Can I still get DDD?

I sat my btec applied science exam in January and got my results to day I got a pass in both of the units (1 & 3), I want to resit them so I can possibly get a merit but the head of applied science at my college is saying since I passed I won’t be able to resit?? And that I may still be able to achieve DDD in the end because I’ve been getting merits and distinctions in my assignments; but I’m not too sure, I feel like I should insist but idk 😕pls help x

The BTEC re-sit rules are very clear and are detailed here:
"Learners are permitted to resit the external assessment twice. This equates to THREE attempts in total - one inclusive of registration, the remaining two attempts as re-sits.
If learners resit an externally assessed unit, the best grade achieved will count towards their overall qualification grade, not necessarily the most recent sitting."

The above would only make sense if you could retake in an attempt to improve your grade (e.g. change a Pass to a Merit). However, your college might have their own internal re-take policy which prevents you retaking a unit which you've passed. The BTEC rules allow you to do so, so insist your college allow you to if that's what you want to do.

Your question about the potential to obtain DDD is a bit more complicated. The fact that you refer to that grade suggests that it is an Extended Diploma you're taking. Is that right? That's a 13-unit course, and you've only mentioned the grade in 2 of those units. It's therefore a bit soon to be extrapolating potential outcomes.

For the externally assessed (i.e. examined units) you actually receive grade points, which are then mapped to a grade (pass/merit/distinction); the points you get can impact the overall grade. So I'm going to assume that for units 1 and 3 you achieved the highest points you could, whilst still being a pass. For unit 1 that would be 14 (out of 24); for unit 3 that would be 19 (out of 32).

If you receive a distinction is every internal (coursework-based) unit, and you just scrape a pass in the other two external (examined) units - 5 and 7 - then you'd get a DDD overall. However, if any two of those internal (coursework) units were a merit, then the overall grade would drop to a DDM. Getting more points (and hence a better grade) in the remaining external (examined) units would allow more of the internal (coursework) units to be a merit and still allow a DDD overall.

The rules for BTEC grades are almost unfathomable. I can give you a much better answer if you:
(a) Confirm it's an Extended Diploma you're taking (not a Foundation Diploma, Extended Certificate, etc).
(b) Add some precision to your "I’ve been getting merits and distinctions in my assignments" phrase. Have you been awarded a grade for any of the internally assessed units yet? If so, which ones?
(c) State the unit points you obtained in units 1 and 3 (not just the grade).

Thank you for your reply 🙂 yes I am doing the extended diploma, I’ve been getting merits mainly and one distinction. As I only got my results yesterday my teacher didn’t say how many points I got she just said I got a mid - high pass in both units.

OK. units 1 and 3 are different sizes (90 guided learning hours and 120 guided learning hours respectively), so the points required for a pass varies between them. In unit 1, points between 9 and 14 (out of 24) would be a pass, so let's call your "mid - high pass" 12 points. In unit 3, points between 12 and 19 (out of 32) would be a pass, so let's call your "mid - high pass" 16 points.

There are two other external units (i.e. assessed via examination), units 5 and 7. Let's assume you achieved a "mid - high pass" in these two, because it seems you get better grades in internal units (coursework) than external units (exams). They are both the same size as unit 3, so we'll assume 16 out of 32 points. If we assume a merit for each internal assignment, except one which we'll treat as a distinction (as you say "I’ve been getting merits mainly and one distinction") you'd get MMM overall.

You clearly want DDD. There are a few ways to get that. Getting distinctions in the two remaining exams (and leaving all the coursework grades alone) would bump that MMM up to a DDM. Flip a couple of the merits on the remaining internal units to a distinction, and you're up to a DDD.

I recommend you download the BTEC Nationals Grade Calculator from the Pearson Edexcel web site, here, and have a play around yourself which various "what if" scenarios. The external units (with exams) have a large impact on your overall grade, so if you can persuade your college to let you retake the two you did in January, and bump each pass up to a merit, it would certainly help. Good luck.

The BTEC re-sit rules are very clear and are detailed here:
"Learners are permitted to resit the external assessment twice. This equates to THREE attempts in total - one inclusive of registration, the remaining two attempts as re-sits.
If learners resit an externally assessed unit, the best grade achieved will count towards their overall qualification grade, not necessarily the most recent sitting."

The above would only make sense if you could retake in an attempt to improve your grade (e.g. change a Pass to a Merit). However, your college might have their own internal re-take policy which prevents you retaking a unit which you've passed. The BTEC rules allow you to do so, so insist your college allow you to if that's what you want to do.

