How to calculate Final Grades
Determining what score is needed on the final exam to achieve your desired score for the course
- First, you need to know three things:
- Your current course grade
- Your desired course grade
- The percentage weight applied to the final exam
For this example we will use 88% for your current course grade, 90% for your desired course grade, and 30% for the percentage weight of your final exam.
- Determine the weight of your current course grade by subtracting the final exam weight percentage from 100%. If your final exam is worth 30% of your course grade then the rest of the course is worth 70% of your grade:
100% (Total course) – 30% (Final Exam)= 70% (current grade in course)
- Multiply your current course grade by its weight as determined in step 2:
current course grade X weight of current grade in course (as a decimal)
If your current course grade is an 88% and your current course grade is weighted 70% then:
88 X .7 = 61.6
This is the weighted value of your current grade (CG).
- Subtract this number from step 3 (the weighted value of your current grade) from your desired grade:
desired grade (DG) – weighted value of your current grade (CG) (see step 3)
If we desire a 90%, then:
90 – 61.6 = 28.4
- Divide this number from step 4 (the difference between DG and CG), by the weight of the final exam grade (as a decimal):
desired grade (DG) – weighted value of your current grade (CG)
weight of the final exam (as a decimal)
In our example, it would be calculated as follows:
(90-61.6) which is equal to 28.4 which equals 94.7.
This is our grade needed on the final exam: 94.7%.