Schoolwork going to pot in exam year

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DD is sitting GCSEs this year. Non-communicative at the best of times, we discovered via GP who'd seen her because of daily headaches, lethargy and sleepless nights that she was behind with course work and had been since Xmas. Her reports had been good and we hadn't a clue. Blood tests reveal she is perfectly ok physically. She expressly doesn't want us to contact school and her form tutor has been absent for several weeks. She worked out a catch-up plan with said teachers and our help, but can't seem to cope with even bite sized chunks without slipping into an almost catatonic state - scary to see, eyes fluttering closed, head lolling back into sleep, completely out of it. Appetite remains good though. She's been sent home by the school nurse several afternoons recently and this morning, for the first time, refused to get up for school, although she did eventually. I've asked her form tutor to ring me today, but we don't know how to cope with this..

Ive got one the same. From a* to b's in a term. And that's with external exams. I think it's the pressure and panIc . Mine is high achiever and has sailed through but now when it counts she's lost it. Glazed look lethargy can sleep for hours ... Took to docs and all normal.
What to do though Im still not sure. Thinking tlc and confidence boosting. Relaxing half term with gentle study. I'm going to take all my annual leave ( yr starts April) two weeks at Easter and two weeks gcse just to see her through. Oh and watching diet. Mine is wheat allergic but going to be balancing all meals and buying some iron pills multi v its. And gulp ... Go

Sympathy but not much advice. My DD seems to get good results, but resists my involvement, then suddenly I get a call saying some course work isn't completed. Maths is the one area I CAN help her, but like you say, exhaustion overwhelms her, she can't do the simplest thing.

She has bouts of headaches/giddy spells, and being so tired she goes to bed at 8 or 9. Always good in the morning though. I think the constant on-going exams/assessment take their toll. I suspect they do better at school in the day, and we see the downside in the evenings.

While it's worth doing as well as possible, exams are NOT the be-all and end-all of their lives.

Thank you! I'll certainly get the multi-vits, rev up the tlc and try to be a bit nonchalant about it all

I don't want to dramatise here, but when you say that her eyes flutter and her head lolls back, was that her doing it consciously, or in a sort of trance?
Our daughter suffered from petit mal and it manifested itself mid conversation/task by her eyes just rolling and by her going into a trance for up to a minute at a time. She had no idea it was happening and we just thought she was being inattentive and lazy. Her schoolwork suffered as she missed big chunks of instructions, but had no idea!
After diagnosis, we felt so guilty, as she was clearly not able to control this. It came on suddenly and without warning. She has grown out of it now, but it was so easily managed with medication and is more common in kids than we realise. I panicked at first as I assumed it would lead to full blown epilepsy, but it doesn't often happen.
This may be totally different to what you and your daughter are going through, so sorry if it sounds scary, but worth a thought, if her actions are involuntary.