i'm currently quite unwell and i have my hsc math exam tmr. i'm still definitely gonna sit the exam no matter my condition, but should i tell the school prior to the exam about my sickness bc i feel like i will be coughing and sniffling throughout the entire exam and that would be really distracting for everyone else.
Hey! This is what happened to me last year just before my Ext 2 exam (except I didn't show up cos I woke up way too sick...), and I had to apply for illness/misadventure which (thankfully!!) got approved. What you need to do is arrive early to your exam (40 min-1hr before) so you can notify both your presiding officer and your principal and they can take the appropriate measures to see if you're fit to take the exam (your principal so you can grab the illness/misadventure forms which they only have access to). Bear in mind though, if they think you're too sick they can deny you entry into the exam hall and you will have to apply for those forms regardless (don't try to hide it, either. If they notice that during the exam they could potentially also ask you to leave in the middle of your exam as well).
Once you have those forms, whether you go home before the exam or complete it, you need to go to the doctor's office immediately after so you can get a medical certificate (pretty sure they only accept a medical certificate prepared on the day of the exam that is affected). Make sure you fill out those forms as well and make sure you include any appropriate documentation - the more, the better (for example, last year I had COVID so I provided an image of a positive COVID test as well as a medical certificate).
When you return to school for your next exam (or sometime in the following 5 days after the affected exam), return the illness/misadventure application to your principal, who will deal with the rest and send it off to NESA (personally when I did it, I recovered just before the Ext 1 exam which was on a Friday so I just showed up early before the Ext 1 exam to hand it in). You will receive an email on Students Online a few days later confirming NESA has received your application. I got the results of that application the day of the HSC/ATAR results (I got my HSC mark estimated based on my rank).
Hope you feel better soon!