In the public schools it seems rather easy to reach that kind of an average.
At West Point the markings are on a scale of three, with decimal shadings.

A man who secures in any study a marking of two is deemed proficient.

If his average marking in a term is 2.6, he is rather highly proficient in that study.

A marking of two on a scale of three is equivalent to sixty-six and two-thirds per cent., and this does not seem, to the outsider, a difficult attainment.

But the West Point speed of study! In a high school the young man is given the whole of the first year in which to qualify in simple algebra; in the second year he takes up plane geometry; in the third he comes upon solid geometry; in the fourth year of high school work the young man masters plane trigonometry and solves allied problems.
At West Point, in the plebe year, the young man, in the first half of the year, goes through simple algebra and plane and solid geometry.