Managing 9B files and generating Pearson 7B Results Request files

Some BTEC qualifications have centre-specific basedata which needs to be imported into your site. You can find more information on Pearson's website here: EDI BTEC Basedata: Registration 9B And Results 7B Files

Please note that you may have other series available for units, such as Jan (1) and June (6). Pearson BTEC awards are only available for September (9) and July (7) series. 

Pearson 9B files

9B files are issued to schools much before 7B files. These are optional to import. If you'd like to import these, follow the same instructions as below.

You would enter students into the 9B September series instead.

Generating a Pearson 7B Results Request file

Pearson will ask your school to provide a 7B Results Request file in order for EDI results to be made available in the August results period.

You can create this file in Arbor, in the same way as you would generate a standard EDI Entries file - just follow the steps below.

Step 1 - Get the basedata

Obtain the 7B basedata from Pearson.

When requesting basedata from Pearson, please ensure the correct year's basedata is provided - this will be indicated by the filename you receive (e.g. a 7B22 basedata provides the July 2022 series, 9B21 provides the September 2021 series).

Step 2 - Get the basedata imported

Send the basedata to the Arbor Support Team if supported by Arbor, or your Support Partner if not supported by Arbor. If supported by Arbor, click Contact Us in the top right of the Help Centre, select the basedata option, fill out the fields, and add your basedata as an attachment.

The basedata will then be imported into Arbor by us, to create the relevant data for the qualification(s) and let you know once this has been completed.

Step 3 - Make your entries

You'll then need to add the qualification(s) to your Arbor and enter your students.

1. Follow the instructions from Step 2 onwards in this article to get your qualifications set up: Setting up BTEC qualifications on Arbor
2. Once you have added your BTEC qualifications, you'll need to enter your candidates into the awards: Entering candidates in Arbor

When entering your students, ensure you select the appropriate 7B series. This will usually be 7B and then the last two digits of the calendar year - for example, 7B20 was the series for summer 2020 and 7B21 will be the series for summer 2021. All examples in this article will refer to the 7B20 series.

Step 4 - Generate an EDI Entries file

After you've entered the students, you'll need to generate an EDI Entries file. You can see how to do this here: Generating EDI Entry files

Step 5 - Send your file to Pearson

If you are happy with the contents of the file, click on the Download EDI File button. This EDI file will be your 7B Results Request file, which you should send to Pearson through A2C.

You can find more information on Pearson's website here: EDI BTEC Basedata: Registration 9B And Results 7B Files

Step 6 - Import your results

On exam results days, if you completed the steps above, Pearson will give you your results file. You'll then be able to import the results: Entering Exam results in Arbor

What if it's results day and we didn't complete the process above?

If you did not complete the steps above, Pearson will not issue your results file until you complete these steps. Although you can add the results manually, we recommend contacting Pearson for your entries file, and we'll import this for you as soon as we can.