To those that are interested in the SOTA VA program:


Hey! I am anonymousguru and I am an upper year student in SOTA. Entering Pre-IB years next year

Most of you are concerned about the VA curriculum and what to do for the audition. Although my knowledge may be slightly outdated (because of the changes that are constantly made to our curriculum), I'm sure most of it is still quite accurate, as I have contacts from lower years, and I have been called upon to help out in the audition process this year.

In the first 2 years, I guess its call the 'foundation years', which means that the teachers will be teaching the students techniques, such as how to shade (with graphite or colour pencil), paint (acrylic, watercolour, oil), proper care of artworks. We also have Ceramics and Sculpture, which are taken alternatively (if you have taken Ceramics in Year 1, you will take Sculpture in Year 2, vice versa). In Ceramics, you will learn basics like kneading, coiling and how to use the tools, and in Sculpture you will learn how to manipulate wire into artworks and soldering. The foundation years are basically to help you have a basic understanding of techniques before you go on to Year 3, which is when they give you more freedom to make your artwork, and also makes you think about your concept more.

From year 3 onwards, the teachers mostly have a consulting role. They don't really teach you the techniques to do your work but rather consult you on your concept or your approach to your artwork. However, it does not mean that the teachers just consult exclusively, as some may teach you skills if you require it. In Year 4 you will be separated into one of the specialisations: Painting, Ceramics, Sculpture, Media Arts and Design, on top of your concept and development classes. It doesn't mean you can only do the specialisation you were assigned to as the IB programme requires you to do different mediums for your art work, so you are bound to consult teachers from other specialisations later

The audition process is harder than it used to be at my time: there's now an official academic interview on top of the audition. If you have decent results or have shown improvement despite your poor results, you have quite a high chance of passing the academic interview. For the art interview, you don't have to give anything particularly fancy or artworks that are museum-standard. Just so long as you give a truthful and accurate portrayal of your skills, you have a standing chance of succeeding:D

I didn't accomplish anything of particularly high esteem when I auditioned, just a few works and lots of sketches. I don't think I even shaded with a pencil before I came into this school because most of my works were in ink! So long as you can prove your potential to succeed in the arts and a passion to develop your artworks, I'm sure you have a standing chance!

December is a fantastic time to develop your portfolio. I developed my portfolio from December-June before my auditions. Good luck! :rahrah: :rahrah: :rahrah:

Just to clarify, I am a Sec 2 student. I go to school 8-5 everyday and 9-5 on Wednesdays. I am now currently undergoing through an arts education, which is evident if you look through my previous posts on other subjects and forums. I posted those lines because people have asked before and I would just like to clarify any doubts.


Its quite ignorant and hurtful to assume something about someone based on not talking or interacting with them, but rather on trivial matters such as usernames and profiles.

And yes, guru is a teacher or a knowledgeable person. The definition of teacher is a very well read and knowledgeable person that instills this information to people that are thus his/her students. Its quite similar to what people do on this website, giving advice and experiences, as well as answering people's questions and doubts.

I guess this deviates from the topic of this page and now considered 'chit-chat'. I discourage you from pursuing this matter further as there are actually people who need advice and answers to help themselves or their children and don't deserve to read this chit chat if you haven't noticed.

:thankyou:

chloecube wrote:

> mommybel! u not kidding me arent u?
> i suddenly am full of hope again reading ur post
>
> DS math is between 50-60, one a few occasion fail by 1-2 marks
> his paper 2 failed and pull down the overall marks
> he wout say he is lazy, he trys his best to complete all hw given by teacher and
> tutor. problem is he does not speak up or ask when he does not understand. he will
> just do the correction and then forget how to do again when the same kind of questions
> was given to him. so its kind of frustrating
> when i explained to him, he understand but after a while, he forgets again,
> got to repeat and re-inforce the same kind of sum many times before it gets to his
> head.
> nevertheless, i am not going to give up on hin now
> but its not easy to strike a balance of \"overloading\" him and letting him enjoy his
> childhood

Hi chloecube! I took the PSLE 2 years ago and I cam empathise with your frustration. Its like your child is doing great at home or in tuition, but during the exam performs not to your expectations. Your son's results are somewhat similar to mine. My results for prelim were:

Chinese- C (borderline pass)
Science- C (also borderline pass)
Math- U
English- A (high A- 89/100)

I have no idea what contributed to the odd fluctuation in subject scores, but I always could write well and had a natural affinity for English. My math and Chinese tuition teachers were not working for me and this was 1 and a half months before the PSLE.

