Snape as DADA, new Potions teacher? (was Re: It's Libatius)

[cat_kind]

No: HPFGUIDX 126290


Potioncat:
> To answer your question:
> I don't know. But it seems, from McGonagall's conversation in
> Career Advice, Harry is doing better than we might think. For that 
> matter, I believe Snape expects Neville to pass. But I don't believe
> Neville thinks that Snape thinks Neville will pass.

catkind: Maybe McG knows about Snape's attitude to Harry, just as she
knows about Umbridge's lunacy, and is taking that into account in the
careers interview, possibly even overcompensating in this case. She
also says Harry will have to work to bring up his Potions grade. Does
he?  I'm not convinced.

> Potioncat:
> He may not need to be nearly as good as Hermione to get an O. There 
> just isn't anything higher to give her. He just has to get a
> certain percent correct to get an "O"¨ or an "E" and how he
> compares to her isn't important. We've seen Harry compare himself to 
> Ron in Potions. But we don't know how Ron did either. Hermione is 
> the only one who seems to consistently get her potions to turn out 
> properly, but I don't think she's the only one who passes.

catkind:  True, Hermione is obviously exceptional.  But if Harry is to
get an "O" he must be nearer her standard than the standard of the
average student.  My impression is that he is around average without
Snape's interference. I doubt the whole class is going to get "O"s,
even if they do better than in other subjects.  

What I'm trying to say is, if Harry is to get an "O" in Potions, he
needs to be better than the majority of other students at it, and he
needs to be better at Potions than at most of his other subjects. I
just don't see either of these being true, however much the position
may be skewed by Snape's oddities. Matter of opinion, naturally. 

> > 
> SSSusan wrote in 126246:
> 
> But what about the possibility of Snape's announcing on the first 
> day 
> of NEWT-level Potions that the class includes... ahem [accompanied 
> by 
> significant sneer in Potter's direction] *some* students who would 
> never have been included if the choice had been up to him... but 
> that 
>  the graders of the O.W.L. examinations unfortunately have lesser 
> standards which, equally unfortunately, he must accept.
> 
> Potioncat:
> I would almost predict this will happen in HBP!!!!  LOL!

catkind: A very convincing scenario :-D 
But at that point if not before, the students will all know about
Snape's marking.  They'll be sitting in the NEWT class saying, well I
got a Troll, but it's Snape so that's really an E, no problem.

> Potioncat:
> 
> I have a question for those in the know about the tests that 
> correspond to OWLs in the RW.  Would you expect to fail any? 

catkind: In GCSEs there are grades (A* and) A-G, all of which are
technically passes. To actually fail is possible but rare, and I
wouldn't expect it to happen to anyone at a nice boarding school like
Hogwarts. It would be spotted beforehand and the student withdrawn
from the exam.

However, for practical purposes only A-C grades count, and these were
supposed to be equivalent to a pass in the old "O-Level" (Ordinary
Level!) system that GCSEs replaced. Plenty of people fail in the sense
of not getting A-C's. My impression is that the GCSE grades A,B and C
correspond more or less to the OWL grades O,E and A.

(Hope I got that right, it's a while since I had any direct connection
with English schools.)

As to the Potions/Snape question, guess we'll just have to wait and
see.  I do like Lupinlore's idea in Msg 126285.

catkind