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

[hp_lexicon at yahoo.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 30005

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., Heather Glude <res0icpa at v...> wrote:
> 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 have had this whole business explained to me at least once and I 
still don't get it. How can you "get" a certain number of levels of 
these things? Here in the States we get a score on tests like the 
SAT, but that's apparently not the same thing. Or is it? If someone 
would like to write a nice, concise explanation of what O levels and 
A levels are and by extension what NEWTs and OWLs are, I would be 
eternally grateful. I might even publish it in the Lexicon so that 
the next person who goes looking won't have to come back here to the 
list and say that the Lexicon failed them...

Steve (who scored really, really high on the SAT about 25 years ago)