My mum's strategy was to firstly get rid of my tuition teachers. She got through with them quickly, and started to immediately coach me. I dumped my English one side and practised on it less (not advisable in your case). For math, the strategy is that you must score close if not full marks on the MCQ and first short answer part. Its much easier to score better in this part than in the problem sum section, and if I remember correctly they had close to equal weightages. If you could lets say get 40 or 35% on the first part (its max mark is 40%), you only need to just pass or get a little more than that, say 30-40% out of the 60% (max mark for problem sum section) to get an A or high A.

The MCQs and the short answer question are the parts where you cannot afford mistakes or blank out. (Focus about 60% of your math effort on this). If you get full marks on this section, you have already passed your math paper (50%). However, you should also not neglect your problem sum part, as they hold an equal weightage (another 50%) as well. In the math paper, there are 13 problem sums/ long answer questions. Revise on the basics over and over, especially fractions, decimals, percentages, etc. Examiners absolutely love mixing these subjects up. Also, learn to spot the trick questions. These questions look very easy but typically have about 4 to 5 marks on them. At the end of the paper, there will be more 4 to 5 mark questions, and if you can get all of those right, you have already passed your problem sum section.

For Science, my mum also used the same strategy. The MCQ is 60% for science, and if you practise enough and in depth, you can get a 50-60% for your MCQ and you would have also already passed the paper. In these PSLE subjects in general, if you look closely in any P6 exam paper, there will always be recurring themes, such as fractions, percentages, geometry in Math, life cycles, the water cycle and the conduction, condensation, evaporation etc. in Science. There's nothing new they can test you! Afterwards, you just need to pass your second paper to get an A or potentially A*.

For these two subjects, practise, practise, practise! Practise till your child can understand and recall all these facts and recognise the questions, and thus know the standard protocol to answer them. After 10s of times doing the same type of questions during different times, I'm sure he can understand. Revising it in different times can really help the brain recall the protocol to answer these questions. (A good math book would be +hinking math @onSponge- Conquer Problem Sums. Their questions tend to be a bit on the difficult side, so I suggest you do them with your child. They focus on the strategy to tackle different types of problem sums and I hope its useful to you).)

For Mother Tongue, the MCQ and the Comprehension parts are the easiest, but is deadly if your child is unable to read well. Read more Mother Tongue to your child, and they will recognise and recall words, leading to more understanding of the topic and thus being able to answer the questions better.

Just for your info, my final PSLE score was:

Chinese- A
Science- A
Math- B
English- A

I know you are concerned with your child's social life, but I highly suggest you clear your tutors if they are not working for your child and coach him yourself. Your child can have a slight afternoon nap (1 hour) before you coach him in the evening after work (like my mum) and hopefully he can last a bit longer and can stay more focused. Also, in the weekends, you can let him do whatever he wants to in the afternoon but in the evening he must listen to you and you must be able to coach him.

Remember, if academics isn't really your child's thing (like me ), you can always try out DSA, and help your child get into a school based on talent, but I'm not sure if you can apply this late into the year.

Hope this helps, and I hope you can benefit and score your child a breakthrough! :rahrah: :rahrah: Sorry for the long, long reply!

PS. if you're wondering, I am a Sec 2 student, and though my profile doesn't say so, its quite common for kids to fake details anyways. I just want to help out and give a new perspective on things

Bijoux888 wrote:

> hi..i am considering SOTA and mainstream schooling. Can anyone advise pros and cons
> of both?

Hi Bijoux888! From the looks of your post, I assume that you have already gained a place in SOTA. Congrats!

One pro that mainstream schools have is that things are very straightforward and not as subjective as the arts. You don't have to worry about your CCA, because you can't \"fail\" at it. But in SOTA, art is very difficult and sometimes tough to score in. And if you fail art (equivalent to your CCA), then...

One of the myths I would like to debunk about SOTA students is that they don't study and just do their art form a day. This isn't true, as we have academic before or after our art classes, which typically last from 1 to 2 or even several hours if you choose to stay back. One con of SOTA is that we have to train very hard (I know that the performing art forms will agree on this) and stay back very late, like for evening concerts, plays or training sessions.

Another con of SOTA is that we have a very hectic schedule. When you reach Year 2 onwards, it isn't uncommon to have 2 or 3 deadlines for graded projects on the same week, as well as having 1 or more graded tests in that same week. A lot of the performing arts students complain they don't have enough time for studying at home too.

However, one pro that SOTA has is that we have an arts oriented education. Some, if not most (talking about academic) projects are not solely graded based on content or knowledge of the subject. The creativity that is used to display this content also bears some marks as well. This is a feature that I feel not many mainstream schools have. You can also ask your art teachers to advise (especially VA teachers) how to present your data (if they are willing to help you) The teachers are a lot more friendly too, (though not all)

Example: We were asked to put out 3 commonly made mistakes while doing math questions. We were also tasked to come up with a strategy to help students minimize making these mistakes again in a creative way, either in a comic strip, video, rap, song or any other way possible. I have also seen students bring in browned paper with creases and burned sides for the other projects many times as well.

