O.W.Ls and N.E.W.T.s read-a-thon TBR

Arrrrrgghhhh. I have no idea how this passed me by in April this year – why wouldn’t I have signed up to a Harry Potter-themed read-a-thon where I get to pass ‘exams’ in my favourite subjects? I’m the girl who takes random free courses online just for the pleasure of sitting tests…

Anyway, the N.E.W.Ts have rolled around now. Luckily, the announcement video at Book Roast states that useless (my word, not hers) people such as myself are perfectly able to join in. She says you can join in anyway and treat this as a practice run, or you can sit your O.W.Ls now. I’ve decided to do it properly and go for my O.W.Ls as otherwise it felt like cheating. Ha, yeah, that was my plan. But then I looked at the prompts and they’re a bit too easy, when it was the specificness of the N.E.W.Ts that attracted me.

N.E.W.T.s it is! Next year, as she says this will be an annual thing, I’ll start from the beginning along with everybody else. We’ll just pretend I’m an exchange student that studied subjects of an equal level in a different wizarding school. You know, like Mental Health Law.

I’ve decided to pick my subjects based on which ones I’d enjoy at Hogwarts and therefore which ones I would ‘really’ have picked, instead of which have the easiest prompts. I have 297 books on my TBR, I’m sure I can find books that fit :/

Here we go. My study materials for my N.E.W.Ts in August will be:

Charms

Acceptable: Read a book with magic in it.

• The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

Exceeds Expectations: A book with a cover that charmed you

• That Inevitable Victorian Thing by E.K. Johnston

Outstanding: A book that you think will leave a mark.

• The Tidal Zone by Sarah Moss

Defence Against the Dark Arts

Acceptable: Read a book in a series.

• In the Labyrinth of Drakes (Memoirs of Lady Trent #4) by Marie Brennan

Exceeds Expectations: Read a foiled book.

• First We Make the Beast Beautiful by Sarah Wilson

Outstanding: Book with the word ‘dark’ in the title or series name.

• One Dark Throne (Three Dark Crowns #2) by Kendare Blake

History of Magic

Acceptable: Book that you think would fit in with the Hogwarts library.

• A is for Arsenic: The Poisons of Agatha Christie by Kathryn Harkup

Exceeds Expectations: Read a book published at least five years ago.

• Flowers in the Attic by Virginia Andrews

Outstanding: A book that’s at least 400 pages long.

• The Ice Twins by S.K. Tremayne

Transfiguration

Acceptable: Book with a grey cover.

• In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park
• Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

Exceeds Expectations: Read a book from an author you haven’t tried before.

• All Systems Red (Murderbot Diaries #1) by Martha Wells

Oustanding: Read a book that’s set in a Kingdom/has royalty.

• Tower of Dawn (Throne of Glass #6) by Sarah J. Maas

So you have to complete work down each subject – i.e. you can’t achieve an ‘Outstanding’ without first achieving the ‘Exceeds Expectations’ and ‘Acceptable.’ You fail a subject if you don’t complete the first level of each subject.

To pass your N.E.W.Ts overall, you must pass a minimum of two subjects and achieve an Outstanding in at least one.

 

I’m so excited about this. It’s my birthday in August and I have a week off mostly to myself, so I hope to make significant progress towards my ‘studies’ in that week! My TBR will probably change based on what I end up reading for the rest of July, but I’ll be using this as my Master Post.

Good luck with your N.E.W.Ts everybody!