How do I calculate my weighted grade?

Multiply each category average by its weight as a decimal, then add the results. With homework 95 at 20%, quizzes 82 at 30%, and tests 78 at 50%, that’s 19 + 24.6 + 39 = 82.6%.

What if my category weights don’t add up to 100%?

Divide the weighted sum by the total of the weights you have. If they add up to 90%, divide by 0.90. The calculator does this for you and shows a warning, so you can check the syllabus for a category you missed.

What if a category doesn’t have any grades yet?

Leave its score blank. Your grade is then worked out on the categories that do have scores, the same way most online gradebooks show a grade before the final exam.

Why is my weighted grade different from my total points?

Because the weights and the points don’t line up. If quizzes are 30% of the grade but only 50 of 550 points, a points total counts them far less than the syllabus does. Use the method your teacher’s syllabus describes.

Where do I find my category weights?

In the course syllabus or on the class page of your school’s grading portal, usually as a list like “Tests 50%, Quizzes 30%, Homework 20%.” If there are no weights anywhere, your class probably grades by total points.

How do I find out what my grade would be with a certain score?

Open the What-if tab, add the score to its category, and tick What-if. With homework 190/200 (20%), quizzes 41/50 (30%), and tests 78 and 84 out of 100 (50%), the grade today is 84.1%. A what-if 90 on the next test raises it to 85.6%; a 60 drops it to 80.6%.

Can extra credit lower your grade?

Not when it’s added as bonus points, because the points earned go up and the points possible don’t. It can lower a grade when a teacher sets extra credit up as its own weighted category or as a regular assignment with points possible: a 50% in a 5% “extra credit” category pulls an 84.1 down to 82.48.

Does extra credit affect your GPA?

Only through the final letter grade. GPA is built from letters, so extra credit changes it only if it moves you across a cutoff, such as from an 89.4 (B+) to a 90.2 (A-).

How does “drop lowest score” work?

The dropped score is removed from both the points earned and the points possible in that category. When every assignment is worth the same, that’s the lowest score. When they’re worth different points, the calculator drops whichever score raises the category average most, which is how Canvas describes its own drop-lowest rule.

Does this match the grade my school portal shows?

It uses the same weighted average Canvas and Schoology describe in their help pages. Differences usually come from the category method (total points versus each score counting equally), rounding, missing work counted as zero, or a grading period your portal weights separately.

What do I need on my final to get an A?

Use the final grade calculator. Enter the current grade from this page, the grade you want, and how much the final is worth, and it shows the exact score you need on the exam.

Grade Calculator: Find Your Weighted Class Grade

How a weighted grade works

Most U.S. classes don’t just average every score together. The syllabus splits the grade into categories, such as homework, quizzes, tests, and a final, and gives each one a weight. Your score in each category is the average of the work in it, and the course grade blends those averages by weight. A 100 on homework helps, but if homework is only 10% of the grade, it can’t carry a weak test average.

Type each category’s weight and your average in it. If your teacher posts points instead of percentages, switch to points mode and enter points earned and points possible; the calculator turns each row into a percentage for you.

The formula

Weighted grade = (W₁ × S₁ + W₂ × S₂ + …) ÷ (W₁ + W₂ + …)

W is a category’s weight and S is your score in it, both as percentages. When the weights add up to 100, the bottom of the fraction is just 100, and you’re adding up each category’s share. When they don’t, dividing by the real total scales them so they act as if they did. To keep the same weighted grade formula in Google Sheets or Excel, the spreadsheet guide has it step by step.

A worked example

Say the syllabus lists homework at 20%, quizzes at 30%, and tests at 50%, and your averages are 95, 82, and 78.

Homework: 0.20 × 95 = 19.0
Quizzes: 0.30 × 82 = 24.6
Tests: 0.50 × 78 = 39.0

Add them up: 19 + 24.6 + 39 = 82.6%, a B-. The 95 in homework is your best number, yet the grade sits much closer to the test average. That’s the weights doing their job.

Now the same class in points: 190 of 200 homework points (95%), 41 of 50 quiz points (82%), and 234 of 300 test points (78%). Weighted, it’s still 82.6. If you simply added all the points, you’d get 465 of 550, or 84.5%, a B. The two answers differ because quizzes are 30% of the grade but only 50 of the 550 points.

