The semester 1's normal teaching procedure has been severely impacted by COVID-19, it is unfortunate to everyone who has been impacted by the pandemic .

During this abnormal period , it is extra stressful for everyone in USYD as everyone is trying to maintain the well-being of the community and the quality of teaching contents. 

However , as the several pandemic strike , the starting date has been postponed for two weeks while the ending date for semester 1 remains the same. The shortened semester represents more intense schedule , significant increase in study load and much more pressure. Especially for those students who is in their final semester , most of them had to study, participating in internship and looking for jobs at the same time. Some even already had conditional job offers.Semester 1's results have become even crucial for the above reasons.

In terms of the semester 1 schedule, it is really weird and unreasonable since the regular final examination preparation week has been cancelled in order to end the semester on time. However ,surprisingly, there is a "spare week" in which most units give their ways for mid-semester exam preparation. As it is known to all that the final exams are much more important and are often heavily weighted in total unit marks. The setting is extremely illogical .

We are hoping the uni would allow the students to retake the final exams if they failed under such stressful circumstances . Students who would like to retake the exam could apply for special consideration . We are really hoping the uni is taking the student's wellbeing seriously. COVID-19 had no mercy , but we do.