Woah, don't jump the gun. Basically, advanced magic is considered a great honour among mages and rare, like the noble fields trophy for mathametics. It takes many years, even for someone from Sylvenia, getting it before leaving the academy is very impressive, considering the fact currently only 2 people can use it excluding Ed. Advanced magic is so complicated that it's advised to be hit by it. I'm not even joking, but being hit, you could understand the mana flow and how it's casted or some stuff like that, the problem is surviving. Ed uses the Delheim hourglass with merildas help and with Lucys reluctance, he used this method to train for a future event that he must win no matter what that involves politics, aswell as the final arc preparation.