August 2024 BTEC Engineering update

This letter addresses grading and preparing for results day.

Results files and their contents are confidential to the Head of Centre, examinations office staff and senior members of the teaching staff at the centre. Therefore, the Edexcel Online ‘Results’ profile is only granted to these roles, as it allows access to results files before results days.

Other teachers that need access to view results should be given ResultsPlus access, as this is designed to meet the needs of teachers to view and analyse the results for their own students. Results are available through ResultsPlus for teachers on the Thursday results days.

You may also wish to ask your Exams Officer to tick 'Exam viewer' in your Edexcel Online profile in case you want to download candidate scripts from results day (having obtained the candidates' consent first).

Please do remember that you now need to use our MFA app to log into Edexcel Online and ResultsPlus. 

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Where to find the raw marks and grade points?

The conversions for your students are available in Edexcel Online following this route:

1. BTEC
2. External Assessment
3. View Results by Assessment Booking
4. Choose June 2024 series.
5. If you leave the programme and unit fields blank the search will return all bookings for the series.
6. Select the unit you are interested in (tick in the left-hand column)
7. Choose Export results

You will get a csv file with the information you want.
The raw mark is in the column headed 'Score'
The grade point is in the column headed UMS.

Please note that in order to access this you will need the ‘Results’ box ticked in your Edexcel Online user profile. It is not the policy of all centres to make this available so you may have to ask your Exams Officer to print out the spreadsheet for you.  

A downloaded csv file can be used to check the final raw mark for each component. For internally assessed components, if your centre marks were accepted in moderation the final raw marks will match your submission. If your centre marks were adjusted through the moderation process, detailed instructions are available for analysis of the difference between your submitted centre mark and the final raw mark awarded.

For BTECs grade boundaries are set for external units at each exam series. They are set by a group of subject and assessment experts reviewing a range of evidence, both qualitative and quantitative, to ensure that there is fairness, validity and robustness in the grade boundaries. The grade boundaries for the Summer exam series will be available on the link below.

The raw mark grade boundaries change from series to series. We provide raw marks to points calculators for each exam series to confirm how the raw marks are converted to points. They are updated soon after the results are published.

The Access to Scripts service allows you to view your candidates’ marked scripts online or download as PDFs for exams such as Unit 3 on the BTEC Nationals in Business. [For set tasks like units 2, 6 and 7, your Exams Officer will have kept a copy in centre so this service does not apply].

The portal can only be accessed by Edexcel Online users who have the 'Exam Viewer' profile ticked on Edexcel Online. Your exams officer gives teachers access to 'Exam Viewer'.

Please note that these scripts do not contain examiners' annotations.

If scripts have been marked 'traditionally' (i.e. not online), you will need to request them, free of charge, by the published deadline, via the Post Results section of Edexcel Online as in previous exam series.

Candidate consent is required before requesting script copies and can only be obtained after results have been published.

ResultsPlus is an online results analysis tool that gives you a detailed breakdown of your candidates’ performance in BTEC exams and set tasks.

ResultsPlus will help you to identify potential topics, skills and types of question where candidates struggled and this may support refinements to your teaching and learning approaches.

You may also find it helpful to understand how your candidates’ performance compares with class and national averages. 

Review of marking of externally assessed components (Service 2)

This is a check that our examiners have marked externally assessed components correctly and includes:

• a clerical check (Service 1)
• a review of marking of units/components by a senior examiner

You can ask us to review the marking of exam papers for individual candidates and the results for each candidate will be reported separately. This service isn't available for internally assessed/externally moderated coursework components.

Candidates’ marks or grades can go up, down or stay the same.

The deadline for completion is within 20 calendar days of receiving the request.

The deadline for us to receive your request for a review of marking is 26 September.

Centres must obtain written candidate consent for clerical re-checks and
reviews of marking, as with these services candidates’ marks and subject grades may be lowered. Candidate consent must be obtained after the publication of results.

Candidates must be informed that their marks and subject grades could go
down as well as up and must provide their written consent before a request is submitted. (A suggested form for centres to use is included as Appendix A of the JCQ Post-results Guide).  

Review of moderation of internally assessed components (Service 3)

Where we've adjusted centre marks during moderation, this service checks that our moderator has made an accurate judgement on the centre’s ability to mark the work to the national standard. This includes:

• a review of the original moderation by a senior moderator
• feedback with a similar level of detail to the original moderator report

This service can't be requested if we agreed centre marks during moderation.

A review of moderation (Service 3) replicates the original moderation process and therefore the same sample will need to be available for review. Any mark changes may impact all candidates completing this component at the centre in the current exam session.

The deadline for us to receive your request for a review of moderation is 26 September.

Written candidate consent is not required for a review of moderation.
Candidates’ marks may be lowered but their published subject grades will not
be lowered in the series concerned. However, centres should be aware that a
lowered mark may be carried forward to future certification.

If you are dissatisfied with the outcome of a review of marking, you may wish to appeal against the decision. We will allow the head of centre (or designated member of the centre’s senior management team or examinations manager) 30 calendar days from the receipt of the outcome of the review of marking, during which an appeal may be lodged

Appeals guidance

Applications for appeals may only be accepted from a head of centre (on behalf of a candidate or a group of candidates) or private candidates. 

If a learner is not eligible for a qualification, having achieved a U, for example, in an externally assessed unit, it may be possible to transfer to a smaller size. Please ask your exams officer to change the registration in Edexcel Online. There is a video for exams officers in Edexcel Online called ‘Transfers’ to explain how this is done.

The grade statistics for BTEC qualifications are published in late October/early November on the grade statistics page of the website.

These statistics can be used for benchmarking purposes. Please note that in line with all qualifications, learner achievement is reported at qualification level and not at unit level.