How to Calculate Weighted Average in a Few Minutes

What Is Weighted Average: Definition

The main feature of the weighted average point is that it is a calculated student performance indicator that takes into account the importance of each type of work with an assigned value to it. How does it work? It is either a teacher or the administration of the educational establishment who sets the “weight” for each type of work, which is reflected further in the score calculation. In other words, teachers and professors sometimes assign more weight to some particular exams or assignments they consider more valuable. This means that those pieces of work contribute more to your final grade.  

Keep reading to find out how to estimate weighted grade or leave this job to StudyCrumb's weighted grade calculator. 

What Is the Difference between the Weighted Average and the GPA

Before we explain how to calculate weighted grades, let’s figure out the main difference between the GPA and the weighted average point. Although the two may seem to be the same, they have their own distinctive features. Looking how to calculate your GPA, simply remember it's the sum of all scores divided by their number. You can simply calculate your average test scores and figure out what your final grade will be. On the other hand, the weighted average score is calculated taking into account their weight, that is, the importance coefficient of each assignment. Thus, the figure is a more objective indicator of the academic performance of a student.

The value can be selected between 1 and 10 and is supposed to display how important a particular assignment is. For example, the weight of the homework assignment is 2; course work has the value of 6; the weighting factor of quizzes is 8, while the same for an exam is 10.  

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How to Calculate a Weighted Average: The Easiest Way

Now we will show you how to calculate your average grade. Each type of academic activity/ task/ assignment has its own fixed weight. And it is this weight that is used in calculating average score. By default, all tasks have a standard weight of 1, and the system calculates the average score as the arithmetic mean. If you set the weight for any type of work other than 1, the system will calculate a weighted average score with a new value being reflected in the final result.

You can calculate the weighted grade by using the suggested formulas:  

• The average score = “the sum of the multiplication of the academic activities to their weights” divided by “the sum of the weights”

In case the averaging weights don’t add up to 1 and you have a number of hours per every assignment/ activity, there is another weighted average formula for you to use:

• The average score = “the sum of the multiplication weighting factor to a number of hours” divided by “the sum of all the weights”

Note: Compared to the grade curve, the average weighted score may be equal to the average score if all the work weights are equal.

The average score is available in the grade record book if the administrators of the educational establishment have included it. If there is no such an indicator in the student’s home-school book, then either the weight of the work is not assigned to a particular task or the weighted average score is not used at all. Another reason could be limited access for parents and students to view the average score. In this case, parents need to contact the school administration. By the way, knowing how to get good grades is something you should learn, too.

Calculating Weighted Grades: Example

So, let’s look at the example of calculating weighted average when the weights add up to 1.

First, you should gather the numbers you would like to average. Let’s imagine that your total grades for quizzes are 74, 85 for exam, and 70 on your term paper.

Then, to calculate weighted grade, you have to identify the weight value of each. All the weights should add up to 1 (or 100%). So, let’s suggest that quizzes you take in class are valued 25% of your total grade. The exam is worth 35%, and the term paper is 40% of your total grade.

Consequently, you have to transform these percentages to use them in your calculations. To convert them all you have to do is to place a decimal point at the end of the percentage value, then move it over 2 places to the left. For example, 73% becomes 0.73. By converting your weight percentage to decimal form you will get weighting factors you will use in your calculations. According to this example, all your numbers will look like this:  

After that, you have to multiply each number by its weighting factor. If your total quiz score is 74, and it has a value of 25% of your total grade, then multiply 74 x 0.25. As a result, 74 x 0.25 = 18.5. Then, do the same action with exam and term paper grades. Let’s look at the table for better understanding:  

The final touch is going to be adding the resulting numbers together to find the weighted average.

18.5 + 29.75 + 28 = 76.25

So, your final grade is 76.25% in the course. Now you know all the steps to calculate weighted average.  

What Are the Distinctive Features of Weighted Grades?

More and more educational establishments are starting assigning weighted grades to different types of academic tasks and activities. What is the reason for that? What purpose do these pursue? Targeted towards providing objective and 100% reasonable academic performance evaluation, teachers are gradually using the special grade system with weight criteria instead of the average grade point when calculating the final score for a particular course or class.

By assigning weighted mean to a specific academic activity, the importance of different tasks is set up, which allows a teacher to evaluate a student’s work in a classroom, at home, and during an exam. Thus, maximum accuracy and objectivity are reached. What is more, by knowing the weight of each academic assignment, a student can prioritize his time more wisely.  

Calculating Weighted Grades: Final Thoughts

If you followed all the instructions, you probably noticed that calculating weighted grades is simple. Use one of our guides any time you have to calculate grades with percentages.