O.W.Ls Readathon 2019 | Sign Up, TBR, and Career Path

It’s that time of year again where we strap on our magical thinking caps and get ‘studying’ for our O.W.Ls. For those of you who have absolutely no idea what I am talking about, the Magical Readathon – O.W.Ls edition is back, and is bigger and better than ever. Based on the Ordinary Wizarding Levels – tests that Hogwarts Students sit in their 5^th year of school – the readathon features a series of reading prompts inspired by the school subjects offered at Hogwarts.

Gi of the Book Roast is the incredibly awesome creator and host of the most magical of readathon experiences. This is the second year of O.W.Ls, and the fifth edition of the magical readathon so far. I took part in the O.W.Ls readathon last year and fell in love with the idea, and have taken part in every Magical Readathon since. I can’t recommend it enough. It’s the perfect mix of challenging and enjoyable and is one of the greatest readathon communities around at the moment!

So, the readathon itself: McGonagall has sent out our exam timetable and the readathon is all set. Well, examinations start on April 1^st and run through to April 30^th, giving students a month to pass as many exams as they can/want to. For every exam they pass, they obtain an O.W.L in that subject. The more O.W.Ls that you have, the higher your grading is and the more career paths that would open. To get A – Acceptable gradings, students must complete 2 exams, for E- Exceeds Expectations, students must complete 6 exams, and to obtain O – Outstanding, students must complete 9 exams. There aren’t too many rules about what you can and can’t read, just that each exam requires an individual read and that anything on Goodreads counts! Check out the exam requirements for each subject:

This year, Gi has outdone herself by creating a whole wizarding career booklet (you can view it here). She has used Wizarding World snippets and traits to create a job description for over 15 career paths, taking into account all the different subjects and departments students might want to look into. The career booklet is amazing, not only has she created lots of paths and choices for all different levels of commitment and reading speeds/styles, Gi has gone all out to create an aesthetically stunning piece too! The careers chosen dictate which O.W.Ls students need to sit and which N.E.W.Ts/grades they will need to have during the next Magical Readathon!

There was a Magical Readathon: Charms Coursework edition last year, and to reward those who take part regularly. For each spell successfully mastered during that readathon, a student can start their Charms Exam a day early. I mastered 3 during that readathon, so I will be starting my Charms exam 3 days early – 28^th March. It’s this sort of attention to detail that makes these readathons so special!

At this point, I am a little split as to which career path I am choosing, but luckily Charms is an O.W.Ls prerequisite for pretty much all of them so I will be able to start early and hopefully have an exam completed before the readathon proper even begins. I think I have narrowed my career choices to three mid-difficulty paths: Auror, Curse Breaker, or Ministry of Magic employee within the Department of Mysteries. I am prioritising the O.W.Ls required for every subject, and then will be narrowing down the O.W.Ls required to complete each one that are not required for the others. Ideally I’ll pass all my exams, but we’ll see.

Bullet journalling for reading this year has worked really well for me so far, so I have done a tracker for this readathon in my reading journal that I am really proud of. It should help me track my progress and record what I read for which subject (along with my a twitter thread as well!) I have selected a group of books that can be used for a few of the challenges. I am somewhat of a mood reader, so having a variety of books on my TBR to choose from is going to be great!

So there we have it! I am all set and excited for O.W.Ls readathon and can’t wait to get really stuck in!

Are you taking part? What career path are you following?

What will you be reading?