Annual Report 2025 - Other - Page 26
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Vienna International School
Class of 2025 Student Testimonials
Iman Manchibi
When it comes to school, what do
you like? Look for subjects and
activities you like as well as how
good you are at them, otherwise
you may not be happy at the end
of your IBDP journey. When I look
back I think I picked a combination
of subjects that were tailored to fit
me as a student and that’s the most
important part of what made me
happy at the end of my time as an
IB student.
At the beginning it may seem like
there is a lot of work but you get
used to it. Take Geography as an
example. I thought that Geography would be a simple subject with
minimal course work and homework but I was wrong. It was the
total opposite. The amount of case
studies, definitions, facts and statistics I had to memorize was a lot. But
one thing that helped me was the
many study resources provided by
my teacher. The use of flash cards
helped me memorize definitions
and the use of essay plans helped
me remember facts, statistics and
case studies. But like any method in
life, each works differently for different people. What I am saying is
that, as a student, you need to find
a method that works for you.
Overall, my two pieces of advice to
future students is mentally prepare
yourself for the workload and pick
subjects that you like and can make
you successful in the future.
IB was never meant to be easy,
and it wasn’t for anyone, as far as I
can tell. But nothing worth having
comes easy as they say. Apart from
the academic side of the IB Diploma Programme, my proudest and
most fulfilling moments were never
about getting good grades, writing
strong internal assessments, or delivering polished oral exams. These
things are of course important, but
they are not things I will remember
many years from now. What I will
certainly remember are both the
challenges and the immense successes my fundraising team experienced while raising money for the
PCRF. This was a genuine, exhausting, and far more difficult initiative
than any exam I ever took—even
the Math AI HL Paper 1 from M25.
But it was great for those very reasons. No one told us to do it, yet we
poured our souls into the project,
eventually raising more than any
student-led initiative in the history
of VIS. I strongly believe that having this mentality of taking action,
whether small or big, carries over
to any area of life, and, if done with
enough consistency, will eventually
lead to positive results.
Do your best, whatever it is. If you
keep at it long enough, you will one
day look back and barely recognise
your old self because of how much
you’ve developed. Also, be good to
your parents.
Samir Sancakli
“Do your best,
whatever it is.
If you keep at
it long enough,
you will one
day look back
and barely
recognise your
old self because of how
much you’ve
developed.”
