O.W.L.s

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 132478

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Karen Barker" 
<karenabarker at y...> wrote:

Karen:
> The number refers to the number of courses in which you achieve an 
> OWL.  They are the same as the GCE 'O' levels exams in RL Britain 
(now 
> called GCSEs).

Geoff:
Being pedantic, GCSEs are not the same as GCE O levels (= General 
Certificate of Education Ordinary levels). O Levels date from 1951 
and were for more academic students, less academics pupils often 
leaving school without anything formal. O levels were awarded as 
letter grades).

In 1965, CSE (Certificate of Secondary Education) exmainations were 
introduced as a second level of attainment and given numerical 
gradings. In 1986, the two systems were combined into the GCSE 
(General Certificate of Secondary Education), retaining the numerical 
system of gradings.

Karen: 
> You take a subject in school for 2 years and then you sit a public 
> examination.  This may consist of 1, 2, or more separate papers 
> (which usually took place on separate days, but you knew which 
> aspect of the subject was covered within each paper) each 
> comprising one OWL. There are various grades available depending 
> upon the percentage mark that you achive.  In RL 'O'levels the  
> grades were A - E and also U -Ungraded (Troll!), where A-C were    
> passes and D and E were fails.

Geoff:
An increasing weight has been given to course work and project work 
so that the number of formal written papers has dropped in comparison 
with, say, twenty years ago.

A rather important point in looking at this in comparison with the WW 
OWLs is that where a subject contains a practical/oral/course work 
element - say French or German for example - the written paper and 
the oral paper carry separate grades but a final single grade is 
given from an aggregation of the two. It is possible to pass in an 
oral paper and fail the written. I did it on my first go at German 
many years ago!