I have read thru some of the postings in this thread.

My kid is in SOTA year 1. I will add some info that I think you all need to be aware of.
I will put down some points/vignettes that have been related to me.

Well, it has the highest teacher to student ratio among all schools in Singapore.
And probably is the toughest, time wise among all the IB schools.
From year 3 I think, there is a culling process. Bottom 5% of the cohort will be asked to leave, according to my kid.
The graduating batch, started in 2006, is down to 25 students. Had maybe 100+ at the start? My kid says they bury their faces into their Macbooks during assembly busily typing away and stay at the library into the night.
4 students from the 2012 batch have decided to drop out.

The teachers are very resourceful and make an effort to make things fun. The rules in the schools make things fun. Boys start with long pants and fashionable ones right from the start. There are almost no rules (colour, etc) about shoes that can be worn.

Can u imagine PE where they play tag using NERF guns? Catch is, the game area is spread out all over the school. That's 10+ floors. Students aren't allowed to use the lifts. That's a lot of stairs to climb up and down. This gives u a very good sense of SOTA.

But there is also no compromise on the art/theater/music/dance (from now on I will just use arts) lessons. Its not an ECA. Never optional.
The first years are having common tests now. If they are having the test in the afternoon, they will have 4 hours of arts lesson in the morning before going for the test, and if in the morning, the arts lesson will in the afternoon.

They are also somehow able to infiltrate their students FB groups though uninformed of or invited knowingly. (There's free wifi in school. So pack sniffing?)

Day starts at 8am with some students getting there earlier to buy breakfast from McD, sausage muffin or something and will end in the evening or early night depending on the stream. My kid leaves school at 6 most of the days. Some days are short days. End at 3pm or so. I was in the Arts faculty at NUS and my kid has longer hours (possibly as long as the Engineering fac) than I had.

The most popular food item from the canteen apparently is instant cup noodles. My kid says food quality tastewise is poor but there is also that matter of him being fussy. However cup noodles are take and go items and are quickly wolf down. Lunch times are often use to study a bit. So dinner will be an important meal for you to look into.

Academically my kid is doing very well, likes anime but has voluntarily reduce the amount watched. This didn't happen in primary school, so it is maturity or lesson content appeal? For dance students, the hours are the longest and physically most demanding obviously.

The essay questions are like JC1/2 GP style questions. You give initial reports/summaries of what you intend to write, get feedback, go do more research and finally do the paper. And the teacher gets to see the conceptual development process.

For art, for a still life drawing sesson, sometimes a teacher would do this as was related to me. Goes around to each student, then says \"not nice\" (not \"no good\"), tears up the paper in front of the student and says do it again (not at the end, in process monitoring). Supposedly the highest number of tearings a particular student got was more than 30 papers. Now, I take this as training the students to develop a thick skin. Not all responses to your art work from the public is going to be favourable. Heck it can be outright nasty for whatever reason. But at the same time, you need to understand the level is not that of a starters development class. You are measured against the cohort and remember, bottom 5% gets asked to leave from year 3 onwards. The hours are such that your kid better like that particular type of arts enrolled in. Its cannot be just a hobby thing. Apparently that student came in via appeal and according to my kid's assessment, has poor technical skills in sketching. So consider carefully about coming in on appeal whether it was due to being lacking for Talent Academy or for grades.

During parent visit events, the kids that are still around acting as ushers are rather cheerful and happy looking.

In reference to a previous post, the school of sports may downplay academics but here both are required here at a rather high level of rigour. Some kids maybe better off being in an GCE school and attend art lessons at say NAFA or something where they can control the hours.

A high premium placed is on general knowledge. There are bonus questions during assessments, things not covered in lessons (yet) but would demonstrate interest and effort in the subject matter. They give a considerable boost the grades. Interesting reward scheme eh? Getting the answer right would yield extra points like 10x or more from a normal question.

With regards to preparation for TA, my kid has been prep for the visual arts side for 6 years or so. And there are other kids like him. Again to remind you, ranking is done within the cohort.

SOTA's system has a lot of good things going for it but its not like in Finland, no ranking (which has the best results worldwide in terms of effort/results) http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/12/what-americans-keep-ignoring-about-finlands-school-success/250564/. So technical drawing skills are very important, if you don't this means, well... . Dancing/drawing/acting once or twice a week for an hour or two each time or so may not be a good gauge of ability/inclination to do it 4 hours of related activity everyday after a 6/7 hours of academic work. And for the next 6 years for that matter.

The art school he went to, the teacher has her own kid in SOTA. So she was able to prep her students for the TA with role playing sessions on TA presentation process. She related an interesting account to me. Early on, SOTA thought they had to make some concessions to academics in relation to arts standards. Then after 2 or 3 batches, they started getting students that were good in both that \"spoiled the market\".

Prepare your kids accordingly for what to expect. If it is the right thing for them, they will tired but happy. If not, they will be just tired and perhaps a little sad.