Pocket Academy Walkthrough

Pocket Academy developed by Kairosoft games for the iPhone is a school simulation game that lets you design and run your very own high school. Hire teachers, build classrooms, and set up special facilities for students to learn in. Take national exams to see how you stack up against other schools. Gamezebo’s Pocket Academy quick start strategy guide will provide you with detailed images, tips, information, and hints on how to play your best game.

Game Introduction – Pocket Academy

Quick Start Guide

Getting Started

Pocket Academy can be downloaded by clicking on the “Buy Now!” button at the top of this page or by searching for it in the iTunes store.
The game does not send push notifications and is not connected with Twitter, Facebook or any other social medium at this time.
Game settings can be accessed by tapping on “Menu” then “System” and then “Settings” Here you can toggle the game music and sound effects as well as change the speed of the text and the type of currency used in the game.
You will be asked to choose your school style, then name your school,(or use the default names), and finally to choose the school uniform for males and females from a scrolling menu.

You will next create your first student. Name your student and choose his or her appearance. You can then choose personality traits such as “playful”, “serious”, or “weird” among several others. Once you make these decisions tap on “Start game”
You will now see the games message window which comes up frequently to give you information about your school and the students and teachers in it. After the text is finished you will see a tiny arrow blinking at the bottom right corner. Tap on this blinking arrow to move to the next text window in the series.

You will now have your very first entrance ceremony where you will see your first class of students arriving at your school. Over time you will graduate students out and welcome a new class of students the following month. Hopefully you will make each graduating class even more successful than the one before it. At this time you will also recieve a large lump sum of entrance fees to be used to develop your school and hire staff.
The game must be saved and provides empty save slots in case you want to save your game at different points. There is no auto save feature at this time. Note – You can at any time start a new game by choosing that option. Choose carefully as unless you have saved the game in a different slot you won’t be able to retrieve the old one.
The game runs over the course of eleven years and ends in April of year eleven. You will see across the top of the screen at the far left three letter and numbers that represent what time of year it is. For example – “Y2 M3 W3″ would translate to Year two, Month three, and Week three”) As the seasons change you will see snow and leaves falling from the trees. You won’t be able to harvest from your farm plots in the Winter months and students will leave for spring break and summer vacation.
Once you finish the game you have the option to continue playing after your high score has been published which is the score you have the moment the game is completed. Some of your attributes present when you end the game can be carried over to a new game. There are also rumors of secret characters you can hire as teachers in your next game. It is possible these are former students but it is not known for certain.
As your school increases in size you will attract new students.

Research Points

Research points are needed for students to take special classes that allow them to improve their grades in a specific subject. It is especially needed before taking academic challenges that result in leveling up in the game.
Research points are divided into three categories and most items will need a certain number of each before they can be completed.
Humanities (Shown with the pencil icon)
Science (Shown with a flask icon)
PE (Shown with a track icon.)
Research points can be earned when a teacher or student enters any kind of facility on school grounds with the amount varying based on the type of facility.
Research points are also tied to the social lives of students. Students have a popularity rating and and the more friends a student can make and get together socially the more research points they will score for you to use.
If things go well students will fall in love and become couples. These students make the most research points.

Subjects

There are several subjects taught in the school and over time you will be able to take challenge exams and level up until you reach level five in each subject area.
Note – Be sure when you are in the menus that you look for slide bars along the side as there are frequently more topics listed that you may miss.
The subjects taught in your school are taken by all subjects in all years. Additional subjects will be taught once you expand enough to add a second teacher room and hire four additional teachers.
English
Math
Science
Spanish
Manners
Agriculture
Farming 101
PE
Sociology
Speech
Novel Reading
Note taking
Agriculture

Message Window

The message window is where you will communicate with the Assistant Principal. She will give you announcements here when anything new happens related to your school.
When the message window appears, read the text and wait until the tiny flashing arrow appears at the lower right corner. When it appears tap on it to read the next screen and do this until all have been read.
If you want to exit out early tap on “Menu” at the bottom right.

