Panic Attack During an Exam
So here it goes (keep in mind, something like this has never happened to me before):
I had 8 exams doing my AS this spring and I had done 7 of them which went pretty well. The last I had today
An hour into my exam I started to hyperventilate and shake and I felt as if I would faint so I put my hand up and the invigilator takes me outside
I start to shake more and I become pale, then I get taken to the nurses office.
The support teachers there start shouting at me and calling me stupid as I told them I didn't have breakfast that morning because I was unwell and nervous. They make my panic attack worse and leave me alone in the room, shaking and crying.
I can't bring myself back to the exam, both mentally and physically. I feel awful inside.
My head of year comes in after about an hour and calms me down. I want to go home but had already started the paper so I had to legally finish it despite the situation. I finish the paper in her office, but because I already wasted so much time in the exam beforehand, I under-perform very greatly due to having only 30 minutes left to complete 5-6 essays.
I then go home and cry.
What should I do? Can I contact the exam board and explain the situation or will they not care?
Resitting is also not an option for me because the course I want to take (Dentistry) does not allow re-sits. I feel as if I've lowered my grade to a C/D (the first unit went better)
Any suggestions on what I can do realistically? Thank you
I had 8 exams doing my AS this spring and I had done 7 of them which went pretty well. The last I had today
An hour into my exam I started to hyperventilate and shake and I felt as if I would faint so I put my hand up and the invigilator takes me outside
I start to shake more and I become pale, then I get taken to the nurses office.
The support teachers there start shouting at me and calling me stupid as I told them I didn't have breakfast that morning because I was unwell and nervous. They make my panic attack worse and leave me alone in the room, shaking and crying.
I can't bring myself back to the exam, both mentally and physically. I feel awful inside.
My head of year comes in after about an hour and calms me down. I want to go home but had already started the paper so I had to legally finish it despite the situation. I finish the paper in her office, but because I already wasted so much time in the exam beforehand, I under-perform very greatly due to having only 30 minutes left to complete 5-6 essays.
I then go home and cry.
What should I do? Can I contact the exam board and explain the situation or will they not care?
Resitting is also not an option for me because the course I want to take (Dentistry) does not allow re-sits. I feel as if I've lowered my grade to a C/D (the first unit went better)
Any suggestions on what I can do realistically? Thank you
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if you call up the exam board, they wont give you enough marks to get you a drastically different grade. id say they'd realistically give you 5% extra marks but id doubt youd get any more.
which exam was it, if it was not a key exam for dentistry universities, you might be able to get off with a C grade (providing the other 3 subjects are good and you carry those on for A2).
hope all goes well for you
which exam was it, if it was not a key exam for dentistry universities, you might be able to get off with a C grade (providing the other 3 subjects are good and you carry those on for A2).
hope all goes well for you
Omg! Are you okay? They shouted at you...that's really harsh...they should have been trying to calm you down instead!
I know that with exams you can contact the exam board on special cases and they do consider your situation. A girl did it in my exam at school today because she was feeling unwell and had to come and sit her exam. And your situation seems much more serious than that. I don't think you'll be able to contact the exam board yourself, you'll have to get one of your teachers to do it for you. Possibly an exams officer, if you have one in your college? They're supposed to contact the exam board on the day of the exam so the exam board can verify the request and they'll let you know if they've allowed you for special consideration. You should speak to somebody at your earliest opportunity and see if they can explain the situation to the exam board.
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I know that with exams you can contact the exam board on special cases and they do consider your situation. A girl did it in my exam at school today because she was feeling unwell and had to come and sit her exam. And your situation seems much more serious than that. I don't think you'll be able to contact the exam board yourself, you'll have to get one of your teachers to do it for you. Possibly an exams officer, if you have one in your college? They're supposed to contact the exam board on the day of the exam so the exam board can verify the request and they'll let you know if they've allowed you for special consideration. You should speak to somebody at your earliest opportunity and see if they can explain the situation to the exam board.
Posted from TSR Mobile
Original post by sfarquhar0
So here it goes (keep in mind, something like this has never happened to me before):
I had 8 exams doing my AS this spring and I had done 7 of them which went pretty well. The last I had today
An hour into my exam I started to hyperventilate and shake and I felt as if I would faint so I put my hand up and the invigilator takes me outside
I start to shake more and I become pale, then I get taken to the nurses office.
The support teachers there start shouting at me and calling me stupid as I told them I didn't have breakfast that morning because I was unwell and nervous. They make my panic attack worse and leave me alone in the room, shaking and crying.
