MMA does not used a fixed-year system for classes, as Hogwarts does; instead, subjects are set at seven different levels. A student does not have to wait till the onset of summer, or wait until twelve months after beginning a level for a subject, to request the end-of-level examination for that subject. Assuming the student passes the examination, he may immediately begin studying that subject at the next level. Thus it is not unusual for a student who begins his or her time at MMA as an eleven-year-old who is taking first-level courses in all subjects, to have completed all seven levels, and be sitting his or her A-levels and NEWTs, by age sixteen.