What would Snape have to do.... / Snape as teacher

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 138565

> CathyD:
> Oh, I've thought he did remarkably well.  He got 10 of 40 students 
> in Harry's year to achieve an Outstanding Owl.  Well, 10 that 
> continued on to NEWT potions.  There may have been more who didn't 
> need NEWT level potions.  


Actually, first of all it was 8 students with an O, two with an E.  
This is out of a class that JKR tells us included approximately 140 
students, not 40.  Since all the Hogwarts students had to take 
Potions in fifth year, that means, if we allow twice as many Es as 
Os and twice as many As as Es (which is a reasonable estimate, at 
least at the schools where I've taught), that 54 students, or only 
slightly more than a third, even passed the OWL.

This I think pretty much definitively ends the discussion of whether 
Snape is a good teacher.  He is a miserable, poor, absolute failure 
as a potions teacher, hands down, end of discussion.


Lupinlore