Exams at Hogwarts

Students at Hogwarts all have end of year exams, regardless of their age. The equivalent of GCSEs and A-Levels at Hogwarts, however, come in the form of OWLs (Ordinary Wizarding Levels) and NEWTs (Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests) respectively.

OWLs are sat at the end of the fifth year of study at Hogwarts. There are twelve different subjects which can be taken, with students typically studying 9 to OWL level. There is no compulsory upper limit, however, and students can take as many subjects as they wish and as time will allow. Hermione attempted to take a number of extra subjects during her third year (although she later dropped out of Divination). Both Bill and Percy Weasley managed the remarkable feat of passing all 12 OWLs. Some subjects have both a practical and written examination, whereas others only require a written paper. Subjects which can be taken at OWL level are:

Ancient Runes – The OWL exam requires the student to write an interpretation of something written in ancient runes into English.

Arithmancy – Not much is known about the OWL for this subject. We can only presume that there is a written exam for it which involves some sort of mathematical content.

Astronomy – Harry and Ron sat this OWL exam, which includes both written and practical sections. The written part of the exam uses the recall of knowledge on facts such as the configuration of Jupiter’s moons, and presumably other astronomical phenomena. The practical part of the exam involves the students observing the night sky (from the Astronomy Tower) and demonstrating their knowledge of visible constellations.

Care of Magical Creatures – OWL involves written explanations of such things as how to care for a blast-ended skrewt. The practical exam, in Harry’s experience, asked students to correctly identify a Knarl amongst hedgehogs, demonstrate the correct handling of a Bowtruckle, to clean out and feed a Fire Crab without sustaining significant burns and finally to choose, from a selection of food, what they would feed to a unicorn.

Charms – The OWL exam incorporates both a written and practical component. The practical part requires the student to do thing such as taking an egg cup and making it perform cartwheels. The written part (Theory of Charms, OOTP p625) will ask for the details of certain spells (for example, “a) Give the incantation and b) describe the wand movement required to make objects fly.”).

Defence Against the Dark Arts – The practical OWL exam requires the student to do such things as perform counter-jinxes and defence spells and, in Harry’s case, to conjure a Patronus. The written exam requires the student to answer questions such as: "Give five signs that identify the werewolf".

Divination – In this OWL exam, pupils need to identify mysterious moving objects in a crystal ball, to read tea leaves and lastly to palm read.

Herbology – The only information we have on this OWL exam is that during Harry’s practical component, he received a bite from a Fanged Geranium. The OOTP book makes no mention of a written paper.

History of Magic – This consists of only a written exam, lasting two hours and asking the students interminable questions such as: “In your opinion, did wand legislation contribute to, or lead to better control of, goblin riots of the eighteenth century?”; “How was the Statue of Secrecy breached in 1749 and what measures were introduced to prevent a recurrence?”; or “Describe the circumstances that led to the formation of the International Confederation of Wizards and explain why the warlock of Liechtenstein refused to join.”

Muggle Studies – No information is supplied on this OWL exam.

Potions – The written part of this exam requires the student to do such things as describe the effects of certain potions. The practical exam requires the student to concoct specific potions.

Transfiguration – This OWL requires consists of a written and a practical exam. During Harry’s written exam he was asked for information on Switching Spells, and the practical exam asks the students to do such things as Vanish an Iguana.

As of yet, we do not have any information on what NEWT exams require. We are hopefully scheduled to discover this in book seven when Harry takes his NEWT exams. We will update this article as soon as we have some knowledge of NEWTs!

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