How does UAL grade?

I don't know what I will be getting at the end of my btec extended level 3 course. I have 8 units to my course and my teacher said if I get for example 7 merits and 1 pass the final grade will be a pass because of the 1 pass I got. Is this right?

yes sorry, it was a question on behalf of my sister and i thought it was the same title as mine. She is doing this one UAL Level 3 Extended Diploma in Art and Design containing 9 units.

Understood. The UAL Level 3 Diploma in Art and Design contains 9 units, whilst the UAL Level 3 Extended Diploma in Art and Design contains 14 units (the first 9 units being shared with the Diploma). As I'm still not 100% sure which course your sister is taking, I'll answer your question for both.

The quotes below are taken from the specification, which cover both courses, here. Take care when you read the spec itself, as it's easy to read something which applies to the Diploma and assume it applies to the Extended Diploma, or vice versa.

Diploma (9 units)
"For the Level 3 Diploma in Art and Design, students must successfully complete units 1– 7, before moving on to the final units, units 8 and 9."
"The overall grade for the Level 3 Diploma in Art & Design is determined by the student’s achievement in Unit 8: Developing an art and design project."
"To achieve a Merit grade, a candidate must achieve all of the Pass assessment criteria listed within Unit 8 plus all of the following Merit grade criteria listed here."

Extended Diploma (14 units)
"For the Level 3 Extended Diploma in Art and Design, students must successfully complete units 9 –12, before moving on to the final unit, unit 13 or 14."
"The overall grade for the Level 3 Extended Diploma in Art & Design is determined by the candidate’s achievement on the final unit of the qualification. The final unit may be achieved at either Level 3 (Unit 13) or Level 4 (Unit 14 – see overleaf) depending on the performance of the candidate."
"To achieve a Merit grade, a candidate must achieve all of the Pass assessment criteria listed within Unit 13 plus all of the following Merit grade criteria listed here."

Summary
Note that other than the units mentioned above, i.e. the ones which determine the overall grade, units are a simple pass / fail. They are not graded.

Where the confusion may have come from is that "To achieve a Pass in any unit all assessment criteria must be met." For example, Unit 1, "Introduction to visual language in art and design", has three assessment criteria. A student must meet each of these criteria to pass that unit. And to achieve the qualification, a student must "successfully complete" all units. So if a students failed to meet any single assessment criterion, then they will not be awarded the qualification.

Also within the unit which determines the final grade (e.g. Unit 8 for the Diploma), "To achieve a Merit grade, a candidate must achieve all of the Pass assessment criteria listed within Unit 8 plus all of the following Merit grade criteria listed here." So within that single unit to gain a Merit the student must meet all the merit criteria. The grade in that unit determines the overall grade.

Based upon the above, what you sister's teacher has said (that "I get for example 7 merits and 1 pass the final grade will be a pass because of the 1 pass I got") is both accurate (as applied to the final unit) but misleading (in that it does not apply to other units.