Board Thread:Episode Discussion/@comment-410526-20160702223237/@comment-410526-20160703151752

Darkcloud1111 wrote: However after Beacon, she is now outside the kingdom with the entire landscape being closer to Mountain Glenn. She no longer can just go back to her dorm room at night, she instead is outside camping probably with nothing to protect her except her own teammates. We also know how dangerous the outside is based on Blake's words, meaning Ruby went from learning-to-fight to fighting-to-survive, possibly explaining the power boost in only 6-8 months. Definitely. Remember Qrow said "Every day out there is worth a week in this place." I think we can see that's definitely the case here.

Honestly, I'm starting to think that you don't even attend Beacon to get better fighting skills. It's the rest of the experience that's important, such as making connections with other trainee huntsmen/huntresses and gaining the insight from teachers, empathy and teamwork that you need to be a good huntsman/huntress.

Ruby's fighting prowess didn't improve much at all for the whole of Red Trailer–Volume 3 compared to the huge jump in lethality from 3–4, but she wouldn't have been able to make friends without attending an Academy (or Combat School).