How Do I Calculate My Grade?

Each semester at the university, I will have two or three students send me an e-mail asking, "What do I have to make on the final exam to make a _____ in the class?" I always scratch my head and think, REALLY? I teach College Algebra and Elements of Statistics and this concept is taught in both of these classes. And yes, you guessed right! It is always a weak, struggling student that sends me this e-mail message.

In my video lecture today for my Pre-Algebra class, I taught how to solve this question. I also taught my students that once they reach college that they should never ask their professor this question as it is their responsibility to keep up with their grade throughout the semester. I love teaching my high school students college success tips as they will be much better prepared for their college years than other students!

To answer the question you need to know how your grade is calculated. A typical course of mine in college will have the following breakout: 20% Homework; 50% Exams; and 30% Comprehensive Final Examination where I give three exams during the semester.

So let's say you did not do all of your homework or that you did not pay attention to due dates and your overall homework grade was 76%. Exam 1 you scored an 81%; Exam 2 you scored 72% and Exam 3 you scored a 75%. Now lets say you want to earn a B in my course which means your overall GPA would have to be at least an 82. So what do you have to score on the comprehensive final examination to receive a B in the class?

You will need to multiply each grade by the appropriate weight. So for this example we have the following...

Let x denote the grade needed on the comprehensive final examination.

(0.20)(76) + ((81 + 72 + 75)/3)(0.50) + 0.30x = 82

After doing the arithmetic, you have: 53.2 + 0.30x = 82

Now subtract 53.2 from both sides and you have: 0.30x = 28.8

Next, divide both sides by 0.30 so that we solve for x and we find that x = 96.0

So for this student to reach his goal of a B in my class, he must score at least a 96 on the comprehensive final exam. I hope he has studied!!

I would like to repeat this question with one change....let's make his homework grade a 100%. You see, I always allow unlimited attempts on the homework so each student really should have a 100% for their homework grade.

(0.20)(100) + ((81 + 72 + 75)/3)(0.50) + 0.30x = 82

That is the set up and the result is the student must earn at least an 80% on the comprehensive final exam to earn a B in my class! WOW! What a difference doing your homework can make! Which do you think is more likely to happen? A 96% or an 80% on the comprehensive final examination? I would say an 80%!

You can clearly see how important doing your homework is during college! And I will also point out that there appears to be a direct correlation between your homework grade and your exam scores based on my 28 years of teaching. So always do all of your assigned homework early and turn it in on time and always do your very best! I hope this little math lesson will help you reach your achedemic goals.

#GPA #highschool #math #prealgebra #grades