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Is there any canon information about Snape's O.W.L. scores?

There was something mentioned that he did write "twice as much" as the other students during his Defence Against the Dark Arts O.W.L. exam, but that's all I remember.

Slytherincess
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vap78
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  • The wikia lists him as having passed his potion O.W.L. Quite what that's based on is anyone's guess. – Valorum Aug 01 '15 at 20:09
  • Perhaps the fact that he was appointed to teach it? And he was the Half-Blood Prince, of course. Strictly speaking, that's not official confirmation - nowhere is it explicitly said that you have to have an OWL in a subject to teach it (indeed, we must assume that Hagrid doesn't have one in CoMC) and the Half-Blood Prince could still have, I dunno, been ill or something. So I guess it is a bit irresponsible of the wikia to present an inference as though it were an established fact, but all the same ... it's a pretty safe bet – Au101 Aug 02 '15 at 02:07
  • He must have passed his OWL surely - how could he be able to improve upon the NEWT level text book (Advanced Potion-Making) if he can't pass the 'ordinary level' exam? – ThruGog Aug 03 '15 at 09:28
  • @Richard -- While I don't doubt that he probably did pass his potions and DADA (my addition) O.W.L.s, I would want to know where, specifically, the Wikia obtained this information, because I can't recall it was addressed in canon or in any JKR interviews. What's the Wikia's source? – Slytherincess Aug 03 '15 at 19:02
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    @Slytherincess - No source is listed. For the record, I used to work with a guy who taught "Construction Safety" despite having no qualification in A) Safety B) Teaching and C) Construction. – Valorum Aug 03 '15 at 19:25

3 Answers3

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I don't think Snape's O.W.L. scores are mentioned anywhere, either in canon or in any of J.K. Rowling's interviews. As far as I can find, the following students's O.W.L. scores are known:

As always, please correct me if I have missed something.

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Slytherincess
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    So, JKR thinks that Ron isn't an intellectual match for Hermione, and regrets pairing the two instead of Harry + Hermione, but Harry earned the same OWLs. Hmph. Ron seemed a little clumsy and careless, but never felt dumber than Harry to me. –  Aug 03 '15 at 21:05
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    Apart from this, we know from Order chapter 31 that Professor Dumbledore has at least two O.W.L.s; and from Prince chapter 9 that Neville Longbottom has at least four. – b_jonas Aug 03 '15 at 22:04
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    Hermione got 11 OWLs? – Jason Baker Aug 04 '15 at 22:14
  • Bartemius Crouch Jr - 12 owls, per his father? – davidbak Aug 05 '15 at 00:19
  • Bill and Percy have more O.W.L.s than Hermione! Wow – atakanyenel Jul 05 '16 at 19:17
  • What I never understood was how did Hermione need a time turner to take so many classes yet we have at least three cases of 12 O.W.L.s (and two of them Weasleys). Did they also use time turners? If so, did the Weasley parents know? – fabikw Oct 11 '16 at 19:20
  • Hermione got 10, see https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/72841/how-could-hermione-have-gotten-more-owls-than-classes?rq=1 – eis Nov 07 '17 at 07:29
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I'm assuming he'd have gotten an "O" in potions, because he was basically a master at potions, having written annotations in his book that caused Harry to do better than Hermione in potions class in his sixth year.

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    I wouldn't be surprised if this were the case. However, it is certainly possible to be good in a subject and fail the exam. – Blackwood Jul 05 '16 at 15:06
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    While you're almost certainly right, the question was asking about canon information - i.e. were Snape's OWL scores ever explicitly given in canon? – Rand al'Thor Jul 05 '16 at 15:39
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I am actually not going to say that it is impossible for Snape to fail, however I think he passed because he improved a NEWT level textbook and therefore I think that he got an Outstanding

user72634
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