How the grade calculator works
Course grades come in two flavors. In a weighted course, the syllabus assigns each category a share of the final grade, and your grade is the weighted average of your category scores. In a points course, every assignment is worth some number of points and your grade is simply total earned over total possible. Both reduce to a ratio:
weighted: grade = sum(score x weight) / sum(weight) points: grade = sum(points earned) / sum(points possible) x 100
Worked example (weighted)
The defaults above describe a course with homework worth 20%, a midterm worth 30%, a project worth 20%, and a final worth 30%. The scores are 92, 78, 88, and 85:
92 x 0.20 = 18.4 78 x 0.30 = 23.4 88 x 0.20 = 17.6 85 x 0.30 = 25.5 total = 84.9% (B)
Notice the midterm and final move the grade most. Swapping the 78 midterm for an 88 would add 3 points to the overall grade, while the same 10-point gain on homework adds only 2.
Worked example (points)
Switch the method to points and the same course reads as 46 of 50 homework points, 78 of 100 on the midterm, 44 of 50 on the project, and 85 of 100 on the final. That is 253 of 300 points, or 84.3%. The result differs slightly from the weighted version because in a points course each assignment's weight is set by its point value, and here the 50-point items carry a little less than 20% each.
Letter grade scale
| Percent | Letter | Percent | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| 97 to 100 | A+ | 77 to 79 | C+ |
| 93 to 96 | A | 73 to 76 | C |
| 90 to 92 | A- | 70 to 72 | C- |
| 87 to 89 | B+ | 67 to 69 | D+ |
| 83 to 86 | B | 63 to 66 | D |
| 80 to 82 | B- | 60 to 62 | D- |
| below 60 | F |
Categories with several assignments
If a 20% homework category contains ten assignments, first average the assignments (as points earned over points possible across all ten, not an average of percentages, unless they are all worth the same), then enter that category average as one row. Dropped lowest scores are removed before averaging. Entering each assignment as its own row with the category's full weight would overcount the category.
Grade before the final
Leave the final's row blank and the calculator averages only the graded work, which is your current standing. Then use the final grade calculator with that number and the final's weight to find the score you need. To turn a semester of course grades into a GPA, see the GPA calculator.