Grade Calculator

Grade Calculators: Useful Tools to Show You What You've Accomplished and Help Plan Your Next Move

A weighted grading calculator can be a lifesaver for students who need to know where they stand at any point in the grading period. These convenient programs save time and give students and teachers quick, accurate information. But what is it they do? This article will investigate what functions grade calculators perform, how they operate, and why we have grades in the first place.

Where You Are and How to Get Where You're Going

The three calculators above can help teachers and students answer urgent questions about grades in seconds. First, the Grade Calculator computes a weighted average for any course, accepting both number and letter grades.

In addition, the Final Grade Planning Calculator displays the grade needed on outstanding assignments to reach a target final grade. Also, the Final Grade Calculator determines what a student needs to score on their final exam to reach their target final grade.

Saving Time

Compared to the normal average, a weighted average requires more calculations. When you figure out a weighted average, the many numbers you use are given varying weights or values in relation to one another. This phenomenon occurs in most high-school and college courses, where different assignment types are worth different percentages of the final grade. A course grade calculator makes finding weighted averages quick and accurate.

In addition, many students become concerned near the end of a quarter, semester, or year. They often worry that they will not get a good grade, but they can rely on a Final Grade Planning Calculator to tell them how to perform to reach their desired goal.

Similarly, students often need to achieve a specific score on their final project or exam to get the desired grade. In this case, a Final Grade Calculator lets them know how hard they must work to get where they need to go.

How to Determine Your Weighted Average

Suppose a grading period is over and all grades are accounted for. In that case, a student can use the Grade Calculator to ensure the teacher made no mathematical errors. In this example, the student enters each assignment, grade, and weight into the calculator.

After clicking "Calculate," the Grade calculator provides a numerical and letter grade.

Average Grade: 87.7 (B+)

Forming a Game plan to Reach Your Target Grade

Provided there are still grades or categories outstanding, enter the target final grade and the weight percentage weight of the outstanding assignments.

After hitting "Calculate," the Final Grade Planning Calculator will display the current weighted average and the score required on outstanding work to achieve the desired final grade.

• Average grade: 85.0 (B).
• A grade of 95.0 is needed for the remaining 30% of tasks to ensure a final grade of 88.

Know What You Need on The Last Big Test

When all grades other than the final exam are accounted for, enter the current weighted average grade, target grade, and final exam weight in the Final Grade Calculator. Click the Calculate button.

• Your current grade: 79
• The grade you want: 85
• Your final is worth: 35%

The Final Grade Calculator will display the final exam grade necessary to attain the desired final grade.

Result You will need a grade of 96.1 or higher on the final.

Students and Teachers Often Misunderstand Weighted Averages

Weighted averages include numbers with different abilities to skew the average—thus the term "weighted." Unfortunately, many students (and some teachers!) don't understand how to calculate grades using weighted averages because they require more calculations than simple ones.

Suppose you're attempting to figure out your grade in a class where different assignments are worth varying percentages of your final grade. In that case, you might need to determine a weighted average. Whether the sum of your weights equals 1 (or 100%) will affect the method you employ.

It's Pretty Simple When You Have All the Data

To calculate a weighted average where the total weights equal 1, multiply each grade by its corresponding weight and add them all up. Rendered mathematically: g1(w1) + g2(w2) + g3(w3), and so on, where g is each grade and w is the corresponding weight. Of course, most syllabi list weights as percentages, so you will need to convert them into decimals first. For example, 25% equals 0.25; therefore, 100% equals 1.

Missing Grades Make the Math More Complicated

The math is slightly different when some grades are missing, and the total weights equal less than one. This happens when you use the Final Grade Planning Calculator to determine your current weighted average and the score needed on the outstanding work to get the final grade you want.

Mathematically, you would figure out the weighted average the same way. However, you need to take the sum of each grade (weight) and divide it by the total weight of the known grades (in decimal form).

The formula would be Σgw/Σw where Σgw is the sum of each grade (weight) and Σw is the sum of all weights in decimal form.

The complexity of these calculations makes a weighted grade calculator a lifesaver for students.

The Reason We Need These Calculators

Grading is a comparatively recent invention. Since 1785, students at Yale have been receiving the Latin equivalents of the words best (optimi), worse (inferiores), and worst (peiores). So, Yale was the first university in the United States to assign grades.

Before that, American colleges followed the Oxford and Cambridge models, which required frequent attendance at lectures and a weekly dialogue between the student and their proctor, both in person and in writing.

When the proctor or panel of other professors thought the students had shown an appropriate grasp of the subject, the course was declared complete. The faculty gave no grade. A prospective employer could only compare a student's qualifications through reference letters.

Universities experimented with a wide variety of systems during the 19th century. For example, Yale used scales ranging from four to nine points. The professors at Harvard experimented with 20 and 100-point scales before deciding that grouping students into five classes, with the lowest class failing the course, was the best they could do.

To assist professors in evaluating students, William and Mary public research University in the U.S. used the categories: "orderly, accurate, and attentive" or "they have learned little or nothing."

Because of the significant increases in immigration and the emergence of regulations requiring compulsory attendance, schools were overcrowded at the beginning of the 20th century. As a result, teachers and administrators needed an effective, standardized method for testing and grading many pupils. These circumstances naturally led to the nationwide standardization of school grading.

6 Ways to Evaluate Student Progress

Our calculators use the percentages and letter grades common in the U.S. However, there are many other ways to assess student progress. Here is a quick list of common grading alternatives:

• A percentage ranging from 0% to 100%.
• Letter Grades with Variations (A, C+, B-).
• Standard-Based. Students receive marks relative to specific knowledge in the curriculum.
• Mastery-Based Grading. Students have the time to master a skill before moving to another.
• Pass/Fail.
• Narrative-Based Grading. Students receive lengthy written feedback about their performance in class.

Conclusion

It may seem that the student grading system has been around forever. However, before the 20th century, the grading systems we now know did not exist.

We still worry about how to determine our grades when each type of assignment has its own "weight." We wonder what we need to get on the final exam to pass.

Our grade calculator can't give you the knowledge to handle every assignment. But he can reassure you by telling you where you are and what results you need to achieve.