why do A-Level Students Look Down on BTEC's?
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Thank you! 
I'm going to give a honest asnwer as a A-level and BTEC student as i still remember it well in 2014 
2 years ago.
I did A-level Maths, Further Maths, Physics and my fourth choice was BTEC ICT . I have chosen BTEC ICT because i wanted to do a software engineering/computer science course at uni. I have applied to Edinburgh Uni as my firm choice and Newcastle Uni as my insurance choice.
Both unvieristies were good and Edinburgh didn't accept BTEC ICT at all but Newcastle does - as they clearly listed on their website that they will consider on an individual basis so on my UCAS track , i received a conditional offer on newcastle which stated that i must achieved a D on the main/core units in ICT which i think it was the hardware and software units. So they didn't care what i got in the overall BTEC ICT grade but the core units that matter the most as they are very useful to students that are going to computer science/programming,etc. In the end , i managed to secure a overall Distinction for the course and i could have gotten a D* but i just simply play the number game which the majority of the people did in my class because i have gotten all Ds at the beginning and i could just get a Pass grade on two units at A2 and it will still secure a overall D - so i didn't bother with the merits and distcintion task in those two units , i told my teachers and i was signed off quickly So i could relax and revise for my exams.
To be honest at uni life now , i did say BTEC ICT helped me the most as it's mostly relveant to the course that i study in. A-level like maths/physics that i have done - didn't really use any of those at uni so i did feel that i found it a bit wasted since i have learned a lot in those courses. Not to mention i feel a lot more relax and confident since BTEC ICT definitely required huge amount of workloads to produce quality works and this didn't just polish my knowledge for computing but also my skills in time mangement as well as other areas so i'd say BTEC for me is something worth more than A-level due to the fact that i have to put twice as much effort in BTEC than in Uni lol.
Anyway enough of my personal life , back to the main points :
Good
-BTEC is only good if you choose to study a course at uni that is related to it. Then this way, a lot of univeristiy should of course take into account of it.
- Easy to do , not a single of my classmate struggle and in fact it was a very fun class to be with because we did seem to have this motivation that goes on as we complete against each other to see who pass the task first in each units . Also the first person to pass all the tasks in the uni can sign off - which means they can have this happy few days/weeks break until the teacher enter the mark into he system while some other students are still doing the tasks.
- happy working environment , i not sure how i put this but in my maths/physics class , it's always gloomy and we just listen and do work. While BTEC actually is fun because it motivate you to go to the lesson as we have cake days, music playing in the class lol. All BTEC iCT lessons are just sitting on the chair facing the PC screen and we just do the work and chat - so there is some freedom a least in sixth form - that why i didn't drop it at A2 even it was my fourth option because it was fun and i learnt a lot from it.
Bad
- I won't say BTEC is for stupid people because of the low entry requirement and a lot of people doing it. But i'd encounter few girls in my classes who took "only" BTECs for AS and A2 , it was BTEC business , health and social and ICT. They have good GCSE grades with 10+ B-A*. They just simply didn't like exams and much rather do coursework. I put this as Bad because i realised they have no interest at all in ICT and especailly when it comes to hardware , they have no idea even about the most simpliest thing e.g. like what is CPU/graphics card/ran,etc. And when it comes to BTEC ICT practical work ( which is a Merit task) everyone have to build a PC by scratch , they have no idea at all and just simply take photos from Google and explain it as they have just build a PC - So i'd admit the course is very easy as they simply wing it by writing a lot of words and researching a lot. They also expert at writing reports , especially when we are roughly meant to write about 5-10 pages on a Pass task , they have done it to over 20+ pages - even the teacher was annoy and have to spend his entire night marking them lol xD Although they have no interest in the course or even know anything about it , the girls still managed to get a D* in the end without any problem. And when i ask them what does SSD do or msconfig , what is viruss , firewall,etc - they have no idea at all despite we have research,write a report and even give a presenation on it xD so i did feel that some people just good at doing the tasks and after they done it - they can just relax and forget about it as they know they can just get D* that can surely help them getting into top 20s unis.