School Newspaper

Periodically you will see the school newspaper appear on the screen. Be sure to read though these as they have valuable information as to your game status.
When something major happens good or bad to your school it will be reported in the paper. The paper has a direct relationship to new students coming to your school or current students leaving if conditions are not optimal.
Things such as high test scores, clubs opening, new rooms, and successful seasonal events are the kinds of things that will increase your overall enrollment maximum of students.
Things such as not enough teachers, missing rooms, and low test scores are the kinds of things that will lower enrollment maximums in your school. If this happens be sure to take it as a priority to fix the problems reported in the paper.

How to maneuver around the game screen

There are a couple of ways to move around the game screen.
When you can see your campus in the game window you can use your finger to drag the screen from left to right.
You can also use the pinch method to zoom in and out of the scene.
If you tap on the pink down arrow button at the very bottom left of the screen you will see a navigation wheel appear. This is a circle with four buttons on the outer perimeter. Tap on the top button to move up, the right button to move right, the bottom to move down and so on. Tapping on the center button does nothing. If you tap on the outer buttons it only moves you a very tiny bit so you will have to tap many times in rapid succession to move around in this manner. If you prefer to move faster it is best to use the first method and drag with your fingertip.
Character Movement – Characters move between facilities using paths. A student’s athletics score determines how far they can go. Increasing their athletic score by using the “Sports drill” item can enable a student to walk further along a path and into more facilities earning more points for the school.Teachers on the other hand can go anywhere in the building. Students go to the facilities they are most interested in and they tend to choose facilities that are placed next to their classroom most of all.
Gate Placement – Teachers and students use gates to enter and leave the school. When you add more gates watch the traffic routes to check for the best locations.

Student Information

As you gain new students you will be able to access a student information screen on each. These screens will tell you the student’s name, personality type, grade level, and will list a numerical score from 1 to 100 attached to their attributes shown listed below.

Student Attributes 1

Intelligence (Int) – Quick to learn and to discover new facilities.
Athletics (Ath.) – Let’s students go to faraway activities.

Student Attributes 2

Popularity (Pop) – Helps make friend and (maybe) discover love.
Attitude (Att.) – Helps a student learn in special classes.

Finally you will see the student’s career path choice (If they have one) and the rate of success associated with that career path.
At the bottom of this screen you can tap on “Use Item” which allows you to use one of four items to improve the student. Read below for more information but basically you can increase their intelligence or athletic score by a few points, change their club membership, or give them career advice if they have no career path chosen or a very poor one.
Note – Be sure to use the list feature in the menu area using the arrows along the top to scroll through the student statistics. This is very helpful as all the information is organized and you can see quickly which students need help. If you see a student without a career path or really low scores in one of their attributes or school subjects you can take steps to fix this before the student reaches their third year and increase the chance of their passing the exam and graduating to a successful career.

Transfer Students

Transfer students are students that transfer in after the first day of school has passed.
Transfer students always seem to arrive after you send one of your students off to an event for a few days.
When they arrive which is always one at a time you will earn a transfer fee which varies based on your level.
You will be shown a statistics message showing you the students score of Intelligence (Int), Athleticism (Ath), Popularity (Pop), and Attitude. (Att.) You will also see their job preference after high school and the income they are projected to make.
Students of any grade level or gender can arrive. The more students going to your school the better.
Be sure to check and see if they have a career path and if they have very low levels of attributes so you can supplement them if needed using items.

Researching Rooms

Before a room is available to be built in your school you must pay to have it researched first.
Tap on “Menu” then “Admin” then “Research” and then you will see a menu with a list of rooms you are eligible to research. If they are listed in red you do not have enough money. Only rooms listed in black can be chosen.
It is best to always make sure you have classrooms first, then choose additional rooms that increase specific attributes of your students. If you want your students to be more relaxed and improve their attitude you can build a bench, a nurse’s office, or plant trees and flowers and place them in heavy traffic areas.
Once you choose a facility to be researched which could be a room or an item such as a statue or decorative item you will have to wait a while for the research to complete. The more expensive an item the longer it appears to take. When it is ready a message will flash at the bottom of the screen and the item will appear in the build menu for you to purchase with the word “New” over it.
Many times after placing this new item you will trigger a newspaper article which triggers an increase in popularity and enrollment so it is always wise to always keep something in research as long as you can afford it.

