All right, Tyler understands the different categories of assignments that he might want to use in calculating his students' grades, but he's still not sure exactly how to calculate the grades. There are several steps that Tyler can take to figure out what each student makes in his class.
They are:
1. Figure out what weight each component has.
Usually, tests, projects, and papers are weighed heavier than classwork and homework, which are weighed heavier than participation, but each teacher needs to figure out the exact weight of each component. All weights should equal 100%.
For example, Tyler might want to make classwork and quizzes worth 20% each, and make homework worth 25%. He could then make tests, projects, and papers worth 40%, and participation worth 15%. Together, all of these add up to 100%.
2. Calculate an average for each component.
If Tyler has given five homework assignments, he'll want to average them together for a total homework grade. This is done by adding all the grades together and dividing by the number of assignments. In Tyler's case, he'll want to add all the homework grades together and divide by five, since there were five homework assignments.
Let's say that a student received a 100, 90, 95, 100, and 100 on their homework assignments. When Tyler adds those together, he gets 485. When he divides that by five, he discovers that the student has a homework average of 97.
3. Multiply each average by the component's weight.
Remember that Tyler decided that homework should be worth 25%, and one of his students has an average of 97. To calculate that students weighted homework average, Tyler will multiply 97 by 0.25, which equals 24.25. That is the student's weighted homework average. Tyler will want to do the same thing for all components and all students.
4. Add a student's weighted grades together.
To get any student's total number grade, Tyler will need to add together the weighted grades for all components for that student. For example, Tyler's student has a 24.25 for her weighted homework average. Let's say that student also has a 22.3 for her tests, a 21.45 for her classwork, and a 20 for her participation. When he adds all those together, Tyler gets an 88, which is that student's overall grade.
5. If necessary, convert number grade to letter grade.
Ok, Tyler's student gets an 88 for her overall grade, but what if Tyler has to submit grades as a letter instead of a number? How does he do that?
Though grading conversions vary a little bit from school to school (and sometimes from teacher to teacher), for most people an 88 is a B+. Converting letter grades generally means giving an A for number grades in the 90s, a B for grades in the 80s, a C for grades in the 70s, a D for grades between 65 and 69, and an F for anything below 65. In addition a + or - might be added to A, B, and C grades if the number grade is on the high end or low end of that scale.
So, for example, Tyler's student with an 88 might receive a B+, but if she had an 85, she'd probably receive a B. And if her number grade was an 81, she might receive a B-. Tyler should check with his school to find out exactly what their grade conversion scale is, because (as we mentioned) schools sometimes vary in the way they convert grades, especially for Cs, Ds, and Fs.
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