Sick before an exam? Get special consideration sorted.

An online medical certificate may support special consideration if it meets your university's evidence rules. UNSW requires a real-time phone or video consultation; a questionnaire-only certificate is not accepted. For deferred exams, Monash accepts telehealth when attending in person was impractical. Doccy's special consideration service includes a real-time doctor consultation. Your university decides whether the evidence and application meet its requirements.

It depends on the university. Most take a medical certificate, uploaded to a portal or attached to a student application. UNSW, UTS, Macquarie, ACU, Melbourne, QUT, ECU, ANU and Adelaide publish a practitioner form with a section the doctor completes. Doccy issues the certificate every time and completes the form where your university publishes one. Your university's page on this site says which it asks for.

$52, one-off, the same at every university and for every outcome. It covers the online form, the preconsult call, the real-time consultation with an AHPRA-registered doctor, the medical certificate, the completed university form where one exists, and the online verification link. No Medicare card is needed. The fee is for the consultation, not a guaranteed outcome: the doctor issues special consideration evidence only when the assessment supports it.

Usually, yes. Consults run 24/7 with no appointment to book. After the form and the preconsult call you join the doctor queue, and a doctor calls when available; waiting times vary with demand. The certificate is dated the day you are seen and emailed the moment the doctor approves it, so it fits inside every university's application window, which runs from 24 hours to five working days after the assessment.

The dates you were seen and the period you were affected, the doctor's opinion of how severely the illness affected you, and the practitioner's name, AHPRA registration, practice details and signature, dated on the day of the consultation. Universities refuse certificates with handwritten changes. Where the university publishes a practitioner form, it also asks for impact ratings, often separately for take-home and in-class assessment. Every Doccy certificate carries a verification code the university can check.

No. A certificate is dated on the day of the consultation. If your illness started earlier, the doctor can record that period after assessing you, but the issue date does not change, and UNSW and Bond both say backdated documents may be refused. See a doctor on the day you are unwell, not after the deadline.

Tell your university before the exam starts if you can, and see a doctor the same day so the certificate covers the exam date. Do not attempt the exam while unwell: at most universities sitting it counts as a decision to be assessed, and a later application is harder. Then apply for a deferred exam through your university's process within its window, with the certificate attached.

Yes, at every university on this site. Most want the request lodged on or before the due date, with the certificate covering the dates you were affected; UQ counts a request as on time within 24 hours of the due date and time. Some universities grant a short extension of one to three days without evidence, but a dated certificate makes the request straightforward and covers you if the illness runs longer.

Yes. Special consideration covers illness that affected an assessment, and that includes acute anxiety and other mental health conditions. The doctor assesses you, records the dates and the impact, and can mark the condition confidential where the university's form allows it; Melbourne, UWA and QUT say they do not want a diagnosis at all. An ongoing condition belongs with your GP and your university's access or disability plan rather than a one-off application.

Lodge the application inside the window even if the evidence is still coming: most universities let you attach documents within a few days of applying. Windows are short, from 24 hours at UQ to two working days at Monash, three at UNSW and five at UNE. A late application needs an explanation of why you could not apply in time, and each university decides whether to accept it.

Yes. No Medicare card is required and the fee is the same $52. You need to be in Australia for the consultation. The certificate comes from an AHPRA-registered Australian doctor, which matters because universities such as UQ require onshore students to use an Australian practitioner.

Ask what is missing. Every Doccy certificate and form carries a verification link, and the university may contact the practice to confirm the consultation. If it wants its own practitioner form or specific impact ratings, the doctor can complete them where the assessment supports it. Universities decide what they accept; Doccy issues what the doctor's assessment supports and cannot guarantee an outcome.