Your question about the potential to obtain DDD is a bit more complicated. The fact that you refer to that grade suggests that it is an Extended Diploma you're taking. Is that right? That's a 13-unit course, and you've only mentioned the grade in 2 of those units. It's therefore a bit soon to be extrapolating potential outcomes.

For the externally assessed (i.e. examined units) you actually receive grade points, which are then mapped to a grade (pass/merit/distinction); the points you get can impact the overall grade. So I'm going to assume that for units 1 and 3 you achieved the highest points you could, whilst still being a pass. For unit 1 that would be 14 (out of 24); for unit 3 that would be 19 (out of 32).

If you receive a distinction is every internal (coursework-based) unit, and you just scrape a pass in the other two external (examined) units - 5 and 7 - then you'd get a DDD overall. However, if any two of those internal (coursework) units were a merit, then the overall grade would drop to a DDM. Getting more points (and hence a better grade) in the remaining external (examined) units would allow more of the internal (coursework) units to be a merit and still allow a DDD overall.

The rules for BTEC grades are almost unfathomable. I can give you a much better answer if you:
(a) Confirm it's an Extended Diploma you're taking (not a Foundation Diploma, Extended Certificate, etc).
(b) Add some precision to your "I’ve been getting merits and distinctions in my assignments" phrase. Have you been awarded a grade for any of the internally assessed units yet? If so, which ones?
(c) State the unit points you obtained in units 1 and 3 (not just the grade).

could you please help me determine my grade? i have done a level 3 btec extended certificate in health and social care (pearsons). i have 8 distinctions, 3 merits, 1 pass and 1 near pass. i have tried using online calculators but they dont include my specific course for some reason.

The Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Certificate in Health and Social Care is a 4 unit qualification. You've done 13 units, so you've done the Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma in Health and Social Care. That might explain why you can't get any joy working out your overall grade!

To work out your overall grade I need two additional pieces of information:

1. Which unit was each of those grades was in? This is important because the units are not all of the same size, with the larger units (e.g. unit 2) being worth more than the smaller units (e.g. unit 6). So if I assume that near pass was in a small unit when it's actually it was in a large unit, it'll give the wrong overall grade, potentially. Unit numbers or names is fine.

2. For those units assessed by examination (that's units 1, 2, 3 and 4), what unit points did you attain? (The points for a unit are translated into a grade for the unit, but it's the points which are used when calculating the overall grade.) If you don't know this, I'll need to just assume it's the mid-point of the grade for that unit.

could you please help me determine my grade? i have done a level 3 btec extended certificate in health and social care (pearsons). i have 8 distinctions, 3 merits, 1 pass and 1 near pass. i have tried using online calculators but they dont include my specific course for some reason.

units 1 & 2 i got merits. and unit 4 was a near pass and unit 3 was a pass

OK, there's still some information missing here, but I'll take a stab at an overall grade for you.

I know you have "i have 8 distinctions, 3 merits, 1 pass and 1 near pass" and I know what you're grades for units 1 through 4 are. However, I asked above, "For those units assessed by examination (that's units 1, 2, 3 and 4), what unit points did you attain?" That is very important as it can make a huge difference. As you haven't answered that question, I'm going to have to give you a range of overall grades.

In unit 1, to get a merit you must have had at least 15 points, but not more than 23.
In unit 2, to get a merit you must have had at least 20 points, but not more than 31.
In unit 3, to get a pass you must have had at least 12 points, but not more than 12.
In unit 4, to get a near pass you must have had at least 8 points, but not more than 11.

That leaves 9 units which I know are all distinctions except one, which is a merit. You haven't told me which one - this could make a difference.

If we take a worse case scenario and assume you have the minimum possible points to attain each of the grades you received in units 1 through 4, and we assume that the remaining merit was in unit 5 (which is larger than most of the remaining units), then your overall grade is DDM.



However, if we take a best case scenario and assume you have the maximum possible points to attain each of the grades you received in units 1 through 4, and we assume that the remaining merit was in unit 6 (which is smaller than unit 5), then your overall grade is D*DD.



Unless you can tell me the points you have received for units 1 through 4, and you can tell which which of the internal (coursework-based) units you got the merit in, the best I can give you is the above range: somewhere between DDM and D*DD.

Note for the optional units above I've just picked any because it doesn't make any difference and because, despite me asking "Which unit was each of those grades was in" you haven't told me.

I forgot about the others! I know that unit 5 & 7 have higher points than the others. I’ll list them all for you. But thank you so far for being so patient with me!

unit 1 - merit
unit 2 - merit
unit 3 - pass
unit 4 - near pass
Unit 5 - distinction
unit 6 - distinction
unit 7 - merit
unit 8 - distinction
unit 9 - distinction
unit 11 - distinction
unit 19 - distinction
unit 22 - distinction
unit 26 - distinction

Thanks. The fact that you're doing units 22 and 26 tells me that you're not actually doing "Health and Social Care", you doing "Health and Social Care (Health Studies)". That doesn't make any difference to the overall grade though, I just thought you might like to know.

