I'm going to just chime in my 2 cents. Schooling and knowledge will help you understand the academy *ie planes are good or bad, vortacs, phraseology etc* but that all gets covered again in basics. The people that failed in my class-
3 or 4 partied too often and didn't study enough, ie shot in the dark, nothing lost if this doesn't work out but I wanted to try it. We had one guy fail the first basics test? Literally flashcards online.
Some overlap, but the next couple people maybe knew enough to get through, but it was a weird mix of choking up, not being confident, or stuttering with phraseology (or can't make a decision) and that slowing you down.
I think a few other's had the wrong idea-one person was memorizing the strips in non-radar (do not do this) in between problems and a few key moves make you look like a genius. Your instructor cannot help or explain things to you if you are getting it right but not of your own accord.
My only advice to people that have been hired is start working on the map-even if you don't know what it is, just copy the picture over, and over, and over, and over, and over.