Placing facility rooms and special equipment in your school

You will be given a small campus with a classroom, a teacher’s room, a few farm plots, a snack store, well, incinerator, and a shelter. Each of these rooms have a cost to maintain and as your school grows in size you will need to add more classrooms and items to help your students and teachers find success.
Before you can build most facilities or rooms you will need to research them first. (Be sure to reach through the “Research” area first before you proceed here.)
To purchase a room or item for your school tap on “Menu” at the lower right side and then on “Build” which is at the top of the menu which appears from the top left side of the screen.
Next you will see another menu with three options along the top. These include – Environment, Facility, and Special.
Tap on environment to place things such as flowers, trees, pathways.
Tap on “Facility” to place classrooms, teacher rooms, stores, restrooms, fountains, and more items found inside the school building. These are unlimited in number.
Tap on “special” to access limited items which you only get so many of until you level up and unlock more.

Once you have chosen the item you wish to purchase and place tap on it and then tap on the land in the main screen. You will see a highlighted square appear with four arrows around the perimeter of the square. Tap to place it and tap again to lock in the purchase. Once in place you cannot sell or move items so be sure you place carefully.
NOTE – You will need to make sure to add a path way to any new room or item that the students use or they will have no way to get to it. Pathways are found in the environment section and cost ten dollars each. (Be sure to read through the “Placing Pathways” section before you do this.)

How to remove items or facilities from your school

If you wish to remove an item placed in the school you will have to go into the build menu and purchase the destroy tool which is shown in the image above.
Tap on the destroy tool and then tap on the area you wish to demolish. You will see a flashing square appear. Make sure it is lined up cleanly over the item you wish to remove and then tap on it.
After a few seconds the item should be gone.
Note – There is no charge to use the destroy tool and anything you get rid of will cause a loss of any anticipated points from your score.
Also, you do not sell the item you destroy so there is no financial gain in destroying an item.
You cannot get it back in any way after you destroy it so do so carefully. Unless you place something in a really unfortunate location it is best to just leave things alone if at all possible.

Facility Attributes

Students and faculty will constantly walk around the school entering the various rooms.
Each time a student visits a room they will have a tiny increase in one of their attributes.
For example – If they visit the track or locker room they increase their athleticism.
If they visit the nurse’s office they increase their attitude.
If they visit the vending area they will have an increase in popularity.
Visiting the snack shop will increase intelligence and earn money.
Each facility will increase an attribute in that student or give a reputation point to a teacher.
If you watch them walk around campus and visit these areas you can see a small symbol briefly appear over them showing that these things have been collected.

Money Making Facilities

There are various facilities you can place that in addition to giving students an increase in attribute points, can also give them cash rewards to add to your total.
The following items fall into the money making category and can be found under the “special” category of the build menu;
Chicken Room – These cost $1,000 dollars each and $100 dollars per month in upkeep costs. The chickens will lay fresh eggs when mature. Students will gather and sell these. The higher the students spirit rating is when they collect the eggs, the more money they will earn for them.

Rabbit Room – This room which contains a cute pink rabbit costs $ 2,000 each and costs $120 per month in upkeep. This rabbit produces toys when fully mature that can be sold by students that harvest them. The higher the student’s spirit rating the more money that particular student will get for the sale.

Field – This produces various crops except in the Winter months with snow on the ground. It costs $100 per month in upkeep except again in the Winter months and the students will earn different amounts depending on the type of crop it is yielding.

