School Of The Arts, Singapore

[JRLam]

Pixie28:

My girl said that on the day of her audition which was the second day, the most number of applicants was from dance with the least being theatre.


Carpe diem, your dd must have a really good voice. Does she always sing at home? It's an amazing feat as there's only a handful of voice students as dasalo mentioned congrats!

Hi Pixie 28. Sorry to harp on this again. Can u ask your dd if she can agar-agar the number of applicants in her group on her audition day? Do you know how many gps were there everyday and how many days of audition were there? Just trying to hv a rough gauge of successful rate. Given that this is the year of dragon, subsequent yrs maybe easier, hahaha

Thanks!

[Carpe diem]

Desperate Mom:

Hi Dasalo,


Thank you so much for helping out with my questions, they are really helpful. And also thanks to all the parents in this forum for sharing so much.

Somehow, my gal has classmates and friends who are keen in pursuing their education with SOTA. Some have received the CO and only a couple of them have not. One of her classmate applied for both VA and Voice, she has gotten the CO for Voice but not VA two days ago. Yesterday, this classmate of hers received another letter informing that she will also be given a CO for VA. I thought the SOTA will only offer one art form and not both.

I heard that, if anyone is successful in their application to more than one art form, SOTA will only give one CO. This makes sense as it would not waste multiple CO to the same person and deprive others of a place.

[dasalo]

Mrs Cheng:

Thanks for all the replies. I guess I'm worrying too much. It has been a struggle for my son for the past few years and I want him to be able to enjoy his secondary years. The CO was unexpected but nevertheless a happy problem. He likes the school and in fact he said he enjoyed the TA. Anyway, we have up till Oct to decide.

Mrs Cheng, you mentioned it has been a struggle for your son for the past few years in terms of? He does not like to study or he finds school boring? He has a CO in which art form? Sounds like a VA student to me but I may be wrong.

I know of a student who was also struggling for 2 yrs in the mainstream school. Than he finally made the switch in yr 3 but he had to repeat yr2 for fear of not being able to catch with the IB syllabus and now he excels in his studies and is one of the AGP (artistically gifted programme) students. So going to SOTA with the burning passion for their art form may not be a bad idea. Fyi, this student's PSLE score is just average.

[dasalo]

Desperate Mom:

Somehow, my gal has classmates and friends who are keen in pursuing their education with SOTA. Some have received the CO and only a couple of them have not. One of her classmate applied for both VA and Voice, she has gotten the CO for Voice but not VA two days ago. Yesterday, this classmate of hers received another letter informing that she will also be given a CO for VA. I thought the SOTA will only offer one art form and not both?

Since that student applied for both, she'll have 2 letter, that's correct but at the end, the student has to choose just one.

Most of her friends are celebrating and excited about the acceptance. My gal was anxious about the outcome, and we are wondering why it is taking so long. I do not want the waiting to affect her preparation of the prelim next week.

The reason that I am asking nos of kids admitted for voice or piano out of the 20-30 kids from music, hoping to understand her chance. So far, I have already heard that there are 4-5 students got in for voice. So I wonder will she stand any chances in relative comparison even though there isn’t a quota. I have not heard of anyone got in bec of piano, and I wonder whether the criteria for piano are tougher?

Yes, Piano alot more tougher.

As for the question on competitions, there are saying that the kids specializing in SOTA for piano are not so competitive in national competitions bec they lacks details and focus as they are just doing far too many things at the same time.

They compete overseas, not singapore ie. if you are very very good.

I was also told by one of my gal’s fren who is very strong in her study (aim to be a top scholar and wanted to get her picture take for Brand’s Essence of Chicken) mentioned that if she got into SOTA, she can be exempted from theory papers bec she has passed them.

No way, she still has to study music theory which is different from ABRSM exam theory. I thot it was New Moon Chicken Essence who features top PSLE student and not Brand's.

[Carpe diem]

dasalo:

Carpe diem:

Hi dasalo,


Your dd1 is doing music and dd2 is in VA, can you comment on which one is happier with their chosen art form, program, cohort? I ask this because my dd has CO for music and is considering to switch to VA.

I'll PM you later. Thanks

got it and replied, thanks.

