Points to Grade Calculator

This is the mistake that costs people the most accuracy, and it is easy to make. If you scored 9/10 on a quiz and 60/100 on an exam, averaging the two percentages gives (90 + 60) / 2 = 75%. Adding the points gives 69/110 = 62.7% — nearly thirteen points lower, and the correct answer.

Averaging percentages silently treats a ten-point quiz as equal in weight to a hundred-point exam. In a points-based course the denominator is the weighting, so the only safe method is to total the earned points, total the possible points, and divide once. The Add up points mode above does exactly that.

Each row below is computed with the same scale the calculator uses, so the table and the tool can never disagree.

Notice how close some of these sit to a boundary. 129/160 is 80.63% — a B- by less than a point. One more question right on a 160-point test would not change the letter, but one more wrong would.

These three cases are where a points calculation most often disagrees with what Canvas shows, and they behave differently from each other.

Excused removes the assignment from the calculation completely — the earned points and the points possible both disappear, so your percentage is taken over what is left. It is not a zero, and it never hurts your grade. Leave excused work out of the rows above entirely.

Missing but ungraded is usually not counted yet, which is why a mid-semester Canvas grade can look healthier than your real standing. The moment your instructor enters a zero, those points possible join the denominator and the percentage falls. To see the honest version early, enter the missing work as 0 earned with its real points possible.

Extra credit adds earned points without adding points possible. Enter it as a row with the bonus points and 0 possible — zero-possible rows are skipped from the denominator here, matching how Canvas treats them, so the bonus lifts your total and can push you past 100%. That is expected, not a bug.

Courses do grading one of two ways, and using the wrong model is why two calculators can give you different answers for the same numbers.

In a points-based course every assignment just contributes its points to one big total. Add them all up, divide once, done — that is this page.

In a weighted course assignments live in groups (Homework 20%, Quizzes 15%, Exams 65%), Canvas averages each group separately, then blends the group averages by weight. A weak score in a light group barely moves your grade. If your Canvas gradebook shows percentages next to group names, you are in a weighted course and the Canvas grade calculator is the right tool.

The target field in Add up points mode answers a narrow question: given the points already graded, how far are you from your target across those same points? If the answer is that the graded work alone cannot get you there, that is not a bug — it means only future assignments can move you, and the arithmetic is telling you so honestly.

For the forward-looking version — what score you need on a final that has not happened yet — use the what-if grade calculator, which solves for the score rather than reporting the gap.