From the Desk of the Spreadsheet Sorceresses: A Look Back at Spring 2017

NEWTs are on the move and OWL swatching is in full swing-- but let's take a moment, shall we, to reflect on Spring 2017:
Ravenclaw's astonishing victory in honor of our outgoing Head of House and Head Girl, PickleMommy and CathyCake...

Double Cups For the PickleCake!!

We earned about 58% of our 81,840 points in classes, with over quarter of the total earned through Advanced Studies, and the remainder from Quidditch and the HMC.

We've proven time and again that class participation and Advanced Studies are good for points; I am personally very proud of the effort we put forth in winning the Quidditch Cup this term-- can we do it again?  We look forward to more Quidditch glory under the new leadership of HoH Bacs and HG Gwenschweitzer!

From the Desk of the Spreadsheet Sorceresses: Mid-term Update!

We are about halfway through the term, and it's shaping up to be another exciting one!  Ravenclaw is off to a great start thanks to all the time and effort each and every Tower-member is putting in to their excellent crafting. 

As usual, 'Claws are pouring it on in Advanced Studies.  It's still early, with just over two weeks to turn in your OWL 50% or NEWT 75%, but the points are already coming in!  And of course, Order Missions are underway, but still shrouded in secrecy.  But the early reports have Ravenclaw with a strong showing.  Still, with Gryffindor claiming the most NEWTs, and Slytherin getting the most NEWTs to 50%, a lot could change by the end of this month!  So keep those submissions coming, 'Claws!

Ravenclaw also rocked May classes, thanks to the Prefects' Raven-clad challenge, class blitzes, Flight of the First, etc.! 

Don't forget that the June class blitz is set for DADA on June 27th -- find a partner for that bonus and get ready!  And there's still time to get that June detention badge in honor of Madeleine Vionnet.  Just get your Detention project turned in by June 22!

And finally, Quidditch!  This, I believe, is where the excitement is most palpable!  Will this be the term that Ravenclaw reclaims the Quidditch Cup?  It has been many terms since we've hoisted that trophy, and it's very, very close this term!  But this is the most promising start we've had in a while!

All in all, it is a great start for the Tower.  Of course, with about half the term to go and many points still to be awarded, it's anyone's term!  Let's keep on going strong #ForthePickleCake!

House Cup Champions Deserve Pie!

A whole term's worth of delicious stats is so satisfying, don't you think?  One minute you're crafting One More Class right before the deadline, and the next thing you know,

RAVENCLAW WINS THE HOUSE CUP

FOR A THIRD TERM IN A ROW!!

This threepeat has some understandably impressive data to celebrate...
Here's the breakdown of our 73,580 hard-earned points!

Our May class total approached our entire Spring's Advanced Studies total, which is staggering as a true testament to our start-of-term spirit!  HMC even garnered a larger chunk of points than usual, thanks to our daring Headmistress and her mystery craft-along cowls Challenge.

Ravenclaw has become known for our last-minute turn-ins, but it's not (really) procrastination, it's our high bonus-points projects soaring in for a landing, full of yardage and awesome...

For more fantastic stats, feel free to visit this delightful post from the End of Term Feast.

We had a truly terrific term--
the Ravenclaw Tour de Force cannot be denied!!!

Thursday Stats: A Look Back at Last Term

We're already more than a third of the way through May! While we're continuing on our journey for Ravenclaw glory, let's also take a look back at our victorious winter term. We won by more than 6,000 points. Here's the breakdown of all of our 81,995 points served up as delicious pie!



Almost a third of our points came from Order missions, OWLs, and NEWTs but well over half came from classes, which have always been the backbone of the HPKCHC. After all, we all agree to do at least one class per month when we sign up to sort. Everything else is gravy.

While gravy is delicious, I'm now thinking about it on pie. That's not so tasty. Maybe that pie up there is a shepherd's pie.

Since classes made up such a large portion of our points, let's take a closer look at the class points for all four houses.


Every house got more than 40% of their class points from bonus points. We can't predict exactly how to earn these important points since they come from a mystery yardage bonus formula and the individual discretion of the professors for each class. What we do know, though, is that we should always report yardage when possible. A great story can help and pictures can make all the difference. Cute kids and animals often seem to add an extra bump.

In case my newly engaged sister stumbles upon this post, I promise that any enthusiasm I show when you mention eventually having kids is because I really am looking forward to being an aunt. It has nothing to do with looking for a cute prop for my Cup turn-ins. That's just a bonus.

For more of last term's stats, see this post in the End of Term Feast.

From the Desk of the Spreadsheet Sorceress: Winter 2016 Progress--Pie and Other Noms!