- At the beginning of the year , i have seen a least 5 people in my class have dropout due to the point that the teacher have no choice but to kick them out because these are the hardcore students that didn't want to do the work or bother to meet the deadlines when they have given " a lot of chances" to do them ( i mean they have given 1-2 month to write a 1 page report , when the rest of the class done it in a week). So basically as long as you do the work , doesn't matter whether is it in poor quality or a draft version , you can still manage to get a pass grade because it's just explaining stuff and it's impossible for a student to fail when they are doing the work. This means that no matter what happen to the student, they can still attain a Pass grade as long as they working . The teacher can delay the deadlines for them/ keep remarking the work and even enter the marks at any moderation time or even next year - but this isn't cheating because this means the student cannot get a merit/dinstiction, therefore they can only get a Pass on that unit. So again , if i were to compare this to A-level then it would be very unfair because student that doing A-level have a chance to fail and if they fail - they might even need to repeat the year - this happen a lot to many sixth form college, but for BTEC student it's never a issue.
- My friends who never done any BTEC is actually regreting till now even when he got into university because he wanted to do mechanical engineering at uni and yet he didn't took BTEC engnering but rather the A-level Math,physics,and 3D product design. He have gotten average grades which is BCC and he didn;t get to do the course that he wanted in the uni so he have to take the foundation year route in that uni as he just didn't get enough ucas point. But on the other hand, his other friends who did poorly on GCSE and able to get D* on btec engineering and Ds on other BTEC able to get into the first year without going to the foundation year in that uni on mechanical engineering. So this can be quite frustrating and it seem that 95% of the btec engineering class have all gotten D+. Only 1 student gotten M which was due to medical reasons. So then again , people who look down on BTEC also have their own reason due to the fact they manage to get into a good uni despite some other students that have done "harder" A-level and gotten average good grades still didn't get enough points as BTEC student.
2 years ago.I did A-level Maths, Further Maths, Physics and my fourth choice was BTEC ICT . I have chosen BTEC ICT because i wanted to do a software engineering/computer science course at uni. I have applied to Edinburgh Uni as my firm choice and Newcastle Uni as my insurance choice.
Both unvieristies were good and Edinburgh didn't accept BTEC ICT at all but Newcastle does - as they clearly listed on their website that they will consider on an individual basis so on my UCAS track , i received a conditional offer on newcastle which stated that i must achieved a D on the main/core units in ICT which i think it was the hardware and software units. So they didn't care what i got in the overall BTEC ICT grade but the core units that matter the most as they are very useful to students that are going to computer science/programming,etc. In the end , i managed to secure a overall Distinction for the course and i could have gotten a D* but i just simply play the number game which the majority of the people did in my class because i have gotten all Ds at the beginning and i could just get a Pass grade on two units at A2 and it will still secure a overall D - so i didn't bother with the merits and distcintion task in those two units , i told my teachers and i was signed off quickly
So i could relax and revise for my exams.To be honest at uni life now , i did say BTEC ICT helped me the most as it's mostly relveant to the course that i study in. A-level like maths/physics that i have done - didn't really use any of those at uni so i did feel that i found it a bit wasted since i have learned a lot in those courses. Not to mention i feel a lot more relax and confident since BTEC ICT definitely required huge amount of workloads to produce quality works and this didn't just polish my knowledge for computing but also my skills in time mangement as well as other areas so i'd say BTEC for me is something worth more than A-level due to the fact that i have to put twice as much effort in BTEC than in Uni lol.
Anyway enough of my personal life , back to the main points :
Good
-BTEC is only good if you choose to study a course at uni that is related to it. Then this way, a lot of univeristiy should of course take into account of it.
- Easy to do , not a single of my classmate struggle and in fact it was a very fun class to be with because we did seem to have this motivation that goes on as we complete against each other to see who pass the task first in each units . Also the first person to pass all the tasks in the uni can sign off - which means they can have this happy few days/weeks break until the teacher enter the mark into he system while some other students are still doing the tasks.
- happy working environment , i not sure how i put this but in my maths/physics class , it's always gloomy and we just listen and do work. While BTEC actually is fun because it motivate you to go to the lesson as we have cake days, music playing in the class lol. All BTEC iCT lessons are just sitting on the chair facing the PC screen and we just do the work and chat - so there is some freedom a least in sixth form - that why i didn't drop it at A2 even it was my fourth option because it was fun and i learnt a lot from it.
