Asian Test-Prep Centers Offer Parents Exactly What They Want: ?Results?

True, tests and scores do not guarantee future success, but on average I'd rather have my kids with the skills that enable the planning, designing, contracting, and eventually building a mass transit subway than settle for low scores, only to end up working at a Subway.

One wishes this kind of intensively focused education standard was able to be duplicated across the entire spectrum of American society.

My .02c
 
JIMHO, the kids that are drilling to master the test taking will be those that are most primed to be replaced by AI.  You already see IBM Watson's basically doing the diagnosis and recommendation in neurological surgery centers and being 'confirmed' by the Doctor.  Soon, the robot will do the surgery too and the Doctor will be relegated to the 1 in 10, 1 in 20 or 1 in 100 cases that are a-typical.  All the knowledge worker are ripe for replacement, they're expensive and their role is basically applying known paradigms.  It's not cost effective to replace the guy behind the subway counter or build a robot to clean up the diapers in the hospital.  It is to replace the software guy that makes $100K or the Doctor that wants to make $300k.  Or finance department...

Look at the leaders of industry, how many are like Trump, versus the kid with the perfect SAT?  Or like Steve Jobs?


I've agree your  kid is better off studying and mastering the test than not, however, it really won't save them because there is a massive economic upheaval coming for "work".
 
As long as test scores are used, it pays to be good at taking tests. This may have nothing to do with actual skills or aptitude, but without the score you'll miss the boat entirely. Unfortunately, rather than correlating with aptitude, test score end up correlating with household income. This is already the case with the SAT - and has been for decades.

There is already a growing disparity between test scores and success in college that some schools are abandoning the tests altogether. It doesn't help that in addition of prep academies there's a whole industry to cheat the system in some places. Get ready for more of the holistic admissions criteria in the future.
 
Test taking doesn't teach you to be an entrepreneur.  It can help you become a high paid professional and earn a great salary, but it's still a linear path in life.  The entrepreneurial billionaires take an exponential path and pay others to do the linear grunt work for them.  Still, not all of us can create billion dollar startups, but we can pursue exponential growth through more modest investments in business and real estate.

Secondly, test takers tend to have a fear of failure.  For many of the Asian super students, a low SAT/ACT score or low GPA would make them a failure in the eyes of their parents.  This is drilled into them from a young age and reinforced throughout their lives.  This fear of failure is incompatible with entrepreneurship. 

Many of the successful entrepreneurs that I know were raised in households where the parents were entrepreneurs themselves and encouraged risk taking in their children from a young age.
 
Liar Loan said:
Test taking doesn't teach you to be an entrepreneur.  It can help you become a high paid professional and earn a great salary, but it's still a linear path in life.  The entrepreneurial billionaires take an exponential path and pay others to do the linear grunt work for them.  Still, not all of us can create billion dollar startups, but we can pursue exponential growth through more modest investments in business and real estate.

Secondly, test takers tend to have a fear of failure.  For many of the Asian super students, a low SAT/ACT score or low GPA would make them a failure in the eyes of their parents.  This is drilled into them from a young age and reinforced throughout their lives.  This fear of failure is incompatible with entrepreneurship. 

Many of the successful entrepreneurs that I know were raised in households where the parents were entrepreneurs themselves and encouraged risk taking in their children from a young age.
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For every successful entrepreneur there is a much larger share of failed ones. Not saying that one shouldn't go that route, but the exponential outcome is more of an exception rather than the rule. Yes, you can drop out of college and start a company that will eventually be worth billions. You can also drop out of college and start a company and end up making sandwiches at Subway. The latter is far more likely.





 
I'm not advocating dropping out of college.  There can be some middle ground between a childhood dominated by test prep, and being a college dropout. :)

My kids are still elementary level, but I expect them to get good grades AND I encourage them to pursue entrepreneurial activities just as my dad did with me.
 
Liar Loan said:
I'm not advocating dropping out of college.  There can be some middle ground between a childhood dominated by test prep, and being a college dropout. :)

My kids are still elementary level, but I expect them to get good grades AND I encourage them to pursue entrepreneurial activities just as my dad did with me.
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It's always good to have a backup.
 
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"In a world where robots have replaced all human jobs, step into the Job Simulator to learn what it was like to have a job."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Job_Simulator
 
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