What this calculator does
Calculate your current class grade from assignment scores and weights. Add multiple classes, see your current letter grade, and compare how different scores affect the result. It works for homework, assignments, quizzes, tests, exams, projects, and other graded work.
A grade is calculated from scores and their weights. Our calculator clarifies two important states:
| Grade So Far | Final Grade | |
|---|---|---|
| Ungraded work | Excluded | Included when completed |
| Question answered | "How am I doing now?" | "What is my final course grade?" |
| Depends on future assessments | No | Yes |
Ungraded work should not automatically become zero unless the teacher has actually assigned zero.
For calculating the score you need on a final exam to reach a target grade, use the Final Grade Calculator.
How to use it
- Name the assessment. A homework set, an essay, a midterm — whatever your syllabus calls it. The names are only for you; the arithmetic ignores them.
- Enter the grade. Type a percentage, or pick a letter and the percentage box fills with the bottom of that letter's band. Filling from a letter is deliberately the cautious direction: it gives you the lowest grade consistent with the letters you picked, not a guess at the middle.
- Enter the weight. The percentage of the final grade that assessment carries, off the syllabus. Not the marks it is out of — a 50-mark quiz is rarely 50% of a course.
- Add the rest. Add a row per assessment. Leave the score blank on anything not yet graded rather than entering a zero, unless your teacher has actually scored it as one.
- Add another class. Each class keeps its own assessments and its own grade, and the summary at the bottom lists them together.
Everything you type is kept in your browser, so you can come back and add the next assignment without starting over. Nothing is sent anywhere.
How Assignment Weights Affect Your Grade
A 40% exam has more influence on the course grade than a 5% homework assignment. Improving a 40%-weighted exam by 10 points changes the course grade much more than improving a 5%-weighted assignment by 10 points.
The common shape is weighted categories. Three categories, weights totalling 100%, every one graded — so a final course grade exists:
| Category | Score | Weight | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homework | 92% | 20% | 18.40% |
| Quizzes | 84% | 30% | 25.20% |
| Tests | 78% | 50% | 39.00% |
| Final course grade | 82.60% | ||
Course grade = Σ (score × weight ÷ 100)
Adding the contributions (18.40% + 25.20% + 39.00%) gives 82.60%, a B on the ten-point scale below. Note it is not the average of the three scores, which would be 84.67%. The tests are worth two and a half times the homework, so they pull harder.
Need a dedicated weighted-grade calculation? See the Weighted Grade Calculator.
Points-Based vs. Weighted Grading
Points
Every point earned contributes directly to the total points earned.
Weighted
Each assessment or category contributes according to its assigned percentage of the course.
Some classes never mention weights at all. Every assignment goes into one pool and your grade is your points over the points available:
| Points earned | Points possible | Arithmetic | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|
| 425 | 500 | 425 ÷ 500 | 85.00% |
A points class is a weighted class where every point carries the same weight, so a bigger assignment counts for more simply by being bigger. If yours works this way, enter each assignment's percentage with a weight equal to its points possible: the shares come out identical, and you keep the per-assignment view.
Example 3: the semester is not over
The case the tool actually exists for, and the one worth reading closely. Same four assessments the calculator opens with, final exam still ahead:
| Assessment | Score | Weight | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Essay 1 | 88% | 15% | 13.20% |
| Midterm | 81% | 25% | 20.25% |
| Lab reports | 94% | 20% | 18.80% |
| Final exam | Not graded | 40% | -- |
| Banked, out of 60% graded | 52.25% | ||
You have banked 52.25% of the course. Your grade isnot 52.25% — that would score the unsat final as a zero. It is 52.25% out of the 60% that has been graded, which is 87.08%.
Grade so far = banked points ÷ graded weight × 100
The final exam is 40% of the grade, so the course can still finish anywhere between 52.25% and 92.25%. Those two figures are the honest answer to "how am I doing" this far into a semester, and the calculator shows both.
Example 4: a dropped lowest score
Plenty of syllabuses drop your lowest quiz. Delete that row rather than entering a zero, and the weights stop totalling 100 — here they come to 90%:
| Assessment | Score | Weight | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quiz 2 | 85% | 10% | 8.50% |
| Quiz 3 | 90% | 10% | 9.00% |
| Tests | 88% | 40% | 35.20% |
| Final exam | 84% | 30% | 25.20% |
| Banked, out of 90% graded | 77.90% | ||
Two things you might reasonably do next, and they agree:
- Divide by the weight that is left. 77.90% ÷ 90% × 100 = 86.56%.
- Spread the dropped share across the survivors. Scaling each weight up so they total 100% again gives 86.56%.
Same number, because they are the same operation written two ways. What you must not do is add the contributions and stop: 77.90% treats the dropped quiz as a zero you are still carrying, which is the opposite of dropping it. If a grade you calculated by hand came out a point or two low, this is usually why.
