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Btec level 3 extended business dimploma

I’m wondering does your overall BTEC grade depend on the units GLH points. Or is there another factor as I tried predicting myself and my teacher said it may not be accurate not necessarily because I got the grades.

Reply 1

DataVenia

Volunteer Team, Clearing and Applications Advisor

Original post by Kiarnasmith

Your overall grade depends on your grade per unit, the size of each unit (in GLH) and the type of unit (external units - with exams - are typically worth more than internal units - with coursework). Note that with external units, the mark (not just the grade) is important.

If you list out you units, and the grade you have in each, I can help you estimate your overall grade. If you know your mark for each external (examined) unit, which most people don't, then even better.

Reply 2

DataVenia

Volunteer Team, Clearing and Applications Advisor

Original post by Kiarnasmith

Employment Law- P
Personal finance - P but resitting the personal finance mark was 31, or 32 the grade for merit was 35 and i rememeber not being far off
Recruitment and selection - M
Developing a marketing campaign- P/ i cant remember my mark but was definitely 25 +as i passed it
Exploring Business - P
Managing an event - P
Visual Merchandising - P
Honestly, not the best but i wasnt given help in my first year,anyways thats it
The rest of my units for year 2 are all internal and all 60 GLH
I need a DDM for uni.

My
Many thanks

Well, just glancing at those unit grades I think we both know that DDM isn't going to happen, but I'll work it through anyway.

The way this BTEC is graded is that each unit is awarded a certain number of points. These are then totaled-up and mapped to an overall grade. I've listed the units you've done so far, together with the points earned for each. I've added the unit numbers and sorted them by it, as it makes it much easier to work with.

Unit 1 - Exploring Business - P - 90 GLH - internal - 9 points
Unit 2 - Developing a Marketing Campaign - P - 90 GLH - external - between 9 and 14 points, depending on the mark
Unit 3 - Personal and Business Finance - P - 120 GLH - external - between 12 and 19 points, depending on the mark
Unit 4 - Managing an Event - P - 90 GLH - internal - 9 points
Unit 8 - Recruitment and Selection Process - M - 60 GLH - internal - 10 points
Unit 16 - Visual Merchandising - P - 60 GLH - internal - 6 points
Unit 24 - Employment Law - P - 60 GLH - internal - 6 points

You say that "The rest of my units for year 2 are all internal and all 60 GLH". So what about Unit 5 (International Business) - a 90 GLH internal unit, Unit 6 (Principles of Management) - a 120 GLH external unit, and Unit 7 (Business Decision Making) - a 120 GLH external unit? These are all mandatory for the Extended Diploma in Business. (See "Structures of the qualifications at a glance" section of the specification, here.)

You've listed 7 units and 570 GLH so far - so just over half the qualification (which is 13 units and 1080 GLH). So far you've gained between 61 and 73 points (depending on the marks you got in the two external units). For a DDM you need 196 points overall. If you obtained a D(istinction) in each of the remaining units then you'd get between 197 and 209 points overall (depending on the marks you got in the two external units you've already done). That would get you the DDM. But that's obviously a very big ask. :frown:

Have you applied to any unis with requirements lower than DDM?

Reply 3

DataVenia

Volunteer Team, Clearing and Applications Advisor

Original post by Kiarnasmith

Sorry for the confusion, the rest of my assignments and exams for this year are principles of managment, which ive been doing well on so hopefully ill get a merit. The 2nd exam this year is decison making and aiming for a merit.
The coursework remaining for this year is team builidng, investigating customer service, international business and training and devlopment and aiming to get distinctions in that.If i do well in my exams would it be possible to get DMM?
i have appliedbut they mostly want a DDM and DMM.

OK, so I'll restate your grades per unit with this new information added. The ones in green italics are new / estimated:

Unit 1 - Exploring Business - P - 90 GLH - internal - 9 points
Unit 2 - Developing a Marketing Campaign - P - 90 GLH - external - between 9 and 14 points, depending on the mark
Unit 3 - Personal and Business Finance - P - 120 GLH - external - between 12 and 19 points, depending on the mark
Unit 4 - Managing an Event - P - 90 GLH - internal - 9 points
Unit 5 - International Business - D - 90 GLH - internal - 24 points
Unit 6 - Principles of Management - M - 120 GLH - external - between 20 and 31 points, depending on the mark
Unit 7 - Business Decision Making - M - 120 GLH - external - between 20 and 31 points, depending on the mark
Unit 8 - Recruitment and Selection Process - M - 60 GLH - internal - 10 points
Unit 9 - Team Building in Business - D - 60 GLH - internal - 16 points
Unit 14 - Investigating Customer Service - D - 60 GLH - internal - 16 points
Unit 16 - Visual Merchandising - P - 60 GLH - internal - 6 points
Unit 21 - Training and Development- D - 60 GLH - internal - 16 points
Unit 24 - Employment Law - P - 60 GLH - internal - 6 points

Those unit grades / points will earn you between 173 and 207 points overall. The points required for DMM are 176, and for DDM are 196. So you could attain either of those grades.

