Final Grade Calculator

Turning weight into the required score

Weight is expressed as a decimal in the formula but you enter it as a percentage above. If the final is worth 30% of the course, the calculator treats 0.30 as the final's share and 0.70 as the share already locked in by your current grade.

A 78% student aiming for 85%

Current grade 78%, target 85%, final worth 30% of the course:

Required = (85 − 78 × 0.70) ÷ 0.30 = (85 − 54.6) ÷ 0.30 = 30.4 ÷ 0.30 = 101.3%

101.3% means the target isn't reachable — a perfect final would still land around 84.6% overall.

Why 70% of your grade is already fixed

In that example, the final is worth 30%, so the other 70% is locked in before you sit the exam — that's the "current × (1 − weight)" part of the formula. It's why the current-grade field moves the required score more than most students expect: at a 90% current grade a mediocre final is fine, at 60% the final needs to be close to perfect.

Where your "current grade" number should come from

Enter the weighted grade your course actually uses, not a plain average of your scores so far. If a midterm is worth 25% and homework is worth 15%, those combine according to those weights — not as (midterm % + homework %) ÷ 2. Your course's LMS (Canvas, Blackboard, Moodle) usually shows this running weighted grade directly; use that number instead of reconstructing it by hand.

Reading the two warning messages

The calculator flags two situations directly under the result:

• "Your target may not be reachable" appears when the required score is above 100% — even a perfect final wouldn't get you to your target with the current grade and weight you entered.
• "You already exceed your target" appears when the required score is below 0% — your current grade and the final's weight already guarantee your target, regardless of what you score.

Grading schemes this formula doesn't cover

The formula assumes a fixed weight applied consistently — enter 30 for a final worth 30%, not 70 for the rest of the course, since the two are easy to swap by mistake. It doesn't account for a few common exceptions: courses that drop your lowest exam grade automatically, courses where the final can replace a weaker midterm, or professors who curve the final afterward. In any of those cases the real required score may be lower than what's shown here — check your syllabus or ask your instructor if one of these applies to your course.

Turning a target grade into a GPA projection

Once you know the score you need, run the resulting course grade through the GPA calculator alongside your other courses to see the effect on your semester GPA. The same ten hours of studying moves your GPA more in a four-credit course than in a one-credit one, so this is worth doing before deciding where to focus.