How to calculate a weighted grade
The formula is a weighted average: each score times its weight, added up and divided by the sum of the weights, with every score a percentage. Say homework is at 85, quizzes at 78 and tests at 92, weighted 20, 30 and 50: the products add to 8640, and 8640 ÷ 100 = 86.40. When the weights total 100 the division changes nothing, so a formula printed without it is right in that case only.
Gradebook makers describe the same multiply-and-add. Canvas’s instructor guide multiplies each assignment group’s percentage by its weight and adds the results; its own example, 75%, 98% and 87% at weights of 20%, 50% and 30%, comes to 90.1%. Google Classroom’s help page does the same with each category’s average, and PowerTeacher Pro’s page says it of the “rounded percentage” for each category.
Weights can be ratios. Infinite Campus’s page gives Tests 2, Homework 1 and Quizzes 1. As arithmetic, 80 and 90 at ratio weights 1 and 3 are 350 ÷ 4 = 87.50, the numbers of an example on PowerSchool’s SIS page for a numeric grade scale.
(85 × 20 + 78 × 30 + 92 × 50) ÷ (20 + 30 + 50) = 8640 ÷ 100 = 86.40
Do the weights have to add up to 100?
It depends on the gradebook, and no rule covers them all, so a flat yes and a flat no are both wrong. Google Classroom’s help page says, “To save your settings, the categories must add up to 100%.” PowerTeacher Pro’s says, “Use weight values that equal a total of 100 percent”. Blackboard’s Original course view lets an instructor save weights that total less than 100 and distributes the weighting to reach 100%, and its current gradebook balances unlocked items to 100%.
Canvas’s guide goes the other way: “The total percentage of all assignment groups can be set above or below 100%.” Weights that total 110% are one of the ways its extra credit guide lists. Infinite Campus takes ratios as well as percentages.
This weighted grade calculator never refuses a set of weights. It divides by the weight that has a score, whatever the weights entered come to, shows the total weight, and says so when that total is not 100. Add a fourth row, 100 at weight 10, to the example above and the weights total 110: 9640 ÷ 110 = 87.64.
Your grade when part of the course has no score yet
The grade on the work that has a score is the sum of score × weight divided by the weight of that work only. With 85 at weight 20 and 78 at weight 30, and the remaining 50 not graded, that is 4040 ÷ 50 = 80.80. The undivided sum, 40.4, is not a grade.
Two makers print this division. In Canvas’s guide a group with no graded items is “removed from the equation” and the others are divided by their combined weight, 91.43% in its example. In Blackboard’s Original course view it is a setting, the running total: 82.5% in its example with the setting on, and 66% with it off, when the empty category counts as 0. Canvas’s student guide describes two figures, a current grade from graded assignments and a total grade that adds “both graded and ungraded assignments”. The pages read for the other four gradebooks do not cover an empty category.
Here, a row with no score is left out and a 0 counts as 0, so during the term the result is the course grade on the work scored so far.
How to calculate a grade from points
A points grade is the points earned divided by the points possible, times 100, added up over the whole class. Google Classroom, Blackboard and PowerTeacher Pro say so in words for the course grade, and Schoology says it of a category’s grade. A caption in Canvas’s guide says its default total is “based on the points possible”.
The makers’ own examples: on Google’s page, 185 of 200 points is 92.5%. On PowerSchool’s, 1250 of 1600 “converts to 78%”; the exact figure is 78.125%, which this calculator prints as 78.13.
No weights are typed for a class graded on raw points, because an assignment’s point value is its weight: 50 points count five times as much as 10. Add the total points on each side before dividing, not the percentages of single assignments.
185 ÷ 200 × 100 = 92.50
Inside a category: total points or the average of the percentages
A category’s percentage can be worked out two ways, and they differ whenever the items are worth different numbers of points. By points: the points earned in the category divided by the points possible in it. By percentages: each item’s percentage, then their plain average. Scores of 18 of 20, 45 of 50 and 7 of 10 are 70 ÷ 80 = 87.50% by points and (90 + 90 + 70) ÷ 3 = 83.33% by the average of the percentages.
