Am I overthinking this, or does it sound like I’m on my prof’s bad side? Worried she’ll mark my deferred exam harder
I’m writing a deferred final exam soon and I’m getting really anxious that I may have annoyed my professor through an email exchange and that it could affect how she marks me.
Basically, I had to defer the original final because I was sick. When I emailed her recently asking how to prepare, she told me the deferred exam would have the same format as the midterm and would cover everything after the midterm. She also mentioned that I had missed several classes near the end of the semester and said that this “will be an issue,” and told me to do my best using the notes provided.
I asked what she meant by that because I was worried about whether I had enough material to prepare. I also asked about lecture recordings because some recordings had been available to students for the original exam. She explained that her policy was to only provide certain recordings to students who actually attended those lectures.
I then explained that my absences were due to illness and that I had submitted medical documentation through the university petition system. She replied that she had never personally received documentation covering the missed classes, so she couldn’t make an exception and told me to use the materials already posted.
I apologized because I realized I had assumed the documentation submitted through the university would also reach her directly. I sent her the medical form and explained that I’ve been dealing with ongoing health issues. I asked one last time whether she would consider sharing two specific recordings, while making it clear that I understood if she couldn’t.
She replied that the medical note would have needed to cover the missed classes rather than just the missed exam and suggested that I reach out to classmates instead. I thanked her, apologized for the inconvenience and explained that I had been anxious, and said I would use the notes and ask classmates for help.
Nothing she said explicitly suggests that she would mark me unfairly, and the exchange stayed professional (however, her responses became increasingly blunt), but I’m now really worried that I came across as annoying, argumentative, or like I was pushing too hard after she had already said no.
Since she’ll presumably be grading my deferred exam, I keep thinking: could I be on her bad side now and could that subconsciously affect how harshly she marks my short-answer responses (exam is all short answer)?
Am I reading too much into this email exchange? If you were a prof, would a student sending emails like these bother you enough to affect your impression of them when grading?