Don't expect much compassion. In my case, dealing with a seriously ill parent and subsequent death was met with a flippant comment about how lucky we are to get 3 years and only 7 subjects compared to the UK system.
That is an absolute disgrace. Imagine if these were exams applicable to a much larger segment of the market, say, university entrance exams or what have you. That sort of behaviour would be plastered up in the newspapers.