A levels or BTEC if lazy but bright?

[teensteens]

DS had planned to take A levels at 6th form college in September but had a place to do a BTEC as back up. He did no work for GCSEs so was unsure if he would get the grade 7s required for maths, physics, computing A levels. He exceeded the grades but is now unsure if he wants to do the work required for A levels.

Am trying to get him to consider the pros and cons. Personally I dont think he has the work ethic for A levels as he has never done homework or revision (he has SEN and struggles with the concept of either) however he loves physics and has found it incredibly easy whereas there is no BTEC he is that interested in.

He had applied to do computing BTEC but many of the modules are not of that much interest to him and it appears to involve more writing than the A levels and very little programming.

Any thoughts welcome. Thanks

The 'jump' between GCSEs and A-levels is reputed to be the biggest 'jump' anywhere in education.

Both physics and maths are reputed to be some of the most difficult A-levels. Many, many bright dc find GCSE math and physics can be done without putting too much effort in, but then they fall flat on their faces at A-level, when the subjects change completely.

All of that said, of course, I don't think there is much point in starting a BTEC that he isn't interested in even before he begins.

Are there other A-levels that might appeal ?

He needs to see a careers advisor at school or college, as it very much depends on where he wants to go after 16-18 education. Has he thought about an apprenticeship? It may be that the combination of work and education suits him better - I know it did me.

Engineering BTEC?

If he’s naturally good at physics/maths, I’d go for the A-levels. It’s hard work but it’s not reading lots of books and writing essays. If you ‘get’ it in the lesson, homework is work but not hard work. (Obviously if you’re not a natural, it’s just painfully hard work).

A BTEC in engineering would certainly use his maths & physics

CTec science and/or computing rather than BTec?

Depends what dc wants to do as a career.

I have not heard of ctec - not sure if that is offered at our colleges - will have a look. Is it the same level?

Not sure about engineering - many of the family are engineers but DS's brain works in a very different way and it never seemed something they thought he would be suited to. I feel like the BTEC required practical ability (of which he has none) but will recheck the syllabus.

He wont do any other A levels as he doesnt write (had scribe for GCSEs but no guarantee that would continue for A levels)

He has absolutely no idea about careers. It is hard to imagine him being employable really and certainly not for a corporate environment unless he totally transforms. His SEN makes it almost impossible for him to think about tomorrow let alone in 2 years time. He lives totally in the here and now and struggles to see effect of any consequences such as the concept of revision giving better exam results.

He sounds like he has natural ability so I would be tempted to say go for the A-levels.

I know nothing of BTECs but I do know that I was lazy but bright, and I went from 7xA* and 4xA at GCSE with very little effort, to nothing over an E at A-level (sciences and maths).

My degree was far far easier than A-Levels. A-Levels completely trounced me (twice).

For clarity, I also put very little effort into A-Levels - they weren't impossible, I was just lazy.

BTEC is more of a constant assessment so if he’s lazy it’s not the option for him - if he does nothing in Y12 that WILL impact his grade whereas with A Levels he would have the chance to cram revision in last minute and trade off natural ability and MIGHT get a passing set of grades.

I'd see it as the other way round, from SometimesRavenSometimesParrot

Because BTEC is constant assessment, he will have to do the work each week / month / whenever the assessments are, whereas if he thinks he can get away with slacking off as "nothing counts until the exams at the end" he probably won't put the work in that is needed.

None of us know him of course, but, where as some staying awake in lessons and a bit of last minute cramming might work at GCSE, it won't cut the mustard for A levels.

Btec is MUCH easier. The teacher marks the majority of it so the marking is quite lenient and the students get multiple chances to get it right. The same person will do loads better at Btec than at A-levels.

Yes I dont think continuous assessment will be great for him but at least it would be obvious very quickly if he is failing. I dont want him to do 2 years of A levels and then fail the exams although presumably college will not let people progress if they are not working.

Myname - that is concerning. I dont think he would have to put huge effort in to get mediocre A levels as he spent his time at school disrupting the lessons or being in the corridor so it wasnt just little effort. Just not sure if he will do so.

