O.W.L. exams

[Kim]

No: HPFGUIDX 84255

In OotP, Chapter 28 ("Snape's Worse Memory"), US edition page 643,
Harry sees in the pensieve that James and Snape have both kept their
examination papers after Professor Flitwick collected their exams
themselves:

   "Harry looked down at his father, who had hastily crossed out the
L.E. he had been embellishing, jumped to his feet, stuffed his quill
and the exam question paper into his bag, which he slung over his
back, and stood waiting for Sirius to join him.
   "Harry looked around and glimpsed Snape a short way away, moving
between the tables toward the doors into the entrance hall, still
absorbed in his own examination paper..."


In my experience here in the U.S., after an examination of such great
importance, we students would have to turn in the questions as well as
our answers.    Why wasn't this the case with the above O.W.L.
examination?   Wouldn't anyone be concerned that students such as Fred
and George Weasley, for example, would sell their exam questions to
students of the following years?   Or are the questions asked each
year so wildly different from each other that there is no possibility
that last year's questions would help?

(Not that *I* would ever cheat on an O.W.L.!)
---Kimberley
from Texas