Last week we talked about level one — the pre-Academy stage where you build the foundation for everything that's coming. 

We covered why that time before Oklahoma City is so much more valuable than most people realize, and why the students who use it well show up with a genuine advantage over the ones who waited.

This week we move into level two. 

And level two is the Academy.

I want to be clear about something right up front: for those of you going through CTI school, advanced ATC, or the military pathway, a lot of what I'm going to cover here still applies to you. 

But this week I'm focusing specifically on the FAA Academy, because the Academy is where everything changes.

It's where preparation stops being theoretical and starts being tested in real time, under real pressure, with real consequences.

Billie Jean King said it best: "Pressure is a privilege." 

It may not feel like that when you're in the middle of it — when you're exhausted and stressed and questioning everything — but going through the Academy is genuinely a privilege. 

Between 10 and 20 percent of the people who apply ever end up going through it. 

There are thousands of people who wanted to be exactly where you are and couldn't get there. 

Try to remember that when the pressure is at its worst.

Here's the first thing you need to understand about level two: the Academy is nothing like basics, and it's nothing like anything you've been through before.

Basics, in person in Oklahoma City, is essentially a college course compressed into four weeks. 

You sit in a classroom, take notes, study for tests, and pass those tests to move forward. You can treat basics like college because that's basically what it is. 

But the moment you cross that threshold into the actual Academy program, everything shifts. 

The pace is different. 

The demands are different. 

The stakes are different. 

The gap between what basics feels like and what the Academy feels like is enormous, and most students don't fully appreciate that until they're already in it.

One of the biggest mistakes I see students make is treating the Academy like any other academic endeavor. They think: if I'm smart enough, if I study enough, I'll be fine. 

I understand that thinking, but I have to be direct with you — it doesn't work that way. 

The Academy is not primarily an intelligence test. 

It's not a test of how well you can study and regurgitate information.

What it is, is a consistency test. 

And a pressure management test.

Think about the difference between college and the Academy. 

In college, you paid for the privilege of being there. 

At the Academy, they are paying you. This is a job now. And your employer — the FAA — is watching to see how willing and how disciplined you are, each and every day, to learn this material to the point where you can actually use it. 

Not memorize it. 

Not answer questions about it on a test. 

Use it, in real time, under pressure.

In en route, the written tests are worth 20 points total. 

You could ace every single test and still not pass — because 80 percent of your score is performance-based. 

That one number tells you everything you need to know about what the Academy is really measuring.

We've spent several weeks building up the six drivers of ATC success — 

Purpose

Plan

Phraseology

Practice
Picture

Performance

Those drivers don't go away at level two. 

Let me walk you through exactly how each one plays out at the Academy.

You have to know your purpose even more deeply at level two than you did in level one. 

Not just in your head — in your gut, in your heart. 

You need to know why you're putting yourself through this, because the Academy is going to test that reason over and over.

Your performance over those 10 to 12 weeks is going to dip at points. You're not going to be consistently good the entire time you're there — nobody is. 

When that happens, your stress goes up and your confidence comes down. And that's exactly when you have to reach back and grab your purpose. 

Why are you doing this? 

What does this mean to you?

I told you last week to write it down before you get there, to post it where you'll see it every day. 

I'm telling you now to keep doing that while you're there. 

Revisit your purpose every week. 

For some of you, every day. 

That's how important it is. 

Purpose isn't just a nice idea — it's the thing that gets you off the mat when the Academy knocks you down.

You cannot wing your way through the Academy. 

I've seen students try. 

It does not work. 

You have to have a schedule, a real one, and you have to stick to it.

The best class I was ever A-lead for got 10 out of 12 students through. 

They had a spreadsheet. 

A rotation schedule that cycled classmates through so they could work with everybody, not just their usual group. They built their practice schedule around their class schedule — figuring out who was on days and who was on evenings each week, and planning around that. 

That's the level of intentionality that works.

And if you really want to take it further, plan your sleep schedule. 

Pay attention to what you're eating and how it affects you in the lab. 

I had a student once who was performing well in the morning and struggling in the afternoon, and when I asked him what he was eating for lunch, it became pretty clear pretty fast. 

I knew of one student who had the same thing to eat every day of Non-Radar: a meatball sandwich. 

If you know, you know.

Be intentional. 

Intentional about your time management. 

Intentional about your sleep. 

Intentional about your practice. 

Intentional about every single day. 

Don't drift. 

Don't wing it. 

Don't assume you'll figure it out as you go.

At the Academy level, phraseology isn't just about memorizing clearances — it's about knowing the language of ATC so fluently that it stops consuming mental energy. 

You need to know the rules, the LOAs, the SOPs. 

You need to know the strip marking. 

You need to know it well enough that you can speak ATC as naturally as you speak English — and not the casual CPC-on-LiveATC version, either. 

At the Academy, you say it correctly, every time, because you don't have a choice.