Facilities that induce Relaxation

There are several facilities that can be placed that induce relaxation when a student or teacher pass by them.
These include woods, flower beds, trees, benches and several other decorative type items usually found in the “Environmental” area of the build menu.
Place these items next to classrooms and earn a huge cash bonus.
If you are not sure which items can induce relaxation go into the build menu and tap on an item to highlight it. Just under it to the left tap on “Describe” and a menu will appear explaining what things do and what areas they can increase points for students and teachers when visited.
You will usually see the word “Relaxing” over a student when he or she finds one of these facilities.

Building Popular Spots (Spot Guide information)

The best way to increase school spirit, increase the number of research points collected and attract a dramatic number of new students to your school is to build popular spots all around campus. This will trigger newspaper articles and is the very best way to advance in the game quickly.
Popular spots are formed by building compatible facilities right next to each other. (Touching is best)
These popular spots will give bonus research points to students that visit them.
As you research different facilities and unlock them in the game they will appear in the “spot guide” under “Lists” from the Main menu. When you visit the spot guide it will show you in text and picture form which buildings can be placed next to each other to form a popular spot as well as what it is called.
There are several popular spots available and until you unlock a room you will not know what to place where.
Tip – Each time you research a new facility before you place it check the spot guide to see if it should be placed next to another facility to make a popular spot.

Popular Spots

Here are a few popular spots to get you started up to year six.
Date Spot – Place Tennis court, woods, and library right next to each other.
Exercise Spot – Place Track, Basketball court, and vending machine room right next to each other.
Friend Spot – Place Nurse room, lounge, and water fountain right next to each other.
Study Spot – Principal room, Library, and AV room.
Spooky Spot – (later levels) Place Music room, lab, and incinerator right next to each other.

Classrooms

You are allowed to have two class rooms per grade level. (Years 1 – 3)
Classrooms can be purchased in the build menu. If you have reached a point in time that requires more class rooms than you can afford you need to find a way to get those classrooms (and teachers) fast. You may have to dismiss a teacher or lower your expenses by removing an item with a high monthly maintenance fee.
Keep your students doing well in school because the best money makers are passing achievement tests and sending students to special events to make prize money for you.
To build a classroom – Tap on “Menu” then on “build” then on “

Special Classes

Special classes are used to improve students grade in a particular subject. It is important to hold special classes in subjects before you do challenges in that subject area to increase in level. Special classes must be paid for with research points.
You can tap on the classroom preferably when there are three or more students as the students in the classroom are the ones affected by the special class teachings.
Next tap on “Main”, “School” then “Sp. Class” and at the top of the screen you can scroll through all the grades listed as 1-1, 1-2, 2-1, 2-2, 3-1, and 3-2.
Once you reach the grade level you wish to teach the special class to tap on “Special class” at the bottom of the page.
Note – You can also tap directly on the classroom and access the special class menu. This way you can see how many students are sitting in the classroom. Be sure to read the small black board in each classroom as it shows you which class you are in. (For example, you will see “3-2” or “1-2″ on the blackboard.”
You will briefly see a little video showing the students taking the class as a bar fills up along the bottom of the screen. You will see how many points each student has improved in that subject and at the end will be shown an overall average of improvement in the class.
Tip – Do not take special classes when there is only one student in the class. This is wasting your resources as it will not improve the class average.

Lists

Tap on “Menu” then “Lists” to access one of five lists you will need frequent access to in the game.
The lists include;
Student list – This is a list of all the students in your school in order of grade and ranking with the top student listed first and weakest at the bottom.
Teacher list – This lists all teachers from lowest to highest in ranking. Tap on a name to see individual teacher stats.
Facility list – This is a list of all the facilities you have placed in your school and a summary of the upkeep costs.
Career Paths – This is a list of all career paths that have been unlocked so far in your school listed from most to least successful.
Spot Guide – This is a list of the facilities that you should build next to each other to increase school spirit and popularity. This increases the number of research points collected as well and is the single most important task to guarantee the success of your school as it will increase enrollment dramatically once you have these spots in place. (See “Building Spots” below for more information.)

