I passed Terminal Academy just under a year ago and am now a CPC. We had 16 people in my class and 14 passed. We should have passed 15 out of 16. I'll tell you about myself and the ones that washed.
The first one that washed out pretty much resigned himself to the fact that he wasn't going to pass and was contacting his former employer the second week of "across the street" to make sure he could come back to his job. He was very studious and studied all the time, but never had an ounce of confidence is his voice or what he was saying. On the academic tests he killed it because he knew everything. When it came to the simulator and table-top (and eventually, evals) he folded like a cheap suit because he constantly doubted himself and would mumble and stammer in a low voice through whatever he would say, even though he knew what to do.
The other one that washed was a good kid (I say kid because I was the oldest in the class by several years at 31 years old so they were all "kids" to me); he had his ATC degree and was doing great in academy all the way up to the very final eval run. His final local run he only needed around a 25% to pass and make the 70% threshold and there was no reason to believe he wouldn't kill it like he did his first local run and place towards the top of our class. His final local run was the last run of the day for our class and literally everyone had passed except the other guy that we more or less knew wouldn't make it and the girl that was doing her final ground eval. There's no two ways around it: he choked. He absolutely choked on his final run. I still keep in contact with him from time to time because we were roommates during academy and I genuinely care about his success in life. What I got from him was that he screwed up right away and it more or less took him mentally out of the run and that tanked his run. He said it wasn't a scenario where he let the first screw up weigh on him and that caused other mistakes to build on themselves; he said that after the first screw up he more or less completely lost perspective of the problem he was running and terrible thing after terrible thing happened because he no longer felt like he was "in it".
Me? I would bet money if you told our class at the beginning of evals that 2 wouldn't make it that I would have been one of 3 people you would have guessed would take those two spots; for sure. 100 to 1 odds on that. It's not that I didn't have the "stuff", it's that I wasn't quick enough to sharpen my "stuff". I am as off the street as they come. Greener that Kermit. Bachelor's degree in Criminal Justice and no form of ATC exposure prior to applying. I studied more than I ever have in my life and was probably middle of the pack in academy, academically speaking. I honestly believe my saving grace was my previous work experience being a 911 dispatcher for several years; it enabled me to shake off each mistake I made and keep working the problem in front of me.
As an entire class and as roommates (6 of us at Kim's Place), we would practice table-tops going over critical situations we could think of for an hour or two a day, every day. I would study independently for about an hour day, including the weekends (took those easy to keep my sanity, unless we did table tops).
The advice I feel I can adequately give without giving anything away is:
1.) Be friends to the best of your ability with your entire class. We had a few less than stellar people when it came to the personality department but we all still tried to get along with each other and study together. Your classmates success can also be the key to your success.
2.) Know when and how to study. Everyone benefits from different amounts and different intensities of studying (half hour on, half hour off for a few hours; 3 hours straight; hour when you wake, hour at night; etc.) . Find the study style that benefits you most and get after it hard.
3.) Know how to relax. It's important to keep you grounded. My girlfriend came to visit OKC once and I went home over a holiday weekend once. My roommates and I played a fair amount of video games. I only really drank and "partied" twice: when we passed basics and when we passed the academy. Self care is critical. I got an hour massage the day before final evals started and it really helped to work out a good chunk of the stress I held on to up to that point through academy. Know what your balance is and keep it in moderation.
4.) KEEP WORKING THE PROBLEM. This is my holy grail. No matter what gets thrown at you. No matter what happens at any point in any problem. KEEP WORKING THE PROBLEM. DO NOT STOP WORKING THE PROBLEM. Don't let attempting to fix a mistake take your attention away from what else was in front of you before the mistake. Do not let a mistake put you in a negative head space for the rest of the problem. To quote Rocky Balboa, "it's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward, how much can you take and keep moving forward." Fight to the very end. I am a CPC today because I kept working the problem after each mistake I made, and I made plenty.
Hope this helps people.
