What this calculator does
This tool works out your current grade in one class from the assignments, quizzes and exams you have scores for. It is the number your instructor is tracking in the gradebook — a weighted average of everything graded so far, shown as a percentage and a letter. It is not a GPA. A class grade lives inside a single course; a GPA takes the final letter from several classes and averages them on the 4.0 scale. When you are done here and want to combine classes, head to the GPA calculator.
How to use the grade calculator
- List each graded category — homework, quizzes, the midterm, the final, a project. One row each.
- Enter the grade you earned in that category, as a percentage.
- Enter its weight — the share of the final grade it is worth, straight from your syllabus.
- Read your result. The calculator shows your weighted average, its letter grade, and the total weight entered so far.
Leave out anything you have not been graded on yet to see your standing so far, and add it back once you have a real score. Your rows are saved in your browser and never leave your device.
The class-grade formula
Almost every class is a weighted average: each category counts for a fixed share of the grade, and the shares add up to 100%. In one line:
Class grade = Σ(category weight × category score) ÷ (sum of weights)
Written out, that is score₁ × weight₁ + score₂ × weight₂ + … divided by the total weight. When the weights already total 100, dividing by 100 is the same as reading each product as a percentage-point contribution and adding them up — which is exactly how the worked example below reads.
Worked example
Say your syllabus splits the grade into four categories, and here is where you stand with everything graded:
| Category | Score | Weight | Contribution (score × weight ÷ 100) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homework | 92% | 20% | 18.40 |
| Quizzes | 85% | 15% | 12.75 |
| Midterm | 78% | 25% | 19.50 |
| Final | 88% | 40% | 35.20 |
The weights total 100%, so just add the contributions: 18.40 + 12.75 + 19.50 + 35.20 = 85.85% — a solid B. Notice the 40%-weighted final moves the grade far more than the 20% homework: a 10-point swing on the final shifts your grade by 4 points, while the same swing on homework shifts it by only 2. That is the whole point of weighting, and it is why knowing your weights tells you where your effort pays off most.
Points-based grading vs weighted categories
There are two common ways a class is graded, and it is worth knowing which one you are in:
- Weighted categories — the syllabus assigns a percentage to each category (Homework 20%, Final 40%, …). Every category is scored 0–100% on its own, then blended by weight. That is the model above.
- Points-based — everything is worth raw points and your grade is simply
(total points earned) ÷ (total points possible) × 100. A 400-point final automatically matters more than a 50-point quiz because it contributes more points, so there are no separate weights to set.
Example of the points model: you earn 180 of 200 homework points, 85 and 78 on two 100-point midterms, and 240 of 300 on the final. That is (180 + 85 + 78 + 240) ÷ (200 + 100 + 100 + 300) × 100 = 583 ÷ 700 × 100 = 83.29%. You can still use the calculator above for a points class — enter each item’s points possible as its weight and its percentage as the score — but adding the points directly is usually simpler.
Reading your syllabus for the weights
The weights come from the “Grading,” “Assessment,” or “Evaluation” section of your syllabus, where each category is listed with a percentage. Three things to watch for. First, the categories should sum to 100% — if they do not, the syllabus may be missing something or using points instead. Second, some categories bundle many items: a “Quizzes 15%” line usually means the average of all your quizzes counts for 15%, not each quiz separately, so average your quizzes first and enter that one number. Third, watch for a lowest-score drop (“we drop your lowest quiz”) — compute that category’s average after dropping the low score.
Turning your percentage into a letter grade
Once you have the weighted percentage, map it to a letter using your school’s cutoffs. The most common US scale:
| Percentage | Letter |
|---|---|
| 93–100 | A |
| 90–92 | A- |
| 87–89 | B+ |
| 83–86 | B |
| 80–82 | B- |
| 70–79 | C range |
| 60–69 | D range |
| Below 60 | F |
The calculator applies this scale automatically, but confirm it against your syllabus — plenty of classes use a plain 90/80/70/60 scale with no pluses or minuses, and rounding rules differ (an 89.5 is an A- at some schools and a B+ at others).
Handling a category you haven’t been graded in yet
Mid-semester, the honest question is “what is my grade right now?” — and the answer only counts categories that actually have scores. Suppose only homework, quizzes and the midterm are graded so far:
(18.40 + 12.75 + 19.50) ÷ (0.20 + 0.15 + 0.25) = 50.65 ÷ 0.60 = 84.42%
Dividing by the entered weight (60%) instead of 100% renormalizes the graded categories so they carry the whole grade between them — the same as scaling their weights up to 33%, 25% and 42%. That is exactly what the calculator does when you leave the final out. The mistake to avoid is entering the ungraded final as a 0%: that treats a not-yet-taken exam as a failed one and would drag this 84.42% down to about 50%, which is not your grade.
Common mistakes
- Counting ungraded work as zero. Leave it out entirely until you have a score, as above.
- Averaging categories instead of weighting them. A 100% on 10%-weighted participation does not cancel a 70% on a 40% final — the plain average would say 85%, but the weighted grade is far lower.
- Entering each quiz separately when the syllabus weights the quiz average. Average them into one number first.
- Mixing points and percentages in the same run. Pick one model per class and stay in it.
From class grade to GPA, and related tools
Once you know your class grade, convert it to a letter and then to grade points on the GPA scale, and drop it into the GPA calculator to see how the class moves your average — or the college GPA calculator and high school GPA calculator for those specific cases, and the cumulative GPA calculator to pool every term. Trying to hit a specific grade? The final grade calculator tells you exactly what you need on the final. Prefer to think in category weights directly? The weighted grade calculator frames the same math around weighted categories, and the guide to calculating grades walks through more examples.
Last updated September 2026. Results are estimates on the common US grading scale; grading schemes, cutoffs, rounding and dropped-score rules vary, so always confirm the exact weights and policies against your syllabus or instructor.