Driver #4: Practice —Practice Until You Can't Get It Wrong
Let's talk about practice.
Driver #4 in our Six Drivers of ATC Success series is where I want to dig all the way in, because practice is — without question — the single biggest factor in whether you pass or fail at the FAA Academy.
I want to start with a quote from Michael Jordan. He said, "I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. And that is why I succeed."
Think about that for a second.
One of the greatest athletes who ever lived built his success on failure.
On doing the work even when it didn't go right.
On missing shots — thousands of them — and coming back every single time.
At the Academy, you are going to miss shots too.
You're going to have bad runs.
You're going to mess things up.
That is not a warning — that is a guarantee.
Here's the thing: that's exactly what the Academy is designed for. That's why they give you the time they give you. But the students who make it, who pass, aren't the ones who avoid mistakes.
They're the ones who use those mistakes to get better.
It's Not Like Anything You've Done Before
One of the most important things I can tell you about the Academy is this: it is not college.
Basics is actually what sets a lot of students up for a rude awakening, because Basics is kind of like college. You're memorizing. You're taking tests. You're getting information down in your head. And you can do really well in Basics by studying hard the way you studied in school.
Then you get to the Academy itself — and the game changes completely.
The tests at the Academy are worth 20 points out of 100. You need 70 to pass. You can get a perfect score on every single test and still fail. Why? Because you can't put it into practice.
The Academy isn't about head knowledge. It's about taking that knowledge and being able to use it — in real time, under pressure, with someone watching you and a clock ticking.
That's why practice is a driver.
Not just a driver — for en route students especially, it might be the driver.
What Practice Actually Means
Here's where a lot of students get it wrong. They think practice means putting in hours. And yes — the time you put in absolutely has a direct correlation to your final score.
But practice is not just about quantity. It's about quality.
Specifically, it's about repetition with a purpose.
What does that mean?
It means you're not just running through things to run through them.
You're getting the phraseology to the point where you cannot do it wrong.
You're building the steps into your muscle memory — the thinking process, the clearance delivery, the strip marking — until doing it correctly is automatic.
And I need you to hear me on this:
If you're practicing and it's not perfect, all you're doing is setting in your mind a way of doing things that is incorrect.
You're wiring in the wrong answer.
That's worse than not practicing at all.
Your practice has to aim at perfection. Every rep.
You Cannot Do This Alone
One of the most common mistakes I see — and I mean consistently, class after class — is students trying to practice by themselves.
Here's the problem with that.
When you say the phraseology out loud by yourself, it sounds right to you. Of course it does. You're the one saying it, and you're the one judging it. You need someone outside yourself to hold you to the standard.
Your classmates are that someone. And you have to commit to each other.
You have to be willing to be brutally honest — with kindness, but with honesty. Hey, that clearance wasn't right. Run it again. Here's what was off.
That's not criticism. That's how you help each other pass.
I've seen it happen. I've seen a class go 13 for 13 — every single person passed. That doesn't happen by accident.
It happens because that class committed to each other and held each other to an incredibly high standard.
I also saw something in my own class that I've shared before, but it bears repeating.
Two guys. Pilot backgrounds. On the first graded scenario, both scored in the 90s. They were well on their way to passing. All they had to do was keep doing what they were doing.
But they stopped practicing with the class.
They thought they didn't need to.
And they didn't pass.
They didn't even hit 60.
Don't make that mistake.
Background doesn't protect you.
CTI experience doesn't protect you.
Military experience doesn't protect you.
I've seen all of those students struggle, and I've seen all of them excel.
What makes the difference isn't what you came in with. It's what you choose to do with the time you have.
Three Types of Practice You Need
Let me break it down into three specific types, because not all practice is created equal.
The first is repetition practice.
This is the foundation. You're drilling phraseology, clearances, procedures — over and over and over again.
The goal isn't to get it right eventually.
The goal is to get it right automatically.
The thinking process, the steps, the script marking — all of it needs to become second nature.
This is true for tower, TRACON, and en route.
The method is the same: do it until doing it wrong feels impossible.
The second is weak point practice.
And this is the one most students avoid, because it's uncomfortable.
We all naturally gravitate toward practicing what we're already good at. I do it with golf. I'd rather hit shots I know I can make than practice the ones that give me trouble. But the only shots that can hurt you in a round are the ones you can't make.
Same thing at the Academy.
The things that are giving you trouble — those are the ones you need to work hardest.
Find the scenario that crushed you and run it again. Find a classmate who's doing well at something you're struggling with and ask for help.
Fix those gaps early, because weak spots have a way of showing up exactly when you can't afford them.
The third is pressure practice.
This one is the most powerful and the hardest to replicate. You have to try to simulate eval conditions during your study sessions.
That means time pressure.
That means someone watching.
That means raising the stakes as high as you can get them in a practice environment.
In Non-radar, if you have 10 minutes to complete a clearance, cut your practice time to seven. Or six. Or five.
Make your classmate feel what it's going to feel like in that room with an evaluator. Let them do the same for you.
Here's why this matters: if you don't practice under pressure, the eval will be the first time you ever feel it.
And that is not the moment you want to discover how you perform under stress.
The Mindset You Need
There's a principle I come back to constantly, and it applies here: consistency beats intensity every time.
You don't need to have one massive practice session.
You need daily repetitions.
A plan.
A structure outside of the classroom that your whole class commits to and sticks with.
Not occasional cramming — consistent, focused, daily work.
And this is something I can tell you from experience sitting on the other side of the glass: instructors can tell.
We can tell who's putting in the work.
We can tell who's practicing the right way.
It shows up in how you move, how you talk, how you handle something unexpected. You can't fake it.
Here's the other thing I want you to sit with.
When you're in that eval, you're not going to rise to the occasion.
I want to be really clear about that.
You're going to fall back on the level of your practice.
That's not a bad thing — if your practice has been at a high level, that's exactly what you want.
The students who pass don't dig down deep and find something extra in the moment. They coast on the foundation they built before they walked into that room.
Build that foundation now.
Start before you get to Oklahoma City.
Memorize the maps.
Get in the habit of daily repetition.
Get into the mindset of taking what you know in your head and putting it into action.
Most students don't know what really effective practice looks like until it's almost too late.
You don't have to be one of them.
Don't Practice Until You Get It Right
I'll close with something from Derek Jeter, and it's one of the best pieces of advice I've ever heard for Academy students.
Don't practice until you get it right. Practice until you can't get it wrong.
That's the standard.
At the Academy, you're not going to be perfect.
The goal is to be perfect — but what you actually need is to have practiced so thoroughly, so consistently, and so well that when it counts, it is genuinely difficult for you to make a mistake.
That's what the best students do.
That's what the 13-for-13 classes do.
That's what this driver is all about.
You've got this.
But you've got to put in the work.
Ready to build a practice plan that actually prepares you for the Academy? Set up a free call at sidebysideatc.com and let's talk about where you are and how to get where you want to be.
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If you are heading to the Academy in the next few months, I put together a structured 90-day preparation blueprint that walks you through exactly what to focus on each month before you go. It's designed to help reduce shock and build confidence before day one. You can download it at: sidebysideatc.com/page/blueprint .
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