From the Desk of the Spreadsheet Sorceress: Advanced Studies Analysis

We're well into the swing of things in the third week of term, and Advanced Studies are already underway!  NEWT students have been working for a month now and are already earning points for Ravenclaw with their 50% submissions.  OWL proposals are still being accepted (you have until Sept. 22!), but many students have had their OWLs approved and have cast on.  BROOM period has ended, and many students are eagerly awaiting GO! date on September 23.  What does all this mean for Ravenclaw's points earning?  I'm so glad you asked.

First, let's look at NEWTs.  Ravenclaw has an astounding 24 NEWT students--more than any house in any term since we started keeping the Claw Lawg in Spring 2014.  Slytherin is in second with 15 NEWTs, Hufflepuff has 13 and Gryffindor has 12.  That's a big lead for Ravenclaw!  When translated to potential points, NEWTs alone could give us a 3600-point advantage over the next house!  Here's how the potential points stack up.

Of course, while we always aim to fly high, sometimes our plans just don't work out.  But when it comes to Advanced Studies, Ravenclaw has a good track record of getting projects done!  So while the chart above shows us the potential points from NEWTs, we might also want to look at the realistic picture of how many points we can actually expect.  Based on the past four terms of data for NEWT completion, I have projected our points from NEWTs.  And our high completion rates should serve us well!  Instead of giving us a 3600-point advantage, I have projected us to have almost a 3800-point advantage from NEWTs!

And by the way, three of our intrepid NEWT students have already turned in their 50% NEWTs.  Congratulations to akasha111182, Hreow, and IAmACuttlefish!

OWL proposals are still coming in, and it's a very tight race as of the writing of this post!  Slytherin has the most proposals with 98, Ravenclaw and Gryffindor are tied with 97, and Hufflepuff has 90.  That's about as close as it gets!  When we look again at the projections for completion rates based on the last four terms, we still get about a 700-point advantage, though!

Finally, Order Missions!  Ravenclaws are showing that they are fully committed to the Order this term with a grand total of 110 BROOMs!  This is more than any other house this term!  Hufflepuff is in second with 103, Slytherin has 94, and Gryffindor has 90.  Even though the number of BROOMs is pretty close, I'm still projecting that we'll pick up about a 100-point advantage with Order Missions!

Taken all together, Advanced Studies is looking like it will give us a good lead this term--more than 6000 points!

Let's get those last OWL proposals in, cheer our NEWT students to 50%, and SOAR!

PS.  The astute reader will notice that 3800+700+100 is less than 6000.  That is because our nearest competitor in each category isn't always the same--Slytherin is in second for NEWTs and OWLs, but Hufflepuff is in second for Order Missions.  Hufflepuff is in second overall, in our projections.