O.W.L. exams

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 84298

> Sue B:
> 
> I don't know about British exams, but here in Victoria, Australia, 
we 
> have the VCE exams (Victorian Certificate of Education) and not 
only 
> can you keep your exam paper, but copies of previous years' papers 
> are available on the Internet, complete with answers, to enable you 
> to practise. Of course,  Hogwarts staff are not too lazy to change 
> the papers every year. Even young witches and wizards are children 
> and if they could cheat they probably would, just like any other 
> kids! ;-) In a family the size of the Weasleys', older brothers and 
> sisters would certainly tell younger siblings, even if they didn't 
> have the papers.

Geoff:
Speaking as a former teacher for over 30 years in the UK - for 15 of 
which I was the Examinations Secretary with responsibility for 
processing all the examination administration, it is standard 
practice to allow students to keep their papers and, often, as part 
of the courses, students will have booklets of past papers over the 
last three or four years to work through for practice and revision.

Hogwarts, being based on British (or perhaps English) patterns 
probably has a similar policy on written papers.

However, an interesting point which has just occurred to me is that 
Hogwarts staff are presumably responsible for setting and 
administering their own papers. Obviously in the real world in the 
UK, the examination boards for GCSE (the 16+ examination) and the GCE 
A-levels (18 year old) have standardised papers, marking schemes etc. 
Since Hogwarts is the only wizarding school in Britain, the 
standardisation of tests, setting of grade boundaries etc. must be 
more subjective.

Geoff