Master Class Schedule -- Possible?

[three_sickles_short <three_sickles_short@hotmail.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 51854

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Heidi Tandy" <heidit at n...> 
wrote:
> It is *possible* (based on the way some things are set up in *some* 
British schools) that seventh, and also possibly sixth years, do not 
meet in classes the way the fifth-and-below students seem to. 
> 
> In other words, after one has taken his/her O.W.L.S. and is 
readying for the N.E.W.T.s, "classes" may take the form of smaller 
sessions at rare and unusual times, combined with independent 
studies. 
> 
> This would allow you to just not schedule any Potions, Charms, DaDA 
or Transfiguration classes for the upper forms - treat them like 
electives instead, in terms of newt-level work. 
> 

That helps, for Double classes, because Double classes would then 
only need to meet 20 times per week.  (Only 10 separate classes twice 
a week.)

However, for classes where each House and year meets separately, 
we've still got problems.  Take, for instance, Transfiguration.  For 
at least the first 4 years, Transfiguration classes seem to meet by 
individual year and class.  So, just to get in all the kids in the 
first 4 years, you need 16 periods per week, and that's if the 
classes only meet once.  But most of them seem to meet at least 
twice, and we still have the 5th-, 6th-, and 7th-years to contend 
with.  

I'm starting to become convinced that a master schedule that both 
makes sense and fits canon is impossible.  Unless there professors 
all have doubles (and, hey, it's magic, so maybe they do ;-), the 
math just doesn't work.

I've found a semi-bearable route for my fic,* but I'm still curious 
about how/whether Rowling works it out.  My suspicion is that she's 
never done a master schedule; she probably schedules for Harry's 
year, and that's it.  And, really, it's probably all she needs.  (And 
it probably ought to be all *I* need, but I've gotten obsessed.  How 
odd ... a Harry Potter fan who gets obsessed with irrelevant 
details ... ;-)

TSS


*I'm going with an 40-period week in which students only have class 
for, at most, 4 periods per day, but teachers sometimes teach for all 
8 periods in a day.  All classes are double, and I just don't mention 
the fact that there's another House sitting there in the classroom.  
Not exactly ideal, and it certainly doesn't answer the question in a 
way that links up as well as I'd like with canon, but it's the best 
I've been able to come up with.