Silly, Nitpicky Question about Hermione's OWLs

[Karen Barker]

No: HPFGUIDX 133170

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Jocelyn Berger-Barrera 
<badger.hharrington at v...> wrote:

>Hermione got 11 OWLs  - all O's except for DADA, in which she got 
an >E.  She took Astronomy, Care of Magical Creatures,  DADA,  
Charms,  >Herbology, History of Magic, Potions, Transfiguration, 
Arithmancy, >and Ancient Runes.  I thought she dropped both 
Divination and Muggle >Studies after that year with the Time Turner.
> 
>How did she get 11 OWLS?  What did I overlook?

Karen:

My personal view is that she sat the Muggle Studies examination 
without actually taking the lessons.  Being a muggle-born she almost 
certainly knows a lot more about muggles that the wizards who 
actually set the exams and mark the papers, and so could pass the 
exam without having to be taught the subject.  I've always imagined 
Muggle Studies exam questions to be along the lines of "Give an 
example of how a Muggle would manage in a dark alley without the aid 
of a wand" or "How would a muggle communicate instantly with someone 
several miles away without the use of the floo network".  I'm  sure 
a basic explaination of a torch or a telephone, without having to 
get too technical, would surfice.  After all Arthur Weasley was in 
charge of the Muggle Relations Dept and his ambition was to find out 
how an aeroplane stays in the air, hardly classified information!

In RL a friend of mine took Dutch 'A' level without having to take 
lessons purely because her father is Dutch and she was fluent in it, 
and as we now know for sure that the OWLS are the same format as 
the 'O'levels of JKR's schooldays, I'm prepared to bet that in JKR's 
WW one would be allowed to do likewise.

Karen