Teaching Styles

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 148096

Cat wrote: 
<snip>
But only 3 Ravenclaws (the most intellectual) and 1 Hufflepuff (the
hardest working) managed an Owl in the subject, or decided to continue
with Potions thinking that Snape would be teaching.
>
Carol responds:
First, it's four Ravenclaws, not three (HBP Am. ed., 182). More
important, an OWL is not necessarily an O (the mark required by Snape
for this NEWT Potions students.)

A student receives an OWL for *any* Passing grade, not just the top
mark (O). An OWL can be an O (Outstanding), an E (Exceeds
Expectations), or an A (Acceptable). Any mark below that (P for Poor,
D for Dreadful, or T for Troll) is considered a Failing grade and they
don't get the OWL. We know that Snape "takes only the very best" in
his NEWT Potions classes. Those who get Os are accepted if they want
to be or need to be; those who get As or Es *get the OWL* but can't
take the course (if Snape is teaching it).

We can conclude from HBP that four Slytherins, four Ravenclaws, one
Hufflepuff, and one Gryffindor received Os. That is four out of ten in
two houses, one out of ten in the other two. And since the Potions OWL
was not administered by Snape, we can conclude that these students
deserved those high marks. They learned in Snape's classes and from
his assigned essays what they needed to learn to receive an
Outstanding mark--most likely a perfect potion and close to 100
percent on the essay exam.

Since Harry and Ron, despite their dislike of Snape and their
occasional slacking off, received Es, it seems likely that other
students in their house, such as Parvati or Seamus or Dean (none of
whom are shown as melting cauldrons or making elementary mistakes like
Neville's), and other Ravenclaws, Hufflepuffs, and Slytherins,
received Es as well. Even Neville apparently receives an A. We can bet
that Goyle received a D or a T, and Crabbe not much better, but they
are not typical of the students in Harry's year. Of the twenty-eight
students in Harry's year who are not in Slughorn's class, I can't
think of any others likely to have failed the Potions OWL.

The E students, like Ron and Harry, would have been accepted into
*Slughorn's* NEWT Potions class but evidently chose not to do so,
either because their career plans didn't require it or because they
didn't like Potions. (Not liking Snape can't be a reason if he's not
teaching the class.) Or perhaps, unlike Ron and Harry, they didn't
know that Slughorn, unlike Snape, would allow them to take the class.
We don't know their reasons, but we can't assume that no one except
the people in Slughorn's NEWT Potions class received an OWL in
Potions. Those people (except for Ron and Harry) received an O. How do
we know? Because, unlike Ron and Harry, they brought their own books
and scales and cauldrons to class. Ten out of forty is a high
percentage of Outstanding students. Ask any teacher.

Carol, who is of course basing her estimates on the canonical evidence
that there are forty students in Harry's year (twenty broomsticks for
the flying class, twenty sets of earmuffs, etc.)