Oooh Oooh I tried to do this! *points at Botros* see, West is super good at Runes and whatnot and even was when he was itty bitty, and Botros knows that West is advanced and its because West's father is a curse breaker (former Head curse breaker at Gringotts), and so West has always been exposed to these things, AND took an interest in it. Conversely it also means that at times West doesn't try as hard in that class as he probably could because he's so comfortable with the material he doesn't need to push himself... and this means that quite often other students end up 'top' above him in Runes, even though for all intents and purposes he is Botros's best student.

I tried to balance this circa first year by having him really good with theory from reading and studying based on his interests, but not really have a knack for wand work (he got bogged down in theory and overthinking it a lot). He's really only just now up to the level he should be and its because he worked REALLY HARD studying and having older students teach him stuff (Including Sierra, Kurumi, Vivi, and Dylan at various points)

I suppose in a sense I did that with Cela too? Aside from being a Ravenclaw which explains some of it, she knew plenty already because she was MADE to learn by her very strict, very hardline pureblood parents. But she was completely mystified (and soooo soooo eager to learn) about Muggle things, because she'd had no exposure really.

I don't think age means that someone isn't capable, just like Lissy says its about exposure and experience as with all things, and its really lovely coming across other people that have the explanations there that justify learned strengths (as opposed to innate ones and being 'natural' at something)

Speaking as someone who has been on both sides of the SS classroom as a former professor and all, I think its lovely when people RP their character just quietly listening, or reflecting on someone else's answer, or elaborating on an answer, or just taking a stab because their charrie hasn't really got a clue. I used to give as many points for this as I did for answers, as long as the RPer showed that their charrie was engaged with the class and participating then it was all good to me, and all about the fun and I felt flattered they were even there tbh XD. I don't mind 'straight from textbook' answers if they are RPd as straight from the textbook, like 'Joe Bloggs repeated the textbook verbatim' or whatevs, I think it shows a lot about a character XD I just don't like seeing the itty bitty ones spitting out knowledge that it doesn't make sense for them to have... its just that sometimes I think its easy to fall in this trap, particularly for those of us with second or third charries since we often have done the same topics in older lessons and therefore WE have learned it XD

TL;DR I tried/try/etc to balance strengths with weaknesses in all things, but that goes as much for firsties as it does for students in general. I love it when knowledge of any kind, learned or innate, is justified somehow.