Bad
- I won't say BTEC is for stupid people because of the low entry requirement and a lot of people doing it. But i'd encounter few girls in my classes who took "only" BTECs for AS and A2 , it was BTEC business , health and social and ICT. They have good GCSE grades with 10+ B-A*. They just simply didn't like exams and much rather do coursework. I put this as Bad because i realised they have no interest at all in ICT and especailly when it comes to hardware , they have no idea even about the most simpliest thing e.g. like what is CPU/graphics card/ran,etc. And when it comes to BTEC ICT practical work ( which is a Merit task) everyone have to build a PC by scratch , they have no idea at all and just simply take photos from Google and explain it as they have just build a PC - So i'd admit the course is very easy as they simply wing it by writing a lot of words and researching a lot. They also expert at writing reports , especially when we are roughly meant to write about 5-10 pages on a Pass task , they have done it to over 20+ pages - even the teacher was annoy and have to spend his entire night marking them lol xD Although they have no interest in the course or even know anything about it , the girls still managed to get a D* in the end without any problem. And when i ask them what does SSD do or msconfig , what is viruss , firewall,etc - they have no idea at all despite we have research,write a report and even give a presenation on it xD so i did feel that some people just good at doing the tasks and after they done it - they can just relax and forget about it as they know they can just get D* that can surely help them getting into top 20s unis.
- At the beginning of the year , i have seen a least 5 people in my class have dropout due to the point that the teacher have no choice but to kick them out because these are the hardcore students that didn't want to do the work or bother to meet the deadlines when they have given " a lot of chances" to do them ( i mean they have given 1-2 month to write a 1 page report , when the rest of the class done it in a week). So basically as long as you do the work , doesn't matter whether is it in poor quality or a draft version , you can still manage to get a pass grade because it's just explaining stuff and it's impossible for a student to fail when they are doing the work. This means that no matter what happen to the student, they can still attain a Pass grade as long as they working . The teacher can delay the deadlines for them/ keep remarking the work and even enter the marks at any moderation time or even next year - but this isn't cheating because this means the student cannot get a merit/dinstiction, therefore they can only get a Pass on that unit. So again , if i were to compare this to A-level then it would be very unfair because student that doing A-level have a chance to fail and if they fail - they might even need to repeat the year - this happen a lot to many sixth form college, but for BTEC student it's never a issue.
- My friends who never done any BTEC is actually regreting till now even when he got into university because he wanted to do mechanical engineering at uni and yet he didn't took BTEC engnering but rather the A-level Math,physics,and 3D product design. He have gotten average grades which is BCC and he didn;t get to do the course that he wanted in the uni so he have to take the foundation year route in that uni as he just didn't get enough ucas point. But on the other hand, his other friends who did poorly on GCSE and able to get D* on btec engineering and Ds on other BTEC able to get into the first year without going to the foundation year in that uni on mechanical engineering. So this can be quite frustrating and it seem that 95% of the btec engineering class have all gotten D+. Only 1 student gotten M which was due to medical reasons. So then again , people who look down on BTEC also have their own reason due to the fact they manage to get into a good uni despite some other students that have done "harder" A-level and gotten average good grades still didn't get enough points as BTEC student.
Original post by ohhello92x
Exactly! I did BTEC Health and Social care and I am now in my 3rd year of university, so obviously it is doable, and it was hard work in them 2 years of doing a BTEC 
!
And I hope you get the grades you want!
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!And I hope you get the grades you want
!Posted from TSR Mobile
Thank you! I'm glad somebody understands!