There are a couple of ways you can work out the impact of various scenarios yourself. If you have access to Microsoft Excel, you can uses Pearson's BTEC Nationals Grade Calculator, available here. You can see a "best case" scenario produced by that spreadsheet below:

BTEC Nationals Extended Diploma - Business - Kiarnasmith - DDM.JPG

BTEC Nationals Extended Diploma - Business - Kiarnasmith - DDM.JPG

Alternatively, you can work out the points per unit manually using these two tables below.

BTEC Unit Points - Internal.PNG

You can then map those overall points to a final grade using this table:

BTEC Nationals - Extended Diploma - Points Threshold per Grade.jpg

Regardless of the approach you take, you won't know your points for each external unit without knowing your marks and the grade boundaries, as the points are awarded on a sliding scale depending on where you mark sits relative to the grade boundaries either side. For example, in a 120 GLH external unit, if you just entered the M grade you'd get 20 points, but if you were almost (but not quite) at the D grade you'd get 31 points.

Reply 4

DataVenia

Volunteer Team, Clearing and Applications Advisor

Original post by Kiarnasmith

Good morning,
Thank youuuu soo much for this. I’ll find out my grades on the 2 exams I did last year. I’ll get back you to this afternoon.
Thank you

Not grades - we needs the marks to get able to establish the exact points.

Also, as the grade boundaries move around each time, can you confirm that you took these in June 2023? (You wrote earlier that "Developing a marketing campaign- P/ i cant remember my mark but was definitely 25 +as i passed it", but in June 2023 the Pass boundary for this unit was 28, so I thought it work checking that June 2023 is correct. The January 2023 pass boundary was 25.)

Reply 5

DataVenia

Volunteer Team, Clearing and Applications Advisor

Original post by Kiarnasmith

Hello, good afternoon
i just found out developing a marketing campaign I got 28 marks and personal business and finance 33 marks.
I have found out that I can sit my personal finance exam in January. But it’s not cumpulosry that I have to redo ig. Do you think it’s wise to do it still as I only got 10 points for developing a marketing campaign. Or should I just do the principles of management and decision making and aim for a good grade.
I did the exams in January last year.

Great - thanks for confirming. The BTEC grade boundaries for January 2023 are available in this PDF. The part which you're interested in is this:

BTEC Nationals - Grade Boundaries - Business - January 2023.JPG

BTEC Nationals - Grade Boundaries - Business - January 2023.JPG

As they say within the PDF, "Points are awarded on a sliding scale between the grade boundaries based on the number of raw marks achieved by each learner." So if you're exactly half-way between the P and M boundaries, you get the points for the P grade, plus half the points you'd have additionally earned if you'd reached the M boundary. Does that make sense? Hopefully some real numbers will help.

Unit 2 - Developing a Marketing Campaign (90 GLH)
You got 28 marks, so you're 3 marks over the P grade boundary. The distance between the P and M boundaries is 14 marks (39 - 25). So in addition to the 9 points you get for the P, you also get 3/14ths of the difference between the P points (9) and the M points (15). So you get 9 points plus 3/14ths of 6 points - i.e. 10 points.

Unit 3 - Personal and Business Finance (120 GLH)
This is a 120 GLH unit, so it's worth more points that Unit 2. You got 33 marks, so you're 11 marks over the P boundary (and very close to the M boundary). The distance between the P and M boundaries is 13 marks (35 - 22). So in addition to the 12 points you get for the P, you also get 11/13ths of the difference between the P points (12) and the M points (20). So you get 12 points plus 11/13ths of 8 points - i.e. 19 points.

Knowing this narrows the range for your overall points (calculated in post #6) to between 181 and 203 points - assuming you hit the grades you mentioned that you're targeting this year. That's a DMM or a DDM. But not that the grades you're targeting this year are far higher than you achieved last year, so this may not be realistic.

As to your resit question, I would only advise resitting any exam if (a) there is a reasonable expectation of you getting a better result that the first time around, and (b) you can do so without jeopardising other exams/assessments you're taking around the same time. Only you can answer those questions.

By the way, I note above that you say "I only got 10 points for developing a marketing campaign". Is that something your college have worked out for you? I thought you'd only have the marks to work with - and would need to work out the points manually, as I've done above. Have you college provided your points for Unit 3 (Personal and Business Finance) too? Did they get 19 points? (I'm interested as I've not seen Pearson explain how they handle rounding, so it'd be nice to see what you college did here.)

Reply 6

DataVenia

Volunteer Team, Clearing and Applications Advisor

Original post by Kiarnasmith

Yes you were absolutely correct, i got 10 points for developing and marketing cmpaign and 19 for personal business and finance. I know it may be unrealistic but there have been complications with teachers assessing past work.Often told i cant help you.However, to achieve the DDM i have to get a distinction in either principles of manament or decison making and aim for merit for either principles of managment and decison making.

You could actually get to the magic 196 points with an M in both Unit 6 (Principles of Management) and in Unit 7 (Business Decision Making) - as long at the M was pretty close to a D in each case, so garnered some decent points. I guess you just have to do your best and hope it all comes good in the end. Good luck. :crossedf: