Students often wonder what grade they can get for the course given their performance to date. This is especially true as a semester draws to a close. Clicking on the button below will open a window that will allow you to determine what grades are possible given the total points that you have earned to date.
If you don't see a button that says "Launch Application" then your browser is not running the Java applet and you will not be able to use it.
While I believe the applet generates substantially accurate results, you use the applet entirely at your own risk. I do not guarantee that the displayed results are 100% accurate and I will not accept any responsibility for poor decisions based in part or in whole on the output generated by the applet.
The applet recognizes the courses that I normally teach and will fill in the total points available box if you select a specific course. If you want to use the applet for some other course, just click the "Other" option. You will have to enter the total number of points available for other courses yourself.
Near the top of your most recent grade report, find the total points entry. It will follow your name, and current grade and will look something like this (with different numbers, of course):
Total Points: 300/340
The numerator represents the points that you have earned to date and the denominator represents the number of points available to date. On the applet, enter these values into the corresponding text boxes:
If you have selected a specific course, the total points available will already be filled in for you. If you are entering data for some other course, you'll have to enter the total points available for the entire semester yourself. You should be able to find this information on the course syllabus.
The output will show you only the grades that are possible given your performance to date. The points needed represents the absolute minimum of additional points you need to earn the corresponding grade. The percent needed represents the percentage of the remaining points you need to earn the corresponding grade. The percentage is found by dividing the points you need by the number of points still remaining in the semester and displaying the result in percent form.
The output for our example is shown below. The student needs at least 240 points to earn a final grade of A. Since there are only 240 more points available the rest of the semester, the student would have to get 100% on everything from now on.
The student needs at least 222 points to get an A-. That will require getting 92.5% of all of the remaining 240 points. This student needs at least 48 points (20% of the remaining 240 points) to get a D. This student could still fail if he or she earns fewer than 48 points from now till the end of the semester.
A second example, near the end of the semester, is shown below. The highest grade this student can possibly earn (with only 30 more points available) is a C+. She would have to earn 27 of those 30 points (or 90%) to get the C+.
On the other hand, the lowest grade this student can possibly earn is a C- even if she earns none of the 30 points available for the rest of the semester. That is because she already has enough points (420) to get a C-.
