Hi! I'm a Year 10 student in Victoria.
I would like to think I am perfectly capable of school and work. In my maths coursework, I rarely make mistakes and my English learning tasks have not been lower than 90%. I understand topics fairly well and can learn with little difficulty. My teachers tell me that I am completely competent with schoolwork, however, I have a diagnosed panic disorder and during tests and exams completely freak me out. As a result of this my exam and test scores are usually pretty low. I have had this disorder all my life, so it hasn't really bothered me, but we picked our VCE subjects a few weeks ago and I begun to worry whether VCE really will work for me, especially with my mental capability. This has been making me completely stressed through the course of this year, since I'm doing Year 11 VCE Access Maths Methods 1&2 and I recently got a 49% on one of my tests.
My English teacher recommended me to apply for special examination arrangements in VCE. I honestly am not sure if I should, however, as I feel as there are people with worse disabilities that deserve those arrangements more than I. Many people tell me just to, "get better," at tests and, "practice in test conditions," however I have tried many, many times and nothing has worked. Any experience with panic or other anxiety disorders and VCE, doing tests and exam stress, and special examination arrangements?