The achievements represent years of hard work, adaptability and perseverance amid uncertainty, supported by teachers, families and school communities
As International Baccalaureate (IB) results continued to arrive across UAE schools on Monday, students are celebrating not only impressive scores but also the resilience that carried them through an unprecedented academic year.
Many have achieved results well above the global average, with some securing the maximum 45 points and several others earning scores above 40.
This year’s results come after IB Diploma and Career-related Programme students across the UAE were awarded grades through the Non-Exam Contingency Measure (NECM) following the cancellation of final examinations due to regional tensions.
For graduates, the achievements represent far more than academic success — they reflect years of hard work, adaptability and perseverance amid uncertainty, supported by teachers, families and school communities.
Khaleej Times spoke to a few students about navigating an academic year marked by both achievement and unpredictability.
Among the standout achievers was Nour Bilal Al Husseini, a student from Dubai International Academy (DIA) Al Barsha, who credited years of consistent effort and a strong support network for the result.
The student, who joined the school in Grade 7, described the Diploma Programme as particularly demanding, especially during the final year when coursework deadlines intensified.
“My teachers supported me all the time, no matter how many times I went to get feedback, they were always patient and supportive,” said the Lebanese expat.
“At home, I had a great support system from my parents and my family. I always had a good environment while growing up, and that helped me focus on my studies.”
The final stretch of the programme often meant sacrificing sleep to meet academic requirements.
“Typically, after school, especially during the Internal Assessments (IAs), I worked a lot of extra hours, till 2am sometimes. The course work required a lot of effort so I’d have to work hours upon hours,” added Husseini.
Like many IB candidates across the region, she experienced mixed emotions when examinations were cancelled.
“It was a bittersweet moment when the exams in the GCC got cancelled. On one hand we didn’t have to study anymore but at the same time I was very disappointed because I put in so much effort in the last two years.”
“But it didn’t matter eventually because in the end, my hard work did pay off.”
Beyond academics, Husseini balanced several commitments, including learning Mandarin for the past decade, contributing to the school’s design team and publishing a mindfulness colouring book, From Dragons to Dunes, inspired by Emirati and Chinese cultures.
Going forward, she intends pursuing Mechanical Engineering at the American University of Beirut before progressing to a master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering.
She added, “My biggest challenge was balancing everything which includes workload, my health, spending time with family and friends.”
At DIA Emirates Hills, Australian expatriate Kane Simpson achieved a perfect score of 45, a result he described as almost unbelievable.
Simpson said he entered the programme knowing its reputation for academic rigour and consciously tried to maintain balance across all subjects.
“I knew IB is going to be challenging even when I was going in. So, I put my best effort into all my subjects, not trying to focus on anything too much but rather spread my efforts across them and also not over work myself,” he said.
Despite that approach, he encountered burnout during Year 12.
“After putting in so much work in, I burnt out and my grades started dropping (Year 12). Then I started to look and relook at my study methods and finally my grades again started improving once gain by the time I was in Year 13,” Simpson said.
Managing overlapping deadlines proved one of the toughest aspects of the programme.
“We have a lot of IAs (internal assessments), our core extended essays, TOK (Theory of Knowledge), these deadlines piled up towards the end and submitting it all in one month was a challenge,” he said.
When the results arrived, the reaction was immediate.
“I was definitely expecting in the 40 range but this is absolutely unbelievable. I was shocked when I first saw the results. I almost yelled and thought this is crazy,” he said.
“I know how difficult this is and only a handful of students get it. Wow! This is crazy. I went and immediately thanked all my teachers. I couldn’t have done this without them.”
Having studied at the school since KG1, Simpson said the Diploma Programme transformed his outlook towards academics.
“Academics wasn’t my priority, but stepping into the challenging environment at the IBDP level showed me what I should be focusing on. So, I shifted my perspective more towards academics later,” he said.
The aspiring student plans to study Philosophy, Politics and Economics at University College London.
Reflecting on the exam cancellation, he recalled the uncertainty that followed.
“To be honest it was quite stressful, because nobody knew what their IB predicted could be,” he said.
“It was a mixed feeling, ‘fine I don’t have to study…yay! But how will all this affect academic performance.’”
At Ambassador International Academy, Anusha Talwalkar secured a score of 42 after successfully navigating the transition from the CBSE curriculum to the IB framework.
Having joined the IB pathway in Grade 8, she said adapting to the Diploma Programme’s requirements was initially daunting.
“I think the biggest challenge was my initial unfamiliarity with the curriculum, because I come from CBSE,” Talwalkar said.
The breadth of the programme and its multiple assessment components demanded careful planning and discipline.
“DP was a huge leap from MYP (Middle Years Programme),” she said.
“Even though two years seems like a lot, we’re working continuously, so it’s hard to find time and manage time to do all of this within the deadline set by the school and the IB.”
Over time, she developed stronger organisational skills and settled into a routine that often involved several hours of study after classes.
“In a day I would study for five hours after returning from school. I also pulled quite a few all-nighters during the year,” she added.
The cancellation of examinations was particularly disappointing after years of preparation.
“100 per cent… I was extremely disappointed, because I’d been working continuously, and I really wanted all my hard work to amount to something,” Talwalkar said.
“But despite the exams being cancelled, I feel that my result is still a consequence of all the hard work I put in these two years.”
Outside the classroom, Talwalkar also designed two book covers for internationally published books.
Looking ahead, she plans to study Project Design at the University of Leeds after receiving offers from five universities in the UK.
“I want to study project design. So, I applied in five universities in UK, and I got into all of them, but I’ve decided to go with University of Leeds,” she said.
© Khaleej Times
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