FWIW, if you take inexpensive, old-fashioned antihistamines like Chlor-trimeton (chlorpheniramine) or Benadryl (diphenhydramine), you might be thirsty a lot and have to pee a lot more than people who don’t. Something to consider before long periods without bathroom breaks.
If it’s an intestinal thing, as someone wrote, you can exceed the normal dosage of Pepto-Bismol (pink bismuth) or Immodium (loperamide) for a few days with no lasting side effects.
@elliebham In this class the exam could have taken all 3 hours. I understand what you’re saying though. The teacher who let me go to the bathroom’s exam was not designed to take 3 hours, it took me just over 1. This philosophy exam, on the other hand, probably would have taken me 2 and half hours at least if I had taken my time. It consisted of about 20 multiple choice questions and 3 long and complicated essays. I rushed this one in just over an hour as well, but I was the first one done, and I’m willing to bet no one else left for a while.
@WasatchWriter I don’t take any medications. Not even for a cold. It was also not an intenstinal issue, but a bladder issue. I suppose I could argue that the professors decision put my health at risk. Holding in urine can lead to urinary tract infections and extremely serious bladder conditions.
Yep, just ask Tycho Brahe.
@OspreyCV22 “How did you complete the SAT?”
Who said I did? 
I posted UT’s rule and provided a link. No, that rule is not for the testing center, it is for final exams in general. Read it again if you don’t believe me. The fact that one prof didn’t follow it doesn’t mean anything. It’s still a written policy. The fact that you didn’t read the rule ahead of time doesn’t mean anything, either. Use it as a lesson for the future.
You can try to appeal, but I Imagine the first thing they will do is look at the written policy. If they made an exception for you, it wouldn’t be fair to the other students who did follow the rules.
My response about you having a choice was in response to your question of legality. It wasn’t meant as a snide comment.
You weren’t being held against your will. So I’m confident that the rule was legal. By taking the exam-- and the course, and being a student in the school-- you agree to abide by the rules they set up. In this case, the rule exists to ensure the validity of the exam and is posted in the link that was provided. I’m fairly confident that the policy is common.
Unless this particular professor has allowed others without pre-arranged accommodations to take breaks during an exam, you do not have a case. I am not trying to be mean, but this is just a case of you not being properly prepared. You clearly have a history of needing bathroom breaks. You needed to handle this before the test. The professor was not putting you in any danger. You put yourself in danger by not taking steps to mitigate your previously established personal issues. Again, any lawyer worth representing UT will be even more harsh in pointing out your personal responsibility in this. They are going to be able to point to mounds of evidence that this rule was in place prior (as posted earlier) and (presumably) has been consistently applied for this course/professor.
This is what happens when cheaters cheat. Ever curse the little plastic bands on the toys you buy kids for Christmas? Curse the shoplifters, not the manufacturers. In fact, you would be more likely to successfully sue proven cheaters at UT for producing an environment that led to this situation than you would for the school enforcing its own policy correctly. (though that too would be a stretch)
Best advice is to take a deep breath and move on. Trying to fight a legal and reasonable rule is not going to be any better for admissions to grad school.
As to the idea that your situation is totally different from the one that @MaineLonghorn presented-- in her scenario, someone had to be the first one out the room. If they let you out, why would they not then be obligated to let the next person out as well? What if he also had an emergency and had to use the rest room immediately? How do they hope to maintain any sort of testing integrity if they don’t keep the people being tested in the room?
If this is that much of a problem for the original poster, may I suggest he wear a condom catheter during the exams?
Unless you are tanking up on fluids before your exam, I’m skeptical that waiting 3 hours is going to pose any risk to your kidneys. Have your doctors told you that you are at risk? You may feel more urgency than other people but you don’t have any more volume. Even 9 month pregnant women aren’t in the bathroom every single hour.
Ha, I get so many UTIs that I take daily antibiotics to prevent them - I have for years. Even before I was on meds, waiting three hours was not the cause of any UTIs.
Rules are a pain, aren’t they? When I give someone a warning on CC, most often I don’t get any response. The two responses I do get are:
or
I’d say I get about the same number of each response. It’s very interesting to see how people will react. As a rule, the students react better than the adults do.
In one of my western history classes I set it up with the professor ahead of time to leave to nurse my 4 mo old daughter if I needed to (DH waited out in the hall with her), but she slept the whole 3 hours and I made it as well. (FWIW I was 31, and decided to take a break from college for about a decade after that grueling final).
It is basic, common knowledge to pee before you go take a test. Or get in a car for a road trip. Or walk down the aisle. Or get in line at the DMV. Then even if you’re stressing out and feel like you have to pee, you know you don’t actually have a full bladder. People who stress out a lot (raises hand) know this. I’m surprised you don’t.
My point is if you know you were going to have an issue (because you say you have longstanding anxiety issues), talk about it with the teacher beforehand. I’m not super sympathetic to you because by now you should know your bodily functions, and you should know the rules.
As a senior in high school, I have never been allowed the opportunity to use the restroom during a test. Not for common classes and certainly not for AP and IB courses. The fact that some people stated that they have been allowed to use the restroom during the test is crazy to me!
I and one of my daughters (so not an age thing) both would need a break after an hour or so for the same reason you did. People vary with this. For me, after three children and prolapse, I will get an accommodation for a break if I go back to school.
Every three hour class I have taken has a bathroom break midway.
I really do think it is an unreasonable rule, and I also agree that concentration is nearly impossible with a full bladder.
If the dean is not responsive, maybe an advocate or medical professional could help. And this is an issue worth raising in the larger scheme of things. So thank you.
I would think it would be a good ida to approach the professor BEFORE the exam and explain the situation. “I know this is not typically allowed, but I really need to take a break halfway through. Could we figure out a way to make that happen?” Otherwise, you’d get the same reaction as most of us have had - “What, you can’t plan ahead enough to avoid leaving the room?”
As do I. To which my response is, paraphrasing, since non-English posts are not allowed here, 
“ignorance of the law excuses not.”
I love the “your” 
I’m a current college sophomore.
At my university, you are not allowed to leave a test, let alone a final, until you have turned in your test. We had an issue in one of the CS classes this semester where a couple students did during the final and they got in huge trouble. Because of what happened with that, my math professor gave people the option up front that they could have a break half way through the final, but she would only give them the first half of the test, and they would need to turn that in before their break. I don’t believe anyone chose that option.
FWIW, our finals are supposed to last 3 hours, but since I have extended time, mine are 4.5 hours. I take the entire time and I’ve never had to use the restroom during a final. I always go right beforehand.
I’ve been able to take a bathroom break in every 3-hour exam I’ve taken, and most finals were expected to take 3 hours. The cheating issue was resolved by only letting one person out at a time. It seems ridiculous to me that you would need to get accommodations for using the bathroom. Maybe someone in the medical field can weigh in on this, but it seems normal to me to need to use the bathroom within a 3 hour period.