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Are BTECs equivalent?

I'm doing A levels but a few of my friends are doing BTECs and whenever I make the good old "That's a bit BTEC joke" they have a reee.

One of them said they're just as hard (level 3) if not harder than doing 3 A levels and he said he had to learn "University level mathematics" So can people advise me on the validity of these claims?

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He's wrong. BTEC is a joke and should be treated as such. Remember that no top universities will accept BTEC in place of A Levels.
Original post by TheGiganticDwarf
He's wrong. BTEC is a joke and should be treated as such. Remember that no top universities will accept BTEC in place of A Levels.


absolute rubbish nearly every university including Oxford accept Btec
Reply 3
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Doones
21
Original post by TheGiganticDwarf
He's wrong. BTEC is a joke and should be treated as such. Remember that no top universities will accept BTEC in place of A Levels.


Oxford does:

https://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/courses/admission-requirements/uk-qualifications?wssl=1

BTEC Nationals include qualifications equivalent to A-levels, so students studying these qualifications would be welcome to apply. A D grade (distinction) in a BTEC National would be considered equivalent to an A at A-level, and a D* in a BTEC National would be considered equivalent to an A* at A-level.
Conditional offers would usually be:

•

Extended Diploma with D*D*D to DDD, depending on the course.

•

Diploma with DD plus an A grade at A-level, possibly with one or two * grades, depending on the course.

•

Subsidiary Diploma with D plus two A grades at A-level, possibly with one or two * grades, depending on the course.

(edited 5 years ago)
Original post by swanseajack1
absolute rubbish nearly every university including Oxford accept Btec


No they don't. They might officially say they do (they have to) but if you do BTEC your chance of getting in to Oxford is nil.

Sounds like you do BTEC.
Reply 5
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Doones
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Original post by TheGiganticDwarf
No they don't. They might officially say they do (they have to) but if you do BTEC your chance of getting in to Oxford is nil.

Sounds like you do BTEC.


They don't "have to".
[QUOTE="TheGiganticDwarf;80786110"]No they don't. They might officially say they do (they have to) but if you do BTEC your chance of getting in to Oxford is nil.

Sounds like you do BTEC.[/QUOTE So you dont trust Oxford and are implying they are lying. How about Manchester, Exeter, Bristol, Birmingham, Bath, Nottingham etc. Are they lying as well.
Haha, no I didn't do BTEC!!!!
Odds are, the higher the university on the league table, the lower the chance they will accept BTEC. Whilst I don't know about specific universities, I know that BTEC will only really get you into a few courses at Exeter, such as sport science, management, drama, etc - nothing academic.
Original post by Doonesbury
They don't "have to".

Maybe not, but from a P.R. perspective they really should.
Reply 9
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Doones
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Original post by TheGiganticDwarf
Maybe not, but from a P.R. perspective they really should.


And waste the time of their admissions staff, and applicants, processing applications they (by your reckoning) have no intention of progressing? Seems legit.

More importantly, you are wrong:
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/jul/21/will-taking-a-btec-help-or-hinder-your-university-application

"Bethany Alsbury, 21, from Bath, is a first-year experimental psychology student at Oxford. She was unwell during her A-levels and rather than retaking the year at school she decided to do a BTec in health science at her local college. She says doing a BTec gave her a big advantage over other applicants. “Straight A stars and Duke of Edinburgh gold – that’s the usually story as an Oxbridge undergraduate. A-levels were just about the lessons and sitting around in the common room with a revision guide waiting for exams,” she says.
“I did a BTec and we were being marked all the time. There were assignments every week so there was a lot more self discipline involved. I had more to write about in my personal statement because of all the placements I had to do. At A-level it’s hard to fit that kind of stuff around five days at school.”
Despite the qualifications being a similar level of difficulty, Alsbury assumed that Oxford would not take applicants who had studied a BTec. “I initially thought Oxford wouldn’t look at me,” she said. “But then my tutor said ‘No, look they do’ and he said ‘Why not apply and give it a go’ and so I did. I was a bit worried but I got an interview and it was never mentioned, and it’s never been brought up again.”"
Original post by TheGiganticDwarf
Haha, no I didn't do BTEC!!!!
Odds are, the higher the university on the league table, the lower the chance they will accept BTEC. Whilst I don't know about specific universities, I know that BTEC will only really get you into a few courses at Exeter, such as sport science, management, drama, etc - nothing academic.


