Test Grade Calculator
Turn correct answers out of a total into a percentage and a letter grade, see how many more you needed for a target, and read the whole score-to-grade table.
Test Grade Calculator: with the default inputs, score is 92%.
Used for the curve and the 'how many more' figures.
- Letter grade
- A−
- Answers missed
- 4
- Points earned
- 46 of 50
- Next letter up
- A at 93% — 1 more correct
- Curve needed for your target
- 1Percentage points that would have to be added to every score.
- More correct answers needed
- 1
- Your target as a letter
- A
- Score under a square-root curve
- 95.92%A common curve: 10 × √score. It lifts low scores much more than high ones.
- Questions you could miss and still hit the target
- 3
Assumptions
- Every question is worth the same number of points.
- Letter grades use hard cutoffs with no rounding up to the next band.
- The plus/minus scale used here (A 93, A− 90, B+ 87 …) is the most common US convention; institutions vary.
| Grade | Percentage | Correct needed | Can miss | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A+ | 97% and up | 49 | 1 | |
| A | 93% and up | 47 | 3 | |
| A− | 90% and up | 45 | 5 | ◀ your grade |
| B+ | 87% and up | 44 | 6 | |
| B | 83% and up | 42 | 8 | |
| B− | 80% and up | 40 | 10 | |
| C+ | 77% and up | 39 | 11 | |
| C | 73% and up | 37 | 13 | |
| C− | 70% and up | 35 | 15 | |
| D+ | 67% and up | 34 | 16 | |
| D | 63% and up | 32 | 18 | |
| D− | 60% and up | 30 | 20 | |
| F | below 60% | 0 | 50 |
Correct-needed is rounded up, because you cannot answer a fraction of a question.
How this is worked out
The formula
score % = correct ÷ total × 100 letter = the highest band whose cutoff the score reaches correct needed for a target = ⌈target % × total⌉ flat curve needed = target % − score % square-root curve = 10 × √(score %)
Open How it’s calculated above to see this worked through with your own numbers.
What you enter
- Answers correct
- A number.from 0 to 10000 · whole numbers only · defaults to 46
- Questions on the test
- A number.from 1 to 10000 · whole numbers only · defaults to 50
- Grading scale
- Choose one of 2 options.Plus/minus (A 93, A− 90, B+ 87 …) · Straight letters (A 90, B 80, C 70 …)
- Grade you were aiming for
- Used for the curve and the 'how many more' figures.a percentage · from 0 to 100 · defaults to 93
- Points per question(under More options)
- Only changes the points display; the percentage is unaffected when every question is worth the same.from 0.01 to 100 · defaults to 1
What you get back
- Scoremain answer
- Letter grade
- Answers missed
- Points earned
- Next letter up
- Curve needed for your target
- Percentage points that would have to be added to every score.
- More correct answers needed
- Your target as a letter
- Score under a square-root curve
- A common curve: 10 × √score. It lifts low scores much more than high ones.
- Questions you could miss and still hit the target
What this assumes
- Every question is worth the same number of points.
- Letter grades use hard cutoffs with no rounding up to the next band.
- The plus/minus scale used here (A 93, A− 90, B+ 87 …) is the most common US convention; institutions vary.
About this calculator
Answers correct, total questions, and you get the percentage, the letter, and — more usefully — the whole table of what every grade would have taken on this particular test.
How to use it
Enter the number right and the number of questions. Pick the grading scale your school uses: the plus/minus scale puts A at 93 and A− at 90; the straight-letter scale puts A at 90 with nothing between. That difference decides a lot of borderline grades, so check your syllabus rather than assuming. The target field drives the curve and "how many more" figures; set it to the grade you were actually chasing.
Under More options, points per question only affects the points display — when every question is worth the same, the percentage is identical either way.
Reading the results
Score is the raw percentage, not rounded to the letter. Next letter up tells you the cutoff and exactly how many more correct answers it would have taken, which is the number worth knowing before you email an instructor about a borderline grade.
Curve needed is the flat number of percentage points that would have to be added to every score in the class to bring yours to the target. Square-root curve shows what a common alternative does: 10 × √score turns 64 into 80 and 81 into 90, but leaves 100 at 100. It compresses the top and lifts the bottom, which is either the point or the objection, depending on where you sit.
The score-to-grade table is the part students actually use. On a 50-question test, an A− needs 45 right and you can miss 5; a B needs 42 and you can miss 8. On a 40-question test those become 36 and 34. Knowing the miss budget before an exam is more useful than any of the arithmetic afterwards.
Rounding and the borderline
Two rounding conventions are common and they disagree. Some instructors round 89.5 up to 90 and award the A−; others use hard cutoffs where 89.9 is a B+. This calculator uses hard cutoffs — the grade is whatever band the exact percentage falls in — because that is the stricter reading and the one that will not give you a pleasant surprise you then have to un-learn. If your syllabus says grades are rounded, add half a point mentally.
Percentages with awkward denominators produce awkward results. Out of 3 questions, each is worth 33.33 points and there is no way to land on 90. Out of 7, the bands are 14.3 points wide. Short quizzes are coarse instruments, which is why most course grades average many of them.
A note on curves
"Curving" means different things: adding a flat number of points, scaling to the top score, applying a square-root transform, or fitting grades to a target distribution. Only the first two are common in practice, and the last — forcing a fixed percentage of each letter — is rare and controversial outside large introductory courses. If your instructor mentions a curve, ask which one.
Frequently asked questions
▸What grade is 46 out of 50?
92%, which is an A− on a plus/minus scale (A− starts at 90, A at 93) or a straight A on a scale with no pluses and minuses.
▸How many questions can I miss and still get an A?
On a plus/minus scale an A needs 93%, so on a 50-question test you can miss 3 (47 correct is 94%; 46 is 92%). The table shows the miss budget for every letter on your test.
▸How do I calculate a test score percentage?
Divide the number correct by the total number of questions and multiply by 100. Forty-six out of fifty is 46 ÷ 50 = 0.92 = 92%.
▸What is a square-root curve?
The curved score is 10 × the square root of the raw percentage. A 64 becomes 80 and an 81 becomes 90, while a 100 stays 100 — it lifts low scores far more than high ones.
▸Do teachers round 89.5 up to an A?
Some do, some use hard cutoffs. This calculator uses hard cutoffs, which is the stricter convention. Check your syllabus — it is one of the few grading rules almost always written down.
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