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Ordinary Wizarding Level

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In the fictional Harry Potter series, an Ordinary Wizarding Level, or OWL, is an examination testing one's knowledge of and/or ability in a particular field of magic or other magical field of study. The name Ordinary Wizarding Level comes from the examination formerly taking in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and other parts of the Commonwealth the O-Level. The OWL and the O-Level are administered similarly.

OWL Practices

OWLs are administered to all Hogwarts students in their fifth year. They are not administered or graded by the school, but by officals from the Ministry of Magic's Wizarding Examinations Authority. The examinations do, however, take place at Hogwarts, and ministry officials make an annual trip to the school to administer these examinations. Hogwarts teachers heavily emphasise the importance of the tests, as they play an important role in determining each student's course of study in his or her remaining two years of school, and also in the careers that the students choose to pursue after Hogwarts.

Students write an OWL for each subject that they have studied. The tests take place in the month of June (at the end of the school year), and they are spread out over the span of a couple of weeks. Each examination comprises a theoretical portion and a practical portion, unless the examination is for a subject that only involves the learning of textual information (such as History of Magic and Ancient Runes), in which case only a theoretical examination is administered.

The theoretical portions of the examinations are written and administered in Hogwarts' Great Hall, which changes layout from four long tables to many individual desks when it comes time for the students to write their exams. The practical portions of the examinations are performed by each student individually before a ministry official, who demands the student to perform various tasks that pertain to the specified subject (that is perform a series of defence spells for a Defence Against the Dark Arts Examination or make a particular potion for Potions). The official then evaluates the student on his or her performance.

Grading

When a student passes an OWL examination, they are said to have obtained an "Ordinary Wizarding Level", or "OWL", in that particular field of magic or magical field of study. They are similar in importance to the British GCSEs, which are also written at the same age.

Like the more advanced Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests (NEWTs), OWLs are graded on the following scale:

  • O for Outstanding, the highest grade
  • E for Exceeds Expectations
  • A for Acceptable, the lowest passing grade
  • P for Poor
  • D for Dreadful
  • T for Troll Template:HP6

Available subjects

OWLs can be taken in the following subjects:

Defence Against the Dark Arts, Potions, Transfiguration, History of Magic, Charms, Astronomy and Herbology (compulsory subjects).

Plus choices from:

Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, Divination, Care of Magical Creatures and Muggle Studies.

Percy Weasley, of course, got all 12 OWLs (Query: What is the source of this information?)

Harry Potter's OWLs

Harry Potter takes his OWLs in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. He received his grades in the following book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

Template:Spoiler

In Order of the Phoenix, Harry is told that Professor McGonagall accepts only students who have achieved at least Exceeds Expectations on their OWLs into her NEWT-level Transfiguration classes. Professor Snape only accepts students who have achieved Outstanding on their Potions OWLs into his NEWT-level classes.

In Half-Blood Prince, Harry receives his OWL marks:

  • Astronomy: A
  • Care of Magical Creatures: E
  • Charms: E
  • Defence Against the Dark Arts: O
  • Divination: P
  • Herbology: E
  • History of Magic: D
  • Potions: E
  • Transfiguration: E

While it seems his chance of being an Auror is shattered (Snape only accept students who have an Outstanding in his NEWT class), due to a change of potion master (Snape became DADA teacher), he was allowed into the NEWT potion level.

See also

References

Rowling, J. K. (2005). Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Bloomsbury. ISBN 0747581088.

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