School Spirit

School spirit will increase depending on a facility’s surroundings. Build scenery with trees and flowers or place buildings next to each other that are compatible to increase school spirit.
The best way to increase school spirit is to build “Spots” around your school. This includes “friend spots or date spots” (See “Building Spots – (Spot guide information) above for more details)

Auras

Students will at times develop auras around them which are shown by a bright color highlighting them.
When a student has and aura they will perform much better than usual.
Certain things appear to trigger auras such as talking to members of the opposite sex , winning event competitions, or being called to the Principal’s office.
Most important, the higher the school’s overall spirit the more students that will break out with auras. Be sure to take advantage of these boosts when they occur as they are only temporary but the effects are permanent.

Student Popularity

Each student will have a popularity rating. (Pop) and the more popular a student the more research points they will earn for you as they do various things in the game.
If a special event is being held it is important that it is successful because it will get a write up in the newspaper and attract prospective new students.
Choose a student with the highest popularity rating to be in charge of school sponsored special events.
If students want to participate they will change into the same clothing as the popular leader that is trying to get things going. This is why it is important to choose very popular students.
Not only will this event attract new students it will increase popularity, earn research points you can use to level up teachers with and will earn you money to reinvest in the school.
To see a student’s popularity rating tap on “Menu” then “Lists” then “Student Lists” then on the name of the student or scroll through using the right and left arrows along the top to compare the popularity ratings which are from 1 to 100.
Popularity is the third number listed under the “Student info” menu.
Note – Also note the personality types of the student. You may see things such as “Leader”, “Dreamer”, “Average”, “Chill” or “Weird”

Falling in Love/Couples

The closer friends get the more likely one will want to ask the other out.
The higher their popularity the more likely they will become a couple.
If a couple is in love they will boost research points and popularity for other students.

Clubs

To start a club wait until the students ask you to build one.
Then tap on “Menu”, “Admin” and “Clubs”
There are six clubs to choose from and each club has a room for its members to meet you must purchase and place in the school.
Soccer club
Baseball club
Glee club
Dance club
Tennis club
Basketball or B-ball club
Compete – When a club has a healthy member ship you can send them off to compete. Go to the club menu and tap on “compete” at the bottom of a club screen. When the club returns they will have a large cash reward to invest in the school.

Hiring Teachers

You must hire faculty right away before you can get started. Tap on the Teacher room which is the room with the light green floor in the center of the school. This will bring up the menu that lets you hire new teachers. At the bottom of the window carefully tap on “Hire a new Teacher”
You will see a message telling you how many applicants showed up.
Next there is a screen of teachers you can scroll through. You will see they have different levels of education and the higher the number you see next to a subject the more they can teach the students in this category.
You want to start out with low salary teachers but if you see a teacher with very high numbers it may be in your best interest to hire at least one teacher with a higher than average salary.
You will start out with four teachers and as you advance you can hire more.
How to Dismiss Teachers – Occasionally you may have to dismiss teachers in order to keep from going negative in your funds. If you do this you will have to pay the teacher’s retirement fund in order to let them go and this is usually a large amount of money. You can go further in the negative and let the teacher go.

Teacher’s Role

Teachers will teach the various subjects in the classrooms and they also move around the campus gaining research points which are used for various items in the game.
The teachers have their own room which they hang out in between classes and trips to different areas of the building.
You can tap on the teacher room (light green floor with grey table in center) and this will bring up a menu that allows you to scroll through the teachers seeing what they teach and contribute as well as how much their salary is.
Teachers can be leveled up over time and this will also increase their salary and value to the game.

Dismissing a Teacher – You may find you have to dismiss a teacher to save money. If this happens note that you will have to pay the teacher a large sum which is their retirement fund in order to leave. The game will allow you to go in the negative financially to do this.
Tap on the teachers room or “Menu” then “Lists” then ” Teacher list” to access individual teachers.

