Discrepancy of skills

[Rebecca Williams]

No: HPFGUIDX 147860

    Miles said:
I do not buy this one. This would mean, that 
the examiner failed to give the most extraordinary
witch in the year the chance to gain the best mark. I
can't believe that, do you? In any oral/practical 
exam I attended (at school and university), the examiners
tried to find out whether they could give me top grades
when they realised that my knowledge was above average.
And I do not doubt that the examiners for OWLs and NEWTs
would act in the same way.

Becky replies: 
   
I think it is absolutely disgraceful that 
an examiner would seek to give someone top 
grades just because they believed them to 
have above average general knowledge - the 
point is surely how well you perform in the 
exam, not for examiners to help you cheat. 
Herminone is excellent at remembering any-
thing written down in a book but as Snape
often points out her answers are 'word for 
word' what is written in the textbooks (i.e.
'an answer taken directly from the standard 
book of spells grade 6 but correct in essen-
tials' HBP). This implies that though her 
memory is excellent and though she is a bright
girl she does not necessarily show any applied
logic.(That's more in Snape's opinion than mine,
I think she has shown logic on many occasions so
don't attack me for that). In OOTP when they are 
persuading Harry to teach them, he says that DADA 
is about guts and your nerves, thinking on your 
feet (not a direct quote obviously)which implies 
it takes a different intelligence set to those who
are more theory based. (There are different types 
of intelligence - for example many scientists are
often hopeless at English - I should know, I am a 
journalist working with scientists). 
   
Hermione is definitely a theory girl - she is not a
good flyer so is more comfortable with books than 
anything physical and she has never been outstanding
at DADA - remember in PoA during the exams she cocked 
up the boggart bit, running out screaming - her nerves 
therefore get the better of her. She has never shown 
herself to be outstanding in DADA, even in that year 
with the best teacher they had. And, let's not forget,
her teacher in her OWL year was Harry so he is bound to
be better than her. If, like all the other subjects she
took, she had a competent teacher all the way through 
she probably would have done better but her education was
interrupted by the constant changes in teachers in that 
subject. She can remember anything she is taught but if she 
is not taught it properly in the first place she might have
trouble and an E is still a good grade.  


Becky