Studying When Sick and Running Behind Schedule

[isabella104]

Hi all,

I'm sure there must be some of you guys out there in the same situation as me. It will definitely sound extremely alarming to most (including me) that I haven't finished making my study notes for Business, still need to touch up my English Advanced and Extension 1 essays, as well as a whole bunch of essays and extended responses for various subjects that I need to email to teachers. ON TOP OF THAT, I haven't started studying for ANY SUBEJCT. AT ALL Literally. I made a very detailed plan on Saturday of how I would use each day, except I am a notorious procrastinator, and even though I tell myself that I only have a few weeks to go and can't redo this and need the atar to get into uni, my body just doesn't want to do anything, on any given day. Except more disaster struck. I got sick on Saturday...very sick. Some sort of throat infection or sinus infection or something. And so that became my excuse to do no further work until I was better. 5 days later...I'm not any better. Went to the doctors (fyi my local doctor is completely melodramatic) and they made me do a blood test to see if I had glangular fever. Heard from family and friends that you can barely walk or speak if you have this, and I can certainly do that, I could even excercise if I really wanted to. I just spent about 2 hrs researching and you can only apply to NESA for illness/misadventure during the hsc, so they don't take into account any illness or disadvantage you may have leading up to the hsc. Now I am 5 days behind my schedule, still haven't finished notes, still haven't started studying, and have no idea how I can possibly catch up. I'm really starting to panic. Any words of advice?

[kauac]

Hi all,

I'm sure there must be some of you guys out there in the same situation as me. It will definitely sound extremely alarming to most (including me) that I haven't finished making my study notes for Business, still need to touch up my English Advanced and Extension 1 essays, as well as a whole bunch of essays and extended responses for various subjects that I need to email to teachers. ON TOP OF THAT, I haven't started studying for ANY SUBEJCT. AT ALL Literally. I made a very detailed plan on Saturday of how I would use each day, except I am a notorious procrastinator, and even though I tell myself that I only have a few weeks to go and can't redo this and need the atar to get into uni, my body just doesn't want to do anything, on any given day. Except more disaster struck. I got sick on Saturday...very sick. Some sort of throat infection or sinus infection or something. And so that became my excuse to do no further work until I was better. 5 days later...I'm not any better. Went to the doctors (fyi my local doctor is completely melodramatic) and they made me do a blood test to see if I had glangular fever. Heard from family and friends that you can barely walk or speak if you have this, and I can certainly do that, I could even excercise if I really wanted to. I just spent about 2 hrs researching and you can only apply to NESA for illness/misadventure during the hsc, so they don't take into account any illness or disadvantage you may have leading up to the hsc. Now I am 5 days behind my schedule, still haven't finished notes, still haven't started studying, and have no idea how I can possibly catch up. I'm really starting to panic. Any words of advice?

Hi...

Sorry to hear you are unwell! If you feel so sick that you can't study, then the best bit of advice I can give is that you need to REST! I was in a similar situation last year before an exam block, and I can tell you, the less you worry about not being able to study, and the more you rest, the sooner you will be able to get better. I'm pretty sure there is actually scientific evidence that stress can lead to physical illness!

When you feel well enough to commence studying again, you will need to change your study schedule. Prioritise the areas of your subject that you are the least confident at and go from there. Definitely gets some notes from online or other sources instead of trying to finish your notes now, as your main focus should be practicing and attempting past papers. Try not to think in the terms of the amount of time you have lost from being sick - this will definitely not help with already been time-pressed.

All in all, remember that even though you feel you may be 'behind', your study throughout all this year has worked towards and helped prepare you for the HSC exams. It is unfortunate that NESA don't classify illness as misadventure until during the exam period, but don't be too hard on yourself because of this. Here's a consoling anecdote: My doctor had chickenpox the week before her HSC exams (hence no misadventure), so definitely had less time to prepare, but still blitzed the HSC with amazing results. Let this remind you that your illness and time away from studying is not going to impact your results as much as you feel.