[hga]

If you're familiar with the Harry Potterverse, NEWTS are modeled on O Levels. Perhaps a bit like US Advanced Placement courses and tests, but much more institutionalized, and I gather they're part of how the U.K. university system can get away with 3 year bachelor's degrees.

I once worked with a Jamaican who'd earned several O Levels (Caribbean counties had their own versions of them modeled on the British system), he was very smart and productive (and like many other good EEs had his own MOSIS chip to flash).

Hearing someone got 5 O Levels immediately causes my talent antennae to twitch ^_^, and I'm not surprised he picked up FORTRAN easily (then again, I found it very easy to learn starting a couple of years earlier than walshemj, and I'll bet with quite a bit less mathematical maturity, just Algebra I and Geometry, with concurrent Algebra II, but all taught by very good to excellent teachers).

[ZeroGravitas]

I think you are confusing O-levels and A-levels. O = Ordinary, A = Advanced, generally people going on to University would do A-levels, so leaving to get a job with only O-levels might be roughly equivalent to having a High School Diploma I think.

[walshemj]

Think professional apprentice / associate professional entry point.

Now a lot of jobs that where available to school leavers are graduate entry - talk about grade inflation :-)

[hga]

Oops, you're right!

So change O -> A in the above, and O-Levels in the Potterverse correspond to OWLs.