Haseenah Mohamed Yusoff and Hazwani Rahim completed their primary and secondary education at the madrasahs before entering the polytechnic and eventually topping their respective courses in civil and environmental engineering and horticulture and landscape management.

Among the best students at their madrasahs, the girls could have made it to most of the premier junior colleges but chose a polytechnic for its specialised education.

Haseenah, who was from Madrasah Wak Tanjong Al-Islamiah at Sims Avenue, scored 6As and 1 B for her O levels. Hazwani, 21, who studied at Madrasah Al-Arabiah Al-Islamiah at Geylang, scored 7 As.

Their good performance continued at Ngee Ann Polytechnic: both scored staight As for most of their modules and made it to the Dean's List every year.

The girls said being trained to manage their time from young by having to juggle both mainstream and Islamic studies has helped them to achieve good results.

Haseenah said: 'I am used to organising my time carefully to ensure that I have enough time to revise all my subjects. You can say I've been trained to cope with stress well. I think this has helped me a lot at Ngee Ann.'