As underscored by the recent tragic events on campus, it is apparent that students at UNC Chapel Hill are struggling with mental health stability, which in turn is affecting our academic performance. The opposite is also true; our poor academic results despite tireless efforts to perform well has a severely detrimental effect on our mental health. Specifically regarding Chemistry 101, we find that an immense amount of pressure is unnecessarily placed on us, mainly due to the exam policy in place. Exams comprise 75% of our weighted average, and failing just one can drag our grade down by a whole letter, even under the assumption that all else in the course goes well.

Unlike other STEM courses at UNC, there are no curves applied to these exams, nor are there extra credit opportunities available. Partial credit is not awarded for calculation-heavy multiple choice questions. Open answer questions often exceed or completely steer away from those that real-life chemists would likely face in their line of work. Most importantly, they exceed those applicable to any introductory/overview course.

This, coupled with the fact that lecture instruction almost always warrants supplemental instruction, which in itself is inconsistent in its helpfulness, makes it difficult to maintain a passing average for many students; We attend classes, complete all necessary readings and exercises, and utilize all available resources, textbook modules, tutoring and peer study sessions, and a large portion of students are still failing or nearly failing, many of us for the second or even third time. 

The majority of us are enrolled in this class as a prerequisite course required for a non-chemistry related degree, and the inability to succeed is ultimately impeding our ability to progress in our given courses of study and achieve academic success overall, setting us back both financially and academically.

Chemistry 101's exam policy from fall 2020 was implemented as a buffer to account for the damage done by the novel COVID virus. It states that “If you were present and earned at least 20 points on each midterm, and if your percentage score on the final is greater than its corresponding midterm score, the lower midterm score will be replaced with the higher performance on the final.” While COVID may no longer be novel, the difficulties it has created for students are still VERY present, which is not being accounted for. The exam policy of the course and the toll it is taking on our collective mental health is incongruous to the community standard that UNC strives to uphold.

We hope that our voices will finally be heard and changes can be implemented to aid our success in this course. We believe it is both reasonable and justifiable to request at the very least, that the final exam for Chemistry 101 be curved. We also request that reinstating the previous exam policy from fall 2020 be considered.