O.W.L.s

[Karen Barker]

No: HPFGUIDX 132529

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "mooseming" <josturgess at e...> 
> I'm of an age with JKR and went through the same state English 
> school system so I'm guessing her Hogwart's model is based on her/my 
> schooling in the 1970/80's.
<snip> 
I posted more or less the same message - we appear to be a similar 
age! - having taken the 'O' and 'A' levels and recognising them 
instantly in the OWLs and NEWTs.  It hasn't stopped the speculation 
though!

> The two English papers were Language e.g. precis, comprehension and 
> grammar, and Literature e.g. short essays on set books/poems. Both 
> papers had to be passed to gain the `O' level pass itself. 

I would beg to disagree here though.  At 'O' Level, English Language 
and English Literature are two entirely separate subjects and two 
entirely different sets of exams, both comprising of two papers.  I 
can't really remember the difference between the two Language papers, 
but the first literature paper was on the Shakespeare text (Julius 
Caeser in my case), the poetry (an anthology of love poetry - Shelley, 
Keates etc) and a passage of text from a novel that was not included 
in the set texts, to test your comprehension abilities.  The other 
paper was on the other 3 set texts (Chaucer's The Pardoner's Tale, 
Great Expectations and Emma).  

There is only 1 English subject at 'A' level and that is literature.  
We did 2 Shakespeare King Lear and Much Ado, Chaucer's The Knight's 
Tale, Persuasion, Silas Marner, Dr Faustus, Metaphysical Poetry 
(Donne, Herbert and Marvel), Emma, and I'm sure there was something 
else but I can't remember what.

Karen