Grade Calculator
What you need on the final to finish with the grade you want.
Your grade
0 – 100%, before the final
0 – 100% of the course
Target grade
This works out your current grade from weighted categories, and what you need on remaining work to hit a target.
It handles any number of categories with any weights, as long as they total 100%.
How weighted grades are calculated
Most courses grade by weighted categories, not by averaging all your scores. Homework might be 20% of the grade, tests 50%, and the final 30%.
That means a score's impact depends on which category it is in. A 95% on homework worth 20% contributes 19 points; an 82% on tests worth 50% contributes 41. Averaging the two raw percentages would give 88.5%, and the real figure is nothing like it.
The question most students actually have is the reverse one: what do I need on the final? With those scores and a 30% final, finishing at 85% overall requires 83.3% on it. Finishing at 90% would require exactly 100%.
Each category contributes its weight times its percentage. The remaining weight is what any target has to come out of.
What to enter
- Category names and weights
- From your syllabus. They should total 100%, and if they do not, check for a category you have missed.
- Your score in each category
- As a percentage. If a category has several assignments, average those first, weighting by points if they differ in size.
- Target grade
- For working out what you need on remaining work.
Common grade boundaries
- A
- 90-100%, often split into A− at 90-92 and A+ at 97+.
- B
- 80-89%.
- C
- 70-79%. Often the minimum passing grade for a major requirement.
- D
- 60-69%. Usually passing but frequently not sufficient for prerequisites.
- F
- Below 60%.
What this assumes
Weights must total 100%. If your syllabus lists categories adding to more or less, something has been misread.
Some courses drop the lowest score in a category or offer extra credit, and neither is captured by a plain weighted average.
How to calculate your course grade
Multiply each category by its weight, add them up, and compare against what remains.
- weight
- As a decimal, so 20% is 0.20
- earned
- Points accumulated from completed categories
- remaining weight
- The weight of work not yet graded
List categories with their weights. From the syllabus. Confirm they total 100% before going further.
Multiply each score by its weight. 95% homework at 20% weight contributes 19 points. 82% tests at 50% contributes 41.
Add the completed categories. 19 + 41 = 60 points earned out of the 70% of the grade decided so far.
Work backwards for what you need. Target minus earned, divided by the remaining weight. (85 − 60) ÷ 0.30 = 83.3%.
See a worked example: what the final actually has to be
- Homework
- 20% weight, scoring 95%
- Tests
- 50% weight, scoring 82%
- Final
- 30% weight, not yet taken
Earned so far: (0.20 × 95) + (0.50 × 82) = 19 + 41 = 60 points.
For a B (85%): need 25 more from the final, so 25 ÷ 0.30 = 83.3%.
For an A (90%): need 30 from a category worth 30, so exactly 100%.
For a C (80%): 20 ÷ 0.30 = 66.7%. Seeing all three at once is usually more useful than seeing one.
83.3% on the final for an 85% overall
Frequently asked questions
Subtract the points you have already earned from your target, then divide by the final's weight.
With 60 points earned and a 30% final, an 85% target needs (85 − 60) ÷ 0.30 = 83.3%. If the answer comes out above 100%, that target is no longer reachable.
Because categories are weighted differently. A 95% on homework worth 20% affects your grade far less than an 82% on tests worth 50%.
Averaging those two raw scores gives 88.5%. The actual weighted contribution is 60 points out of the 70% graded so far, which is about 85.7%. Weighting changes the answer substantially.
Some courses use total points rather than weighted percentages: add up all points earned and divide by all points possible.
It is simpler, and the weighting is implicit in how many points each assignment is worth. A 200-point final in a 1,000-point course is effectively a 20% weight.
Then a category has been missed or misread. Check the syllabus for participation, attendance or quizzes that are graded separately.
If they genuinely total less than 100%, ask your instructor. It is usually a typo in the syllabus rather than an intentional structure.
Many courses drop the lowest quiz or homework score. Calculate the category average after removing that score, then apply the weight.
It can matter a lot. Dropping one zero from a five-item category raises that category average by 20 percentage points.
It depends entirely on the instructor and institution, and there is no universal rule. Some round to the nearest whole percent, some do not round at all.
The syllabus usually says. If it does not, it is a reasonable thing to ask about early in the term rather than at the end.
Problems people actually run into
Averaging category percentages
Adding 95% and 82% and dividing by two gives 88.5%, and treats a 20% category as equal to a 50% one.
Multiply each by its weight before adding. The categories carrying the most weight are the ones worth the most effort.
Checking too late to act
Working out what you need on the final during finals week gives you no room to change the answer.
Run the calculation at the midpoint of the term. That is when a target still being reachable, or not, actually changes what you do about it.
Results are estimates for general information only and are not professional financial, medical, or legal advice. Read our full disclaimer.
Last updated: September 4, 2026