Leveling up a Teacher

To level up a teacher either tap on the teacher room or “Main”, “Lists” and then “Teacher List”. Next tap on the teacher name you wish to level up and then tap on “level up”
If you are successful a notification message will appear.
You will not only get a 20 percent raise in income you will get points which you can allocate to the various subject areas.
Using the arrows on each side add the points to the different subject areas in any way you choose until they are all used up.
It is best to try and keep the numbers fairly equal. You do not want one number in the high double digits and another in single digits. You are more valuable of a teacher if you are leveled up as high as the room levels and can teach all subjects.

Creating Items to use on Students

You can create items to use on students. These can do the following. 1. Change a student’s career path. 2. Change a student’s club membership. 3. Temporarily boost their attributes in one area.
To do this tap on “Menu”, then “Admin” and “Items”. Choose from one of the four available items. Note that each item has a requirement of humanity and research points.
Review Drill – This will boost a student’s intelligence (Int) for a while.
Sports Drill – This will boost a student’s athleticism. (Ath.) for a while.
Club Card – This changes a student’s club membership.
Career Book – This changes a student’s career path.

Giving a Student Guidance – Career Advice

Once a student reaches year three they will be taking a placement exam that must be passed before they can graduate and they must have a career path in mind.
If a student has low scores and no career path chosen they are likely to fail the test and bring your national average down.
It is up to you to keep track of the students before they make it to the end of their third year and make sure they have a career path chosen.
Build item – Career Book – You will have to build a career book item for each student that needs a career path suggestion.
Tap on “Menu” then “Admin” then “Items” and scroll through the arrows at the top until you reach the “Career Book” option. Note you must have the correct number of points in science, PE, and English before you can build this item and there is no financial charge for it.
Tap on “Create” and you will have to wait a few moments for it to complete. Possibly a minute or two. The game will flash a brief message when it is ready.
To give career path advice to a student – Once you determine who needs help by scrolling through the student list tap on “Use item” and use the “Career Book”
Now you will see a list open up of all the career paths unlocked in the game and what salaries they can pay. Choose one and then the student will take your advice and graduate successfully with his or her class.

Tests

Tests/National Achievement Tests

Tests are held each semester for the entire student body.
Your school’s average will be ranked against other schools in the country.

National Achievement Tests

These are given periodically and you are given your national ranking. You will always receive a test bonus even if you go down in ranking.

Third Year Placement Tests

These tests will finalize student’s post graduation plans and can have a big effect on their lives. Not every student can realize their dream. For some, changing to a more realistic plan is advisable. In these cases school administrators should consider giving them career guidance. The “Career Book” item can be particularly handy for this.
Changing Career Path – If you have a student that needs to be placed on another career path you will need to follow these steps;
Tap on “Menu”, “Admin”, “Items” and “Career Book” There is no monetary charge for this but you must have enough PE points to cover it. If you do not you will need to go into the classroom and work on fitness or anything that increases PE points. Once you have enough tap on “Create” and when it is ready a notification message will flash at the bottom right of the screen.
Applying a career change to a third year student – Tap on “Menu”, “Lists”, “Student List” and then the name of the student you wish to change career paths on

Events

Randomly you will see screen appear that announce events for particular students. These are invitations to events they are particularly good at such as choral competitions, essay writing contests, or science fairs.
You will be asked if you want to pay the fee to send this student. If you choose “yes” then you will send that student out of the school for a while to attend the event.
You will lose that student but this also encourages transfer students to show up at your school.
Plus, when the student arrives they will give you the prize money from the event to use for the school.
It is best to always accept these event invitations when they occur. The only drawback is that the student is gone for awhile and you can’t increase their stats such as intelligence, athleticism or popularity but when they get back you can focus on catching them up to the others. Usually those students with high scores in these areas are sent anyway so it isn’t a huge problem.

Congratulations!

You have completed the basic game play guide for Pocket Academy for iPhone by Kairosoft Games. Be sure to check back often for game updates, Staff and user reviews, user tips, forum comments and much more here at Gamezebo!