Original post by alixrif_
ERRMMMM sorry? I do health and social and an a level, and i would like to say here that you shouldnt judge something which you haven't tried. A BTEC health and social (worth two a levels might i add) is extremely testing, especially if you want to get A*s out of it?? In a BTEC, if you fail one assignment of coursework, it puts you at a disadvantage for the rest of the course so you have to be extremely dedicated right from the beginning. You don't get given all the answers with BTECs, you spend 6-7 possibly 8 hours of your own time continually working to make your coursework/exams at least a distinction so that you end up with a good overall grade at the end of the two years. BTECs are not for people who are "complete knobs" and if anything, the nurse who would look after you in hospital when you're ill would have most likely done a BTEC, would you consider them a "knob"? Didn't mean to bring up a post from 2015, but most people need a strong reminder that BTECs are EXACTLY THE SAME as A Levels, if not tougher
I agree so much! I would love to see some of these people cope with the workload we health and social care students have! The only day I have had off from coursework since half term, is Christmas day. And that is because I, like you, want Distinction*s.
One off day, is enough to greatly set you behind in a BTEC. You cannot just learn the mark scheme which I know is not purely what happens with A-Levels, but you are left constantly unsure as to whether what you are writing is correct and will get you the grade you desperately need.
I'm glad someone agrees with me on this - good luck with the rest of your course. We'll prove that BTEC's are just as worthwhile.
Original post by Kxjzh
I agree so much! I would love to see some of these people cope with the workload we health and social care students have! The only day I have had off from coursework since half term, is Christmas day. And that is because I, like you, want Distinction*s.
One off day, is enough to greatly set you behind in a BTEC. You cannot just learn the mark scheme which I know is not purely what happens with A-Levels, but you are left constantly unsure as to whether what you are writing is correct and will get you the grade you desperately need.
I'm glad someone agrees with me on this - good luck with the rest of your course. We'll prove that BTEC's are just as worthwhile.
One off day, is enough to greatly set you behind in a BTEC. You cannot just learn the mark scheme which I know is not purely what happens with A-Levels, but you are left constantly unsure as to whether what you are writing is correct and will get you the grade you desperately need.
I'm glad someone agrees with me on this - good luck with the rest of your course. We'll prove that BTEC's are just as worthwhile.
Omg yes someone agrees with me! Literally I've been ill all half term and have not stopped doing the work because as you said, one day off does put you down! Which BTEC board are you doing? I'm doing Pearson and it's literally so tough. Hope you get the distinction you're after!
Original post by Kxjzh
Thank you! I'm glad somebody understands!
You're welcome
! Yep 
Original post by ray2310
They just simply didn't like exams and much rather do coursework. I put this as Bad because i realised they have no interest at all in ICT and especailly when it comes to hardware , they have no idea even about the most simpliest thing e.g. like what is CPU/graphics card/ran,etc. And when it comes to BTEC ICT practical work ( which is a Merit task) everyone have to build a PC by scratch , they have no idea at all and just simply take photos from Google and explain it as they have just build a PC - So i'd admit the course is very easy as they simply wing it by writing a lot of words and researching a lot. They also expert at writing reports , especially when we are roughly meant to write about 5-10 pages on a Pass task , they have done it to over 20+ pages - even the teacher was annoy and have to spend his entire night marking them lol xD Although they have no interest in the course or even know anything about it , the girls still managed to get a D* in the end without any problem. And when i ask them what does SSD do or msconfig , what is viruss , firewall,etc - they have no idea at all despite we have research,write a report and even give a presenation on it xD so i did feel that some people just good at doing the tasks and after they done it - they can just relax and forget about it as they know they can just get D* that can surely help them getting into top 20s unis.
This is extremely accurate. The thing is though, with my current group they all struggled to write good personal statements because they knew nothing about computers.
That's the main problem with BTEC, It doesn't really teach people. To get a good grade, all you have to do is write what the criteria says before the deadline.
Everything I know about computers & IT was learnt outside in my own time which actually made the tasks even easier and gave me more time to mess about in some units.
Original post by Ryanx623
I get that with certain courses, Health + Social care for example are complete knobs, However courses like Engineering are filled with A-level capable students...
Nurses did health and social care so stfu
So I've just read some of the responses on here and personally I'm shocked.
Who cares what you're doing! For goodness sake I know people who are doing 3 A Levels, BTEC Extended Diploma, and a mixture of both who have been accepted into some of the highest universities (Including people doing level 3 BTEC). Also what is with all the hate? I don't understand why people decide it's okay to degrade BTEC'.
