What's the point of learning something? To me, it is to improve your life, and not just in some artificial, certification-earning, resume-boosting, salary-increasing fashion. There's certainly nothing wrong with that, as more money can provide more options, and make life's travels smoother. But money comes and goes, as any trader will tell you. Industries come and go as well - or at least the manner in which they conduct business does. I got a taste of how bottom-line the business world could be, two weeks before Christmas in 2005. Ownership fired 24 of 28 traders, retaining myself and 3 other twenty-somethings. We weren't the best traders in the group, but we were probably 75% as good as their best performers, at 20% of the price. It was clear that new technology could eliminate most of the legwork of trading, and since the old ways of doing business were no longer efficient, they were no longer needed. At that time, I wondered, "if even a highly technical, highly specialized industry like derivatives trading isn't immune from the reaper, then what is?"
It drove home the point that education is important because it allows you to be adaptable. And what could be more important than that? No matter what changes may come about in this rapidly-changing world we live in, one thing will remain eternal - everything changes. There will always be new problems to solve, and there will always be a demand for those who know how to solve them. So I don't worry too much about my employment prospects from year-to-year. I can, and will, adapt to market conditions. Even if the economy completely tanks, I know that I will still be okay, because I know how to learn new things and solve my own problems.
Skill acquisition builds confidence and improves motivation, whereas studying for a single test can just seem like one more box to check - a time-consuming obligation with an abstract, distant payoff. And who wants to devote a ton of time and energy to a one-time event? Motivation begins to shift, however, when we view test prep as practical skill-building, with increased scores (and the rewards that come with that) as a bonus. There's not a single thing that I will teach you that won't be applicable to daily life. It should show up in your schoolwork right away. Of course it will - standardized tests are supposed to gauge your ability to apply what you have learned in school. In fact, I often use standardized tests as a teaching tool for more complicated topics like essay-writing.
These aren't just test-taking skills. They are life skills - I teach students how to solve problems. And what part of life isn't about problem-solving? One consistent thing I hear back from former students is that they still use the techniques we worked on together, either in school, on the job, or in their personal lives. I'm not surprised - I haven't actively traded for years, yet I still think like a trader. I'm always happy when my students improve their scores to levels that they didn't think were possible. But my heart smiles when I see the change in a student's confidence when she accomplishes the impossible. She thinks, "If I could do that, what else could I do?”