Expert: Scott A Wilson - 4/19/2010

Question
Hello
I currently have 81 percent in a course I am taking, this mark is worth 60 percent of my grade.  I am writing my exam tomorrow and the final exam is worth 40 percent of the final grade.  What mark do I have to receive to keep a 65 percent average overall?

Answer
Well, 60% is 0.6, and 0.6*81 = 0.486.
To get a 0.65 if you have 0.486 already requires 0.164 more.

Now since that 0.164 is 40% of the final grade, that means the final needs to be at least
0.164/0.4 = 0.285.

This says the final needs to be only 41%.  The best thing to do is try the best to know the material and score more than that.

Here is the overall score, given the grade on Final
Term   Final   Overall
0.81    0.65    0.75
0.81    0.70    0.77
0.81    0.75    0.79
0.81    0.80    0.81
0.81    0.85    0.83
0.81    0.90    0.85
0.81   0.95   0.87
0.81   1.00   0.89

If an A is 90%, that is not possible.
However, if a B is 80%, as long as the final is like the rest the term,
that's a B for the course.