Scary Teachers - Good Teachers (was: Re: Hagrid and Snape...

[ClareWashbrook at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 152929

Neri (mailto:nkafkafi at yahoo.com)  writes:

So what we know for certain is that Snape produced 12 NEWT students
who got EE or higher and wanted to continue with the subject. But is
this number high, low or average?

There are 25 students in this class. It looks like five different 
DADA teachers, three of them hopeless, produced more than *twice* the
number of NEWT students that Snape produced during these same years.
 
Clare:
 
I have 25 A-level English students and 3 A-level Drama students.   Same 
teacher, different subjects - students make choices.  There were three  times as 
many students eligible to take English and twenty times as many  eligible to 
take Drama.
 
They *choose* their subjects.  Just because only 12 (I don't  remember this 
reference so I am taking your word for it) took it, it doesn't  mean that only 
12 *could* take it.  Additionally, Snape prescribed that  only those who got 
an "O" could take NEWT level Potions and, as far as I  remember, there was no 
reference to any other student besides Harry taking  advantage of Slughorn's 
lower standards. So that would be 11 students who  achieved the highest possible 
grade AND chose to take the subject.
 
If there are 600 students in the school and we assume that the yearly  intake 
is about the same, that means that there are approximately 85 students  per 
year.  If only 11 achieved the top grade (which is not stated or  assumable)  
then 13% of that year's students got an "O".  There are  schools which get a 
similar percentage to this on the top *three* grades.   To explain, schools are 
compared on how many students get 5 A*-C grade  passes - the average is 40% of 
a year achieving this, but I know of several  which got 12% last year and 
that's the equivalent of counting EEs and As as well  as Os..
 
For a school of 600, 12 isn't bad.  My school has 1300 pupils and we  have 
classes of 12 - some of them sciences!
 
smiles,
Clare xx
(who feels like she is suddenly defending Snape in a tribunal,  LMAO.)