Harry and Advanced Potions

[acoteucla]

No: HPFGUIDX 131034

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "lupinlore" <bob.oliver at c...> 
wrote:
> There are quite a few issues involved here.  First, will Harry make
an
> "O" on his potions OWL?  Many people, including me, think that would
> amount to rank cheating on JKR's part.  People just don't come up
with
> superior test grades in classes they despise and in which they do
not
> perform well, even IF the teacher isn't hovering over their shoulder
> and even IF they get a lucky break on the essay question.

There was a teacher in my high school who taught AP Biology.  His 
philosophy was to make the class so hard that the AP test was a 
cakewalk by comparison.  Students hated him, hated the class, got 
horrible grades in the class... but over 80% of them got a 5 on the
AP 
test (the highest grade possible).

When using Hogwart students to determine the curve, I would agree
that 
Harry receiving an "O" would be somewhat ridiculous.  But I think
that 
Hogwart students overall are going to be very pleasantly surprised
with 
their test results.  Snape has extraordinarily high standards, and it 
is to his standards that we are ranking Harry.  But Snape's standards 
are not the standards of the OWL testing committee.