Here's why this matters beyond just getting the words right: the more fluent you are in the language of ATC, the less mental strain you're under in every lab session. 

And less mental strain means you can focus on actually working traffic instead of trying to remember what to say while you're trying to remember what to do. 

It means you practice better. 

You sleep better. 

The phraseology work you put in compounds across everything else. I've said it before in this blog — phraseology is king.

That's still true at level two.

There is no substitute. 

None. 

You cannot become fluent in phraseology without practicing it. 

You cannot do strip marking without errors without practicing it. 

Confidence at the Academy comes from one thing: preparation, and preparation means doing the reps.

But here's the part that matters most about practice at the Academy: you cannot simulate pressure by yourself.

You just can't. 

I'll say it plainly — if you have a way to put yourself under real pressure in isolation, text me, because I genuinely want to know. 

But I don't think that way exists. 

Pressure comes from other people. 

From being watched. 

From having to perform in front of your classmates. 

That's the job, and you have to practice the job the way it actually works.

Rotate with your classmates. Work with each other. 

If you're in en route, practice those non-radar scenarios out loud, not just in your head. 

When you get to radar, give each other situations — traffic, emergencies, interruptions — and make each other deal with them in real time. 

Simulate the lab as closely as you can. 

If you're in the tower option, do the same thing. 

The picture at the Academy is exactly what I described in the driver five episode — it's not one big overarching picture you hold in your head. 

It's a series of small pictures, one task at a time, that build into something complete. 

That's the mental approach you need to bring into every lab session.

And I want to add something here that I've brought up with students before, and a lot of them look at me skeptically at first: use visualization. 

Athletes have used it for decades, and it works. 

When I was a soccer player in high school, we had three or four weeks where rain canceled everything — no practice, no games, nothing. I spent that time going into the gym and hitting a ball against the wall every day, but more than that, I was visualizing. Hitting shots. Scoring goals. And when we finally got to play again, I had four goals in the first game. I wasn't supposed to be the goal scorer on that team — and then I was, for the rest of the season.

By the time your evals come around, whether it's your non-radar evals, your radar evals, or your final tower evals, you have already done everything they're going to ask you to do. 

You've done it in practice. 

You've done it correctly at least once — I will guarantee you that. 

All you have to do on eval day is put those pieces together. 

Visualize doing them correctly. 

Visualize having a clean run. 

Visualize walking out of there with a hundred. 

Seriously — if you're going to visualize it, you might as well go all the way. 

See yourself succeeding, over and over, before you ever sit down in that seat.

The Academy ultimately measures performance. 

Everything — the preparation you did in level one, the planning and practice you've done at the Academy — it all comes together on evaluation days. 

You are going to be nervous. 

If this matters to you, you're going to be nervous. 

Professional athletes at the top of their game get nervous before competition. 

You're not at the top yet. 

Being nervous is completely normal.

What separates students who perform on eval day from students who don't isn't how smart they are. 

It's not their college GPA. 

It's how much they've prepared and how well they've built their process. 

If you have prepared — really prepared, every day, with intensity and intention — then your job on eval day is simple: trust it. 

Trust your preparation. 

Trust the work your instructors have put in. 

Trust the work you've put in. 

You have done this before. 

You know how to do this.

But if you've waited, if you've winged it, if you haven't been consistent — then you're going to feel it when the pressure is highest, because there won't be anything solid to fall back on.

I've watched this play out hundreds of times, and I can tell you with confidence that the students who succeed at the Academy are almost never the smartest ones in the class. 

They're the most consistent ones. 

The most coachable. 

The most disciplined. 

The ones who don't rest on prior knowledge or experience they brought in from a CTI program or wherever else, but who understand that this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and treat it accordingly.

If you walk into Oklahoma City with the mindset that you are going to do whatever it takes — put in the hours, bring the intensity to every practice session, be intentional about everything you do — then your chances of success are genuinely high. 

Not guaranteed, because nothing is. 

But high. 

Because that's what it takes.

And one more thing I want to say directly: a lot of students think passing the Academy is the pinnacle. That once they do it, the hardest part is behind them. I told students this when I was in Oklahoma City and I'll tell you now — that's not accurate. 

The Academy is intense, but that job-or-no-job pressure doesn't disappear when you leave. 

It doesn't end until you're a certified professional controller. 

After the Academy, you're training on live traffic. 

The stakes get higher, not lower. 

That's why the process — these six drivers, these levels — needs to keep going. 

You don't finish building the foundation when the Academy ends. 

You just move on to the next level.

And that's exactly where we're headed next time: level three, your first facility.

Bobby Unser said it well: "Success is where preparation and opportunity meet." 

The Academy is your opportunity. 

If you've prepared, success can be what's waiting at the end of it.

Don't navigate this alone. 

If you need help — whether you're pre-Academy, in the middle of it, or already past it — set up a free consultation call at sidebysideatc.com. We'll talk about where you are, what's coming, and how to get where you want to go. Because you don't have to do this side by side.