BTEC grades?

[fourpeasinapod]

Hello all,

DS does a btec in ict at college. As far as I know, it’s a level 3 national diploma.

Anyway, he was meant to be sitting on external exam this year but his teachers don’t seem to know what way it will be graded. Can anyone on here shed some light on this please?

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/879019/Summer_2020_results_for_vocational_technical_and_other_qualifications.pdf

www.gov.uk/government/news/awarding-vocational-and-technical-qualifications-this-summer

No decision made yet. Some sort of teacher assessment. Decision several weeks away as consultation process opened yesterday for 3 weeks. Sorry. Difficult.

@fourpeasinapod is your DS’s btec equivalent to 3 A levels? I think he’s doing a level 3 extended diploma if so (I don’t think the 2 A level equiv has exams). My DS is in the same boat. There is a webinar for providers today (30th April) so hoping that brings some clarity. Was told by my son that the two exam units he wasn’t able to take in January with the rest of his group would have grades determined entirely by the exam board based on the other 2 exam units he took last year and how the rest of the group got on in January. I’m not entirely sure where he got this information from and my email to the school yesterday pointing out that would be like giving someone a GCSE grade in Maths based on their English grade so I’m hoping he is very much wrong. Information has been very confusing.

Unfortunately, while we look at BTEC’s in the same way as GCSE’s and A Levels from the point of view they are being taken by our school age children, they are lumped in with some very technical qualifications which wouldn’t be able to have a simulated grade for an exam due to safety. The exam being the only way they can be absolutely sure someone know’s what they need to know. I understand it’s difficult and takes time to find workable solutions but it feels like btec students have been very much left out in the cold and for those who are still of school age, the uncertainty compared to their GCSE and A level taking friends is really unfair.

@TheTeenageYears no mine does the national diploma and there is one exam which is cyber security and incident management.

They still don’t know how it will be graded

@fourpeasinapod We haven't heard anything from school but my DS was waving his laptop around last night showing what is probably a school document rather than anything else which had grades in for both the examined units he won't be sitting and the last unit that hadn't yet been taught. No idea where the grades have come from or if they are final so told him to carry on with the corrections for his last two assignments to ensure his grade doesn't slip. Would be really nice to get some official information sometime soon.

Was told by my son that the two exam units he wasn’t able to take in January with the rest of his group would have grades determined entirely by the exam board based on the other 2 exam units he took last year and how the rest of the group got on in January. I’m not entirely sure where he got this

That does actually sound sensible.

With BTEC the marks given by the teacher are provisional until the internal and external moderation.

External moderation consists of someone from BTEC going to the centre and beingg given samples of work at Pass, Merit and Distinction, usually all completed work is available but the EM only looks at a selection.

If the EM agrees with the teacher then the results are confirmed and cannot be changed.

If the EM thiks there is aproblem then assessements have to be remarked, re internally and externally moderated.

Now there should be a corelation between the grades obtained in exams and course work. Onviously there is some variation but if a class of 30 students has 10 students with passes, 10 with merits and 10 with distinctions in course work and the exam is 11pass, 12 merits and 7 distinctions in the exam and out of the 11 passes there are the 10 that got passes in course work and similar results for merit and distinctions you have iundividual results but you also have a profile for that cohort.

So theoreticaly you can predict the grade of the units not taken.

Some units the teracher will have someething to assess eg lots of BTECs have a work placement. To complete the placement you have to spend a set number of hours on placement, this year that placement will have been cut short but students can still complete some or all of the written work which can be marked.

Some units can, just about, be done with self study.

I think a lot will depend whether the student is in the first or final year of BTEC.

Assuming a final year student, then if they have distinctions for the majority of their units, and the exam profile of the group is similar to that of completed course work it is reasonable to assume that student would have got distinctions in their outstanding work..

Sorry for the long post, I've n ot taught this year so this is an educated guess of what could happen.

Thanks @sashh my DS is in final year. The slight problem is there are only just over a handful of students on his course so not really enough for a reliable sample although I completely see where you are coming from.

Yeah my DS is final year too @TheTeenageYears

DS has got distinctions and merits in his first year units (3 distinctions and 1 merit)

He has got mostly passes in this years assignments because he hasn’t tried as hard @sashh
Does that mean he could be given a pass in his cyber security? He’s pretty wound up

@fourpeas

Well as I said I've not taught this year and I am speculationg.

If they are giving a grade looking at what has already been achieved then that may well be the case.

Keep in touch with the school. I can't see external veriifiers going out to schools so the results may not be verified yet. I would imagine BTEC will be doing something by post.

@sashh ok thank you.

They seem like a bunch of arseholes. If they’d just get on with it

Look at the Ofqual.com website. It explains it there