How to Calculate Your Final Grade and What You Need on Your Finals
So you've got all your marks in and you know the weighting of each part but what is your final mark? Sure you can wait for your teacher to publish everyone's marks, but you want to know now.
So how do you calculate your final grade? It's actually really easy so grab a calculator and we'll begin.
The easiest way to explain this is with an easy example.
Billy has got 83% on his first quarter which is worth 40% of his final grade.
In the second quarter he got 78% and this is also worth 40% of his final grade.
On the final, which is worth 20%, he scored a 98%.
So what's his final mark? You multiply the mark by the weighted percentage as a decimal and add them together.
So for Billy the sum is (83 x 0.
4) + (78 x 0.
4) + (98 x 0.
2) = 84.
This means Billy's weighted average grade is 84% overall.
Now what if Billy hasn't done his final yet.
With the 83% and 78% scored so far his mark is 64.
4% out of a possible 80%.
But what is the weighted average.
All you need to do here is divide the score by the amount it is from and then multiply by 100 so 64.
4/80 x 100 = 80.
5% Billy now wants to know what he needs to score of his final to increase his grade to 85%.
To do this he needs to use this formula (wg x m1)+(fg x fm)=dg where wg = the weighting of your current mark m1 = your current weighted average fg = the weighting of your final fm = the mark on your final dg = your desired grade so we plugin Billy's figures to get (0.
8 x 80.
5) + (0.
2 x fg) = 85 64.
4 + 0.
2fg = 85 0.
2fg = 20.
6 fg = 20.
6/0.
2 fg = 103 This means that Billy would need 103% on his final to score 85% overall and so in this case he can't do it.
He can however change the desired grade and rework sum to find what he needs for any grade.
Working out your weighted average is quite easy but sometimes you might not have a calculator to hand or your calculator is a basic one which doesn't allow you to use brackets and so you have to remember the answer for each part, or write them down, for adding at the end.
Working out what you need on your final can be very time consuming when you need to redo the sum for each desired grade.
So how do you calculate your final grade? It's actually really easy so grab a calculator and we'll begin.
The easiest way to explain this is with an easy example.
Billy has got 83% on his first quarter which is worth 40% of his final grade.
In the second quarter he got 78% and this is also worth 40% of his final grade.
On the final, which is worth 20%, he scored a 98%.
So what's his final mark? You multiply the mark by the weighted percentage as a decimal and add them together.
So for Billy the sum is (83 x 0.
4) + (78 x 0.
4) + (98 x 0.
2) = 84.
This means Billy's weighted average grade is 84% overall.
Now what if Billy hasn't done his final yet.
With the 83% and 78% scored so far his mark is 64.
4% out of a possible 80%.
But what is the weighted average.
All you need to do here is divide the score by the amount it is from and then multiply by 100 so 64.
4/80 x 100 = 80.
5% Billy now wants to know what he needs to score of his final to increase his grade to 85%.
To do this he needs to use this formula (wg x m1)+(fg x fm)=dg where wg = the weighting of your current mark m1 = your current weighted average fg = the weighting of your final fm = the mark on your final dg = your desired grade so we plugin Billy's figures to get (0.
8 x 80.
5) + (0.
2 x fg) = 85 64.
4 + 0.
2fg = 85 0.
2fg = 20.
6 fg = 20.
6/0.
2 fg = 103 This means that Billy would need 103% on his final to score 85% overall and so in this case he can't do it.
He can however change the desired grade and rework sum to find what he needs for any grade.
Working out your weighted average is quite easy but sometimes you might not have a calculator to hand or your calculator is a basic one which doesn't allow you to use brackets and so you have to remember the answer for each part, or write them down, for adding at the end.
Working out what you need on your final can be very time consuming when you need to redo the sum for each desired grade.