All in all as long as the person enjoys doing what they are doing, that is fine. I'd rather do a course I'd enjoy more than a course which gives me recognition. College/Sixth form is all about enjoying your experience as a student and figuring out what you want to do in life. Whether that be apprenticeship, university, or going to work, as long as you enjoy yourself that is all that matters.
Who cares what you're doing! For goodness sake I know people who are doing 3 A Levels, BTEC Extended Diploma, and a mixture of both who have been accepted into some of the highest universities (Including people doing level 3 BTEC). Also what is with all the hate? I don't understand why people decide it's okay to degrade BTEC'.
All in all as long as the person enjoys doing what they are doing, that is fine. I'd rather do a course I'd enjoy more than a course which gives me recognition. College/Sixth form is all about enjoying your experience as a student and figuring out what you want to do in life. Whether that be apprenticeship, university, or going to work, as long as you enjoy yourself that is all that matters.
Original post by Kravence
This is extremely accurate. The thing is though, with my current group they all struggled to write good personal statements because they knew nothing about computers.
That's the main problem with BTEC, It doesn't really teach people. To get a good grade, all you have to do is write what the criteria says before the deadline.
Everything I know about computers & IT was learnt outside in my own time which actually made the tasks even easier and gave me more time to mess about in some units.
That's the main problem with BTEC, It doesn't really teach people. To get a good grade, all you have to do is write what the criteria says before the deadline.
Everything I know about computers & IT was learnt outside in my own time which actually made the tasks even easier and gave me more time to mess about in some units.
It all depends IMO yes btec IT is easy you can google everything and pass but I think by researching things online you didnt know before surely you are learning something..
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Original post by alixrif_
Omg yes someone agrees with me! Literally I've been ill all half term and have not stopped doing the work because as you said, one day off does put you down! Which BTEC board are you doing? I'm doing Pearson and it's literally so tough. Hope you get the distinction you're after!
I'm doing Pearson too, it's crazy isn't it! Are you on the new or old course? What units have you completed so far?
Hope it's all going okay
A levels are worthless once you get into uni btec is applicable for life
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BTEC's are great! I mean come on coursework really helps a lot when you're someone where exams make you panic...
I take health and social care as a btec because the A level was dropped, but I take A levels alongside it and I'm not 'unable' I achieved D* in my BTEC and A's in my A levels.
They're jealous we get coursework to help xD!
I take health and social care as a btec because the A level was dropped, but I take A levels alongside it and I'm not 'unable' I achieved D* in my BTEC and A's in my A levels.
They're jealous we get coursework to help xD!
Original post by Kxjzh
I'm doing Pearson too, it's crazy isn't it! Are you on the new or old course? What units have you completed so far?
Hope it's all going okay
Hope it's all going okay
We're on the new course- the units we've completed are 7, 1&2. Unit 7 is driving me crazy!
Ooh fun! We haven't done Unit 7 yet, not sure if we will or not! Are you sitting the exams this summer then? I've done Unit 5, unit 11, unit 1, and unit 2! Unit 11 is quite interesting, but hard to apply to the case studies! Unit 5, gosh it seemed never ending!! Still not sure if it's done and I've written 40ish pages for it!!
Original post by Got Milk
I'd say. Not to sound too arrogant but I'm paid more orr than most most in my organisation and I still complain that I'm underpaid
Original post by Kxjzh
Ooh fun! We haven't done Unit 7 yet, not sure if we will or not! Are you sitting the exams this summer then? I've done Unit 5, unit 11, unit 1, and unit 2! Unit 11 is quite interesting, but hard to apply to the case studies! Unit 5, gosh it seemed never ending!! Still not sure if it's done and I've written 40ish pages for it!!
Unit 7 is SO. LONG. literally it was the bane of my life, but unit 1&2 are so so interesting! I love unit 2 so much, its so interesting learning about the different roles and responsibilities in h&sc. We're doing our exams in the summer, in may/june, are you?
Original post by vaxsx22
BTEC is for idiots. A levels is the harder course that opens up more options in life.
I had the option to do both. I am now earning more than my peers
Original post by The_Internet
I had the option to do both. I am now earning more than my peers
That's good
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