Top school grade calculator: Adopt a positive mental attitude – In the face of lower-than-expected grades, it’s only human to react by feeling disappointed with oneself. When you’re frequently receiving lower grades than you’d hoped for, you may start to feel depressed or defeated, and feel like giving up. The first step on the road to improving your grades is to turn this negativity on its head. You need to be positive about the situation if you’re to stand a chance of improving it. Acknowledge that your grades aren’t what you’re aiming for, but believe that you can do something about it. Start by mentally taking control of the situation: instead of thinking “I’m a failure”, think “I can and will do better than this.” Don’t give up – take positive steps towards achieving the improvement you’re more than capable of achieving.
Try to connect what you learned that day to things you’ve already learned. Making these connections will help you really understand the topic on a deeper level. If you have any questions, write them in your notes as well. Then, go back and try to find the answers in your textbook. If you can’t find them, bring them to class the next day and ask your teacher. Study a little at a time throughout the semester, instead. It can be hard to motivate yourself to study for a test way in advance—especially if you feel nervous about the material. However, procrastinating is only going to make it worse. Once you’ve finished rewriting your notes and doing your homework each evening, spend a little extra time reviewing what you’ve already learned during the school term. That way, you’ll keep everything fresh in your mind, and preparing for exams won’t be so overwhelming.
The time investment that this type of evaluation method requires of teachers/professors is likely not viable on university campuses with hundreds of students per course. As such, although there are other high schools such as Sanborn High School that approach grading in a more qualitative way, it remains to be seen whether such grading methods can be scalable. Until then, more generalized forms of grading like the letter grading system are unlikely to be entirely replaced. However, many educators already try to create an environment that limits the role that grades play in motivating students. One could argue that a combination of these two systems would likely be the most realistic, and effective way to provide a more standardized evaluation of students, while promoting learning.
In the Fall 2008 semester, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences added grades with pluses and minuses (A–, B+, etc.) to its list of available grades. (Such grades had been available in some schools at KU previously, but not in the College.) When the only grades were A, B, C, D, and F, it was pretty easy to come up with a final grade calculator, and it was easy for me to show students how to calculate grade percentage. With the introduction of pluses and minuses, minimum percentages need to be determined for a much longer list of grades. The ranges for the plus/minus grades (such as B+ and B–) are 3.5 percentage points wide, but the ranges for the flat grades (such as B) are only 3 percentage points wide. Isn’t that weird? Yes, considered by itself. But it reflects the fact that the grade points aren’t themselves evenly spaced: there’s a difference of 0.3 between some pairs of consecutive grade points (e.g., 3.0 and 3.3), but a difference of 0.4 between some others (e.g., 3.3 and 3.7). If the grade points were more evenly spaced (e.g., 3.00, 3.33, 3.67, etc.), then the mathematical technique used above (the one used to fill in table 6) would yield more equally sized percentage-point ranges for the letter grades.
Ways to Improve Your Grades if You’re Underperforming
Find help understanding course material – If you do not understand what is being taught in your course, get help as soon as possible. Seek out a tutor. Find a friend in the course who understands and who will help you. Perhaps there are some Youtube videos that might help you understand the material being presented. There are also other online materials that might help you see the material in a different way. Create better study habits – It’s always a good idea to do a little bit of review each day of course material rather than to try to cram it all in at the last minute. Set aside a few minutes each day to look over previously presented information. Interact with the material in some way. If you have vocabulary words, write them multiple times on a piece of paper. If you have new math concepts, do some practice problems. Write down questions that might arise, and bring them back to your teacher the next day so you can get some clarification. You can also use flashcards to flip through information whenever you have a few spare minutes. If you prefer to interact with technology, there are plenty of review websites online that can be used. Quizlet.com is a popular site that has many pre-made lists of interactive flashcards and activities.
How are letter grades typically converted to GPA values? Letter grades are assigned numerical values (e.g., A=4, B=3, C=2, D=1, F=0) and the GPA is calculated by averaging these values. What is the purpose of assigning different weightages to assignments and exams? Assigning different weightages reflects the importance of different assessments in determining a student’s understanding of the material. How do professors determine the weightage for each assignment or exam? Weightages are often assigned based on the relative importance of different topics or the effort required for each task.
