Weighted Grade Calculator: Turn Your Syllabus Into Your Actual Grade
Your syllabus says homework is worth 20%, quizzes are 30%, and the final Exam is 50%. You are sitting at a 95 in homework, an 88 in quizzes, and you are trying to figure out where that puts you before the final. That is a weighted average, and it differs from simply adding up your scores and dividing by three.
This calculator supports both formats professors use: percentage weights (the standard “homework is 20% of your grade”) and points (where each category is scored out of a total, like 85/100 for homework). Enter your categories and scores, and it calculates your weighted grade, letter grade, and GPA.
If your professor drops your lowest quiz or lowest homework assignment, the calculator handles that too. Add all your scores, set the drop count, and it automatically determines which ones to drop.
How Weighted Grades Actually Work
Here is the difference between a weighted grade and a simple average.
Simple average:
You have three test scores: 85, 90, and 78. Add them up, divide by three, and you get 84.33%. Every test counts equally.
Weighted average
Formula: (score₁ × weight₁ + score₂ × weight₂) / total weight
Those same three tests, but the first two are quizzes worth 20% each, and the third is a midterm worth 60%. Now you calculate: 85 × 0.20 + 90 × 0.20 + 78 × 0.60 = 17 + 18 + 46.8 = 81.8%. The midterm pulls your grade down because it counts more.
That second calculation is what this calculator does for you. You enter each category’s weight and your score in that category; it multiplies weight by score for each category, then sums them and divides by the total weight. The result is your weighted grade, the number that actually appears on your transcript.
Most college syllabi use weighted grading. Homework might be 20% of your grade, quizzes 30%, midterm 20%, and final 30%. That is a weighting scheme. The professor is telling you that not all your work counts equally, a quiz is worth more than a homework assignment, and the final is worth more than both.
The math itself is not complicated once you see it written out. But when you are looking at a syllabus with five or six categories and trying to do it by hand, it gets tedious fast. And if you make one mistake in the multiplication or the addition, your whole calculation is wrong. That is why this exists: you enter the numbers from your syllabus exactly as they appear, and the calculator does the weighted average for you.
The result is what you would get if you did the math correctly. No guessing, no shortcuts, no approximations. Just your actual weighted grade based on the categories and scores you entered.
Percent Weights vs. Points
Two Ways to Enter the Same Information
The calculator has two modes because professors grade in two different ways.
The percent weights mode is what you will see on most syllabi. The professor lists categories with percentage weights: Homework 20%, Quizzes 30%, Midterm 20%, Final 30%. You enter each category as a row with its weight and your current score in that category. The calculator multiplies each weight by its score, sums the results, and divides the total by the sum of weights.
Points mode is for professors who do not think in percentages. Instead of saying “homework is 20% of your grade,” they say “homework is worth 100 points, quizzes are worth 150 points, midterm is worth 100 points, final is worth 150 points.” You enter how many points you’ve earned in each category and how many are possible. The calculator adds up all your earned points, adds up all possible points, and divides earned by possible.
Both modes yield the same final result when the weights are equal. For example, Homework 20% in percent mode is the same as Homework 95 earned, 100 possible in points mode, if the other categories maintain the same proportions. The difference is which format matches your syllabus.
Most of the time, you will use percent weights mode because that’s how syllabi are written. But if your professor hands you a breakdown that says “you have earned 420 out of 500 points so far,” switch to points mode and enter the numbers directly, no conversion needed.
The mode dropdown at the top switches between the two. The table headers change to match, “Weight%” becomes “Earned”, and “Score%” becomes “Possible” when you switch to points.
The Drop Lowest Feature: And Why It Matters
Many professors include a “drop your lowest quiz” or “drop your lowest homework” policy in their syllabi. It is meant to give you some breathing room if you have a bad week or miss an assignment.
The dropdown feature in this calculator automates that. You enter all your scores, including the low one, set the drop count to however many the professor drops, usually 1 or 2, and the calculator figures out which scores to exclude based on which ones hurt your grade the most.