Also, I feel like being a SOTA student gives me a lot of times where it feels time stands still an you can be there forever just (for me, painting) doing what you like. Sometimes, students just don't want to go home and stay till long after the lessons are over (like 3 or 4 hours). Or the Year 2 Camp, where we just kayaked in the sea for hours, not knowing how long more it was going to take and partners talk to each other endlessly and it felt like it could last forever. I felt very peaceful. That is another pro I feel that mainstream schools sometimes don't have, the ability to let these students experience many of these tiny infinities when the reality and the world seems so far away and negligible, and you can just be in your own little world, even if its just for a few seconds.

Sorry for such a long post! Hope this helps!

Hey everyone!


I was once a PSLE candidate about two years ago. I normally got above 30s for my compos and I thought that maybe I could help. I realised about on or two months before the PSLE some of the tips that helped me through.

1. A Controlled, Imaginative Mind
Nothing beats an essay that is different from the others and many students achieve this, but they do not know that balance is the key. Make up something, but also make it somewhat believable. Use a range of vocabulary and make detailed, vivid description if the situation you are writing about is somewhat unlikely, but don’t make the details too far-fetched.

2. ‘It was all a dream.’
Please DO NOT USE THIS. Teachers will most likely fail students that use this conclusion. It makes the teacher think that you are not skilled enough to conjure up an appropriate ending.

3. Minimize Grammar Mistakes
Content makes up most of the marks but the language factor has a considerable chunk of marks as well. By minimizing your grammar errors (about 3 or 4 for the entire essay) you can secure marks in the event your story deems unsatisfactory. This can be achieved through more grammar practices and usage of good grammar in everyday dialogue.

4. Memorizing essays is not the way to go.
I remembered my mother forcing me to memorize A* essays about a month before. What was the result? I never used any part of it whatsoever. The only way you can achieve a versatile writing style is to incorporate positive elements of people’s work. You may choose to annotate the passages and then point out the good places and start using them in your writing. Memorizing can wear down the brain during the exam and cause an undesirable side-effect also known as ‘blanking out’.

5. Start reading!
Give your child a book (preferably fiction). But don’t overwhelm them. Just two or three books they really, really want or really like. Then let them read it over and over, till they know the contents of the book roughly. This helps boost imagination and a more creative essay. Picture books (but not throughout) are also quite good. because they can incorporate some of the key characteristics of the character into theirs in their essay.

Writing is a slow and gradual process that can be learnt through examining good writing habits of others. Let your child write everyday, and it will be second nature to them. Memorization I feel is not the way to go because if your child blanks out during the exam, all that he/she has memorized is all they have and they will be left stranded in the exam.

Hope this helps, and sorry for the long post!

mamabung:

Hi anonymousguru,


Thanks for being so forthcoming in your reply about what the CE entails.

As for the still-life drawing component, what kind of objects can a candidate expect to draw and how much time is given to complete that?

mamabung:

Does anyone know how many made the shortlist this year? And from that number, how many more will be eliminated?

This is the first year that SOTA has introduced shortlisting. What could be the possible reason behind this - did SOTA expect a deluge of applicants this time round?

Hi mamabung! Thank you for the compliment. I try to answer as clearly as I can. For the still life component, the objects expected to draw are very varied, in my year it was a couple of broken wheels that came off some table and rope. They will provide materials, like charcoal (the willow and the compressed kind), pencils and erasers. I think the time was about 45 mins to an hour, if I remember vaguely.

I hear from some teachers they wanted to make the school standards better by putting in more talented or qualified students through audition. I am not quite clear about the shortlisting process because I never went through that.

Also, the intake for VA students is usually around 80, with theatre and dance a little lesser, maybe 40-50? and music students the least, maybe around 20-30. Teachers estimate that 1000 people try to get through the first step each year (shortlisted). I don't know how many are shortlisted, but the chances of getting into SOTA VA are quite high compared to other art forms, about a 1 in 12/13 people chance.

Hope this helps.

luckyone:

Hi my dd is writing the Cognitive Exm & Talent Academy end of June 2014..for visual Arts..can anyone pls post any useful info on what to expect in the exam/interview?

Hey luckyone! I am a Year 2 VA student from SOTA! The Cognitive Exam is a written paper test in which the students writes an at least 300-400 word essay on a chosen topic (the one I chose in my year was \"Is it beneficial for children to watch TV?\" I think) within a time limit.

Why do they want candidates to take this test? Well, I think its because there is one very important subject (like super important) called ARC (Analysis, Research and Communication) or ToK (Theory of Knowledge in the upper years) which is similar to the General Paper, which tests the students ability of understanding issues in today's society. These tests (when one gets into SOTA) are either in a comprehension style format (Year 1 to 2) or essay format (Year 1 to 6)

Why is ARC so important and crucial? Many students consider this subject as the hardest to score in, and a pass in this subject is needed to pass all years and not get retained. However, it is also because it helps build the student's understanding of the issues in the world today and help them write essays in their upper years.

