Your grade, straight from the points.
Some gradebooks skip weights entirely and just add up points. Enter what you earned and what was possible for each assignment — Ace totals it and shows your percentage, letter grade and GPA instantly.
- ✓Built for points-based classes. No weights, no percentages to convert first.
- ✓Running totals as you type. See exactly how many points each assignment cost or won you.
- ✓Points-needed planner. Find out how many of the remaining points you still need for your target grade.
Points Grade Calculator
Earned ÷ Possible = GradeAdd your points to see your grade.
| Assignment | Points earned | Points possible | Score |
|---|
How many points do I still need?
Tell us the grade you're aiming for and how many points are still to come (the final, remaining homework, everything left). We'll work out how many of those points you need to earn.
Getting started
How to calculate a grade from points
Add each assignment
One row per graded item — a quiz, a lab, an essay, the midterm. The name is just a label for you; the points are what matter.
Enter both point values
Type the points you earned and the points the assignment was worth. A score of 43 out of 50 goes in as 43 and 50 — no need to work out the percentage yourself.
Read the totals
The calculator adds up everything you've earned and everything that was possible. Your grade is the first total divided by the second, shown as a percentage, a letter and a GPA value.
Plan what's left
Use the box under the calculator to see how many of the points still to come you need to earn to finish with the grade you want.
Working with a weighted syllabus instead — categories like "Exams 40%, Homework 20%"? Use the weighted grade calculator, where each category's share of the grade matters more than its raw points.
See the math
A worked example, step by step
This is the sample course the calculator opens with. Notice how the 200-point final moves the grade far more than a 20-point quiz — in a points system, size is the weight:
| Assignment | Earned | Possible | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quiz 1 | 18 | 20 | 90% |
| Essay | 44 | 50 | 88% |
| Midterm | 81 | 100 | 81% |
| Lab work | 27 | 30 | 90% |
| Final exam | 172 | 200 | 86% |
| Total | 342 | 400 | 85.5% → B |
Add the earned column (342) and the possible column (400), then divide: 342 ÷ 400 = 0.855, an 85.5% — a solid B. The final alone is half of all points possible, so it counts for as much as everything else combined.
The points formula
Grade % = (Σ points earned ÷ Σ points possible) × 100
Total every point you've earned, total every point that was on offer, divide, and multiply by 100. That's the whole method — no weights, no categories.
It also means a big assignment quietly acts as a heavy weight: a 200-point final inside a 400-point course is worth 50% of your grade, whether your teacher calls it that or not.
Reference
From percentage to letter grade
Once your points become a percentage, the standard US scale turns it into a letter and a GPA value. Use the Use +/− letter grades switch in the calculator to grade on the finer scale, or turn it off for whole letters only. The grading scale chart page covers this scale in full.
| Letter | Percentage | GPA | What it means |
|---|---|---|---|
| A+ | 97–100% | 4.0 | Exceptional |
| A | 93–96% | 4.0 | Excellent |
| A− | 90–92% | 3.7 | Excellent |
| B+ | 87–89% | 3.3 | Above average |
| B | 83–86% | 3.0 | Good |
| B− | 80–82% | 2.7 | Good |
| C+ | 77–79% | 2.3 | Average |
| C | 73–76% | 2.0 | Average |
| C− | 70–72% | 1.7 | Below average |
| D+ | 67–69% | 1.3 | Poor |
| D | 63–66% | 1.0 | Poor |
| D− | 60–62% | 0.7 | Minimum pass |
| F | Below 60% | 0.0 | Failing |
The concepts
Points grading, explained
Points vs. weighted grades
In a points system, every point is equal — your grade is simply earned ÷ possible across the whole course. In a weighted system, categories carry fixed shares, so a 10-point quiz inside a 10% category can matter more than a 50-point assignment inside a 5% one. Check your syllabus to see which system your class uses before trusting any number.
Why big assignments dominate
Because points are the weight, the largest items steer your grade. Dropping 30 points on a 200-point final costs 7.5% of a 400-point course; dropping the same 30 points across small quizzes costs exactly the same — but students feel the final more because it arrives all at once, at the end, when there's no time left to recover.
Extra credit in a points system
Extra credit points raise your earned total without raising the possible total, so your percentage climbs — sometimes past 100%. Add extra credit as its own row with the points you earned and 0 in the possible column, and the calculator counts it the same way your gradebook does.
Watch out
Common mistakes with points grades
Averaging the percentages instead of the points.
A 90% on a 20-point quiz and a 70% on a 200-point exam do not average to 80% — the points total is 158 ÷ 220 = 71.8%. Always add points first, then divide.Counting assignments that aren't graded yet.
Only enter work with a real score. Adding future assignments as zeros makes your current grade look far worse than it is — use the points-needed box to plan for them instead.Forgetting a dropped score.
If your teacher drops the lowest quiz, leave it out of both columns. Keeping it in drags your total down in a way your official gradebook won't.Mixing in a weighted category.
If one part of the course is graded by category weights while the rest is raw points, a single points total won't match. Run the weighted part through the weighted calculator and combine the results by their syllabus shares.Entering the raw score when a curve applied.
If a test was curved, enter the curved points — your gradebook records the adjusted number, and every total after it depends on that.Answers
Frequently asked questions
How do I calculate my grade from points?
Add up all the points you've earned, add up all the points that were possible, then divide earned by possible and multiply by 100. For example, 342 points earned out of 400 possible is 342 ÷ 400 × 100 = 85.5%. The calculator at the top of this page does the adding and dividing as you type.
What if an assignment was worth more points than the others?
That's exactly how a points system works — bigger assignments count for more, automatically. A 200-point final inside a 400-point course carries half your grade. You don't need to do anything special; just enter each assignment's real point values.
How do I handle extra credit?
Add a row for the extra credit with the points you earned and 0 in the Points possible column. Your earned total rises while the possible total stays the same, so your percentage goes up — which is precisely what extra credit is for.
Can my grade go above 100%?
Yes, when extra credit pushes your earned points past the possible total — 405 earned out of 400 possible is 101.25%. Whether your school caps the grade at 100% or an A+ depends on its policy; the calculator shows the true points percentage either way.
How many points do I need to pass, or to get an A?
Use the "How many points do I still need?" box under the calculator. Enter your target percentage and the total points still to come, and it tells you how many of those points you must earn — and what percentage of the remaining work that works out to.
What's the difference between this and the weighted grade calculator?
This calculator treats every point equally, which matches a points-based gradebook. The weighted grade calculator is for syllabi that assign percentage shares to categories — exams 40%, homework 20% — where a category's share matters more than the raw points inside it. Your syllabus tells you which one your class uses.
I only have one score. Can I just convert it?
Yes — enter it as a single row and the result is that score's percentage, letter and GPA. If you only need the conversion without a running total, the grade percentage calculator does the same job in one step.
Is the Points Grade Calculator free?
Completely. No install, no account, no sign-up — and everything runs in your browser, so the points you type are never sent anywhere or stored. Close the tab and they're gone.
Keep going
Related calculators
Points are one way a course can be graded. These tools cover the other questions that come up around the same gradebook:
Grade Calculator
The main Ace calculator — weighted or points mode, with a grade-goal planner built in.
Calculate →Weighted Grade Calculator
For category-weighted syllabi: enter each category's score and its share of the grade.
Calculate →Grade Percentage Calculator
One score, one answer: turn any single points result into a percentage and letter grade.
Calculate →Final Grade Calculator
Find the exact score you need on your final exam to finish with the grade you want.
Calculate →