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Original poster

Pros of doing BTEC vs A-Levels

27 replies

IHeartHarryStyles · 20/08/2020 20:26

Those on the corona cohort threads know that DD didn’t get what she (we) hoped for today in her GCSE results. She has been offered places on BTEC courses at 6th form as opposed to her preferred A-Levels.

She can transfer to a different 6th form to do a mixture of BTEC and A-Level but it means leaving her friends and a really highly regarded school.

She isn’t sure what to do. Right now it feels like the end of the world to her. What are the pros of a BTEC qualification. Can she realistically still go to uni or are BTEC the poor relation which will rule her out of all decent courses? I’ve tried geeing her up and bigging up BTEC courses but some real life examples would be great. From what I’ve read they seem like they could be a great option.

OP posts:
Original poster
IHeartHarryStyles · 20/08/2020 20:59

Thanks @clary she’s been offered applied business, sports studies and health and social care with a possibility of ICT instead.

She had wanted to do PE, Business and Psychology A-Level with no real pathway settled on from there.

We’ve looked at business courses at a couple of unis and it looks possible that BTEC would be accepted but also needing grade 5 or 6 in English/Maths GCSE which she doesn’t have.

Wondering if sitting the exam would be worth it in the autumn. She’s just so sad, this set of results has completely blindsided her. She’s dropped grades in 5 subjects from what she was predicted at the end of year 10. Her yr 11 mocks were a disaster but we hoped everything else might outweigh them. Unfortunately it didn’t. Although on the one subject where she outperformed herself in her yr 11 mocks she didn’t get that grade either, reverting back to what she had been predicted at the end of yr 10.

OP posts:
clary · 20/08/2020 20:46

She can certainly go to uni with BTEC post 16.

Yes, probably not Oxford or Warwick or Bristol. But these may not be what she was looking at anyway?

Have a look at what she would like to do, and look up the entry requirements at some unis she may like (eg nearby, far away, campus or city?). That will give you a better idea. What subject is/are the BTEC(s)?