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How did you all get through your HSC and Prelims without having a panic attack?

Aspeth

I have my Prelims coming up and because of something that happened in yr3, I am terrified of exams of any kind. I have been going through therapy for years now and have recently gone back to school in yr11 (I'm 18 but because i have ADHD and Autism, they let me reenroll) and genuinely thought I'd gotten mostly over my fear but yesterday, the Head of Education for our school called everyone in my grade to talk about what the exam week will look like and I got so panicky.

I always get nauseous during tests and the only two ways to get out of the exams was if you are sick (in which case you need to offer a doctors note as evidence) or if you get stuck in traffic (in which case you must provide photographic evidence) so i went up after he finished speaking to ask what would happen if I got sick during the exam and I got so scared at the mere mention of it (even though I was the one asking) that I ended up crying...

Does anyone have any coping mechanisms they used to get through theirs? I've got the 444 (and 484) technique, patting my chest/knee/arm/etc in a slow rhythm to calm my heartbeat but no other 'generic' or 'neurotypical' techniques help... Any suggestions?

Prelims are Preliminary exams to prepare us for HSC... I'm in Australia so these are the things we have here.

Parents

  • I'm very intrigued as you say year 11 which sounds like UK but I've never heard of prelims so I have no idea what they are.

    It's hard to advice with our knowing the ins and outs of what they are. With GCSEs I know the process. 

    If you were sitting GCSEs your school would be able to request access arrangements for you. This can include things like a separate room, a prompter to sit with you, rest breaks etc. I would assume there must be a similar process and adjustments that can be made for prelims but I couldn't tell you the process or what is and isn't allowed.

    Toilet breaks are also allowed in GCSEs although heavily discouraged as you have to be accompanied by an invigilator and can't talk to anyone else you see - if you were to feel sick, the same would apply. They would then decide if you were well enough to continue the exam. But again I can't say whether the same applies to prelims.

    Is there somebody in your school that is in charge of SEND related things, usually called a SENCO? This is who you likely need to talk to about help in exams.

    Other than official support, along with your tapping, I'd think about breathing techniques and grounding techniques. You can Google it to find specifics.

  • in reply to Expecto_Patronum

    yr11 is the second last grade of school. Prelims are a preliminary exam to basically prepare us for our HSC but apparently the prelims are harder than the HSC (which i find ridiculous). the support options i get are breaks and extra writing time abd the option for a reader or a writer (someone who sits beside me and reads out the question or writes my answer for me) but i can't deal with it, its bothersome and takes too much time. as far as i'm told, there is no option for someone to sit with me to just explain questions to me that i don't understand which is my main issue...

  • in reply to Aspeth

    No it's not allowed to have someone explain the questions as that would be seen as unfair advantage. A prompter would just be there to tell you to move on if you were taking a really long time on a question etc. 

    There is an issue with the wording of exam questions not always being ASC friendly which is frustrating and can be unfair but I can also see that explaining questions to someone could be very unfair to another person.

    Do the prelims count for actual grades?

  • in reply to DormouseAtRest_25

    wow... did you research all that for this? thats incredible...

    thanks. i'll look into it Relaxed️

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