Getting each category’s average

If your portal lists individual assignments but no category averages, add up the points you earned in that category and divide by the points possible, or use points mode and let the calculator do it. Don’t average the percentages of each assignment unless they’re all worth the same. A 10-point quiz at 50% and a 40-point quiz at 100% average to 75% by percent, but by points it’s 45 of 50, which is 90%. For a test marked only by questions wrong, the EZ grader gives you the percent.

When the weights don’t add up to 100

There are two usual reasons. The first is a category with no grades yet, often the final. Leave its score blank and the calculator works out your grade on everything graded so far. With homework at 95 (20%), quizzes at 82 (30%), and no tests yet, that’s (19 + 24.6) ÷ 0.50 = 87.2%, a B+. It’s the same number a gradebook shows mid-semester, and it’ll move once the tests come in.

The second is a typo or a category you forgot. If your weights total 90%, the tool warns you and computes on the 90% you entered. With tests at 40% instead of 50%, that’s (19 + 24.6 + 31.2) ÷ 0.90 = 83.1%. It’s a fair estimate, but check the syllabus before you trust it: a missing 10% category with a low score could drop you under a cutoff.

How much each category can move your grade

A category’s weight tells you how much the course grade moves for every point you raise that category’s average. Raising a category by 10 or 5 points changes the course grade by:

Category weight	Category +10 points	Category +5 points
10%	+1.0	+0.5
20%	+2.0	+1.0
25%	+2.5	+1.25
40%	+4.0	+2.0
50%	+5.0	+2.5

So pulling a 50% test average from 78 up to 88 adds five points to the course grade, while perfect homework in a 10% category adds at most one or two. If you’re deciding where to spend study time, start with the heaviest category where you have room to climb.

Where your school may differ

Letter cutoffs. The letter here uses 93 for an A and 90 for an A-, the scale described on the methodology page. Many schools use a straight 90/80/70/60 scale instead.
Dropped scores. If your teacher drops the lowest quiz, average the quizzes without it before you enter the category, or let the What-if tab drop it for you.
Rounding. Some gradebooks round each category before weighting; others round only the final grade. The gap is usually a tenth or two, which matters a lot at 89.5.
Total-points classes. If the syllabus doesn’t list weights, your class probably grades by total points. In points mode, clear every weight and the calculator adds up the points instead.

What-if scores, dropped scores and extra credit

The What-if tab works score by score. Enter each assignment as points earned and possible, and tick What-if on any score you don’t have yet. You get today’s grade and the what-if grade side by side.

Take homework at 20% (190 of 200), quizzes at 30% (8, 6, 9, 10 and 8 out of 10) and tests at 50% (78 and 84 out of 100). Today that’s 19 + 24.6 + 40.5 = 84.1%. A what-if 90 on the next test lifts the test average to 252 ÷ 300 = 84% and the class to 85.6%. A 60 instead drops it to 80.6%. If the teacher curves that test, the grade curve calculator shows the curved score to enter.

Drop lowest. Drop one quiz and the 6 is gone: quizzes go from 41 of 50 (82%) to 35 of 40 (87.5%), and the class from 84.1 to 85.75. With scores worth different points, it drops whichever one helps most, which isn’t always the lowest percentage.

Extra credit. Bonus points raise what you earned without raising points possible, so they can’t lower a grade. Three extra quiz points make quizzes 88% and the class 85.9%. The exception is extra credit set up as its own weighted category: a 50% in a 5% category makes the weights total 105, and the grade falls to (84.1 + 2.5) ÷ 1.05 = 82.48%. For GPA, extra credit matters only if it changes your letter.

How Canvas and Schoology total a weighted grade

Both use the formula above. Canvas’s guide to weighting assignment groups divides points earned by points possible in each group and, if a group has no graded work, divides by the weights that remain. Its assignment group rules drop the score that leaves the best group percentage. Schoology’s grade calculations page lets each category use total points or item percentages, the two options under Count by.

Once your course grades are final, the GPA calculator turns them into a term GPA. For a high school semester built from two quarter grades and an exam, use the semester grade calculator. And if you want to know what the last exam has to look like, the final grade calculator works backward from the grade you want.