Infinite Campus’s page prints the clearest case. Two assignments scored 8/10 and 100/100 are “108/110, or 98%” by point value and “90% for the Category” with its “Use score’s % value” box marked. Blackboard documents the same choice as “Proportionally” or “Equally”, and Schoology’s page says a category “can be calculated using either total points or percentages”. Canvas’s guide describes points over points inside an assignment group. Google Classroom’s page says only that it “Finds a student’s average for a category.”
In this calculator, type each category’s percentage as your gradebook shows it, one row per category. If you only have the items, the Points tab gives the by-points figure; type each item’s percentage into the Average tab for the by-percentages one.
70 ÷ 80 = 87.50%; (90 + 90 + 70) ÷ 3 = 83.33%
How six gradebooks calculate a grade
Five of the six makers’ help pages describe or show a weighted total the same way, and Infinite Campus’s prints no formula. They differ on the weights, on an empty category and inside a category. These are the six gradebooks whose makers’ pages were read for this page, on October 11, 2026. A help page says what a product can be set to do; the teacher’s settings decide what a class does.
| Gradebook (maker) | The weighted total | Weights that do not total 100 | A category with nothing graded | Inside a category |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Canvas (Instructure) | Each group’s percentage times its weight, added | “can be set above or below 100%” | Left out; the rest divided by their combined weight | Points earned over points possible in the group, as the guide describes it |
| Blackboard (Anthology) | Shown by worked examples; no rule in words on the page | Original course view: less than 100 is allowed and distributed to reach 100%. Current gradebook: unlocked items balanced to 100% | A setting, “running total”: left out when on, counted as 0 when off | A choice: “Proportionally” or “Equally” |
| Google Classroom (Google) | Each category’s average times its weight, added | “the categories must add up to 100%” to save | Not on the page read | The page does not say which |
| PowerTeacher Pro (PowerSchool) | “The rounded percentage the student earns for each category is multiplied by the weight”, and summed | “Use weight values that equal a total of 100 percent” | Not on the pages read (a category need not be in the calculation at all) | Not stated in words on the pages read |
| Schoology (PowerSchool) | One worked example, which divides by the sum of the weights; no rule in words | Not on the page read | Not on the page read | A choice: “total points or percentages” |
| Infinite Campus | A category’s weight sets its effect “in relation to other categories”; no formula on the pages read | Weights as percentages or as ratios; its example is 2, 1, 1 | Not on the pages read | A choice: “Use score’s % value” |
A blank, a missing score and a zero
A zero is a score and counts in full; a blank is no score. Five 100s and one blank average 100%. The same five with a 0 for the sixth average 83.33%.
What the makers’ pages say, each of its own product: Google Classroom removes an assignment marked “Excused” from the calculation. Blackboard’s Original course view has a setting that either exempts an empty cell or uses “a value of 0 if no grade exists”. In Infinite Campus a Missing flag is “an indicator only” unless the district sets a percentage; in its example a flag set at 25% makes a 20-point assignment count as 5 points, and exempt and dropped scores are left out. Canvas’s instructor guide, on the gradebook’s “View Ungraded as 0” option, says of its export that “the Final score counts unsubmitted assignments as zero”. PowerTeacher Pro can hold a minimum under scores, set by an administrator.
So leave the score blank for ungraded work, and type 0 only for work that scored zero.
Dropped scores and extra credit
This calculator drops nothing: take a dropped score out of the table by hand, and check which your gradebook drops. In Canvas’s guide a rule to drop the lowest score removes the one that gives “the best possible score for that group”, by its effect on total points. Its example, 50/50, 65/100 and 12/24, is 127 of 174, 72.99%; the 65% is dropped, not the 50%, leaving 62 of 74, 83.78% (the guide prints 73% and 84%). Infinite Campus’s page says it removes “the lowest score in the category (by percentage)”. Dropping the lowest percentage from Canvas’s example would give 115 of 150, 76.67%: this page’s arithmetic, not Infinite Campus’s figure. Blackboard and PowerTeacher Pro also drop scores by a setting; neither page says how the score is chosen.
Extra credit is a score above the points possible, a percentage above 100, taken here as typed: 45 of 40 is 112.5%, the numbers of Canvas’s own example. Its guide says, “Extra credit is currently not a default option in Canvas.” One Maryland district’s policy, Howard County’s, says, “Extra credit is not offered in grades 6-12.”
