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Hermione takes twelve classes with a time-turner, and she drops two to get ten O.W.L.'s. You can even take more because Percy (and others) ended up with twelve O.W.L.'s. possibly without a time-turner.

Is twelve the most classes a Hogwarts student can take in their O.W.L. years?

Valorum
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bleh
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    Related meta; http://meta.scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/10067/why-did-this-answer-get-deleted – Valorum Aug 19 '16 at 07:11
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    Drama over the deleted answer aside, I'm not convinced the questions are dupes. The old one asks how someone managed to get 12 OWLs. This asks what the maximum number of classes it's possible to take. The fact that someone managed to take 12 classes does not mean that 12 is necessarily the maximum. – phantom42 Aug 19 '16 at 13:25
  • @phantom42 Please correct me if I'm wrong, but duplicate is for "the answer is already in this other question" and not "this other question is another formulation". And even if the questions are, in this case, indeed different, the answer to "what is the maximum" is in the other questions's answers. (answer is something like we don't know, but probably 12 – Kalissar Aug 19 '16 at 13:44
  • Except none of the answers say that. – phantom42 Aug 19 '16 at 14:06
  • @phantom42 - mine does. Which is why I'm at a loss why this has been reopened. "The most likely, and sadly most mundane explanation would be that in previous years the lesson planning simply didn't result in any overlaps, negating the need for a time-turner and allowing high achievers to attend all twelve lessons."** – Valorum Aug 19 '16 at 14:29
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    again, the fact that it was used to attend twelve does not mean that optimization of use couldn't work in a thirteenth if available. – phantom42 Aug 19 '16 at 15:07

2 Answers2

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I say that the maximum is twelve (12) because of the O.W.L. restriction placed on the question.

The courses offered at Hogwarts are as follows.

First Year Compulsory Classes:

  1. Astronomy
  2. Charms
  3. Defense Against Dark Arts
  4. Herbology
  5. History of Magic
  6. Potions
  7. Transfiguration

Third Year Electives (minimum 2):

  1. Arithmancy
  2. Care of Magical Creatures
  3. Divination
  4. Muggle Studies
  5. Ancient Runes

Offered based on demand in Sixth and Seventh Years:

  1. Alchemy

Since O.W.L.s are given in the fifth year of education, I do not think the exam would be given for Alchemy (or at least there is not information to determine this).

Skooba
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  • The Wiki article you linked to lists 18 classes offered at one time or another, and even hints that there may be more. Plus, HP Wikia is a terrible source. – KutuluMike Aug 19 '16 at 19:23
  • @KutuluMike Those other courses are basically clubs (music, art) or one time deals (flying, aparation) - Also Pottermore confirms the class list. link added – Skooba Aug 19 '16 at 19:32
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    The Pottermore link says that classes like Alchemy are only offered in the final two years. That means it's impossible for there to be OWLs for them, since students take their OWLs at the end of the fifth year. – Mike Kellogg Aug 19 '16 at 19:53
  • @MikeKellogg Can OWLs only be taken at the end of the 5th year? What's preventing a 6th- or 7th-year student from taking a course they couldn't take sooner? – miltonaut Aug 19 '16 at 19:56
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    @MikeKellogg The question has been edited after this answer was posted. I am evaluating that now. – Skooba Aug 19 '16 at 19:59
  • @miltonaut Even if OWLs can be taken late, there's no reason for a class that's only available in 6th and 7th year to have OWLs. If there was a standardized test for those classes, they would simply make them NEWTs, which are a preexisting test for 7th years. – Mike Kellogg Aug 19 '16 at 19:59
  • @MikeKellogg I meant classes that couldn't be taken due to scheduling conflicts, not that were limited to 6th and 7th year students. (I tried to edit my comment, but it was already past thee 5-minute time limit.) – miltonaut Aug 19 '16 at 20:03
  • @miltonaut I don't see how that would work, since each "main" elective is at least 3 years long. But since there are only 12 classes available before 6th year, it's not really relevant whether they can take the OWLs late or not. – Mike Kellogg Aug 19 '16 at 20:10
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There is no clear answer to how many classes the school offers total, 12 seems to be the max owls anyone gets.

So how many classes you can take without needing a time tuner, would depend entirely on the current teachers class schedules.

Hermione needed a time tuner due to her classes being scheduled in the same block, but during other years those classes may have all been staggered enough for someone like Bill or Crouch Jr. to take 12 classes without a Time Tuner.

I’ve been turning it back so I could do hours over again, that’s how I’ve been doing several lessons at once, see? - Prisoner of Azkaban

On top of that Bill and Crouch Jr. could have had Time-Tuners anyway, but since their forbidden to tell anyone about it we wouldn't know.

Himarm
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