The next part (the audition+interview+portfolio review) are what many consider as the important part. It is true: a candidate need not have a superb, flawless and fully professional portfolio. What they want to test is your passion, and how much you really love it.

I will share my personal experience: the day I went for the audition, I was so scared. I looked around, and there were art pieces there were miles better than mine, and even people from those 'branded' schools like RGS. My mum also had little faith that I would make it, like we just 'see see' and 'try try'.

However, my mum was extremely supportive. She helped set up my portfolio, and arranged a great day for me. (the first day she concluded the teachers would be strict and 'more alert' and the last day the teachers were probably tired and disinterested, so she set up the day in the middle day for me.)

The day of the audition didn't start too well. I think I did a sub-par drawing of a still life that was presented to me, and I was to present it later on. What made matters worse was that I was the FIRST one to go. :scared: Even worse, the interviewers all looked very unfriendly and strict, with one who I later found out was the Head Of Visual Arts.

I was too flustered to remember all the questions I was asked that day, but I did remember one. \"Why do want to come to SOTA?\" I (sort of) vented my frustrations of not having a proper arts program in primary school. I think that was what won me in, (but don't copy answer ah.)

To clarify, I brought many (11-15) sketches (or cartoons more like), paintings, ink drawings and a photo of a scene in one of Colin Thompson's books (check him out!).

Sorry for the long reply, and hope this helps. Congrats to your dd, for she has made it this far! I have read the requirements this year, and they were more demanding than in my year. Congrats to your dd, and hope to see her next year. She has made it this far! :rahrah: :rahrah:

ong lee:

ImMeeMee:

SOTA has an open symposium on 28 Feb. Do check out their website.

Hihi, I am new to this thread...I have a child in Pri 5 this year, trying to find out more about all the options available for her...

Anyone going for SOTA open symposium on 28 Feb? Anyone knows what is it about?

Hey!

I guess they kind of show the same thing every year, so I will just tell you what they will show in the slides you will see in the open symposium. They will they you what SOTA is, like a arts-oriented school taking a 6 year course to the IB, possible subject choices and how the school functions, as well as ideas we believe in.

It's really entertaining though, because it isn't like all words, numbers and data. They have really interesting pictures to show their idea, and I am pretty amused by it, though it might not be for everyone.

Maybe you should try to talk to the students, because I feel that our school's students are friendly and more open than other school's. (just my opinion). I think your child should try out, because although the school hours are long, its pretty fun, having an opportunity to specialise in things you love.

Source: I am a SOTA student, but I will never tell you who I am hahaha.

Hey crystal270!


I am a student in sota and I can tell you that Music is one of the hardest to get in, truth be told. They take in very little students compared to other art forms. Also, there are many people trying to get into music via piano, probably a majority, so competition is extremely tough for you, although there are whispers that music is taking slightly more students this year or next year onwards.

A typical day in Sota starts at 7.50 on all days except Wednesday, which starts at 8.50. You will have a half hour break and an hour lunch everyday except Wed, because you start school late. You will then go through lessons, ranging from 1 hour to 1 and a half hours, and then on some days you will go to your art form.

I don't really know how Music auditions are like, but you will have to do a mandatory piece and one piece of your own, I think? But the mandatory piece is usually a slow song I think, because they want to hear how well you play, say some music students who I'm friends with.

Hope this helps, haha :D, best of luck.

Hey stephanieteoh!


There is an open symposium on 28th Feb and auditions are in March or June. Results come around September or October (for me). Usually, people around 16 to 17 are not recommended to audition as there is too little time to get used to the subjects like TOK (Theory Of Knowledge) or the special art programs. Although I am not a dance student, dance students are often the ones that stay back the latest, sometimes till night time.

Yes, we do have the three sciences (Physics, Biology and Chemistry). We have to take one or two sciences for a few years and then one science during Year 5 and 6. If you want to take two sciences, you have to drop your art form. This I think isn’t a very popular choice for students, as they never want to drop the art form.

So, if you are 17 this year, you will have to apply this year. If you apply next year, you will not be eligible for the school, so I think you applied a little late, as students are usually taken in at 12 or 15. I am also not sure whether you can apply at 17.

Truth be told (not trying to demoralise you or anything) they almost never take in students at 16 or 17 who do not have extremely good knowledge or practice of the craft (because you cant keep up), but you may try to join in. Only 80+ Visual Arts, 20-30 Music and 30-60 Dance and Theatre students make it in every year. Competition is very hard.

Best of Luck!