How to average grades without weights
To average grades without weights, add the scores and divide by how many there are: (85 + 78 + 92) ÷ 3 = 85.00. This simple average is the weighted grade with equal weights: weights of 1, 1 and 1, or of 20, 20 and 20, give the same 85.00.
Blackboard documents a column that does exactly this, and in its example 80%, 60% and 100% average 80.00%. The same three scores as points give another figure. If they were 8 of 10, 3 of 5 and 2 of 2, the points total would be 13 of 17, which is 76.47% by this page’s arithmetic. An unweighted average of percentages and a points total are different sums.
(85 + 78 + 92) ÷ 3 = 85.00
Is there a standard letter grade scale?
No source read for this page publishes one. A letter grade comes from a grading scale a school, a district or an instructor sets in the gradebook. Canvas’s guide: “Without a grading scheme, scores are not measured against any specific standard.” Blackboard’s default schema is “defined by the administrator”. George Mason University’s registrar, on a page last updated in 2013, says the university “does not dictate a grading scale”.
For colleges, the most common grade points and percentage cut-off for each letter, counted across GPAWise’s verified US college scales, are on the grading scale chart.
At UQ, the 1-7 grade comes from your course profile’s cut-offs; the UQ grade calculator applies the ones you enter.
Two universities’ Canvas help pages each print a “Default Grading Scheme” for Canvas, and the tables differ in four rows (B from 84 or 83, C from 74 or 73, D from 64 or 63, D- from 61 or 60). Instructure’s own guide prints no table. Your course’s scheme is set by your school or instructor.
An 83.5 is a B- by the table on Yale’s Canvas help page and a B on CU Boulder’s IT help page; a 60.5 is an F by the first and a D- by the second. The failing letter differs too: Howard County’s policy, effective July 1, 2026, has A 90-100%, B 80-89%, C 70-79%, D 60-69% and E for 59% or lower, with no plus or minus on official records.
| Letter | Yale’s Canvas help page | CU Boulder’s IT help page |
|---|---|---|
| A | 100% to 94% | 94 to 100% |
| A- | < 94% to 90% | 90 to < 94% |
| B+ | < 90% to 87% | 87 to < 90% |
| B | < 87% to 84% | 83 to < 87% |
| B- | < 84% to 80% | 80 to < 83% |
| C+ | < 80% to 77% | 77 to < 80% |
| C | < 77% to 74% | 73 to < 77% |
| C- | < 74% to 70% | 70 to < 73% |
| D+ | < 70% to 67% | 67 to < 70% |
| D | < 67% to 64% | 63 to < 67% |
| D- | < 64% to 61% | 60 to < 63% |
| F | < 61% to 0% | 0 to < 60% |
Why this calculator takes numbers, not letters
No source read gives a number for a letter, so this calculator takes numbers only. Blackboard’s page says its weighted totals “are calculated based on percentages and not based on grading schemas/letter grades”. CU Boulder’s IT help page describes Canvas turning a letter an instructor types into one percentage point below where the next letter up begins: an F becomes 59% where a D- starts at 60, not 0. That is an instructor’s entry in one product, not a student’s way to turn letters into numbers. No midpoint is sourced. Type the percentage your gradebook shows.
Does a grade round up?
That is the school’s or the instructor’s rule, and the sources read differ. Howard County’s policy rounds a fractional score to the nearest whole number, with two examples, “89.49% rounds to 89” and “89.50% rounds to 90”. At the University of Washington Bothell’s School of Nursing and Health Studies, in a policy revised in 2018, rounding “is at the discretion of each faculty member”. Blackboard shows two decimal places by cutting, “never rounded up”, and calculates with the full number. Schoology rounds single items to hundredths and calculates overall grades “using unrounded values”. PowerTeacher Pro rounds each category’s percentage before weighting it.
This calculator prints two decimals. A letter, where you have entered cut-offs, is read from the unrounded figure, the exact value before rounding, and there is no switch for a school that rounds first. Check your syllabus.
What this calculator does not work out
This calculator gives the grade on the work entered and stops there. For the score still needed on a final exam, or the grade a given exam score would bring, use the final grade calculator. A grade made of two quarters and an exam can be typed here as three rows; for the exam score that reaches a target, the semester grade calculator is that same page. A GPA is a different figure from a course grade: see the weighted GPA calculator for high school and the cumulative GPA calculator.