Last week, we looked at how timing will affect your professor’s response to whether or not you can get an extension for an assignment. Today, I’ll be sharing just a couple of the excuses I’ve received, and whether or not they seemed valid. 

“I currently have an F because none of my assignments are being counted for.”

Usually when I get this one, I automatically login to the LMS and the outside platform used to do some investigating. In the case of this student, they only submitted one assignment each week (either the homework or quiz, I couldn’t find a consistent pattern). Then, I double checked the LMS and saw that I had transferred in the right ones, but since they were missing half of the work, they did indeed have an F. After I explained it to them, but said if they could provide me proof they had done the other assignments and my side was just missing it, we could talk about it, they never responded. 

Sometimes, people do have trouble getting their assignments to register as being submitted, which we can easily fix once we contact support. But if someone comes to me with an excuse, I come back with what I can see, and a proposed solution to a problem that they may have (even if I still don’t see evidence for it), and they never respond…it makes me think that they just wanted me to bump their grade without the work. 

“Am I able to make up the quizzes?”

I know, this doesn’t sound much like an excuse, it sounds like I took the wrong excerpt from the message. But that is all that was in the email. No salutation, no signature, no additional information. Just that question. 

I will be going over how to write an email that will likely get you an extension, and it involves far more words than just the 8 that made up that question. For additional context, they asked this the day after the week 2 quiz was due. They also hadn’t done week 1, which may be why they turned it into a plural. I’d responded saying they were unable to make up the ones they missed, but if they communicated with me in advance about any issues, I’d be happy to work with them.

Given the student’s history in the class, and the fact they didn’t bother to write anything more in the email, demonstrated to me their level of care in whether or not they got an extension. People who have successfully received extensions from me provide far more words, explanations, and apologies for missing it.  

“I’ve been managing a heavy workload which made it difficult to keep up with all my responsibilities.”

This was an excerpt from an email where the student said they could no longer access the final exam and final week’s materials. I responded by telling him that it was because the course had ended two days ago. 

Telling your professor you have a heavy workload that makes it hard to keep up is not a great excuse. Life is hard, and I fully understand that people are working and taking multiple classes. But (and not to sound mean), you signed up to take those classes. By the end of the course, you certainly would have known the amount of time it would take you each week to get the assignments done, and could have dropped it and then picked it back up another semester when things smoothed out. 

Sending me an email wondering why you are no longer able to access course materials, after having received an email from me the day before telling you to check your grades and make sure it all looked good before I submitted the final ones, days after the course ended, is not a good look. 

“I was wondering if it would be possible for me to still submit my missing assignments because I need a B+ for the nursing program.”

I received this email, again, two days after the course ended. They had received a C- due to all their missing assignments. The reasoning that you need a higher grade, and would like to submit your missing assignments is just now occurring to you after the course is over? 

This goes well with last week’s post. Timing is so important. If they had messaged me throughout the course saying they were struggling understanding materials and needed more time, I would have worked with them. But waiting until the course is over and then saying you’d like to make up what you didn’t do since you need a higher grade isn’t going to make me give you an extension. 

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Your professors aren’t dumb, and while some are super strict, and some are very easy going, you have to realize that your history in the course, the excuse you use, and your timing when asking for an extension will set you up either for success or failure. I’ve given students extensions with very shaky excuses, and it has not worked out well (more on that next week). 

The way you present your request, and the reason you give will either have the professor bending over backwards to help you, or sighing when they read that you have too many other things going on and didn’t do any of last week’s assignments and would like an extension. 

Next week, we’ll look at what not to do once you do have that extension.

Let me know if you have any comments/questions below or you can contact me here! I love hearing from you!

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