If your dc did BTECs, do you say they have A levels?

Well yes, I am. I'm confused as to why she's irritated. Surely she would just be pleased with her DN's achievements?

That’s interesting. Which medical schools accept BTEC for direct entry?

Are you really ‘confused’? You may not agree with OP’s view but ‘confused’? I think not.

My DD went on to do a Occupational therapy degree and found the BTEC students were better prepared because of the various placements they had to do.

I cannot find my original post

I did

2 years doing A Levels

2 years doing BTEC

Degree

I found the teaching at A Level to be poor
However, the extra curricular activities were excellent

I found the teaching at BTEC to be much more engaging & I enjoyed the course much more than A Levels

That was my experience

I was pleased to have passed my exams & I have had to show my original certificates at job interviews

My Ds is doing a BTEC extended diploma in an engineering subject. It is not easy. Some of the maths and physics involved is A level. I am not sure how many units he has studied this year but it is at least 10 if not more. 2 of the units were exam based, the rest project or course work based. He submitted 4 assignments between Easter and May half term alone while also revising for an exam which was 2 papers. He had an exam in January as well. He finished with a distinction this year overall. He already knows that next year will be harder.

I went to a prestigious university but had a terrible time due to (what I now know to be) ADHD.

As you’ve done well in life, don’t worry about the university you went to, as pp says. Who knows, you may have had a tough time at a different one.

OP’s son did BTECs, and did well in them.

The reality is that heaps of people who don’t go to prestigious universities, don’t not because they are unintelligent, but because of a whole range of life circumstances which conspire to hamper their choices and chances. I tend to think of graduates from top universities as not necessarily the cleverest and the brightest, but often those who had the smoothest rides to get there. A degree is a means to an end: if you’ve got your life sorted and successful, you took the right route there, poly or not.

It’s a weird thing to say about someone. I think dd would be a bit pissed off if I said she had done a-levels because it sounds like I don’t want to tell people, she actually did a BTEC, and if there was a follow up question “what subjects did you do” and she’s only done one (L3 extended diploma so only one subject) then she would look a bit shady I think.
People are weird though. One of my uncles put up a FB post last week about my cousins GCSEs “v proud of dc achieving all 8/9 in her GCSEs” - accompanied by a picture of her holding her results with her 3x7s clearly displayed. She’s done amazingly well (3x7, 4x8, 2x9) but if she reads that she will think her dad is ashamed of her 7s despite them being excellent grades.

It is annoying and they aren’t really comparable, but just let it go over your head.

I did a BTEC Deploma through work back in the 80s that was equivelent to 2 Alevels but always call it a BTEC

My DD did Health and Social care BTEC , she got 3 Distinctions stars which are the same UCAS points as 3 x A*.She went on to get a First from Cardiff.

@Titanicpopcornsweets explain what though?
"My child is doing A-levels"
"My child is doing a btec"
What explanation does that need - other than maybe an answer to the follow up question of "oh...what subjects?"

I do agree though that people are snobby and dismissive of BTECs.

So that could be why people just say A levels because it's easier than trying to explain.

Certainty of funding is one part, crowd mentality another, plus universities offering degree "top up" for HND, making HND seem less of a final qualification for work - and resulting in students thinking might as well go to uni all the way through.

Also the decline in employers, many of my students went on to work in manufacturing industry as engineers, particularly Massey Ferguson who were nearby - sadly all long gone.

My cousin got her degree from Bath and I went to a dodgy poly. At every opportunity she would make sure everyone knew my degree was deeply inferior to her darling daughters.

The moral of the story is that I earn triple what my darling cousin earns and live in a house four times the size. Not that I care but for a loser with a crappy degree I did quite well.

I know what you mean op.

But I would just ignore. One thing I have realised in life is that a lot of people are completely full of shit when it comes to their children's achievements.

I see it so often.

Nearly everyone's kid 'could gave gone to grammar school' but they just didn't want to, despite having not taken the year 11+

They're always bored at school because the teachers aren't pushing them enough. In reality the kid is just badly behaved.

I know quite a few people who claim their dc are doing a-levels when they are doing BTEC.

My DS with learning disabilities is doing an extended Sports BTEC. We are delighted he has found something he can do. If he completes it he will have 3 x BTEC's.There is no way on this planet he could do an single A level. If people ask us what he is doing at college we say Sports BTECs. We are proud he is doing them. My elder DS and DD have A levels. They are completely different with different pressures. A levels are all exams but BTECs have pressure from never ending coursework assignments. As soon as two are handed in the next two are set.

@Beth216 they're not always easier. That's a snobby thing to say.

As other's have said it the issue more is the trying to upstage. If DN had achieved 4 A* levels it still would be annoying for your BIL to be jumping in to "reduce" your daughters achievement.

Don't focus on whether or not A-levels are "better" than BTECHs they are different.

I don't know why this route has disappeared or is not as popular. I suspect its something to do with certainty of funding for 3 years as opposed to 1, then 2 then 3. But when students come out of University with not only eye watering debt but they have usurous levels if interest heaped on top these can't be promoted.

Everyone knows BTECs are less academic, and so easier than A-levels. You should have just made a confused face and said 'Oh I thought she did BTECs'.

Ds just gained his btec. It was the format that best suited his chosen subject. In many ways it could have been easier to study for A levels as he could have just got his head down in his books and got on with it.

Some of the btec meant working in groups, managing different personalities, expectations and skill levels, while being graded as an individual. As a perfectionist he found this stressful and we had lots of conversations about how it was a good thing for him to be doing collaborative work now as it would provide him with additional soft skills. On a practical level, he often had to work to a short time span in front of a room full of strangers doing something quite technical. Having done the physical work, he then had to write it up to demonstrate his understanding, explain his process and justify his decision making. I was surprised at how academic his btec was and when trying to shoehorn something that's creative, practical and technical into academic writing it can feel a bit of a strange hotchpotch to the kids who wonder why they're having to write about it when they've already done the work!

I'm proud of him. He had to work consistently across 2 years for his grades. He didn't let any of his projects come back without the grade he wanted. I don't think he'd have obtained those grades of he hadn't lived and breathed the subject outside of college too. His choice of btec vs A levels didn't close any doors to the universities he wanted to attend, including a place at a RG university without interview. His work has already featured in some university projects though.

It's not A level, it's very different and in his case was the better option in arming him to the teeth with skills.
It was a big plus that he didn't have the anxious wait for results as he knew his grade by the end of term subject to modulation so he knew his uni choices were confirmed.

It's hard to guage whether it's not understanding, a bit of one upmanship, or feeling your nephew was left in the shadows. It sounds like your daughter has done incredibly well and I hope that's she feels very proud of what she has achieved. My children and their cousins all have very spiky ability profiles - absolutely smashing it in some things and really struggling quite worryingly in others. So we celebrate then as individuals and try not to compare.