Calculate the grade you need on a remaining assignment, test or exam to reach your target course grade.
This calculator assumes your current grade represents the completed portion of the course and that all remaining work makes up the rest of the course weight.
A grade needed calculator estimates the score you need on the remaining part of a course to reach a target overall grade.
It uses your current course grade, the percentage of the course already completed, and your desired final course grade.
This makes it useful for remaining assignments, tests, projects or any other coursework that still contributes to your final grade.
If the required score is above 100%, the target may not be reachable without extra credit, a curve or another grading adjustment.
The calculator treats your current grade as the average for the portion of the course you have already completed.
It then determines how much of the course is still remaining and calculates the average score required on that remaining work to reach your target overall grade.
For example, if 60% of a course is complete, the remaining 40% must make up the difference between your current weighted performance and your target grade.
The formula used by the calculator is:
Completed and remaining weights should be written as decimals when using the formula manually.
For example, 60% completed becomes 0.60, and the remaining 40% becomes 0.40.
Suppose your current course grade is 88%, you have completed 60% of the course, and you want to finish with a 90% overall grade.
Completed contribution: 88 × 0.60 = 52.8
Points still needed: 90 − 52.8 = 37.2
Remaining course weight: 40% = 0.40
Required grade: 37.2 ÷ 0.40 = 93%
You would need an average of approximately 93% on the remaining coursework to finish the course with a 90% grade.
The calculator may return a required score above 100%. In that case, your target grade is not reachable under the current assumptions without extra credit, a curve or another grading adjustment.
If the required score is below 100%, the target is mathematically reachable as long as you achieve approximately that average on the remaining coursework.
A very low or negative required score usually means your current performance is already enough to secure the target grade.
The amount of coursework still remaining has a major effect on the score you need.
If only a small percentage of the course is left, there is less opportunity to change your overall grade. If a large part of the course is still unfinished, your remaining assignments and exams can have a much larger impact.
For example, improving an overall grade is usually easier when 40% of the course remains than when only 10% remains.
A Grade Needed Calculator estimates the average score required across all remaining coursework, while a Final Grade Calculator usually focuses on one final exam or assessment.
Use this calculator when several assignments, tests or projects still remain and you know the total percentage of the course that has been completed.
If only your final exam remains, the Final Grade Calculator is usually the more specific tool.