Btec engineering grading HELP

Original post by Keeratt

By "double grades", I assume you're referring to the fact that some of the units in the qualifications are 60 guided learning hours (GLH) whilst others are 120 GLH.

Every unit attracts points, dependant on the size of the unit (in GLH) and the grade you get. For exam-based units, it also depends on the mark you get in each exam.

They then add up all these points to establish your overall grade. If you look at the specification (page 733) you will note that for an MMM you need 156 points whilst for DMM you need 176 points.

On the preceding page (page 732) you will note that for the external 120 GLH units you get at least 12 points for a pass (it could be more depending on your mark) and for the internal 60 GLH units you get 6 points for a pass and 10 points for a merit.

You say you have "3 merits and 4 passes (two of the pass units are double grades)" so you have:
3 x 10 = 30
2 x 12 = 24
2 x 6 = 12

So you have a total of 66 points right now (again, it could be more - potentially as many as 14 marks more - depending on your exam marks).

So for an MMM you need to get 90 points next year, from the remaining eight units. If you could manage a merit for each (worth 10 points for each of the seven 60 GLH units and 20 merits for the remaining 120 GLH unit) then that would get you the required 90 points.

(Feel free to check my maths - it's late!)

Reply 2

Thanks alot on my promonitor i think it said 72 because i had a distinction in one assignment aswell

Reply 3

Original post by Keeratt

Thanks alot on my promonitor i think it said 72 because i had a distinction in one assignment aswell

also do you think it is possible to get DMM aswell if i get enough distinctions next year

Reply 4

Original post by Keeratt

Thanks alot on my promonitor i think it said 72 because i had a distinction in one assignment aswell

You don't get more points for a distinction in one assignment. The 72 points you have (as opposed to the 66 I said was the minimum) is almost certainly down to the exams. I calculated the minimum points you could have earned and still attained the unit grades you achieved, and said "it could be more - potentially as many as 14 marks more". It seems it was 6 more. :smile:

Original post by Keeratt

also do you think it is possible to get DMM aswell if i get enough distinctions next year

Yes. But it's the unit grade which is important, not the assignment grade. As it says is the specification (with my added emphasis):

"When a learner has completed all the assessment for a unit then the assessment team will give a grade for the unit. This is given simply according to the highest level for which the learner is judged to have met all the criteria. Therefore:
• to achieve a Distinction, a learner must have satisfied all the Distinction criteria (and therefore the Pass and Merit criteria); these define outstanding performance across the unit as a whole
• to achieve a Merit, a learner must have satisfied all the Merit criteria (and therefore the Pass criteria) through high performance in each learning aim
• to achieve a Pass, a learner must have satisfied all the Pass criteria for the learning aims,
showing coverage of the unit content and therefore attainment at Level 3 of the national framework."

So only if you obtain a distinction in all assessments for a given unit do you get a distinction grade in that unit, and hence the points for a distinction.

That is why I said above that, "You don't get more points for a distinction in one assignment."

So it's absolutely possible. But you need to be getting merits and distinctions rather than passes and merits.

Reply 5

Original post by DataVenia

Yes. But it's the unit grade which is important, not the assignment grade. As it says is the specification (with my added emphasis):
"When a learner has completed all the assessment for a unit then the assessment team will give a grade for the unit. This is given simply according to the highest level for which the learner is judged to have met all the criteria. Therefore:
• to achieve a Distinction, a learner must have satisfied all the Distinction criteria (and therefore the Pass and Merit criteria); these define outstanding performance across the unit as a whole
• to achieve a Merit, a learner must have satisfied all the Merit criteria (and therefore the Pass criteria) through high performance in each learning aim
• to achieve a Pass, a learner must have satisfied all the Pass criteria for the learning aims,
showing coverage of the unit content and therefore attainment at Level 3 of the national framework."
So only if you obtain a distinction in all assessments for a given unit do you get a distinction grade in that unit, and hence the points for a distinction.
That is why I said above that, "You don't get more points for a distinction in one assignment."
So it's absolutely possible. But you need to be getting merits and distinctions rather than passes and merits.

Thanks alot. last question. do you know how many merits and distinctions i will have to get to get a DMM final grade? Thanks alot for your help so far

Reply 6

Original post by Keeratt

Thanks alot. last question. do you know how many merits and distinctions i will have to get to get a DMM final grade? Thanks alot for your help so far

Well, it seems that you're on 72 points so far, and as I mentioned above you need 176 points for DMM. So you need to gain 104 points next year.

You've done 7 units so far, and there are 15 units in total - so you'll be doing 8 units next year. All of those are 60 GLH units except the last exam-based unit which is 120 GLH.

Let's say you just scrape a merit in the 120 GLH exam, because getting a distinction in BTEC exams seems pretty hard - that's 20 points. So you've 84 points left to get, from 7 units.

You could get that from 3 distinctions (at 16 points each) and 4 merits (at 10 points each) for a total of 88 points. If one of those 3 distinctions dropped to a merit, you loose 6 points and so loose the DMM. (Unless of course, you didn't just scrape the merit in the 120 GLH unit, and so earned a few extra points there.)

As you can tell, this isn't an exact science, but I'm going to say 3 distinctions and the rest merits.

Reply 7

Hi i just checked and i have 62 not 72 points. is it still possible to get dmm and if so how many distinctions and merits do i roughly need to get thanks

Reply 8

Original post by Keeratt

Hi i just checked and i have 62 not 72 points. is it still possible to get dmm and if so how many distinctions and merits do i roughly need to get thanks

that was before the final grades changing so maybe slightly higher

Reply 9