Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2

[Yukimura]

It was bugging me so I looked up Suzaku's past and got conflicting reports about whether he was trained and did well but was disregarded because of his status or that he was simply found to be naturally talented in the heat of the moment but had never even gotten tested before due to his 11 status.

Then I rewatched episode 2 where he was godlike at piloting Lancelot when by his own admission he had no experience with Knightmares prior and he'd just read 'most' of the manual. Cecile comments that he'd only had simulation experience but he was 'at the top of his class'. Assuming his claim that he'd never had experience with Knightmares was true I can only assume they gave him the manual, stuck him in the simulator and he did amazingly well in simulated combat for however many hours they had with which to get him ready. Simulation only experiance-> single handedly owning a whole platoon at the ripe old age of 17 seems enough like a divinely gifted Gundam pilot skill to me.

EDIT: Some on topic stuff

It was definitely 1 year from the end of Season 1, some people just don't have/choose not to apply the mental capacity needed to follow a simple progression of time, pity them, but do not hate them.