I can't bring myself back to the exam, both mentally and physically. I feel awful inside.
My head of year comes in after about an hour and calms me down. I want to go home but had already started the paper so I had to legally finish it despite the situation. I finish the paper in her office, but because I already wasted so much time in the exam beforehand, I under-perform very greatly due to having only 30 minutes left to complete 5-6 essays.
I then go home and cry.
What should I do? Can I contact the exam board and explain the situation or will they not care?
Resitting is also not an option for me because the course I want to take (Dentistry) does not allow re-sits. I feel as if I've lowered my grade to a C/D (the first unit went better)
Any suggestions on what I can do realistically? Thank you
I had 8 exams doing my AS this spring and I had done 7 of them which went pretty well. The last I had today
An hour into my exam I started to hyperventilate and shake and I felt as if I would faint so I put my hand up and the invigilator takes me outside
I start to shake more and I become pale, then I get taken to the nurses office.
The support teachers there start shouting at me and calling me stupid as I told them I didn't have breakfast that morning because I was unwell and nervous. They make my panic attack worse and leave me alone in the room, shaking and crying.
I can't bring myself back to the exam, both mentally and physically. I feel awful inside.
My head of year comes in after about an hour and calms me down. I want to go home but had already started the paper so I had to legally finish it despite the situation. I finish the paper in her office, but because I already wasted so much time in the exam beforehand, I under-perform very greatly due to having only 30 minutes left to complete 5-6 essays.
I then go home and cry.
What should I do? Can I contact the exam board and explain the situation or will they not care?
Resitting is also not an option for me because the course I want to take (Dentistry) does not allow re-sits. I feel as if I've lowered my grade to a C/D (the first unit went better)
Any suggestions on what I can do realistically? Thank you
i think you can apply for special consideration, ask ur exam officer about this
Original post by sfarquhar0
Resitting is also not an option for me because the course I want to take (Dentistry) does not allow re-sits.
Resitting is also not an option for me because the course I want to take (Dentistry) does not allow re-sits.
Why do you think that? Of course they do, you have a valid reason (this can be explained in your reference, don't worry about it). Everyone has off days... I did 2 resits and still got medicine offers and all 4 interviews so don't worry
Also, which subject is it? From the sound of it it's a minor subject so they probably won't care anyway.
Edit: Someone said you could get 5% extra marks under special consideration, unfortunately this case would only get you 1% extra ums which wouldn't really change anything.
(edited 8 years ago)
I also suffer from anxiety myself and it can get quite worse around exam, however I have not experienced an panic attack in exam hall before.
Having said that, I have asked my school's exam manager about what happen if I did have an panic attack in the exam, I was told that in order to consider for special consideration you need to obtain you an note from your GP on the day of the exam. (According to her if the note was not obtain on the exam day, it will be futile, but you need to check that).
MAV
Having said that, I have asked my school's exam manager about what happen if I did have an panic attack in the exam, I was told that in order to consider for special consideration you need to obtain you an note from your GP on the day of the exam. (According to her if the note was not obtain on the exam day, it will be futile, but you need to check that).
MAV
My god, your school sound so understanding - not! Did they actually tell you that you 'legally' had to sit the paper - what were they going to do, call the police if you didn't sit the exam? (Sarcasm, in case that's not obvious!).
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ohh no, I'm sorry! 
in "special circumstances" you can have your mock result to count as the final result. But I don't know if just a panic attack will count for them to accept the mock result. Normally you need external circumstances like a death in the family. but I'd still look into it to see if this makes you applicable.
anf for the future, you should try and understand what caused this panic attack so that it doesn't happen again. What was different about this exam? is it more important than the others? was there more pressure for you to do well? did you feel prepared enough for the exam? Or had you over prepared? what was the environment in the school hall like? where there more (or maybe less) people than normal? how much sleep had you had the night before? had you other exams that day? had you taken medication that day that you don't normally take, or have you recently started taking medication? (even stuff like hayfever meds may have an affect, I don't know but you should look in to it) stuff like this can affect how you are feeling so if you can understand what drove you to a panic attack you can help prevent another one.
in "special circumstances" you can have your mock result to count as the final result. But I don't know if just a panic attack will count for them to accept the mock result. Normally you need external circumstances like a death in the family. but I'd still look into it to see if this makes you applicable.anf for the future, you should try and understand what caused this panic attack so that it doesn't happen again. What was different about this exam? is it more important than the others? was there more pressure for you to do well? did you feel prepared enough for the exam? Or had you over prepared? what was the environment in the school hall like? where there more (or maybe less) people than normal? how much sleep had you had the night before? had you other exams that day? had you taken medication that day that you don't normally take, or have you recently started taking medication? (even stuff like hayfever meds may have an affect, I don't know but you should look in to it) stuff like this can affect how you are feeling so if you can understand what drove you to a panic attack you can help prevent another one.