I feels like either option is destined to fail.

I agree BTEC is easier but it is totally different course so whilst he finds maths and especially physics very easy he may find many of the topics on computing BTEC require lots of writing which he wont do and as he usually annoys the teachers it may not do him the same favour to have teachers marking as it does those who try hard.

I dont think he could do engineering as you have to have some practical ability looking at the BTEC syllabus.

Kite22 - he often wasnt in the lessons and definitely didnt do any last minute cramming for GCSEs! However I agree that he wont be able to do A levels based on current/general knowledge like he did GCSEs and will definitely need to be in the lessons.

as he usually annoys the teachers it may not do him the same favour to have teachers marking as it does those who try hard
That’s irrelevant. The teachers are told to pass as many students as possible because the college only gets paid if they pass. That’s why they’ve now introduced some Btec exams, because teachers were passing everyone and even falsifying dates and grades in order to pass students. When I was a teacher if students didn’t do the work I’d be told to pretend I’d lost it and mark them as a pass.

If he's unlikely to put the effort in I would definitely recommend against A-Levels unless he is exceptionally bright, as there is a massive difference between GCSEs and A-Levels.

Ds1 (has aspergers and is very, very bright apart from hating English so doesn't engage) did Physics, Computing (actually a BTEC) and Engineering in sixth form and we had to push him to get the work done. He received high or very high marks for all his GCSEs except English but struggled quite a lot with the A-Levels as he didn't apply himself. He can still, two years later, reel off loads of stuff he learned in them, so he did learn, but it took lots of effort from us and his teachers to get him there; sometimes I think it might have been better for him to have done something a bit more practical rather than more in-school learning though. The Computing BTEC was 13 modules which involved a lot of written work, and at least twice his teachers threatened to fail him, we had to sit with him and log in to the work on the school system at the same time as him to supervise him just to ensure he did the work. Was time consuming for us too.

Ds2 (nt and exceptionally bright) had exceptional results in his GCSEs and took Computing (BTEC), History and English lit in sixth form. He is brighter than ds1 but he still had to put a lot of work in to make sure he got the grades he did (not so stealth boast - History - B, Eng - A, Comp - distinction star, extra studies he did got him another A) They did do mock exams a few months ago for the school to assess what each pupil needed to work on and his history was lacking (C grade level, at risk of going down to a D) but he worked hard and improved. If you are not willing to put in the necessary effort then you need to have a photographic memory or be naturally really bright to do A-levels).

The problem with BTECs is that there might not be one that is relevant to your ds. There wasn't anything else suitable for ds1 when he did his A-Levels, that's one reason why he did them rather than the other options. Would be worth your ds discussing all options with careers adviser and teachers before making his final decision.

I guess the thing is, if he's done well in his GCSEs is he really lazy but bright or is he just bright? Personally I always did homework but I never did much revision for GCSEs because I didn't need to. When it came to a-levels I did revise to get the grades I wanted/needed. My point being maybe be does have a work ethic but he just hasn't had to use it yet (of course you know him best but I wouldn't write him off as lazy just because he hasn't felt the need to put the effort in yet).

If he won’t engage with the writing side of things then a BTEC probably isn’t for him due to the high level of coursework.

It might be best to go for a mix of alevels and BTEC and see which works best. There will be assessments (assignment hand in for BTEC) every term/half-term for both so teachers will quickly see who is failing and who isn’t. At the school I work at the can’t progress if not securing certain grades after the first terms.

There’s also still end of year assessments at the end of year 12 ran by the school, so at this point it would be clear if he was failing in any and at that point the school would reassess with him what he should be doing. At that point there would usually be the option to drop subjects/pick up others and extend the time at the sixth form/college by a year.

Are TLevels an option near you? There are some that are engineering, programming and science based.

Or would he be better off in an apprenticeship? Working and studying may make him see the point to the learning and get him more inspired. This may not be a first choice but may suit him better, if he isn’t motivated by purely academic learning.

Ask his school? If he finds physics easy I’d go for that, btecs are lots of course work.