How about the points for units 1 to 4? That is now the only remaining unknown. Unless you can find that out, we're stuck with "somewhere between DDM and D*DD", I'm afraid. A DDM is very unlikely, to be fair, but it's still a mathematical possibility.

If you don't know your points for these units, then perhaps you know the raw marks you achieved for each? (In order to convert raw marks to points, I'll need to know what exam series was involved - i..e. were these all January 2023 exams, or were some January 2022?)

I don’t know the exact points. For unit 1&2 i sat the 2021 exams but Covid happened so they were predicted grades. but for unit 4 it was Jan 2022. For unit 3 I failed the Jan 2022 but retook it in Jan 2023. as long as I have 120 ucas points overall I should be okay as I need that for my uni offer. d*dd to a ddm is 120+ ucas points so I should be okay.

Agreed. DDM (which is the lowest overall grade you could have achieved - and even that is unlikely) gets you 128 UCAS points. So you're fine.

Im not so sure what my grades would be either. It would be really good if someone could help me. I am doing the BTEC Level 3 Applied Science course and I am in my 2nd (final) year. My current grades from last year and this year are

Unit 1 - Merit (Biology (8/30), Chemistry (18/30), physics (18/30) total 44)
Unit 2 - Pass
Unit 3 - Merit (34/60)
Unit 4 - Distinction
Unit 5 - Merit (59/90)
Unit 6 - Pass
Unit 7 - Pass (23/50) (I am resitting it because i was 2 marks off of a merit)
Unit 9 - Distinction
Unit 10 - Not done yet
Unit 14 - Pass
Unit 15 - Distinction
Unit 19 - Not done yet
Unit 21 - Pass (Am currently doing resubmission for Distinction)

Both my firm and insurance need at least a DDM. Is this possible? if so, which grades would i need my remaining units to be in? thank you.

The BTEC re-sit rules are very clear and are detailed here:
"Learners are permitted to resit the external assessment twice. This equates to THREE attempts in total - one inclusive of registration, the remaining two attempts as re-sits.
If learners resit an externally assessed unit, the best grade achieved will count towards their overall qualification grade, not necessarily the most recent sitting."

The above would only make sense if you could retake in an attempt to improve your grade (e.g. change a Pass to a Merit). However, your college might have their own internal re-take policy which prevents you retaking a unit which you've passed. The BTEC rules allow you to do so, so insist your college allow you to if that's what you want to do.

Your question about the potential to obtain DDD is a bit more complicated. The fact that you refer to that grade suggests that it is an Extended Diploma you're taking. Is that right? That's a 13-unit course, and you've only mentioned the grade in 2 of those units. It's therefore a bit soon to be extrapolating potential outcomes.

For the externally assessed (i.e. examined units) you actually receive grade points, which are then mapped to a grade (pass/merit/distinction); the points you get can impact the overall grade. So I'm going to assume that for units 1 and 3 you achieved the highest points you could, whilst still being a pass. For unit 1 that would be 14 (out of 24); for unit 3 that would be 19 (out of 32).

If you receive a distinction is every internal (coursework-based) unit, and you just scrape a pass in the other two external (examined) units - 5 and 7 - then you'd get a DDD overall. However, if any two of those internal (coursework) units were a merit, then the overall grade would drop to a DDM. Getting more points (and hence a better grade) in the remaining external (examined) units would allow more of the internal (coursework) units to be a merit and still allow a DDD overall.

The rules for BTEC grades are almost unfathomable. I can give you a much better answer if you:
(a) Confirm it's an Extended Diploma you're taking (not a Foundation Diploma, Extended Certificate, etc).
(b) Add some precision to your "I’ve been getting merits and distinctions in my assignments" phrase. Have you been awarded a grade for any of the internally assessed units yet? If so, which ones?
(c) State the unit points you obtained in units 1 and 3 (not just the grade).

Thank you providing so much detail. For the external units (1, 3, 5 and 7) we need to convert those raw marks into points. To do that accurately, we need to know when you achieved those raw marks (as the grade boundaries, and therefore the conversion, move around a little each exam series). I've used the January 2023 boundaries below as the January 2022 boundaries were slightly lower and the June 2022 boundaries were slightly higher - so they're a reasonable approximation of a mid-point. If you can tell me when you took each of those units (they'll likely be at different times), I can update the below.

