BTEC Level 2 Diploma grading

Charityworker

Could anyone tell me. If you are on a BTEC level 2 Diploma how do they work out whether you have a pass, merit or distinction? Do they add up all the marks and if you have over a certain amount they award the grade or do you have to get a merit in all of your assignments in order to receive a merit grade?

My daughter is on a BTEC Level 2 animal care course and is trying to get a merit. She thinks she might have not achieved a merit on one of the assignments at the start of the course but has in all the others. Will this mean she hasn't got a merit grade?

iSlideOnItConstance

Charityworker wrote: »

Could anyone tell me. If you are on a BTEC level 2 Diploma how do they work out whether you have a pass, merit or distinction? Do they add up all the marks and if you have over a certain amount they award the grade or do you have to get a merit in all of your assignments in order to receive a merit grade?

My daughter is on a BTEC Level 2 animal care course and is trying to get a merit. She thinks she might have not achieved a merit on one of the assignments at the start of the course but has in all the others. Will this mean she hasn't got a merit grade?

This

harrys_dad

Her tutor should have been keeping a note of all her marks so they could tell her as she was going along how she was doing, and how many marks she needs for her final module to achieve a merit. This is good practice for all modular courses and encourages students considerably.

viscachaz

Yep! I got distinctions in some modules despite getting merits and passes, so not always the end of the world.

Tell her as she is aiming for an overall Merit as I was, to make sure she balances out any passes she gets with a distinction as she'll be fine!

This may not be entirely accurate as my one was level 3 (City and Guilds), but mine was:

1 point for pass
2 points for merit
3 points for distinction

ones that were pass/fail were ignored

The section were added up and an average taken, with overalls being:

1-1.5 pass
1.6-2.5 merit
2.6-3 distinction

so 1 passes and 3 merits = 1+2+2+2, divided by 4 as there were 4 pieces of work in total = 1.75 which in turn = Merit for that module.

(Hope I explained that clearly enough!!)

She should be getting a folder to put work in, they will give her front sheets with assignment quantities in per module, so she can almost work it out as she goes along, knowing that if she has 1 pass, she needs x combinations of merits/distinctions to bring up the overall to a merit.

ETA: Don't rely on her tutors knowing what she got.. right up until the last minute when I was trying to get signed off at the end I was being asked what I got as it "wasn't on their system" and I couldn't leave until I showed them the marking sheet to give proof of what mark I got.. (but where I did it was horrendously disorganised, I'm sure other places are a lot better!)

Charityworker

Thanks for your replies.

I finally received a phonecall back from her tutor who said that in order to receive an overall merit grade she would have to have achieved a merit in all the assignments. There have been 28 of them so far and she received a merit in 27 of them so I guess she will only get a pass grade even though she has got all those merits? Seems a bit unfair. There could be any number of reasons why a student got a lower mark in an assignment such as illness or anything.

harrys_dad

I do not think the tutor is correct at all (but have no evidence for this except that it has never applied in any other exam I have been involved with). Why not ring the Exam Board and ask? If I am wrong, can she retake that one module?

~Beanie~

I don't think its correct either, from a quick Google, it seems that they add all your scores together and your grade is worked out from that.

Unless she just scraped through with a merit on all modules and that one pass is enough to drag her score low enough down, which I think is unlikely.

moaninggit

http://www.edexcel.com/migrationdocuments/BTEC%20Firsts%20from%202010/BF025329-BTEC-Firsts-in-Animal-Care-L2-web.pdf

With the 2 previous posters on this one the I think the tutor has made a mistake and your daughter has got a merit.

szam_

I did a BTEC a few years back, i'm pretty sure its based on averages;

Example

1 pass, 3 merits, 1 distinction = Merit
3 pass, 1 merit, 1 distinction = Pass

And so on.

I think where it gets complicated is when you're doing different parts of a unit, if you have 3 sections, it's based on your lowest score.

It may have changed since, but i think that's how it was explained to me, it is going back about 5 years, i've slept since then!

eym

I teach BTEC level 2, 3 and 4 (although not in animal care). Final grade is determined on a points system with 340 - 379 points required for a merit. You study 5 full and 2 half units and are awarded 50 points for a pass, 60 for a merit and 70 for a distinction.

To achieve a merit in a unit you have to pass all the pass and merit criteria for that unit.You have to pass all units.

So in theory you can achieve a pass in two units and still achieve a merit overall. The problem comes when you split criteria from different units across assignments. So if your daughter has not achieved the merit criteria in an assignment that contains merit criteria from 3 units, then she would only be entitled to a pass. However, it is unlikely the assingments are structured like this given the number of assignments she has been asked to do.

Her school/college should be able to give you a breakdown of all her passes and merits for each unit, so you could double check what you are being told.

Charityworker

~Beanie~ wrote: »

Unless she just scraped through with a merit on all modules and that one pass is enough to drag her score low enough down, which I think is unlikely.

Unfortunately I think this may be the case. Although her level of knowledge on the subject is absolutely amazing and she's brilliant at doing the practical side of it getting it down on paper is another matter. I've helped her as much as I can but with a full time job, small business and 2 other kids to sort out its been a struggle. She's never been very academic as she can't get things down on paper. If all exams were verbal she would be getting on amazingly.

So I think she might have just scraped a merit in the assignments.

Does anyone know if the assignments are marked by any outside organisation or just by her tutor?

Thanks.