more rubbish people are doing Geography Law and Mahs which are obviously in your eyes non academic
It's been a while since I've been at school but when I did a btec like 8 years ago they were crap.


The idea was they were supposed to be teaching you more useful skills with it being less theory based like a-levels and more practical/applied. E.G. Instead of doing science a-levels you would do an applied science BTEC. In practice though the BTEC was just coursework heavy with no real exams and the content being very similar to a-levels but so much easier as you didn't have to learn it all for tests.
Also there was no obvious progression other then university as at the time apprentiships were quite thin on the ground. (dunno if this has changed). So BTECs just got viewed as an easier alternative to a-levels.

Thats my outdated view on them dunno if they have changed now though.
Reply 12
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xDron3
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Original post by TheGiganticDwarf
Haha, no I didn't do BTEC!!!!
Odds are, the higher the university on the league table, the lower the chance they will accept BTEC. Whilst I don't know about specific universities, I know that BTEC will only really get you into a few courses at Exeter, such as sport science, management, drama, etc - nothing academic.

Did you drop out of it all and struggling to even get a minimum wage job? Pretentious p......
Some people seem to be salty here that a btec is equal to 3 a levels. But they are no where as hard as A levels, however no one who does a btec really Intends to go to oxford.(I’m doing a btec now and it’s definitely easier than A levels not to mention I don’t take any tests)
Original post by TheGiganticDwarf
He's wrong. BTEC is a joke and should be treated as such. Remember that no top universities will accept BTEC in place of A Levels.

cambridge do as long as you have an A-level alongside it which TBF most people do.
Original post by TheGiganticDwarf
He's wrong. BTEC is a joke and should be treated as such. Remember that no top universities will accept BTEC in place of A Levels.


I can’t even take you seriously, “btec is a joke”. You come across as a privileged ****
There will always be debate around their validity and many A Level students will feel superior. I think a lot of it boils down to it being a different form of assessment. The issue with the qualification is that teachers often push a certain type of student towards btec which subsequently devalues the qualification and leads to attitudes such as this.

I did a btec and I've turned out fine. I'm doing a Masters with the aim of pursuing a career in academia, I'm currently publishing my undergrad dissertation and am just about to start work on another project for publication. The vitriol directed at btec's deters students who could benefit from the qualification; I know it helped me as I could research, reference and write essays effectively when I started uni.

The btec barry joke gets a bit dry after a while
It's quite odd that the focus on coursework is used to disparage BTECs when at university level coursework is often the main or only component for marks (with a few exceptions).

There's a reason many of the more research intensive universities are big on pushing the EPQ - it's because they have increasing numbers of students coming through who don't know how to tackle coursework properly due to the reforms to GCSEs and A levels moving to exam only assessment.
Original post by PQ
It's quite odd that the focus on coursework is used to disparage BTECs when at university level coursework is often the main or only component for marks (with a few exceptions).

There's a reason many of the more research intensive universities are big on pushing the EPQ - it's because they have increasing numbers of students coming through who don't know how to tackle coursework properly due to the reforms to GCSEs and A levels moving to exam only assessment.


interestingly when Gove changed A levels in England the Welsh Government didnt. They commissioned a report led by the then vice chancellor of Cambridge who recommended sticking with the AS levels. He found they were the best basis for checking a students likelyhood to achieve at university. University exams are examined every semester not 2 years later so the Welsh A levels are closer to the system used in University. Btec being examined throughout are closer to the way that universities assess students rather than an A level which is basically a memory test of the last 2 years
What does ME means in btec

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