Example 5: everything counts the same
Not every course weights its work. Tick Count every assessment equally and the weights are divided up for you — 5 assessments at 20% each:
| Assessment | Score | Weight | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Assessment 1 | 95% | 20% | 19.00% |
| Assessment 2 | 78% | 20% | 15.60% |
| Assessment 3 | 88% | 20% | 17.60% |
| Assessment 4 | 91% | 20% | 18.20% |
| Assessment 5 | 84% | 20% | 16.80% |
| Final course grade | 87.20% | ||
With equal weights this is a plain average, and you would get the same answer adding the five scores and dividing by 5. The checkbox is there because typing 20% five times is where the slip happens.
What If I Change a Score?
Enter a different score for an assessment to see how it changes the calculated class grade. This is a scenario calculation, not a prediction of what a teacher will award.
Take the partial class from Example 3 and put a score on the final exam:
| Score on the final | Course finishes at | Letter |
|---|---|---|
| 60% | 76.25% | C |
| 70% | 80.25% | B- |
| 80% | 84.25% | B |
| 90% | 88.25% | B+ |
| 100% | 92.25% | A- |
Read down the middle column and the shape of the semester is obvious: 40% riding on one exam means ten marks on the exam moves the course grade by four. You can do the same thing in the calculator with any row — type an estimate into an ungraded assessment and watch the grade move, then clear it again.
Four questions worth putting to it:
- Can I still get the grade I want? Enter your realistic best on everything left. If that lands below your target, the target is gone and it is better to know now.
- How much does this next test actually matter? Put your usual score in, then a score ten marks lower, and look at the difference in the course grade.
- What does a missing assignment cost? Enter a zero, read the grade, then put the real score back.
- Which class needs the time? Add each class and compare. The one where a small weight is still unfilled is rarely the one to work on.
Need to Know What You Need on the Final?
Use the Final Grade Calculator to determine the score you need on an upcoming final exam to reach a target course grade.
The letter beside your grade
Percentage arithmetic is not a matter of opinion. The letter is. A percentage becomes a letter only against a cutoff table, and the common tables disagree — which is why this calculator names the one it is using instead of assuming.
The most common U.S. arrangement. Each letter covers about ten marks and is split into three, so 92% is an A− rather than an A.
| Letter | Percentage | GPA points |
|---|---|---|
| A+ | 97–100 | 4.0 |
| A | 93–96 | 4.0 |
| A- | 90–92 | 3.7 |
| B+ | 87–89 | 3.3 |
| B | 83–86 | 3.0 |
| B- | 80–82 | 2.7 |
| C+ | 77–79 | 2.3 |
| C | 73–76 | 2.0 |
| C- | 70–72 | 1.7 |
| D+ | 67–69 | 1.3 |
| D | 63–66 | 1.0 |
| D- | 60–62 | 0.7 |
| F | Below 60 | 0.0 |
Broadly, what each band is saying about the work:
| Band | Range | What it usually means |
|---|---|---|
| A | 90–100% | Consistently strong work across the whole course. |
| B | 80–89% | Solid understanding, with some ground still to make up. |
| C | 70–79% | The course requirements met, without much margin. |
| D | 60–69% | Passing at most schools, but key ideas are not secure. |
| F | Below 60 | Below the passing line — usually a retake or a conversation with the teacher. |
Still used by a number of districts, and common on middle-school report cards that print one letter per subject. Each passing letter covers seven marks, so 92% is a B. On that table the same figures land differently: 87.08% is B+ on the ten-point scale and B on the seven-point one, and 82.60% is B on the ten-point scale and C on the seven-point one. Nothing about the arithmetic changed — only the table it was read against. Your school's published scale settles it, and the GPA scale reference goes through where the common tables diverge and by how much.
Why your grade may look different from your gradebook
When a figure here and a figure in your teacher's gradebook disagree, it is nearly always one of these — and in every case the syllabus is the authority, not the calculator:
| Cause | What is happening |
|---|---|
| Rounding | Some teachers round every assignment, some round only the final average, some do not round at all. Each policy gives a slightly different answer, and near a cutoff that difference is a letter. |
| Dropped scores | If the lowest quiz or homework is dropped, delete that row here. Leaving it in — or entering a zero for it — pulls your grade below the one your teacher is calculating. |
| Extra credit | Some classes let a category go above 100%, others cap it. The cap changes the answer, so enter extra credit the way your class applies it. |
| Different weights | A category entered at 25% when the syllabus says 30% shifts everything downstream. Worth checking the weights before anything else. |
| Missing work | A gradebook usually counts unsubmitted work as zero immediately. A blank row here is excluded instead. Both are defensible; they are not the same number. |
| Curves | A curve adjusts scores before they are averaged. Enter the curved score, not the raw one, or the calculator is working from marks that no longer exist. |
Calculate Grades for Multiple Classes
Add a separate class to keep each course's assignments and weights separate. The summary lists them together so you can see at a glance which one needs attention.
We do not average them into a single figure because averaging course percentages without credit hours produces wrong answers. For calculating a true GPA across multiple courses, use the College GPA Calculator or the High School GPA Calculator depending on your level.
Bringing a grade up
Prioritize assessments with larger remaining weights. Ten marks on a 40% exam moves your grade four points; ten marks on a 5% homework moves it half a point.
If you need to know exactly what score is required on an upcoming test to boost your grade, use the Final Grade Calculator.