Ivy Tunstall

[Ashanya Alford R3]

Hello Ivy,
Could you tell me what are the meanings of words " NEWTs" & "OWLs" ?

[Ivy Tunstall]

Hi Ashanya,

Sure I can! They're the names of the public exams taken by students which they'll need to use to get jobs later on in life. All students take exams at the end of the year, but OWLs and NEWTs are the really important ones.

OWLs are Ordinary Wizarding Levels and are taken at the end of a student's fifth year. Students will have been covering the subject matter that they need to sit their OWLs since the beginning of fourth year, or perhaps as early as third year (it can be assumed that only the basics are taught in earlier years), but they only sit the exams for each subject at the end of their fifth year.

NEWTs stands for Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests - JK Rowling is evidently having a joke! Students sit these exams at the end of their seventh year, but study for their NEWTs throughout 6th and 7th year.

OWLs and NEWTs are almost directly equivalent to the old British O-Level and A-level exams, except that they're in wizarding subjects! If you want to know more, you may find this essay on British schooling useful.

- Ivy

[Ashanya Alford R3]

Thanks a lot for that! ;D

Just a last query, is there any class of DADA for first years?

[Ivy Tunstall]

We don't have one scheduled yet, but we do have a dedicated and amazing DADA teacher - Professor Druex. I suggest that you owl him directly to ask when he's planning to run one.