What this calculator does
Enter how many questions you answered correctly and how many were on the exam, and get the percentage score and — where a scale is available — the letter grade it corresponds to. The arithmetic is one division, but the letter-grade mapping is not universal, which is the part worth understanding rather than just reading off a number.
Score % = (correct ÷ total) × 100A common US grading scale, for reference
| Percentage | Letter grade | Typical GPA points |
|---|---|---|
| 93–100% | A | 4.0 |
| 90–92% | A− | 3.7 |
| 87–89% | B+ | 3.3 |
| 83–86% | B | 3.0 |
| 80–82% | B− | 2.7 |
| 77–79% | C+ | 2.3 |
| 73–76% | C | 2.0 |
| 70–72% | C− | 1.7 |
| 60–69% | D | 1.0 |
| Below 60% | F | 0.0 |
This is one common convention, not a universal standard. Individual schools, courses and countries set their own boundaries — some schools use a straight 90/80/70/60 split with no plus or minus grades, some curve every exam, and many countries outside the US use entirely different scales (a percentage-based system, a 1–6 scale, or a 1st/2nd/3rd class system). Treat the table as a reference point and check your actual course syllabus for the boundaries that apply to you.
Why the same score can mean different grades in different classes
- Curved grading. Some instructors adjust the boundaries after seeing how the whole class performed, so 78% might become a B in a hard exam and a C+ in an easy one.
- Weighted questions. If some questions are worth more points than others, "correct answers out of total questions" is not the same as "points earned out of points possible" — use the points version when the exam is weighted unevenly.
- Partial credit. A percentage calculated from whole questions right or wrong does not capture partial credit on written or multi-part questions.
- Minimum passing thresholds. Some courses set pass/fail at a level other than 60%, particularly professional and certification exams.
Working out what you need on the remaining part of a course
A single exam score answers "how did I do on this test", not "what is my grade in the class" — those are different questions, since most courses weight several assessments together. For the second question, Grade Calculator takes several weighted scores and works out both a running average and what you would need on a remaining exam to hit a target grade, and GPA Calculatorconverts a set of course grades into a credit-weighted GPA.