[HPforGrownups] Re: Hogwarts Exams and education

[Muridae]

No: HPFGUIDX 34575

grey_wolf_c wrote:

>--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "blpurdom" <blpurdom at y...> wrote:
>
>> I believe they have exams set for them at the end of each term:
>> autumn, spring and summer.  It was only the exams at the end of the
>> summer term that were cancelled.
>>
>> --Barb
>
>Do you have any Canon to back that up? I don't recall any exam (not
>even "surprise exams" as the ones I get to keep us students on our toes
>the whole year) apart from the ones just before the summer.
>
>Anyway, has it been discussed the sort of education Harry's year in
>general and Harry himself are receiving? I mean, exams get cancelled
>pretty often (Harry's only done two series of exams in four years), and
>people like Crabbe, Goyle and Longbottom seem to pass without too many
>dificulties. Also, the only known cases of poeple flunking and
>repeating a year are Flint (and it was a flint, thus the name of JKR's
>errors, I think), and some other Quiditch captain (again a possible
>flint). Is it me, or is the education REALLY low-case?

Well, assuming that Hogwarts' school curriculum follows the English 
school model (note that I don't say British, because Scotland has its 
own education system which is somewhat different)... the really 
important exams would come at the end of the fifth and seventh years. 
Fifth year would be the O.W.L.'s (O Level/GCSE equivalents), and seventh 
year would be the N.E.W.T.'s (A Level equivalents).

Exams in other years would be purely internal things to enable the 
teachers to assess the general progress of their students and how much 
of what was being taught them they were actually retaining. Since they 
could probably figure that out to some extent from spot tests thoughout 
the year, plus homework marks and general coursework, the cancellation 
of those exams would be less critical. Although my guess would be that 
the fifth and seventh year students of Harry's second year probably 
*did* sit their O.W.L.'s and N.E.W.T.'s, despite the cancellation of all 
other exams, either at the time or at a rescheduled date later on.

Do we know whether Cedric Diggory was a sixth or seventh year student at 
the time of the TriWizard Tournament? I've always assumed the former, 
but can't remember if his year has ever been stated. Certainly it would 
be more convenient if he were a sixth year student since it would mean 
that neither he nor Harry would have been due to sit any of the 
important exams that year and could therefore be given special 
dispensation not to have to sit the others. I suspect that a number of 
otherwise eligible seventh year students may have declined to enter the 
tournament in order to give their full attention to the N.E.W.T.'s.

Flint's repeated year probably means that he flunked either his O.W.L.'s 
or N.E.W.T.'s and had to resit that year rather than any other. And I'd 
think it most likely that it would have been the O.W.L.'s, since he 
might have simply left and pursued a career that didn't require high 
academic results if he'd done excessively badly on his N.E.W.T.'s but 
had also reached statutory school leaving age.

One thing I do wonder though is what that statutory school leaving age 
is in the wizarding world? Based solely on a comparison with Muggle 
schools, you might expect some students to leave after doing their 
O.W.L.'s, if they weren't academically inclined, and a much smaller 
number from each year stay on into the sixth and seventh year. There's 
nothing in canon to date to indicate that it may be the case, since 
nobody seems to leave before the end of the seventh year, but that may 
merely be the Harry POV and that all of the people he knows in the 
higher years have stayed on, for whatever reason.

It's an interesting thing to speculate on however, if only for the way 
that it might potentially change the balance of power in Harry's year if 
some of the students did leave after the fifth year. Crabbe and Goyle 
aren't particularly bright, so Draco Malfoy might suddenly find himself 
bereft of his two sidekicks. How might that change his behaviour?

-- 
Muridae