Guides
How grading systems actually work, written for the week before finals rather than for a textbook.
How to Calculate Your Final Grade
A step-by-step walkthrough of both grading systems — weighted categories and total points — with the formulas, a worked example, and the mistakes that make students calculate the wrong number.
6 min read
How Weighted Grades Work
Why a perfect score on homework barely moves your grade, how category weights actually distribute points, and how to tell which assignment is worth your time tonight.
6 min read
What Grade Do I Need on My Final?
The formula, how much your final can actually move your grade, what to do when the number comes back over 100, and how to triage three finals in one week.
7 min read
How Much Will My Final Affect My Grade?
The maximum your final can move your course grade is exactly its weight — and the exchange rate per exam point follows from that. The table, the formula, and when a boundary is already gone.
6 min read
How to Raise Your GPA
Why a perfect semester barely moves a junior’s GPA, which five levers actually return anything, and how to tell whether your target is reachable before you build a plan around it.
8 min read
Can I Still Pass This Class?
Three numbers and one formula settle it in two minutes. The four situations you can be in, and the deadlines that change the outcome when the answer is no.
7 min read
What Is a Good GPA?
There is no single answer — only thresholds. Which GPAs gate what, why 2.9 to 3.0 is the most valuable step on the scale, and how to tell whether yours can still get there.
7 min read
Weighted vs Unweighted GPA
What the Honors and AP bonuses are actually worth, why the +0.5 / +1.0 convention is not a standard, and the break-even point for taking the harder course.
7 min read
What Happens If You Fail a Class?
GPA, credit, academic standing, financial aid and retake policy — what an F actually costs, and the four deadlines that change the outcome before finals week.
8 min read
Calculators
- Final Grade CalculatorWhat you need on the final to finish with the grade you want.
- Weighted Grade CalculatorTurn homework, quizzes, and exam categories into one course grade.
- Test Grade CalculatorQuestions right out of questions asked — and how many you can miss.
- Points-Based Grade CalculatorFor classes graded out of raw points instead of percentages.
- GPA CalculatorCredit-weighted GPA on the standard 4.0 scale.
- Semester Grade CalculatorCombine quarter or term grades with a final exam into a semester grade.