Weighted grade calculator

What a weighted grade calculator does

This page handles category weights. A category is a group of work, such as tests, quizzes, homework, or a final exam. Each category has an average score and a weight. The weight is the percent of your course grade that category is worth. The calculator multiplies each category average by its weight, adds those up, and divides by the total weight. That gives your current percent in the course.

This is different from the grade calculator, which weights single assignments. On that page, each assignment has a score, a total points value, and a weight. Here, you work with category averages instead. If your teacher gives you a category average for tests, you type that one number. You do not list every test.

Assignments vs. categories

Weighting assignments means each piece of work counts on its own. A quiz worth 10 points and a project worth 100 points affect your grade by their point values. Weighting categories means each group counts as a block. Tests might be 50 percent, homework 30 percent, and quizzes 20 percent. Inside each block, the teacher averages your scores first. Then the block average goes into the course grade.

Both methods can give different results. Suppose you score 100 percent on homework and 70 percent on tests. If homework is 30 percent and tests are 70 percent, your grade is 0.3 x 100 + 0.7 x 70 = 79 percent, a C+. If the teacher counted every assignment equally instead, the homework points could pull you higher. The weights decide how much each group matters.

When weights do not add to 100

Sometimes the weights you enter add to less than 100. That happens when part of the course has not been graded yet. A blank category is left out of the math. The calculator then divides by the total weight of the categories you did fill in. This scales the rest up to 100 percent. The result is your current standing, not your final grade.

Example: tests are 50 percent and you have a 90 average. Homework is 30 percent and you have an 80 average. The final exam is 20 percent and has no score yet. The calculator uses only tests and homework. Total weight is 80. The math is (90 x 50 + 80 x 30) / 80 = (4500 + 2400) / 80 = 86.25 percent. That is a B. Once you take the final, the 20 percent comes back in and the number can move.

If the weights add to more than 100, check your entries. A course cannot give out more than 100 percent of its grade. One common cause is counting a category twice.

Worked example

Here is a full course with four categories. All weights add to 100.

Add the last column: 3520 + 1840 + 2375 + 1500 = 9235. Divide by the total weight, which is 100. Your grade is 92.35 percent. On the common US scale used by every calculator on this site, that is an A-. Schools differ, so check your own school's scale.

Now suppose participation has no score yet. Its 15 percent drops out. The total weight becomes 85. The math is 9235 / 85 = 108.6, which is above 100. That cannot be right, so the calculator would instead use only the categories with scores and their own weights. The point is simple: blank categories change the denominator. Always look at which categories are included.

From current standing to final grade

Your current standing is the grade you have right now. It is not your final grade. The final grade calculator answers a different question: what score do you need on the final exam to reach a target grade? The formula is required = (target - current x (1 - w)) / w, where w is the final's weight as a decimal.

Example: your current grade is 88, your target is 90, and the final is worth 20 percent. The math is (90 - 88 x 0.8) / 0.2 = (90 - 70.4) / 0.2 = 98. You need a 98 on the final. If the answer is over 100, the target is out of reach with the final alone.

Use this page first to get your current standing. Then take that number to the final grade calculator. The two pages work as a pair.

Every formula on this site is published at how we calculate. The calculators run in your browser. Nothing you type is sent anywhere.