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Grade Needed Calculator

Find the score you need on a final exam to reach a target overall course grade, given your current grade and the final's weight.

Score needed on the final
110%
Status
Not achievable — even a perfect 100 on the final falls short of your target.

How it works

A course's overall grade is typically a weighted average of what you've already earned and your final exam score: overall = current × (1 − w) + needed × w, where w is the final's weight written as a fraction (e.g. 20% becomes 0.2). Solving that equation for the unknown final score gives needed = (target − current × (1 − w)) ÷ w.

If the needed score comes out at or below 0, you've already secured your target grade regardless of the final. If it comes out above 100, the target isn't reachable even with a perfect score on the final — this calculator flags both cases explicitly rather than just returning a number that's misleading on its own.

FAQ

Does this account for a curve or extra credit?

No — it assumes your course's overall grade is exactly the weighted average described above, with no curve, drop-lowest-score policy, or extra credit built in. If your course uses any of those, treat the result as an estimate under the simple weighted-average model, not your instructor's exact grading formula.

What if the final is worth 100% of my grade?

Then the weighted-average formula reduces to needed = target directly — your current grade doesn't factor in at all, which matches how a final-only grading scheme actually works.

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