SBP master race lipoting for duty. SBPs on a whole are better than the MRSMs (except for the elite ones, which are comparable to the best SBPs or better, in the case of TGB). Personally, if I had to do it all over though I would have stayed home and gone to my SMK instead. I don't like rigid schedules and being forced to do things. The only good thing I guess is the culture and activities. There are a lot of fun things (organizing events/competitions/whatever) and if you stand out then you get to compete on other levels since the schools aren't stingy about funding (I was one of the co-leaders and the scriptwriter as well as extra for our English Drama team: we won regionals and went to nationals by beating out other SBPs, Convents and High Schools but we lost to KTK, one of the Sarawak Science Schools, and MCKK). You gain a lot of experience and meet great people but it's not really worth it in my opinion. I have major problems concentrating and boarding school only made it worse by forcing me to study when I wasn't in the mood and filling up my regular study times with useless compulsory activities.

But in the end it doesn't really matter. Once you get into uni, what matters is your own effort. SBP/MRSM students just have an easier time of getting scholarships since sponsors pay special attention to these schools. I know Petronas came to interview a bunch of people and a few students were sponsored by Shell. The Head Prefect got a scholarship from Bank Negara and a significant majority got JPA/MARA scholarships (I think the top 100 all got at least one offer/interview) and even though I wasn't anywhere near the top I got one of those odd programs (2 years Higher National Diploma and then a scholarship to study in the UK) but alas, my parents didn't let me go

Oh yeah, there's always some Chinese and Indian students initially but they almost never stick around. I'm not sure why exactly because I don't think we were racist or anything. Maybe it's the same reason why other students drop out and go back to SMKs: the culture shock. Not a lot of people can handle local boarding schools and not everyone that stays there (like me) do all that well there.

People get lower marks in SBPs than they do in regular SMKs. I know some dudes who were failing in SBPs and then dropped out to go back to regular schools and suddenly, straights As again. They get marked to a stricter standard for all the trials but it's the same level as the regular schools for the real exams. Why the hell would you need to "jaga kualiti + reputasi" by lowering the passing marks and scores for the elite schools? These are already some of the best students in the country cooped up in one place. The problem is that they hold you to a higher standard and not everyone can keep up. A lot of kids fell behind since the pace was grueling and the competition is insane. Most people were used to being the best at their respective schools (jaguh kampung lah konon) and then got a massive culture shock. The worst student there would have still been among the top at any SMK and the best are way, way beyond your average hardworking student. You've got people with photographic memories. People whose textbooks/reference books have looked like they've been totaled. People who are actually reading university level textbooks already way before the SPM (the bank negara scholar dude). There's a reason why scholarship offers are extended to SBP/MRSM students based on their trial results even before they even take the SPM.