It's really pretty straightforward...don't expect anything complicated during those Academy-missions.
For example, during the first mission, you'll need to travel into a narrow channel....so just look around for a narrow place, and head into that direction, ahead-standard.
You'll also see a few small vessels, which are "monitoring your progress"....they also give you a clue about where to go.
Then use your binoculars (B-key), to spot a ship far ahead....when you reach it, you'll get your next order, etc.
The deck-gun mission...it seems far more difficult to bring that one to a good ending in version 1.4b, than it was when I last played it (v1.2).
If you spend to much time on one particular target, then the others will wander off, so you must act swift and determined.
I just returned to SH3, and got pissed-off by that deckgun-mission, btw...
I desperately wanted to start a fresh career, and so I cheated, by manually changing the Academy-file:
Go to
C:\Documents and Settings\<Username>\My Documents\SH3\data\cfg, and find a file called
NavalAcademy.log
Set all results to
500.000000, and all exams to
true.
Save the document.
This will give you something like 2 excellent results, a few good, and one or 2 satisfactory...good enough to start your 1st career with 1500 renown.
Maybe you can get better scores by using other values, but it was sufficient for me.
I got better training, by playing a few single-missions prior to my 1st career, but then again I still had the experience from when I played SH3 half a year ago.
Don't forget to check the SH3-FAQ's, a sticky on this forum.
Good luck.