Happy (belated) Pi Day, Ravenclaws!  It's hard to believe that yet another term is coming to a close, but here we are once again in the home stretch of the Winter 2016 term!

Ravenclaw is going strong again this term, and we're all hoping to repeat last term's victory.  While there is positive news to report, it does look like it will be a real nail-biter!  This term is really going to come down to the wire.

As usual, Tower residents are working hard on Advanced Studies.  We had a great Advanced Studies weekend this past weekend, and everyone is busily trying to finish off those big projects.  Slytherin is ahead in NEWTs, Hufflepuff has jumped to an early lead in Order Missions, and Ravenclaw has a slim lead in OWLs.  This leaves Ravenclaw with a slim lead overall in Advanced Studies.  Let's keep those Advanced Studies projects coming in!  Remember, Order Missions are due on March 20th, and you have until the end of the month to get OWLs and NEWTs turned in!

Our fiercest competition comes from Hufflepuff, and they have a fairly commanding lead in the race for the Quidditch Cup.  Ravenclaw is only about 800 points behind in the race for the Quiddy Cup, though, so we could still pull it out!  Rotation 3 allows up to two projects for up to 30 base points (and there's yardage bonus!), so catching up is definitely possible!  Rotation 3 ends on March 29, so let's all get out onto the pitch and finish strong!

Ravenclaws have been working hard all term to make Wizarding Element flashcards for the Prefects' Challenge.  This has been particularly evident in classes, where 'Claws have been doing well with participation rates and some wins!  #ScienceFTW is spot on!  We had a great time in the Arithmancy classroom yesterday with the #ClawPiBlitz and we'll continue to pour ourselves into classes for the rest of the month.  Remember, you have until March 23 for the Emmy Noether Detention Badge!

Overall, it's a very tight race for the House Cup!  While Ravenclaw has a slim lead heading into the home stretch, other houses are only about one class per student behind!  This means that we need every single class, quiddy goal, and AS project that we can get!  Let's finish the term strong and SOAR!!

From the Desk of the Spreadsheet Sorceress: Advanced Studies Advanced Look!

We are getting into the swing of the term, and you are probably asking yourself, "Can we top last term???"  It is a tall order given how high we were able to SOAR! last term, but I know we're going to try!  And one of the traditional ways that Ravenclaw has always SOARED! is with Advanced Studies!

Our intrepid NEWT students are already working hard on their projects.  By having the most NEWT proposals of any house, they also created our first flashcard for the Periodic Table Prefects' Challenge!  Well done!!  With Ravenclaw's high completion rate for Advanced studies, winning NEWT proposals should give us a nice lead.  Slytherin is close on our heels with the NEWTs, but this spreadsheet sorceress is still projecting about a 800-point cushion from NEWTs!

OWL proposals are still coming in, but as of the writing of this post, Ravenclaw is catching up!  Gryffindor and Hufflepuff came out strong in the first few days of proposals, and they still hold the lead in number of proposals.  If you haven't proposed your OWL yet, you have until January 22!  Let's get another element flashcard by winning OWL proposals!

Even though we're not winning OWL proposals at the moment, our historically strong completion rate nearly makes up for it!  As you can see from the chart below, the current projection is virtually a tie in OWL points!  Just a few more OWL proposals could give Ravenclaw the lead in OWL points, though, so get those proposals in!  It's going to be an exciting race in Advanced Studies this term!

In total, based on historical Claw Lawg data, we're projecting that Ravenclaw will keep its edge in Advanced Studies, but it's clearly still anyone's game!  The Order of the Phoenix is accepting BROOMs starting January 7 (that's TOMORROW!) and Order Missions could really change things up! 

Let's cheer on our Advanced Studies students, get those OWL and Order Mission proposals in and continue to SOAR!!

From the Desk of the Spreadsheet Sorceress: Fall 2015 Progress--Pie and other Noms!

It's that time of term again: time for the start-of-the-last-month update!  Can you believe that there are less than three weeks to go in term?  This spreadsheet sorceress can't! 

There is plenty of good news to report, though, and Tower residents have been crafting busily all term!  As we predicted in at the start of term, Advanced Studies are an area where the house is excelling!  Those Order Missions are starting to come in, and so are completed OWLs!  As usual, Ravenclaw has achieved above-average completion rates for the Advanced Studies milestones.  Let's keep it up and get those projects done!  Remember, Order Missions are due November 18!

Ravenclaws have also been collecting books left and right in classes.  We've really answered the Prefects' call to #RestoreTheLibrary!  The speed-reading Flight of the First badge has been a big hit, and so have the Detention badges!  There's one detention badge to go: get Detention in by November 29 for the Madeleine L'Engle badge!  And don't forget about that awesome Completionist badge if you're still on track!  I know I'm going for that one!

