Content

• To step
• Method 1 of 5: Points system
• Method 2 of 5: Weighted numbers
• Method 3 of 5: Boost your grade
• Method 4 of 5: Standard grading system versus ranking grading system
• Method 5 of 5: "Broadly unsatisfactory" to "very good" grade categories
• Warnings

It is very useful if you can calculate your figures yourself. That way you can keep track of your progress and you know how hard you have to work to achieve the desired final grade. This article explains how you can calculate your grades, estimate a future grade or determine what kind of grades you will have to achieve to reach a certain final grade.

To step

Method 1 of 5: Points system

1. Determine whether you work according to a points system. Before calculating your grade, you will need to find out whether your teacher uses a points system or a weighted grading system. With a points system, everything you do for a course will earn a certain number of points. Take a look at how one of your assignments has been graded or ask your teacher to find out how your grades are determined.
   
   
2. Determine the total number of points to be earned. Add up all points of all assignments and / or tests completed so far. If you want to know the total number of points, you should ask your teacher how many points there are still to be earned in the rest of the school year. You can also ask directly how many points you can earn in total in the entire school year.
3. Determine how many points you have earned. Add up all the points you received for your assignments and tests. Look up these numbers yourself or ask your teacher.
   • If you are trying to calculate what your final grade can or will be, you need to consider how many points you have so far and how many you can still earn. You will have to estimate how many points you will earn. You can do this by, for example, assuming that you will actually achieve 60% of the points still to be earned. This way you can try out a little bit where you will end up and you know how hard you will have to do your best to achieve your desired final grade, for example.
4. Determine your percentage. Take the number of points you have earned so far and divide that by (1) the total number of points you could have obtained so far or (2) the total number of points for the entire course. It depends on what information you have available and what you would like to know (your grade based on the number of points you have achieved so far or based on the total number of points, including the points that you can still earn in the future).
   • An example of this equation would look like this: Sam has completed ten assignments and one test. Together you could earn 200 points. Sam has calculated that he has scored 175 points. His figure at the moment is therefore 175/200 = 0.87, or 8.7. Sam has heard from his teacher that an additional 100 points can be earned for future assignments and tests. So the total is 200 + 100 = 300. Based on this total, Sam's figure is 175/300 = 0.58, or 5.8. That seems low, but Sam can still earn 100 points for the rest of the school year. A 5.8 is already sufficient, so suppose Sam would not do anything more about school now, he will still have passed this school year!

Method 2 of 5: Weighted numbers

1. Determine whether weight is assigned to the grades. Maybe your teacher uses a weighted grading system. This means that every grade you get has a certain weighting. The weighting depends on the category for which you receive a grade. Categories include homework assignments, tests, participation and the final exam.
   • Each category will be a certain percentage of your final grade. The higher the weighting, the more influence the grade has on your final grade. The higher the weighting, the more important the figure, you could say.
   • Sometimes teachers work with weights from 1 to 6 and sometimes with percentages.
   • Different teachers will give different weights to the same things. That just depends on what a teacher thinks is very and less important. Some teachers find the final exam very important, while others consider participation very important.
2. Multiply each weighting by each digit to calculate your final grade or grade so far.
   • If you are aiming for a certain final grade, you can estimate how you will have to complete the upcoming assignments and tests based on how you are doing so far.
3. Multiply each weighting by the corresponding number. If you are working with weightings from 1 to 6 and you have achieved a 7.2 for a test that counted 3 times, you do 3 times 7.2 to get 21.6. Another figure is an 8 that counts twice, so you get 2 times 8 is 16. In the case of weightings as percentages, we can use the following as a calculation example: You have achieved a 7.2 that counts for 50%, so if you do 0.50 times 7.2 is 3.6. Your other number is an 8 and it also counts for 50%, so you do 0.50 times 8 is 4.
4. Add up all these numbers that you get after multiplying. With the system with percentages as weightings, you will now calculate your grade immediately: 3.6 + 4 = 7.6. With the system with weightings 1 to 6 you still have to do something. You divide the total by the sum of the weightings to get your grade. The total is 21.6 + 16 = 37.6. You divide this by the sum of all weightings: 3 + 2 = 5. So you do 37.6 / 5 = 7.52. This is your grade.

Method 3 of 5: Boost your grade

1. Determine which final grade you want to get and calculate how many points you will still need to get. If you know what final grade you have in mind, you can calculate how many points you still have to get.
   • Determine how many points you have and how many points you can still get. Suppose you have reached 175 of the 200 points so far and you can still earn a maximum of 100. In total there are therefore a maximum of 200 + 100 = 300 points.
   • Now calculate how many points you still need to get for your desired final grade. Suppose you want an 8 as a final mark. This means that you have to finish with 80% of the total number of points. 80% of 300 is 240 (0.80 times 300 is 240). So you have to get 240 points for that 8 and you currently have 175 points. So you still have to achieve 240 minus 175 is 65 points. Of the 100 points that you can still get, you have to score at least 65 points to get an 8 or higher as the final grade.
2. Ask your teacher for help if you work with weightings. It is very difficult to calculate what grade you will have to achieve in the future to end with a certain final grade when you work with weightings. So ask your teacher for help with this.
   • What you can in any case pay attention to is that you try to score as high as possible on the categories with the heaviest weightings. That does not mean that you do not have to score high on the categories with a lower weighting. Those categories are often easier and you can often score extra high on them.
3. Ask your teacher if there is a way to earn bonus points. Consider, for example, making extra homework assignments. Some teachers are willing to give bonus points if students voluntarily show extra effort.

Method 4 of 5: Standard grading system versus ranking grading system

1. Understand the standard grading system. This includes the methods we've discussed so far.
   • The standard grading system always works with a number of points, whereby the number of points achieved in relation to the total number of points results directly in a grade.
2. Understand the ranking grading system. This is a very complicated system used by some schools. Your grade takes into account the performance of the rest of the class.
   • For example, you might actually have an 8 (because you scored 80% of the points), but you get a 9 because the rest of the class has generally performed much worse. So you scored relatively very well with 80% of the points.
   • This method is only applied to individual numbers. It just depends on how the grades of one test or assignment are distributed over the entire class. This distribution is always different.

Method 5 of 5: "Broadly unsatisfactory" to "very good" grade categories

1. Some schools, some teachers or some subjects work with grade categories: "Largely unsatisfactory" to "very good". This system is often used when it is not easy to work with exact figures, for example in the gym. Usually the following grade categories are used, with each category roughly corresponding to the given grades:
   • More than insufficient: 4.5 or lower.
   • Insufficient: 4.5 to 5.5.
   • Sufficient: 5.5 to 6.5.
   • Good: 6.5 to 7.5.
   • Very good: 7.5 or higher.

Warnings

• Make sure you add and subtract correctly. If the grade does not resemble the individual grades at all, or the grade seems impossible because it exceeds 100%, for example, do your calculations again.