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Weighted grade calculator

A weighted grade calculator multiplies each mark by its weighting, adds the products and divides by the total weighting. Coursework of 72% at weighting 40, a practical of 65% at 25 and a final exam of 78% at 35 give a weighted average of 72.35%. Coursework alone contributes 28.8 of those points.

Mark is a percentage. Weighting can be a percentage or any relative number — only the ratio matters.

Calculated in your browser — nothing is uploaded.

Result

Weighted average mark — C−

72.35%

G = Σ(markᵢ × weightingᵢ) ÷ Σweightingᵢ

Letter grade
C−
Total weighting entered
100
Coursework — 72.0% at weighting 40
contributes 28.80%
Practical — 65.0% at weighting 25
contributes 16.25%
Final exam — 78.0% at weighting 35
contributes 27.30%

Across 3 weighted assessments the weighted average mark is 72.35%, which is a C− on the standard US letter scale. The weightings entered total 100, and each assessment contributes its mark multiplied by its share of that total.

How to use the weighted grade calculator

  1. 01

    List every assessment

    Enter one per line as “name, mark, weighting”. The mark is a percentage and the weighting is that assessment’s share of the overall grade.

  2. 02

    Use the weightings from your syllabus

    Copy the percentages the course handbook states. Any relative numbers work — 40, 25 and 35 behave identically to 8, 5 and 7, because only the ratio matters.

  3. 03

    Read the weighted average

    The result strip shows the weighted average mark and its letter grade. The rows beneath break out how many percentage points each assessment contributes.

  4. 04

    Check the contributions

    Compare each contribution against its weighting to see where marks were actually lost, which is more informative than the overall figure when planning a resit.

The formula

G = Σ(mᵢ × wᵢ) ÷ Σwᵢ          contributionᵢ = mᵢ × wᵢ ÷ Σwᵢ
G
The weighted average mark, as a percentage.
mᵢ
The mark earned on assessment i, as a percentage.
wᵢ
The weighting of assessment i — its share of the overall mark.
Σwᵢ
The total of all weightings entered. Only the ratio matters, so weightings need not sum to 100.
contributionᵢ
The percentage points assessment i adds to the final mark.

Weightings are relative rather than absolute, so entering 40, 25 and 35 gives the same result as entering 8, 5 and 7. The contribution figures are the useful output when a mark looks wrong: an assessment weighted at 40 with a mark of 72% contributes 28.8 points, and no amount of improvement elsewhere can add more than the remaining 60 weighting units allow. Note that a weighted average is not the average of the marks — the plain mean of 72, 65 and 78 is 71.67%, which differs from the weighted 72.35% because the strongest mark carries the largest weighting.

Worked example

Assessments
Coursework 72% (weighting 40) Practical 65% (weighting 25) Final exam 78% (weighting 35)
Result
72.35% — C−

Multiply each mark by its weighting: 72 × 40 = 2,880, 65 × 25 = 1,625, and 78 × 35 = 2,730. Add the products: 2,880 + 1,625 + 2,730 = 7,235. Add the weightings: 40 + 25 + 35 = 100. Divide: 7,235 ÷ 100 = 72.35%, a C− on the standard US letter scale. Expressed as contributions, coursework adds 28.8 points, the practical adds 16.25 and the final exam adds 27.3, which together make the same 72.35.

Frequently asked questions

How do you calculate a weighted grade?

Multiply every mark by its weighting, add the products together, then divide by the sum of the weightings. Marks of 72, 65 and 78 at weightings of 40, 25 and 35 give products of 2,880, 1,625 and 2,730. Those sum to 7,235, and the weightings sum to 100, so the weighted average is 72.35%.

Do the weightings have to add up to 100?

Weightings need not total 100, because the formula divides by whatever the total comes to. Entering 40, 25 and 35 produces the same weighted average as entering 8, 5 and 7, since both describe the same ratio. Totalling 100 is simply the convention most syllabuses use, as it lets each weighting be read directly as a percentage of the course.

Why is a weighted average different from a plain average?

A plain average counts every mark once, while a weighted average counts each mark in proportion to its share of the course. The unweighted mean of 72, 65 and 78 is 71.67%, but weighting them at 40, 25 and 35 gives 72.35%. The weighted figure is higher because the strongest mark carries a larger share than the weakest one.

What does an assessment’s contribution mean?

A contribution is the number of percentage points an assessment adds to the final mark, calculated as the mark multiplied by its share of the total weighting. Coursework scoring 72% at a weighting of 40 out of 100 contributes 28.8 points. Contributions always sum to the overall weighted average, which makes them the quickest way to see where marks were lost.

How do you calculate a mark with weightage in percentages?

Convert each weightage to a decimal share and multiply. A weightage of 40% becomes 0.40, so a mark of 72 contributes 72 × 0.40 = 28.8 points. Repeat for every assessment and add the results. The method is identical whether the syllabus calls the figure a weighting, a weightage or a credit value — all three name the same share of the total.

Can credits be used as weightings?

Credit values work directly as weightings, because a credit expresses how much of a programme a module represents. A four-credit module scoring 78% and a three-credit module scoring 65% give a weighted average of (78 × 4 + 65 × 3) ÷ 7 = 72.43%. That figure is a credit-weighted average mark, which is distinct from a grade point average built on the 4.0 scale.

What happens if an assessment has not been marked yet?

Leaving an unmarked assessment out gives the weighted average of the work completed so far, not a prediction of the final result. To find the mark still required on the outstanding work, use the grade calculator, which takes a target overall grade and returns the score needed on whatever weighting remains.

Sources

Last reviewed: · Formula and sources verified by Syed Aqeel Ahmad Gillani. See the methodology for how every calculation is derived.

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