Final Grade Calculator

Required score = (target grade − current grade × (1 − final weight)) ÷ final weight

current grade

The grade you have so far, as a percentage of the work already marked — 88 means 88%. It is what the non-final portion of the course has earned, so it is also the number the current contribution below is derived from

target grade

The final course grade you are aiming for, again as a percentage. Nothing checks it against a pass mark or a cap: 90 is a target, and the page treats it as one

final weight

How much of the course grade the final exam is worth, from over 0 to 100%. At 25, three quarters of the grade is already settled and the final moves the rest; at 100 nothing is settled and the required score is the target itself

required score

What the final exam has to score. It is the gap converted back onto the final's own scale, so it can come out above 100 — that is a real answer, and the maximum possible grade printed beside it says how far out of reach the target is

current contribution

The part of the course grade that is already locked in: the current grade applied to everything the final does not cover. Adding the final's full weight to it gives the best grade still possible

This is the arithmetic behind a question students ask every term: what do I need on the final. It also runs the other way, which is often more useful — set the target at what you already have and the required score tells you whether the final can be treated as safe, or set it one letter higher and see whether the gap is realistic. Two of the four figures answer the question a number alone cannot: the current contribution shows how much of the grade is beyond the final's reach, and the maximum possible grade shows the ceiling, so a target that cannot be hit is visible as such instead of disguised as a hard but achievable score. The current grade is usually the weighted grade from the course grade page.

1. 88 so far, final worth 25%, target 90: the final must score 96

   1. Current contribution: 88 × (1 − 0.25) = 88 × 0.75 = 66 — three quarters of the grade is already settled
   2. Points needed: 90 − 66 = 24
   3. Required score: 24 ÷ 0.25 = 96
   4. Maximum possible grade: 66 + 25 = 91 — a perfect final paper gives 91, so the target is reachable

   The four numbers reconcile: 96 × 0.25 = 24, and 66 + 25 = 91. That is why the current contribution is printed rather than hidden — with it, the reader can check the whole chain without leaving the panel. Note the target of 90 is below the ceiling of 91, which is what makes it a target rather than a hope.

2. 70 so far, final worth 20%, target 100: the final would need 220

   1. Current contribution: 70 × 0.8 = 56
   2. Points needed: 100 − 56 = 44
   3. Required score: 44 ÷ 0.2 = 220 — more than a perfect paper
   4. Maximum possible grade: 56 + 20 = 76, so even 100 on the final leaves the course grade at 76

   220 is not clipped to 100, and that is deliberate: 100 would read as hard but doable, while 220 says the target is out of reach. The maximum possible grade is the other half of that sentence — the two together are the whole answer. The only ways to change it are a higher current grade or a heavier final, not a better final paper.

3. 95 so far, final worth 10%, target 85: the final is already covered

   1. Current contribution: 95 × 0.9 = 85.5 — already above the target of 85
   2. Points needed: 85 − 85.5 = −0.5, floored at 0
   3. Required score: 0 ÷ 0.1 = 0 — anything at all on the final keeps the target
   4. Maximum possible grade: 85.5 + 10 = 95.5

   The gap was negative, so both the points needed and the required score are floored at 0 and stay consistent with each other. A required score of 0 is a real answer — the target is already secured — and the current contribution of 85.5 keeps the information that the surplus exists instead of hiding it. Note that 0 rather than 1 is the floor: nothing is being asked of the final paper.

This page answers one equation; it does not model a course. It assumes the work already marked carries a single grade, so a course that drops the lowest quiz, replaces the midterm with the final, or applies a curve cannot be represented by three numbers — the current grade has to be worked out on its own terms first. Everything is a percentage, so a grade computed on a different scale has to be converted before it goes in. The required score is deliberately not capped at 100, and equally it is never checked against a pass mark: whether the target you typed is the grade you need is a question about your programme, not about arithmetic.

What do I need on the final exam to get the grade I want?

Divide the gap between your target and what is already locked in by the final's weight. With 88 so far, a target of 90 and a final worth 25%, three quarters of the course is settled at 66 points, 24 points are missing, and the final has to score 24 ÷ 0.25 = 96. All four figures are on the panel, and they reconcile: the required score times the final's weight is the points needed.

What if the required score comes out above 100?

Then the target is out of reach with the work that is left, and the page says so rather than rounding the answer down to a perfect paper. A score of 220 on a final worth 20% means the target cannot be hit — and the maximum possible grade printed beside it gives the best the course can still end at, which in that case is 76. Treating 220 as if it were 100 would turn an impossibility into a hard-but-plausible task.

What does a required score of zero mean?

It means the target is already secured: the part of the course that is not the final has earned more than the target on its own. With 95 so far and a final worth 10%, 85.5 points are locked in, so any score at all on the final keeps a target of 85. Both the points needed and the required score are floored at zero together, and the current contribution keeps printing 85.5 so the surplus is visible rather than erased.

Is the current grade the same as my score so far?

They are the same number written two ways: it is the weighted average of everything marked so far, expressed as a percentage of the work it covers — not the sum of your points, and not an average of your letter grades. If your course is graded on parts, the course grade page computes exactly this from the scores and weights; entering that result here is the usual way the two pages are used in sequence.

What if the final exam is worth the whole course?

Enter 100 as the final's weight and nothing else counts: the current contribution becomes 0, the points needed equals the target, and the required score is the target itself. That is the correct answer rather than a degenerate case, and the maximum possible grade prints 100 — the whole grade is decided by that one paper. The field accepts a weight from just above 0 up to 100, and a weight of 0 is refused, since a final that counts for nothing leaves nothing to solve for.

• Measures of the Center of the Data — Introductory Statistics 2e, section 2.5 (the mean as the balance point of a list of values, and how a single value shifts it, which is the behaviour this page inverts to solve for the final score) — OpenStax, Rice University
• Measures of Location — e-Handbook of Statistical Methods, section 1.3.5.1 (the arithmetic mean and the weighted mean as measures of location; the final grade here is the weighted mean of the current grade and the final score) — National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
• GB/T 3358.1-2009, Statistics — Vocabulary and symbols, Part 1 (the Chinese national vocabulary standard; its record page states that no online full text is offered, so it is cited for the terms rather than for a formula) — State Administration for Market Regulation, China