That’s the point. Either the “I won’t make NMSF” argument is completely and totally pointless, because you have no idea about this year’s cutoffs – or you’re basing it off past years’ cutoffs, which are way higher and wouldn’t have made it anyway.
The main issue for me was the “Send the teacher a whiny letter” advice, which is not the way to approach inconveniences with a better perspective. I respect what you’re trying to do to get past it, but there’s also not much to get past until you actually know if you made it or not.