Knowing the Score

Imagine you’re a quarterback. There are two minutes left in the game and your team has the ball. The pressure’s on for you to drive your team down the field. But there’s just one thing…

You don’t know what the score is.

Maybe you’re up by three (in which case the right move would be to kill time and try to run down the clock). Maybe you’re down by three (in which case you’d want to carefully drive down the field to at least get into field goal range). Maybe you’re down by ten (in which case the only option would be to try to make a quick drive for a touchdown and then get the ball back again).

But since you don’t know the score, how do you proceed? You have a problem, right?

Naturally, every quarterback would be well aware of the score at all times in order to be effective.

But if knowing your current grade is just as important for a student trying to get the best grade possible (and it is), then why are so many students clueless about where they stand in their classes most of the time and never prepare early with private SAT tutors?

Like a quarterback, a student who knows the "score" at all times has a huge advantage over one who doesn't.

Just say your goal in history is to get an A-. This means your average needs to be above that magic “90” line when the semester or year ends. Most schools and teachers round off to the nearest whole number, so for most students, the true magic number to get in the A range is an 89.5.

89.5 (or 79.5) is a very important number to get in your head, and in order to have the best chance of achieving it, you, like the quarterback, must know:

A) each class’s grade breakdown, and

B) your current average in each area of the breakdown

So back to that history class. Let’s imagine this is the grade breakdown:

Papers: 30%

Tests: 30%

Quizzes: 15%

Homework: 15%

Participation: 10%

In order to figure out your grade at any point in time, you need to know your current averages in each area. You’ll often be able to find these numbers just by looking at what’s been handed back to you so far, and if not, you can always ask your teacher.

Once you have these numbers, all you have to do is multiply each by its weight percentage and divide by 100. So let’s say that your breakdown with a month left in the semester is as follows:

Papers: Two handed back (B and A-) = about an 88 average

Tests: Three handed back for an 86 average

Quizzes: Eight handed back for an 88 average

Homework: Doing well here—98 average

Participation: You’re pretty active in class and the teacher likes you—let’s estimate a 90

You would do the following calculation—

(88 x 30) + (86 x 30) + (88 x 15) + (98 x 15) + (90 x 10)

And then divide by 100 to find your current average at 89.1. This is a crucial piece of information! Now, like the quarterback, you can plan accordingly. You’re close—but you’re in danger of falling short of the A range, so you really need to nail that last paper and the final exam.

Give it a try for your classes. You’ll be surprised how helping knowing the score can be.