NEW STUDENT GUIDE

Welcome! And thank you for joining Hogwarts is Home! We’re so excited you here. Before I get into the guide a quick check list:

Have you read the Site Information and Guidelines?
Have you read the Roleplaying Rules?
Have you read the Character Creation Information and Regulations?
Have you read the School Rules and Codes of Conduct?

If so, proceed, if not, you should go take a gander at them, it’s highly recommended.



REGISTERING
Tips

• Your USERNAME may be ANYTHING you want, that is PG friendly. However, we do reccomend it being less than 10 characters and easy to spell for tagging reasons!
• Your DISPLAY NAME must be a FIRST NAME and LAST NAME. It can be yours, or a made up name, but it must be a name.

VALIDATION PERIOD
When you first sign up for Hogwarts at home, you're immediately placed into the 'Validating' Group. During this time, we recommend you read the aforementioned threads, then head over and start conversing with your fellows! You must gain 10 posts before you will be moved into the UNSORT group, which will enable you to see more of the site, purchase your supplies, and fill out your sorting quiz. Please make sure your 10 posts are more than one word or symbol and have some sort of value. Anyone caught spamming will have their IP banned. So go talk to people, play some games, show us your enthusiasm! Please also upload an Avatar and customize your signature. 

UNSORTED
Welcome to the wonderful class of being unsorted! You can now head into Diagon Alley (which has a heck of a lot more places to roleplay) and buy your supplies and wait for the train. You can also fill out your sorting quiz and sign up for classes. Make sure you get the required supplies!

SORTED AND CLASSES
Yay! You've been sorted, now it's to wait until classes start. Once classes start, Professors will post up topics for each week. You will post your homework, roleplay, and participate in these threads until they're locked and the next week is unlocked. Make sure you check the notice board for updates and hang out in your common room (your HoH will send you instructions on how to access your Common room).

HOMEWORK
General Instructions

• When posting, Place your name, LAST name first, FIRST name last, AND House, and right aligned at the top of your post. Even if you have a partner or a group, all names must be in this format.
  
• Do NOT use hard to read fonts or colors; in fact, only use color when you have more than one person within the roleplay. Make sure to give a sort of legend to which color is representing who.
  
• Attendance is defined as someone posting as "I attended" or posting, at least, a 50 world roleplay of attending the class (ie taking notes, whatever) or skipping class.
  
• Homework is defined as the assignment at the end of the professors post, If completed following the professor's instruction for the assignment, will earn you extra points.
  
• Extra Credit will be given to people who go above and beyond. You'll know when the situation arises.
  
• You may have a partner or a group depending on the situation.

Firstly and Foremost, HOMEWORK IS NOT MANDATORY.

This is because this is not the spirit of this Hogwarts RP. Lessons are like regular roleplays, you attend, roleplay with your classmates, and you will get points for your house. Homework will get you extra. So keep that in mind if you REALLY want your house to win the cup. However, it is asked that everyone roleplay in the lessons.

So, here's how it breaks down. There's a 50 points total you can get for each lesson, each class.

5 will be for if you COMPLETE THE HOMEWORK ASSIGNED (according to the Professor's rules).
10 will be if you ATTEND (One well written rp post.).
10 will be if you PARTICIPATE (more than the attendance post, answering/asking questions etc.).

The other 25 points will be split up among a score on how well you rp, in an effort for you to try to improve teachers will grade and give comments and suggestions to help you.

5 to spelling.
10 to Grammar, Punctuation, Mechanics.
10 to Body, or how much thought you put into your roleplay. Remember, quality over quantity. Don't be too wordy!

Scores - per lesson
50+ - Full Marks - O - Outstanding
41-49 - E - Exceeds Expectation
31 - 40 Points - A - Acceptable
21-30 Points - P - Poor
11-20 Points - D - Dreadful
5 -10 Points - T - Troll

*Passing your exam at the end of the year gives you at least a 50 towards your final grade.

ADVANCING
Years One and Two.
You will advance to the next year once you have passed (with at least an Acceptable) three of the six main courses. FIRST YEARS MUST PASS FLYING TO ADVANCE.

Years Three and Beyond.
You will advance to the next year as long as you pass 3 main courses and at least 1 elective.

Most teachers will post their entire “year” of lessons. You may not post homework ahead of time, but you will be able to have it done, to post, once the weekly topic is open. “Years” are five weeks long, with weeks six and seven being a break. Five lessons per year, per course. There is a five-week “registration” break after thirty-five weeks (that’s every eight months and three weeks) where we open up registration for a new “class”.

Scores - final grades (per class, combined total of each lesson points + exam/OWL)
250+ - Full Marks - O - Outstanding
201 - 249 - E - Exceeds Expectation
151 - 200 Points - A - Acceptable
101 - 150 Points - P - Poor
51 - 100 Points - D - Dreadful
25  - 50 Points - T - Troll

RESTOCK YOUR SUPPLIES
Each year you must restock your supply of parchment, ink, quills and potion ingredients. If you need a time turner, you must apply at the end of each year to renew it (time turners can only be obtained by 2nd years and above).

WAIT FOR YOUR GRADES
Head of Houses will be compiling and PMing everyone's final grades to each of you. Please be patient.

OWLs AND NEWTS
To be able to take OWLs in your fifth year for a class, you must have a pass (of at least an Acceptable) for four years of that chosen course. Once your OWL is passed (with at least an Acceptable), you may take a NEWT class for your final two years. NEWTs are not required.

GRADUATING
To graduate, you must have successfully passed your OWLs for three of the six main courses and one elective or NEWT class. This also means you do not have to continue on to your 6th and 7th year. You may move on and become Of-Age, and get a job. But it's recommended you finish your schooling, ya hooligan.