BTECs starting 2015 - General support thread

EYV What's caused him to want a gap year? Is that set in stone or might he change his.

My DD has spent the last few hours looking a university websites. Certainly picks her moments! Age gap between DD and DS should have meant only one at a time going. Not sure if she's having a mad couple of hours or if she is serious. We will see.

Draylon Wait til DS starts the course - the way BTECs work is confusing! My DS did level 2 sport at school instead of gcse PE and then the two year extended diploma. After four years I still don't full understand it. I am forever asking my DS questions

A really good bit of advice would be that your DS needs to ask if he doesn't understand how it all works. For example if on an assignment he meets the criteria for a merit grade on all the parts except one where he gets a pass he can only get a pass grade. Not sure if I have explained that properly so shout of it doesn't.

And yes I am the same - why change the tariffs?

Gas your link to the ocr tariff doesn't show 420 which the college are claiming is attainable, instead it just says the max is 360 - it looks as if it is old as there is no A* at A level either. The ocr extended diploma is on the new tarrif here which comes into operation for the 2017 intake and it attracts 144 points which according to the new system is equivalent to 3 As at A level

ds has decided to take a gap year (not told the uni yet and hoping they accept deferments at this late stage) and his current offer is on the premise that the max points available is 420 which now goes down to 168 for the year he intends to go. Not sure how it will affect the scholarships available as they are based on exceeding a certain number of points - they will presumably have to run 2 parrallel systems for a couple of years to account for those taking a year out

I think the BTEC and the OCR are pretty much the same. DD was doing media which was an OCR before she swapped. Looking at the info for that it doesn't say about getting anything after one year as the course info on her current course does so I would check that, to have the option to only do the year has been very handy in DD's case and I think she would have dropped out if she knew she had to do two years of it to get anything .

The commute is a pain and pretty tiring plus has created issues when she's been sick. The bus has been late a couple of times but overall pretty good. I've ended up forking out for lots of train fare over the year so she could come home early. I paid fit the bolt on each term so she has been able to use her card holidays plus weekends so that has made the about £950 spent on the coach seen not as bad.

Combined with rail fares plus studio fee, cost of photography paper plus notebooks it has been a very expensive year and a lot more than if she had stayed at school. It's been worth it though and college have been very good with her and are the first place out of four to clock the dyscalculia so I'm very grateful. It's a hard choice for you Draylon. Personally if there isn't a qualification after one year at Eastleigh I think the trek over to Brock might be worth it.

I reckon the OCR and BTEC are the same but are different awarding bodies in the way that there are various different examining bodies for GCSE. There are a lot of OCR courses on the UCAS tarif tables

This the a link to OCR grades and tariff values. The grades are different to BTEC but same tariff
www.ocr.org.uk/images/77754-ocr-nationals-ucas-tariff.pdf

UCAS points are changing for 2017 entrants so these points are for current applicants.

I would have a check on university websites to see what they accept. I just had a quick check to see whether the uni DS is going to (sport rather than IT) accepts OCR and I couldn't see it although site does say to call if you have other qualifications. On another uni website it says OCR extended is accepted.

It is difficult to know what to do isn't it? A levels are so much easier to understand. DS did get a place at a very good college an hours or so away but failed english gcse so ended up at college in our city. Looking back I am not sure he would have coped with the travelling. He has enjoyed his two years at the local college. I also credit his friends on the course as they have been hardworking and do think it helped him to knuckle down

Draylon this is the Ocr L3 IT that I saw, but as I said before I maybe reading the whole thing wrong - it says 100 points which is B at A level. It can't be the same one that FozzieMK was posting about although Eastleigh's website says its 3 A level equivalent. if it isn't a btec then it doesn't seem to match anything else on the tariff. I think I would want to be sure its recognised by ucas - I'm sure it probably is if they quote the ucas points it attracts. This shows that the extended diploma is worth 360 ie 3 As but Easteligh says theirs is 420 Here are all the ocr IT qualifications. Looks like it could be an NVQ rather than a btec - its not very easy to work anything out - how they expect 16 year olds to make informed decisions is beyond me!