Note that specification, here, says Unit 5 is out of 120 marks; the grade boundaries for January 2022, June 2022 and January 2023 all agree. If we "scale-up" your stated 59/90 to 78/120, then this would earn a distinction for this unit - whilst you say it's a merit. As 59/120 would indeed be a merit, this is what I've assumed you scored; 59/120.

Another anomaly is that the specification says that Unit 1 is out of 90 (3 sections of 30 marks each), which matches what you've quoted above, but the grade boundaries are provided separately for each section, out of 90 marks each. As the boundaries are identical for each section, I've assumed this is just some odd formatting issue - especially as they do the same thing for Unit 5.

Taking the above into account, and using a "a sliding scale between the grade boundaries based on the number of raw marks achieved", as described in each grade boundaries document (see January 2022, June 2022 and January 2023), we get the following:

Unit 1 (44/90) is 16 points.
Unit 3 (34/60) is 28 points.
Unit 5 (59/120) is 22 points.
Unit 7 (23/50) is 18 points.

If we assume that you get a Pass in the two outstanding units (Unit 10 and Unit 19), assume that your resit and re-submission makes no impact, and plug everything in the BTEC Nationals Grade Calculator, then your Overall Grade would be DMM.



Even if we assume that both of your outstanding units are a Merit, the Overall Grade stays at DMM. That's also the case if you just squeeze a Merit from Unit 7. To hit the DMM, you'd need to get a Merit for each of the two remaining units and get 24 points from the Unit 7 resit (that means 29/50):



Another way of achieving DDM overall (even if Unit 7 stayed at a Pass) would to to get a Merit and a Distinction in the two outstanding units:



There are obviously quite a few other scenarios. I suggest you download the "BTEC Nationals - Grade Calculator" from the Pearson web site here and try out a few things if you want to see the impact of other scenarios. (It's an Excel spreadsheet and requires macros to be enabled.)

Thank you providing so much detail. For the external units (1, 3, 5 and 7) we need to convert those raw marks into points. To do that accurately, we need to know when you achieved those raw marks (as the grade boundaries, and therefore the conversion, move around a little each exam series). I've used the January 2023 boundaries below as the January 2022 boundaries were slightly lower and the June 2022 boundaries were slightly higher - so they're a reasonable approximation of a mid-point. If you can tell me when you took each of those units (they'll likely be at different times), I can update the below.

Note that specification, here, says Unit 5 is out of 120 marks; the grade boundaries for January 2022, June 2022 and January 2023 all agree. If we "scale-up" your stated 59/90 to 78/120, then this would earn a distinction for this unit - whilst you say it's a merit. As 59/120 would indeed be a merit, this is what I've assumed you scored; 59/120.

Another anomaly is that the specification says that Unit 1 is out of 90 (3 sections of 30 marks each), which matches what you've quoted above, but the grade boundaries are provided separately for each section, out of 90 marks each. As the boundaries are identical for each section, I've assumed this is just some odd formatting issue - especially as they do the same thing for Unit 5.

Taking the above into account, and using a "a sliding scale between the grade boundaries based on the number of raw marks achieved", as described in each grade boundaries document (see January 2022, June 2022 and January 2023), we get the following:

Unit 1 (44/90) is 16 points.
Unit 3 (34/60) is 28 points.
Unit 5 (59/120) is 22 points.
Unit 7 (23/50) is 18 points.

If we assume that you get a Pass in the two outstanding units (Unit 10 and Unit 19), assume that your resit and re-submission makes no impact, and plug everything in the BTEC Nationals Grade Calculator, then your Overall Grade would be DMM.



Even if we assume that both of your outstanding units are a Merit, the Overall Grade stays at DMM. That's also the case if you just squeeze a Merit from Unit 7. To hit the DMM, you'd need to get a Merit for each of the two remaining units and get 24 points from the Unit 7 resit (that means 29/50):



Another way of achieving DDM overall (even if Unit 7 stayed at a Pass) would to to get a Merit and a Distinction in the two outstanding units:



There are obviously quite a few other scenarios. I suggest you download the "BTEC Nationals - Grade Calculator" from the Pearson web site here and try out a few things if you want to see the impact of other scenarios. (It's an Excel spreadsheet and requires macros to be enabled.)

Hey there, sorry for such a late reply but i've got more information. Unit 6 is now thankfully a Merit, which is good because it has a weight of 90. I've also been given a Merit for Unit 21 but it'll likely get bumped up to a Distinction. does this mean that I only need a PP in units 19 and 10 or MM?

Thank you!

Do you know how I can get to that website or whatever it is? I’d like to calculate my grades too. Where did you get that?