Possibly the most exciting race right now is for the Quiddy Cup.  Ravenclaw is only about 100 points behind the leaders, Hufflepuff, and only about 50 points ahead of Gryffindor!  And Slytherin is only a few hundred points behind Gryffindor!  With the largest number of eligible players, Ravenclaw is in a good position to take the Quiddy Cup.  But with yardage bonus back in play and 22 base points per project, it's going to be a very tight contest!  Remember, Quiddy Task 4 is due on November 25!  So get on those brooms if you're eligible, and turn out to the pitch to cheer on your housemates if you're not!

In the race for the House Cup, Ravenclaw has a solid lead, but the race for second is fierce.  Let's finish the term strong and keep up this momentum we've built all term!  Let's beat those personal bests, keep finding books, and SOAR!!

From the Desk of the Spreadsheet Sorceress: A Selection of Spectacular Stats

The spreadsheet sorceress sincerely apologizes for another brief post.  A thorough update is coming in November after October classes post final scores.

Here is a selection of some of the statistics that I am most excited about!  Please note that these stats are UNOFFICIAL and taken from the Tower's own Claw Lawg, not from the House Cup Staff's Spreadsheet of Awesome.

• We excelled at classes in September.  According to the Lawg, we were over 2000 points ahead of the next house with September classes!

• Our retention rate from Quiddy Task 1 to Task 2 was over 94%!  That's the highest of any of the houses!  (Hufflepuff was in second with a retention rate of about 87.5%.)  And with just over 24 hours to go in Task 3 at the writing of this post, we have a retention rate of just under 61%.  This is second only to Slytherin, with a retention rate of just under 65%.  Of course, things are flying fast on the Pitch right now, so the Quiddy Cup is still very much up for grabs!
• With only a few days left in the month, we have more than twice as many NEWTs at 75% than any other house.  Fantastic work, NEWT students!  Ten of our intrepid NEWT students have turned in their 75% milestones.  Check out their impressive work in the NEWT thread and cheer everyone else on to craft like the wind!
• Preliminary data suggests that we're doing really well at October classes too.  More on this next time!  All I'll say for now is: Everyone is doing amazing!  Keep it coming!

 That's it for now.  More details and a full report coming in early November!

If you have suggestions for the From the Desk of the Spreadsheet Sorceress series, or if you have questions that your Spreadsheet Team may be able to answer, please send llim a PM!

From the Desk of the Spreadsheet Sorceress: Quick Quidditch Q&A

This spreadsheet sorceress is all kinds of busy right now, so this time it's just a quick Q&A.  Our topic: Quidditch!

Q: I heard we did really well in Task 1!  Just how well did we do?
A: We did amazing!  Unofficially, we scored 136 goals, for a total of 2040 base points.  And that's 77.7% of the house participating in the first round of quidditch!  Just amazing turnout!

Q: Okay, but how did the other houses do?
A: It was actually a really close match, and ALL the houses had a really strong turnout.  Again unofficially, Gryffindor had 146 goals, Hufflepuff had 144, and Slytherin had 143.  That only puts us 150 base points behind the projected winner!

Q: Wow, that's a lot of goals!  Has there ever been a term with such high participation in quidditch?
A: Not since we've been keeping the Claw Lawg (est. Spring 2014)!  The best quidditch match any house has had in the last four terms was Slytherin, with 133 goals in Spring 2014 Quiddy Round 1.  And Ravenclaw's best was that same term, with 124 goals.  This term's interest in quidditch from all houses is really unprecedented!

Q: Has there ever been a term with this term's quiddy format?
A: Yes and no.  In all my terms of Lawging, I haven't seen this choose-your-own-adventure format with different prompts based on past choices.  However, we have had a term where you had to play in the previous round to progress on to the next round.

Q: When was that?  How did we do?
A: That was in Spring 2014, actually!  The term that we had our previous best quiddy participation!  And that term, we showed everyone that the Ravenclaw stereotype of not being good on the quidditch pitch was way off base.  We came in second in quidditch that term, just over 1000 points behind the Quidditch Cup winners, Slytherin, and about 2500 points ahead of the next house, Hufflepuff!

Q: So can we still win the Quidditch Cup this term?
A: ABSOLUTELY!!!  What we'll need is to keep our participation rates up, just like in Spring 2014, when we had between 77% and 87% retention from round to round.  If everyone who played in Task 1 continues on through the maze in Task 2 (starting Friday, October 2!) we will definitely have a good chance.  So if you played in Task 1, whip up something small and quick for Task 2!  (Remember that there's no yardage bonus for Task 2, so save those bigger projects for classes and HMC #2!  And Task 2 only lasts about two weeks!)  If you didn't play in Task 1, cheer on your housemates on the pitch!

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.