Here is how it actually works under the hood. In percent weights mode, the calculator looks at each category’s contribution to your overall grade, that is, the weight multiplied by the score. It sorts them from lowest to highest contribution, then drops the N lowest. In points mode, it computes each category’s percentage earned ÷ possible, sorts by percentage from lowest to highest, and drops the N lowest-percentage categories.
Why this matters: manually figuring out which score to drop isn’t always obvious. Say you have three quiz scores: Quiz 1, 70%, Quiz 2, 85%, and Quiz 3, 90%. If all three quizzes are weighted equally, you drop Quiz 1; that is straightforward. But if Quiz 1 was worth 10%, Quiz 2 was worth 15%, and Quiz 3 was worth 20%, which one should you drop? Quiz 1 still has the lowest score, but it also has the lowest weight, so dropping it might not help as much as you think. The calculator runs the math for both scenarios and picks whichever one gives you the higher grade.
In practice, most drop-lowest policies apply to categories where all items have the same weight, “drop your lowest of five quizzes,” where each quiz is worth the same. But even in that case, having the calculator handle it automatically means one less thing you have to track by hand.
The drop count input is at the top, next to the mode selector. Set it to 0 if your professor does not drop anything. Set it to 1 or 2 for standard drop-lowest policies.
Normalize Weights: What It Means and When It Matters
The “Normalize weights” toggle only appears in percent weights mode, and most users will not need to change it from the default on. But it is worth understanding what it does.
When you enter category weights, say Homework 20%, Quizzes 30%, Midterm 25%, those numbers might not add up to exactly 100%. Maybe you entered Homework 20%, Quizzes 30%, Midterm 20%, and Final 30%, totaling 100%. Or maybe you only filled in three categories so far, and they add up to 75%. Or maybe you are midway through the semester and have not taken the final yet, so you left it blank.
With normalization enabled, the calculator scales your weights so they sum to 100% before performing the weighted average. So if you entered 20 + 30 + 25 = 75%, it rescales them to 20/75 × 100 = 26.67%, 30/75 × 100 = 40%, and 25/75 × 100 = 33.33%. Then it uses those rescaled weights to calculate your grade.
With normalization off, the calculator uses your weights exactly as entered. If they only add up to 75%, your weighted grade reflects only 75% of your total grade, and the remaining 25% is unaccounted for. This gives you a lower percentage than you would actually have once all categories are complete.
Most syllabi assume normalization. When a professor says “homework is 20%, quizzes are 30%,” they mean 20% of your final grade and 30% of your final grade, with the implicit assumption that all categories together equal 100%. So, leaving normalization on matches how professors actually calculate grades.
The main reason to turn it off is if you are trying to calculate a partial grade where you explicitly want the missing categories to show as missing. But for standard use, keep it on.
Dynamic Rows: As Many Categories as You Need
The calculator starts with two rows by default: Homework and Quizzes, but most courses have more than two graded categories. Click “Add row” to create a new blank row. Click “Remove” next to any row to delete it.
There is no hard limit on rows. Add as many as your syllabus requires. If you have homework, quizzes, participation, lab reports, a midterm, and a final, that is six rows. If your professor breaks quizzes into Quiz 1, Quiz 2, and Quiz 3 as separate weighted categories, add a row for each one.
Each row has three inputs: the item name (optional but helpful for tracking), the first number (Weight% or Earned, depending on mode), and the second number (Score% or Possible, depending on mode).
The table updates every time you add or remove a row. If you add too many rows, remove the extras. If you accidentally delete a row you needed, click Add row again and re-enter the numbers.
The order of rows does not matter for the calculation. The calculator reads all rows, ignores any that are completely blank, and processes the rest based on the current mode and drop count.
Reading Your Syllabus: A Worked Example
Here is a real scenario to show how this works in practice.
