Grade Calculator

Worked example

Sitting on 84% with a final worth 30%, an A at 90% needs 104% on the final — not reachable. The best grade still available is 88.8%, so the question worth asking is whether 88.8 is a B+ or an A- on this syllabus.

How to work it out yourself

1. 1.To work out what you need on the final, enter your grade so far, what the final is worth, and the grade you are aiming at.
2. 2.Read the reachable line before the needed line. If the best case is under your target, no score on the final gets you there and the honest answer is a different target.
3. 3.To work out where you stand instead, switch modes and enter up to eight categories. Say whether the syllabus records weights and percentages or points earned out of points possible — the two are different sums.
4. 4.Leave a category at zero if the course does not have it. The average divides by the weights entered, so an ungraded category costs nothing.
5. 5.Treat the letter as a convenience. A 90-point A and a 93-point A are both common, and only your syllabus says which one you are on.

Letter grades on the common US scale

A+ at 97, A at 93, A- at 90, and so on in threes. Plenty of courses use a different scale, which is why the percentage is the number to argue from.

The formula

1. Weights or points possible20 + 15 + 25 + 40 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0
2. Grade so far1 * 86 + 0 * 343
3. Points already banked84 * (1 - 0.3)
4. Score needed on the final(90 - 58.8) / max(0.3, 0.0001)
5. Best grade still reachable58.8 + 100 * 0.3
6. Grade if the final is failed outright
7. The target is reachable
8. Answer1 * 104 + 0 * 86
9. Grade points on a 4.0 scale

Source: US Department of Education — grade point average in federal student aid, AACRAO — academic record and transcript guide, grading practices

Questions people actually ask

What if I need more than 100% on the final?

Then the target is out of reach, and the calculator says so rather than printing a number you cannot score. On the example above an A needs 104%. This is the single most useful thing this calculation does, and it is worth doing in week ten rather than the night before.

What is the difference between weights and points?

A syllabus that says homework is 20% of the grade wants the weighted average: each category counts for its share whatever it was marked out of. A syllabus that says the homework was 45 out of 50 wants the points total: everything earned divided by everything possible. The two give different answers from the same marks, and picking the wrong one is silent because both look reasonable.

How much can the final actually move my grade?

By exactly its weight. A final worth 30% can move the course grade at most 30 points, from the worst case where you score zero to the best case where you score full marks. Both ends are printed above, and the gap between them is the whole stake.

Can I enter letter grades?

Enter the percentage they stand for; the table above gives the common scale, where an A- is 90, a B is 83 and a C- is 70. Letters are a rounding of a percentage, so entering the letter would throw away the precision the calculation needs. If all you have is letters, use the midpoint of the band and treat the answer as approximate.

Do the weights have to add to 100?

Not here. The average is divided by the weights you entered, so leaving out categories that have not been graded gives your standing on the work that has been marked. Enter every category with its real weight to see the projected final grade instead.

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