Course Grade Planner
Copy the weights off your syllabus once, at the start of term. Everything after that is arithmetic you can do in a minute.
BFCBrilliance · bfcbrilliance.com/tools/weighted-grade-calculator
The course
- Subject
- Term
- Grade scale in use
- Grade you want
- Current grade
- Points from it
- Biggest weight is
- Syllabus checked?
Categories — copy the weights from the syllabus
| Category | Weight % | Your average | Weight x score | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
The arithmetic
- Weighted grade
- sum of (weight x score) / sum of weights
- Weights should total
- 100
- Ten points on a category
- its weight / 10, in overall points
- A
- 90+ — 4 grade points
- B
- 80-89 — 3 points
- C
- 70-79 — 2 points
- D
- 60-69 — 1 point
- F
- below 60 — 0 points
- ⚠ Check the syllabus for
- 7-point scales, +/- grades, rounding
At the start of term
- Syllabus read properly, once - it settles every question below
- Weights copied into the table above
- Grade scale noted - ten-point or seven-point?
- Plus and minus grades? They change what an 89 means
- Rounding rule found - does 89.5 become an A?
- Any dropped-lowest or replacement rules written down
- Biggest-weight category identified - that is where effort pays
Work on the heaviest category, not the weakest
The instinct is to fix whatever score looks worst. The arithmetic says otherwise: ten points in a category worth 40 percent is worth four overall points, and ten points in a category worth 10 percent is worth one. If your weakest score is in your lightest category, it is costing you far less than it feels like it is.
Work it out before the last week
The value of this sheet is knowing in week six what you need, while there is still time to do something about it. Filled in during the last week of term it becomes a prediction rather than a plan, and there is nothing left to change.