Your professor hands you a syllabus that says:
- Homework: 15%
- Quizzes: 25%
- Midterm: 25%
- Final Project: 20%
- Final Exam: 15%
You are six weeks into the semester. Your current scores are:
- Homework: 92% (you have turned in all assignments so far and averaged 92%)
- Quizzes: 85% (you have taken four quizzes and averaged 85%)
- Midterm: 78% (you took the midterm last week)
- Final Project has not started yet
- Final Exam: not taken yet
You want to know where you stand right now.
Step 1: Set the mode to “Percent weights” because your syllabus lists percentages.
Step 2: Add rows for each category. You need five rows total. Click “Add row” three times (the calculator starts with two, so you need three more).
Step 3: Fill in the weights and scores for the categories you have completed:
- Row 1: Item = “Homework”, Weight% = 15, Score% = 92
- Row 2: Item = “Quizzes”, Weight% = 25, Score% = 85
- Row 3: Item = “Midterm”, Weight% = 25, Score% = 78
- Row 4: Item = “Final Project”, Weight% = 20, Score% = leave blank
- Row 5: Item = “Final Exam”, Weight% = 15, Score% = leave blank
Step 4: Leave “Normalize weights” set to On. This instructs the calculator to temporarily scale your completed weights 15 + 25 + 25 = 65% to 100%.
Step 5: Hit Calculate.
The result card shows your current weighted grade based on the three categories you have completed. In this case, it is approximately 84.54%. That is 15×92 + 25×85 + 25×78 ÷ 15+25+25 = 1380 + 2125 + 1950 ÷ 65 = 5455 ÷ 65 = 83.92%. The calculator rounds to two decimals and converts to a letter grade based on your grading scheme.
This is your current standing in the course. As you complete the final Project, take the final Exam; you will fill in those rows and recalculate.
Weighted vs. Unweighted: What is the Difference?
An unweighted grade treats every assignment, quiz, and test as if they count the same. If you have ten assignments and you got 90% on all of them, your unweighted average is 90%. If you got 80% on five and 100% on the other five, your unweighted average is 90%. Every score gets equal weight.
A weighted grade gives different assignments different levels of importance. Your homework counts for 20% of your grade, but your final exam counts for 40%. That means the final Exam has twice the impact on your final grade. You could have a 95% homework average and an 80% on the final, and your weighted grade would still be closer to 85% than 95% because the final counts more.
Most high school classes use unweighted grades, and all your tests and quizzes count equally, or close to it. Most college classes use weighted grades, with categories such as homework, quizzes, exams, and projects carrying different weights.
The reason colleges weigh grades is that not all work demonstrates the same level of mastery. A homework assignment might test whether you can follow steps, but a final exam tests whether you understand the material well enough to apply it under time pressure. Professors weigh the final more heavily because they consider it a better measure of your actual knowledge.
This calculator handles weighted grades. If you want an unweighted average, just a simple mean of all your scores, you do not need this calculator. Add up your scores and divide by the count. But if your syllabus lists categories with percentages next to them, you’re in weighted territory.
Weighted Grade vs. Weighted GPA: Clearing Up the Confusion
These sound similar, but they are different things.
A weighted grade is what we have been talking about on this page. It is the grade you get in one course when that course uses weighted categories. Homework 20%, exams 60%, participation 20%, that is a weighted grading system, and the weighted grade is your final percentage in the course after accounting for all the category weights.
A weighted GPA is something else entirely. It refers to a GPA calculation in which some courses count more than others, typically because honors or AP courses receive a GPA boost. A regular class might give you 4.0 for an A, but an AP class gives you 5.0 for an A. When you calculate your GPA across all your courses, the AP courses have more weight in the average. That is a weighted GPA.
This calculator computes weighted grades, the percentage you earn in a single course that uses weighted categories. It does not compute weighted GPA across multiple courses. For that, you would want the GPA calculator, which handles the multi-course GPA calculation and lets you specify whether individual courses are weighted.
The confusion happens because both use the word “weighted,” but they are weighing different things. Weighted grade = categories within one course. Weighted GPA = courses within your transcript.