[Pixie28]

dance and theatre:

Congratulations Pixie 28 !! Encourage your girl to try hard for the PSLE, keep positive as she will enjoy the SOTA school culture and dance. It's tough, not kidding here, but my daughter says she would rather be at SOTA than anywhere else, even with the ups and downs of school life, teen angst, peer issues.

oh, which yr is yr dd in? Does she aspire to be a dancer and/or dance teacher? My girl enjoys dancing but she's not really aiming to be a dancer. I think she just finds it enjoyable and easy for now. For the first year, do they study in the morning and dance for just a couple of hrs in the afternoon?

JRLam,
sorry my girl is still sleeping. Wish I can advise u but it's difficult to gauge. I myself am curious as to how many auditioned for the various art forms. Yest my girl said 'thousands'! :slapshead: when I asked how many dance students.

Total 4 days of audition. One in march and the rest in June. She attended the 2nd day of June audition morning session. Need to ask the rest if there were any pm sessions.

[Ragamuffin shinobi]

Pixie28:

dance and theatre:

Congratulations Pixie 28 !! Encourage your girl to try hard for the PSLE, keep positive as she will enjoy the SOTA school culture and dance. It's tough, not kidding here, but my daughter says she would rather be at SOTA than anywhere else, even with the ups and downs of school life, teen angst, peer issues.

oh, which yr is yr dd in? Does she aspire to be a dancer and/or dance teacher? My girl enjoys dancing but she's not really aiming to be a dancer. I think she just finds it enjoyable and easy for now. For the first year, do they study in the morning and dance for just a couple of hrs in the afternoon?

JRLam,
sorry my girl is still sleeping. Wish I can advise u but it's difficult to gauge. I myself am curious as to how many auditioned for the various art forms. Yest my girl said 'thousands'! :slapshead: when I asked how many dance students.

Total 4 days of audition. One in march and the rest in June. She attended the 2nd day of June audition morning session. Need to ask the rest if there were any pm sessions.

Been wondering about chances of getting into dance as well. Waaaah...if there are a thousand dancers or even a few hundred, getting chosen (about 40) is like winning lottery!
And now you mentioned it, there's the march auditions as well... scary!

But agree with pixie, the kids must enjoy their art form to go to SOTA.doesnt matter if they intend to become professional dancers or teachers.

[dance and theatre]

JRLam:

Hi, do u have any idea roughly how many applied for the Dance form this yr?

Just want to hv an indication of the success rate 30-40 seem low, given the high level of interest I saw at the symposium? Your dd must be really outstanding!

The way I see it : Dance Faculty is small and can only cope with 30 students per year as it relies heavily on Adjunct teachers who are themselves dancers, dance teachers or who run dance companies (like Sylvia Yong of T.H.E. Dance Company). Dance is not only just Ballet or Modern, it includes Academic subjects like Dance History which they must pass. Perhaps getting enough MOE teachers able to teach the Dance subjects is another issue.

Many dancers apply, but unfortunately the limited places make it hard for many to get in, but this should not stop any child from trying out at the TA

[Carpe diem]

dance and theatre:

JRLam:

Hi, do u have any idea roughly how many applied for the Dance form this yr?

Just want to hv an indication of the success rate 30-40 seem low, given the high level of interest I saw at the symposium? Your dd must be really outstanding!

The way I see it : Dance Faculty is small and can only cope with 30 students per year as it relies heavily on Adjunct teachers who are themselves dancers, dance teachers or who run dance companies (like Sylvia Yong of T.H.E. Dance Company). Dance is not only just Ballet or Modern, it includes Academic subjects like Dance History which they must pass. Perhaps getting enough MOE teachers able to teach the Dance subjects is another issue.

Many dancers apply, but unfortunately the limited places make the it hard for many to get in, but this should not stop any child from trying out at the TA

Based on my dd's experience, I really recommend those interested to try for TA if they are passionate about it even if the chances are low Yes it takes a lot of precious PSLE revision time to prepare and go thru the TA but its better not to have regrets for not trying.

[Desperate Mom]

No way, she still has to study music theory which is different from ABRSM exam theory. I thot it was New Moon Chicken Essence who features top PSLE student and not Brand’s.[/quote]


Yup, you are right. It is New Moon Chicken. Pardon me, I really have no idea of all these stuffs till I hear it from my gal. I just can’t believe these kids, they are so good with their study and knowing that they will choose schools like RGS and NYGH even though they are also talented. Why do they need to apply for DSA for specialised school such as SOTA and make the standard so difficult for the rest of the kids. Anyway, i am just whining.