Btec - pass, merit, distinction

[Bbq1]

My son is a very talented musician and has just started at a prestigious music college which is extremely hard to get into. He came home today and said that the tutors explained that if you get a pass grade at any point during the 2 year course, then it cancels out any merits/distinctions that you have earnt and the highest grade you can then get from that point on in your overall btec is a pass. This cannot be right surely? If that was the case if a student got a pass early on in the course they could feel what's the point in trying harder from now on and lose interest. On the other hand a pupil could get all merits and distinctions then after 2 years get a pass and basically lose all their higher grades. I don't understand how this can be right but ds is adamant that's the case.

Bump

No, he's got that wrong. A btec is made up of a series of units. He'll get a pass/merit/distinction for each one and then at the end of the whole course they're all added up and converted to ucas points for entry to university, and to a final grade.

I wonder if he's confusing the fact that you have to pass every unit to get the level? Or that if you do more units than required, the highest grades are the ones that count, along with an compulsory units?

Actually I wonder if what he's confusing it with is the concept of averaging them? So if you 8 passes, 1merit and 1 distinction you'd still only get a pass as they've outweighed the other grades? (Just an example, not that straightforward!)

Yes he is wrong, but partly right.

Say there are 19 units, you can get P, M, or D in each one separately.
Then depending on how you did it makes it into an overall grade.

However within a unit you have to meet all the criteria at a grade to get that grade awarded. So if there are 3 pass targets, 4 merit and 2 distinctions, if you get everything except 1 merit then you still end up with only Pass for that unit.

Personally I think that Pearson should publish a 'beginners guide to BTECs' leaflet and that all students & parents should be issued with this on enrollment.

Thanks everyone for clearing that up. I'll pass the info on. @TeenDiveded that's a great idea. I completed a Btec myself but that was 24 years ago so I can't remember quite how it worked.

It can be worth finding the spec on the Pearson website.

That will show the spec for each unit and explain the grading. Don't print it all out without checking the length as there may well be a load of optional units (I guess dependent on the qualification).

Maybe he was referring to the fact that to get a Distinction* you have to get a distinction in every unit of the module?

My DD did an extended diploma from UAL in production and performance arts so not a BTec but a similar vocational qualification. Her final assessed project which was her final result consisted of 7 elements - all graded P,M,D. To get a distinction grade she had to get D in every element. 6 distinctions and 1 pass and her overall grade would be a pass. No averaging went on. Results day was very very stressful. But she got the grade she wanted.