Including your Final Exam in your 1st semester Grade

Scenario #1:You are simply totaling the Assignment points throughout the semester.

You have been simply adding points to determine the grade since the beginning of the semester (that is, the grade reflects the number of points a student has for the semester, divided by the total of possible points).

If this is how you calculate your grades, you have two different methods to incorporate the final exam grade. Read the choices, pick one of the choices by clicking on the link, and follow the instructions.

Method #1: You simply assign a number of points to the final, make the correct settings in the Grade Machine program, and let the software do the 80% / 20% calculation. (Easier for you to do, harder for the student to understand how the final affects the grade).

Method #2: You quickly figure out how many points the final should be worth to represent 20% of the grade, you assign that number of points to the final, make the correct settings in the Grade Machine program, and the student's grade is calculated. (Somewhat harder for you to do - requires some math calculations - , but much easier for the student to understand how the final affects the grade).

Method # 1

Setting up the calculations in Grade Machine, so that all you have to do is enter the number of points assigned to the final exam. NOTE: since this is a Class function, you must go through these steps with each class.

1. First, set up the Grading Periods. in the Grade Machine program, go to Class –> Grading Periods….
   1. In the Grading Periods window, call the first Grading Period “Total 1st Semester Points”, with a weight of 80%, and with a starting date of the first day of school.
   2. Be sure to leave the “When Calculating Grade” box set to “Ignore category weights.” (unless, of course, you are weighting categories!)
   3. In the 2nd box in the Grading Period window, call the second Grading Period “Final Exam”, set the weight to 20%, and enter a starting date that is the first day of the final exam period or the day you actually gave the final for that class.
   4. IMPORTANT: In the “Starting Assignment” box, put the Assignment number of the Final Exam (found in the Assignment window).
   5. Be sure to leave the “When Calculating Grade” box set to “Ignore category weights.” (unless, of course, you are weighting categories!)
2. Second, set up the Overall Summary. go to Class –>Overall Summaries….
1. In the Overall Summaries window, set the Description to “Overall”
2. In the Include: box, set it to 1st Semester
3. In the Through: box, set to “Latest Grading Period”.
4. IMPORTANT: In the “When calculating grade:”box, make sure the choice is “Use Grading Period Weights”.
3. Third, entering grades: Now you are ready to enter the final exam grade. If you haven’t already, go to the Assignments window, enter the final exam assignment (making sure that the Assignment number is the same as the “Starting Assignment” number you entered in the Grading Period window) and then enter the students’ scores in the Scores window.

REMINDER: since this is a “Class” function, you must go through these steps with each class.

It is always a good idea to calculate the grades of a couple of students by hand, to make sure the program is doing what you think it should be doing.

Print out instructions for Method #1, for total points during the semester.

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Method #2 (uses minimal math)

In this method, you will determine the score of the final, so that it equals 20% of the final grade. Then you simply enter the score of the final in the Assignments window.

Calculating the Final Exam Score. The sum of the points for the semester assignments is to equal 80% of the total points possible for the entire semester.

1. To calculate the point value of the final, plug in your values in the following formula: .8x=Total Semester Points
   • If x is the total number of points for the semester (points for the semester assignments plus the final exam points) then
   • .8x = (Points I have assigned in the semester)
   • For example, the total points for my first and second quarter assignments is 1250. I want to know how many points I should assign to the final so that my final exam has 20% of the points and my semester assignments have 80% of the points.
   • In other words, I want to find out 80% of what number will equal 1250.
     Using my formula, I set .8x as equal to 1250, and solve the equation.
     .8x= 1250. Solving this equation is x=1250/.8 or x = 1562.5. (semester points plus final exam points). Then I subtract the points I have assigned so far from the total I have calculated, to determine what the final should be worth: 1562 – 1250 = 312.
2. Now I know, if my semester points total 1250, my final should be worth approximately 300 points and I get my 80-20 ratio.
3. In the assignments window, my last assignment is called Semester Final, the total point value is 300, and I am ready to enter the student scores.
4. A further wrinkle: Let’s say you have a Scantron final, you have figured the final should be worth 300 points, but you have 178 questions on the final. How do you figure each students score? You don’t, you let the Grade Machine Program do that!!
   • In the Assignments window, after you enter the “Description” you would enter “178” in the Points column, and then “300” in the “Adjust” column (“Adjusted points possible”). The program calculates nicely the weight to be assigned to each of the 178 questions so that the total possible score is 300, and calculates each students score based on that weight!!

If you adjust this score in this way, go to STYLE -> GRADES, and put a checkmark in the Show Adjusted Points box, so that the score that shows up in the print out for that style is the adjusted score.

REMINDER: since this is a “Class” function, you must go through these steps with each class.

It is always a good idea to calculate the grades of a couple of students by hand, to make sure the program is doing what you think it should be doing.

I used, and liked, this method best, because it was easy for students to understand – they get a final grade and they can do the calculations to figure out how the final affected their grade.

Print out instructions for Method #2, for total points during the semester.

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