O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s

[Heather Glude]

No: HPFGUIDX 29998

I haven't been able to find much on these, despite a search of all of 
the web (I kept getting info on birds and salamanders, so I could have 
missed something legitimate in there), and a site search of the Lexicon. 
All I was able to find is what they stand for, and that Percy and Bill 
both got 12s on their O.W.L.s. I though I remembered the book saying 
what Fred and George got, but now I can't find it. I've seen them 
compared to British O-levels and A-levels, but the scoring doesn't seem 
to match if a 12 is supposed to be good. Does anyone know more? Or have 
theories as to how they work? Do you think 12 is the highest one can 
get, or is that just very good? I wonder if we'll be seeing Harry, Ron 
and Hermione taking their O.W.L.s in this next book - and if we have to 
wait for book 6 to find out how well they did? Do we really know 
anything about N.E.W.T.s? I wasn't able to find mention of what Percy 
got.

Heather