Potions O.W.L - Pass vs High-Pass

[smartone564]

No: HPFGUIDX 104883

Steve wrote:


> > First paragraph, Snape says that he expect EVERYONE to 
pass. That is,
> > 'I expect you to scrape an 'Acceptable' in your OWL'. Implying 
that
> > for any student not to pass is extremely rare.
> > 
> > The third paragraph, 'concentrate ...upon maintaining the 
high-pass
> > level'. Since a HUGE majority of students ARE going to pass, 
then he
> > is implying the he expects the bulk of the student to do better 
than
> > pass, he expects a 'high-pass'. 

<snip>

> > The overal impression is that Snape's students are above 
average,
> > which means 'B'-level or 'Exceed Expectations' is typcial, 
whereas,
> > relative to the standard statistical cross-section or bell curve, 
the
> > bulk of the student fall at 'C'-level or 'Acceptable'.

Much earlier, someone said (Ali maybe?) that Snape may 
overwork his students.  I can relate, as, in the American A-F 
grading system, I worked as hard as I could (... usually), and still 
got B's half the time, and scrapped A's the other (I believe the 
teacher helped, as most of the rest of the class).  However, on 
my AP exam, i recieved a 5 on a 1-5 grading scale, in which 3 is 
passing, but 4/5 is what is required to skip at larger (more 
prestigious too) colleges.  She did this on purpose to make us 
work harder in her class, so that when we take the final test, we 
do better because of how much harder we worked to get good 
grades in our class.  In fact, I never finished the last question on 
the test (the most weighted too) but I still got the best grade 
available.
 
However, this brings up two more questions I have.  What is 
Neville gonna do after he graduates, and how is that going to be 
affected by his grade in Potions?

Carol wrote:

> Hermione will get a better grade (mark) for the *course,*
> certainly--but not necessarily for the OWLS, on which Harry
> undoubtedly did better than he thinks he did. For one thing, as
> Umbridge of all people indicates, Snape's student are 
somewhat more
> advanced than she (and probably the test administrators) 
expects them
> to be.

And finally, Harry got zero marks for some of his potions he tried 
to turn in, but got screwed over.  So? It's not like students' 
parents recieve report cards, or atleast their has been no 
mention of it.  So, what is the point of assigning homework?  Is 
this just a way to maintain discipline, or am i just getting way too 
in depth here?

Smart, who is sending this after getting rejected in an earlier 
thread.  Who knew that there are post rules?    = /