Before a final exam the useful question is not "how am I doing?" but "what do I need?". Those are different sums, and the second one depends on how much of the course is still unmarked.
Enter the marks you have banked, the share of the course already assessed, and the overall grade you want. This calculator returns the score you need on everything remaining — and tells you plainly when a target is already secured or no longer reachable.
This is the one input people get wrong. The figure needed is your marks as a share of the whole course, not your average on the assessments you have sat. If coursework worth 60% of the course earned you 80%, you have banked 0.80 × 60 = 48 marks out of the course's 100. Enter 48, not 80.
The grade calculator does this conversion for you: enter your components there, and the weighted total it reports is the figure to bring here. If you enter 80 when you mean 48, this calculator will tell you the numbers are inconsistent rather than returning a confident wrong answer.
Needed = (target − banked) ÷ (100 − assessed) × 100. With 48 marks banked from 60% of the course and a 70% target: (70 − 48) ÷ 40 × 100 = 55%. You need 55% on the remaining 40% of assessment.
The logic is simply that the remaining assessment must supply the shortfall between what you have and what you want, and it can only supply it in proportion to its own weight. A small remaining component has to score very high to move an overall grade.
If the required score comes out above 100%, the target cannot be reached even with perfect marks. This calculator says so and reports the highest overall grade still available, which is your banked marks plus all the remaining weight.
That number is worth knowing early. Aiming at the best grade still achievable is a plan; aiming at one that arithmetic has already ruled out is not. If the achievable grade is below a threshold you need — for a scholarship, a progression rule, an honours classification — talk to your course coordinator now rather than after results are published.
If the required score is zero or negative, your banked marks alone already meet the target and the remaining assessment cannot drag you below it. The calculator says so explicitly.
This does not mean skipping the exam. Many courses set a minimum mark on the final exam or on individual components as a hurdle to pass, independent of the weighted total — and a zero can fail you on the hurdle while your weighted average looks comfortable. Check your assessment regulations before treating a secured target as a free pass.
This is arithmetic, not a forecast. It does not know whether the final is harder than the midterm, whether it is marked to a curve, or whether a scaling adjustment will be applied to the cohort afterwards.
Use it to set a concrete target for your revision, and treat any result that depends on a near-perfect score as a warning rather than a plan. "I need 92% on the final" is information you want three weeks out, not three days out.
Your marks as a share of the whole course. If you scored 80% on assessments worth 60% of the course, enter 48 (0.80 × 60), not 80.
The target is unreachable. The calculator will tell you the highest overall grade still achievable so you can aim at something real.
Not necessarily. Many courses require a minimum mark on the final exam to pass the course at all, regardless of your weighted total. Check your assessment regulations.
Yes. Treat everything unmarked as a single block: the result is the average you need across all of it. Scoring above the figure on one piece lets you fall below it on another.
Because your banked marks exceed the share of the course assessed — which is impossible. You have probably entered your assessment average instead of your share of the whole course.