Maths is Thursday Gaslight, fingers crossed for your DS that English did actually do well and has passed!

DD doing Japanese A level next year so hopefully will pick up some more UCAS points then

EYV I can only find extended diplomas on the college website

Sugar Brilliant and she will always has the points. Might be enough to start a foundation degree in the future

How did the maths go? DS thought his english went well so is worried that means he has failed!

Draylon I would make sure that for each course you ask how many A levels it is the equivalent to. Your DS has not got on with the A levels so really does need to be looking at an extended L3 Diploma equivalent to 3 A levels so he has the option to go to university.

My DD is just finishing the OCR Extended Level 3 IT Course. She has the equivalent of 3 A* A levels which has helped her get 4 Uni offers, 2 unconditional each with a bursary. She has really enjoyed her course, but half way through most of the tutors left which meant having to change the topics of the modules to suit the remaining two tutors! Luckily for her the first year was really interesting with interesting subjects. I would be inclined to ask about the tutors knowledge and experience as well as the course. One of my DD's tutors was not marking the modules correctly which meant the whole class had to re-do them at the last minute.

Draylon you need to look carefully See the ucas tariff here it looks like the Eastleigh course is only worth the equivalent of one B at A level whereas the Brockenhurst course can potentially give you the equivalent of 3 A levels at A* Might need someone else to come along and check I am reading the tariff correctly but thats what it looks like to me.

Excellent sugar. I like that they do extra modules and pick the best ones. That was the saving grace about DD missing an assessment. She now still has one 'spare'.

Not that I think she will want to ever go on to University but I would like her to have doors open in the future should she want them.

DD is doing the 90 credit diploma as finishing at the end of this year and as with T&T's DD, all the mandatory units are done this year. She has done 11 units and they will take the highest 9. I believe it is the equivalent of 1.5 A levels and if she gets MM as I think she might, that would be 120 UCAS points.

A very happy sounding text arrived earlier to say she has finished the BTEC forever, all in capitals so I think she is quite pleased about that!

DS had a qualification after the first year as well.

He is studying sport not IT bit would have thought the principle is the same. There will be the mandatory modules and then the rest are optional as in a certain number are picked from the list. DS had no choice in the optional as the college picked them so it might be an idea to check with each college exactly what is studied. I know that a poster on here has a son doing the same course as my son and there have been differences.

Found this on a college website (somewhere in Essex!)
Level 3 BTEC Extended Diploma - equivalent to three A-levels.
Level 3 BTEC Subsidiary Diploma - equivalent to one A-level.
Level 3 BTEC Certificate equivalent to one AS-level

To me that implies that either you do the extended diploma over two years or AS levels with the Certificate in the first year and progress to A levels and the Subsidiary Diploma in the second year.

I would check whether the Level 3 course that doesn't mention extended diploma is or isn't as I notice that on out local sixth from website it doesn't mention extended but in the course description states it is equivalent to 3 A levels whereas my DS calls it an extended diploma

Hope that all makes sense!

Hi all

Not been about for a while Draylon from what you have put the first college, Broc was it? That to me sounds the best in terms of him having people ahead of him.

Personally it is really difficult to motivate a student capable of a D if everyone else only wants P.

Could he do an AS or A Level in another maths subject, stats or AS further maths?

She got a merit for the one handed in before half term, really pleased with that. Next one handed in today, not sure what happened with final one and presentation on Wednesday.

That's good HSM. DD doing her presentation shortly but to small number of people. She goes in tomorrow for maths exam then again on Thursday then that is it. Tutor has emailed maths dept to see if she can have special consideration .

DD finishes her AS exams today and only has to go in for btec dance for the rest of the week. Good luck to those of you still working on assessments, particularly those with other things going on in their lives at the same time.

If you don't ask you don't get Sugar. I would see how she is over the weekend after boyfriend goes home.

Sorry that you can't be at the funeral. Why don't you on the day of the funeral have a special meal, a few drinks and a good talk about her. She'll be looking down thinking how exotic and much more glamorous than where the rest of the family are.