If the situation is explained in your reference, you will most likely be allowed to resit and have that count in applications for dentistry.
Original post by schmuur
in "special circumstances" you can have your mock result to count as the final result.
Sorry, that's not true, it's just a myth created by panicked students :/ would be pretty cool if it was though
Original post by yasmin#2
you can still resit btw just not all your modules for that subject
Why not all the modules?
I have pabic disorder so it happens to me like twice a day 
Teachers are really mean when it comes to it. I brought a letter from the gp, stating that I have panic disorder and they said (some teacher Idk but I had to go yo her), "GPs can say anything".
Had a panic attack when I left lol.
Had one during ny chemistry practicals.
sucks, try to calm your breathing down. Its harder daid than done, but count and try slow it down hun
Teachers are really mean when it comes to it. I brought a letter from the gp, stating that I have panic disorder and they said (some teacher Idk but I had to go yo her), "GPs can say anything".
Had a panic attack when I left lol.
Had one during ny chemistry practicals.
sucks, try to calm your breathing down. Its harder daid than done, but count and try slow it down hun
Original post by TheonlyMrsHolmes
Why not all the modules?
because thats resitting the whole subject
theyre the rules for admissions for dentistry
Original post by yasmin#2
because thats resitting the whole subject
theyre the rules for admissions for dentistry
theyre the rules for admissions for dentistry
Oh I see, for some reason I thought as a whole you cannot re-sit everything, my bad, do excuse me.
Original post by TheonlyMrsHolmes
Oh I see, for some reason I thought as a whole you cannot re-sit everything, my bad, do excuse me.
no worries
Original post by schmuur
ohh no, I'm sorry! in "special circumstances" you can have your mock result to count as the final result.
in "special circumstances" you can have your mock result to count as the final result. Mock result iare not used to form a grade if a candidate is unable to take an exam.
Unfortunately exam anxiety is specifically not a reason for special consideration.
(edited 8 years ago)
Original post by sfarquhar0
They make my panic attack worse and leave me alone in the room, shaking and crying. I can't bring myself back to the exam, both mentally and physically. I feel awful inside.
My head of year comes in after about an hour and calms me down. I want to go home but had already started the paper so I had to legally finish it despite the situation. I finish the paper in her office, but because I already wasted so much time in the exam beforehand, I under-perform very greatly due to having only 30 minutes left to complete 5-6 essays.
My head of year comes in after about an hour and calms me down. I want to go home but had already started the paper so I had to legally finish it despite the situation. I finish the paper in her office, but because I already wasted so much time in the exam beforehand, I under-perform very greatly due to having only 30 minutes left to complete 5-6 essays.
Your school doesn't seem to have dealt with this at all well in all sorts of ways - but one of them is that as they left you alone you should not have been allowed to continue the exam.
Original post by sfarquhar0
I want to go home but had already started the paper so I had to legally finish it despite the situation. I finish the paper in her office, but because I already wasted so much time in the exam beforehand, I under-perform very greatly due to having only 30 minutes left to complete 5-6 essays.
The legal bit is absolute rubbish to get you back in there. You aren't allowed out of supervision until an hour after the exam starts but you don't have to do the exam and, as I said earlier, it sounds as though they broke the rules by letting you do so.
Original post by sfarquhar0
What should I do? Can I contact the exam board and explain the situation or will they not care?
Any applcation for special consideration has to be made by the centre's exams officer. However, exam anxiety is specifically listed as not being a reason for special consideration so I don't think there's much point.
I've known plenty of people get into medicine or dentistry having re-sat a unit. re-sitting next year is not the end of the world.
Original post by Gaiaphage
Sorry, that's not true, it's just a myth created by panicked students :/ would be pretty cool if it was though
Is it not? that's annoying! I seem to remember teachers telling us, but its been a while since I did A-levels so maybe it was a rumour and I am mistaken! Shame!
Original post by schmuur
Is it not? that's annoying! I seem to remember teachers telling us, but its been a while since I did A-levels so maybe it was a rumour and I am mistaken! Shame!
In some very particular circumstances it could happen until a few years ago. I think most teachers don't know it changed. (They also never use your predicted grade if you miss an exam - exam boards no longer even ask for them - but that's also widely claimed on TSR).
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