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What do I need on my final?

One exam stands between you and the letter you want. Type in your current grade, how much the final is worth, and the grade you are aiming for, and the slip below works out the exact score you need. Or flip it around: enter the score you expect and it projects where you land.

No fake optimism below. If the math says it cannot be done, the slip says so.

Grade slip · form FG-2

everything before the final
percent, % sign optional
share of your total grade
the grade you want to finish with
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The letter scale

The standard college letter scale this calculator grades against. Project a grade above and the slip stamps your letter right onto its row.

Letter grade scale
LetterRangeProjected
A90–100%
B80–89%
C70–79%
D60–69%
FBelow 60%

Plus and minus grades vary by school. One common scheme is A− 90–92, A 93–96, A+ 97–100. Check your syllabus before arguing over a tenth of a point.

How the math works

Need on my final. The final is worth a slice of your grade, so everything else is already locked in. The slip solves for the exam score that drags the weighted average up to your target:

required = (target − current × (1 − weight)) ÷ weight

With a 92% in the bank, a final worth 25%, and a target of 90%: (90 − 92 × 0.75) ÷ 0.25 = 84%.

Project my grade. A straight weighted average of what you have and what you expect:

overall = current × (1 − weight) + expected × weight

About rounding. Everything rounds to one decimal, the way gradebooks do. The required score rounds up, so the slip never tells you 83.9% when you need 84%.

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