Ramadan Around the Clock: Mohamed Shady, high school student

As if IGCSEs and Thanaweyya Amma exams weren’t stressful enough to begin with, this year they’ll be tougher, with exams currently in progress. High school student Mohamed Shady, who is 17 and studying for his IGCSEs at St. Fatima School, describes studying for exams in Ramadan as a “very exhausting experience that not everybody can deal with. I can’t fall asleep because of the pressure, not to mention the fear of taking an exam that will probably decide your future.”

Managing time in Ramadan is also difficult, says Shady. “I sleep almost four or five hours a day and studying is very hard because of lack of food and water. . . . I can’t deal with my family or even talk because they put too much pressure on me, they shout at me and yell all day long, and most of the day is just complaints. For sure studying is harder than ever because there are too many priorities and too much pressure on me, like the teacher, the exam, my family and of course the fasting. . . all of these aspects make it much harder. My brain doesn’t operate well at the beginning, but I manage to work it out.”