, but did not test into college algebra. I was placed in remedial algebra courses. I have passed two of them and had one more to complete before moving into college algebra this fall. The last remedial course was this summer. I had registered for a night class , but it didn’t work well with my schedule. Three weeks into the summer class, I asked if I could transfer to days. The chair of the math department told me to meet with a daytime professor and if they agreed to it, then he would approve of it. There was exactly one daytime class I could transfer to , and I met with the professor. I told her the subjects we had covered and that I had a test I needed to take that night before transferring to her class. I will call my daytime professor Mrs D. She told me transfers are never approved by the chair, but she would be happy to email him that we had met, and approved of me being in her class. The chair approved of my transfer that day. I sent an email to my night instructor to explain why I was changing to a day class even though I would see her that night. I think it’s important to explain in person if possible, but if not at least putting it in an email. Unfortunately, bad weather hit and school cancelled classes which meant I could not take my scheduled test. I met with Ms. D the next day and began her class. She was very surprised the transfer was approved. When we met that morning, I told her I could not take my test and provided her with my disability paperwork the school gives me each semester. It specifies my approved accommodations. She told me not to worry about my missed test grade because my final would take the place of it. I have never worked so hard in any of my other classes as I did this one. When I got to her class, I found out that none of my homework or the test I had taken in my previous class would count towards my grade. I was behind in my homework when I arrived and she gave me two days to complete those 200 problems in addition to the new 100 problems that she assigned each day. (The 200 assigned was nothing I had covered before). She repeatedly told our class she makes it as hard as possible because remedial math should not mean easy. When I tried to schedule meetings, she told me it was summer and she did not meet with students. I arrived earlier for class and asked questions, but she told me to stick with it and the material would come to me. My first quiz I scored 9% and knew I was in trouble. I did not understand the material and the tutors I had did not understand it either. My regular tutors aren’t at the school during the summer. They academic learning center suggested I look at khans academy. When I attempted again to meet with Mrs. D she told me I study wrong. (I always study several hours with breaks in between because my disabilities are so challenging). When I asked if she had any suggestions or recommendations, Mrs. D would say she didn’t know what to tell me or to stick with it and the knowledge of the material would come to me. It never did. The last day to withdraw was approaching and I asked her if I should withdraw from the class, because I had a 68 and I was not confident I would pass. The only reason I even had that grade was because I had done all of my homework and attended my classes every day. I had failed two quizzes and one test at this point. Ms. D told me she could not tell me what to do, but as long as I did my best I would be fine. I stuck it out and made a 70 on the next test. I was hopeful I might pass. The next two sections we were to cover, according to the syllabus were not discussed in class. I read my book and tried to work through examples. I tried to ask a question about one of the problems the next day in class. I felt nervous and stated while I am not good at math, I keep trying and asked my question. She told me in front of the entire class that if I said that again she would deduct 5 points from my grade daily and refused to answer my math question. daily. The next week, which was 1 week from final exams, she changed the weights of our grades and it dropped my grade to a 48%. She also assigned us 300 homework problems that were the due following Monday (the week of our final exam), that she did not cover in class. I failed almost all of the homework, but completed the assignments. When we showed up to class on Monday, to get our study guide, she told us that was the last day of class. If we did our study guide we would be able to pass the test. Three classmates and myself met that day to work out the problems. We worked for 5 and 1/2 hours on it together. When we went to class the next day hoping to get help for the ones not answered and to check our other answers. Mrs. D told us she would not give us the answers because this is how she prepares students. The next day was our final and she told us the time was unlimited. This made me very nervous because all final exams have limits. I went home and tried working through each problem until I could remember the steps required to solve them. The next day when I saw my final, I literally thought I would faint. It was 375 problems and looked nothing like the problems on the study guide. It took me 6 hours to complete it and I knew I had most likely failed it. My classmates were still working on their exam when I left. I waited and waited, but my grade never posted. The day of our final grades to be turned in came, but mine only showed the 48%. I emailed my professor, but she did not respond. I emailed the math chair asking for my final exam grade, but he did not respond either. So I registered for the fall semester to repeat the class. Do you know what I could have done differently in meeting with my professor? I am devastated that I did not pass, but more so that my community college will not respond to me. I really wanted to know my final grade. However, since I have three math classes left, I don’t want to label myself a problem student with the department. I have a lot of apprehension for the fall semester. Do you have any recommendations for me?

Kindest Regards, Ashley