FAQ: Weighted Grade Calculator
What is the difference between a weighted grade calculator and a regular grade calculator?
A weighted grade calculator focuses specifically on the math of combining weighted categories. You enter category weights and scores, and it calculates the weighted average. A regular grade calculator typically tracks a full course across the semester with individual assignments, deadlines, and what-if scenarios. This calculator explains and computes weighted averages. For full semester tracking with assignment-level detail, use the grade calculator.
Should I use percentage weights or point weights?
Use percent weights if your syllabus says things like “Homework is 20% of your grade, quizzes are 30%.” Use points mode if your syllabus says things like “Homework is worth 100 points, quizzes are worth 150 points.” Both modes give you the same result if the weighting is equivalent; the difference is just which format matches your syllabus.
What does “Normalize weights” mean, and should I turn it on?
Normalize weights only in percent mode scales your entered weights so they sum to 100% before calculation. If you entered three categories totaling 75%, normalization rescales them proportionally to 100%. This matches how most professors calculate grades. Leave it on unless you specifically need to calculate a partial grade where missing categories should remain unaccounted for.
How does the drop lowest feature work?
Enter all your scores, including the low ones, then set the drop count to however many your professor drops, usually 1 or 2. In percentage mode, the calculator discards items with the lowest contribution weight × score. In points mode, it drops the items with the lowest percentage earned ÷ possible. The calculator automatically picks which ones to drop to give you the highest possible grade.
Can I enter categories I have not completed yet?
Yes. Leave the score field blank for categories you have not completed. With “Normalize weights” On, the calculator scales your completed categories proportionally. This gives you a current grade based on what you have done so far. As you complete more categories, fill in the scores and recalculate.
How many rows can I add?
There is no hard limit. Add as many rows as your syllabus has categories. Most courses have 4-6 weighted categories, but if yours has more, the calculator handles it. Click “Add row” to create a new blank row, and “Remove” next to any row to delete it.
What if my professor’s weighting does not add up to 100%?
If you have entered all the categories from your syllabus and they don’t total 100%, either: 1 there is a category you missed, or 2 your professor made a mistake. With “Normalize weights” on, the calculator will scale whatever you entered to 100%, which usually gives you a reasonable answer. With it off, the calculation uses your weights as-is, which may result in a lower percentage than expected.
Can I use this for high school grades?
Yes, if your high school course uses weighted categories. Most high school classes weigh categories such as homework, quizzes, and participation. If your teacher gave you a syllabus with percentages next to each category, this calculator works. If your class doesn’t use weighted categories, every assignment counts equally, you need a simple average, not this calculator.
How is rounding handled?
The final percentage is rounded to two decimal places using standard rounding (0.5 rounds up). So 84.995% becomes 85.00%, and 84.994% stays at 84.99%. The letter grade is then determined based on the rounded percentage and your selected grading scheme.
Does this calculator save my data?
No. The calculator runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you enter is stored or sent anywhere unless you actively click a share button. If you refresh the page, your entered data will be lost. If you need to save your setup, use the “Copy link” button; it generates a shareable URL that preserves all your inputs.
Related Tools
- Grade Calculator: For tracking your full course grade across the semester with individual assignments, categories, and what-if scenarios. Use this weighted calculator to understand the math of weighting, then use the full grade calculator to track everything in one place.
- GPA Calculator: For calculating your GPA across multiple courses. If you are trying to figure out your cumulative GPA or see how weighted vs. unweighted courses affect your transcript, use the GPA calculator.
Your syllabus is not just a list of due dates. The category weights are the roadmap to your final grade. A 95% homework average does not guarantee an A if Homework is only worth 10% and you bombed the final, which is worth 50%.
This calculator takes the guessing out of weighted grading. Enter your categories, enter your scores, and it shows you exactly where you stand. Whether your professor uses percentages or points, whether they drop your lowest quiz or not, the math is handled.
No spreadsheets. No manual multiplication. Just your weighted grade, calculated correctly.