Work out which course your next hour should go to.
Put in your marks so far and the grade you are aiming for in each course. It shows what you need on the rest of each one, and where the most marks are still open.
How the calculator works it out
Marks you have had back are banked. Your average on them, times the share of the course they cover, is the number of points of the final grade you already have. What you still need, divided by how much of the course is left, is the score you need on the rest.
An example: 60% of a course is marked, and you averaged 62% on it.
- Banked so far: 62% of 60 is 37.2 points.
- To finish on 60 you need 22.8 more points from the 40 still open, which is 57% on the rest.
- To finish on 70 you need 32.8 of those 40 points: 82% on the rest.
- Each 1% more on the rest adds 0.4 points, and the most you can finish on is 77.2.
That arithmetic is the only exact part of this page.
Hours do not turn into marks at a fixed rate
In a study of college students, Plant, Ericsson, Hill and Asberg (2005) found the amount of time spent studying was a poor predictor of grades. It only became a significant predictor of cumulative GPA once the quality of the study and earlier performance were taken into account. So the calculator never guesses how many marks an hour is worth. If you want a points-an-hour figure, you give your own estimate for a course, and it is labelled as yours.
How you spend the hour matters
Dunlosky and colleagues (2013) reviewed the evidence on ten study techniques. They rated practice testing and distributed practice, which is spreading study out over time, as high utility. Rereading and highlighting were rated low utility, because they do not consistently improve performance. There is more on this in seven study techniques worth the time they cost and why re-reading fails and active recall works.
When a course is secured or out of reach
Secured means you reach your target even with nothing on the rest. Some courses also set a minimum mark for the exam itself, or make you pass every part, and the calculator does not know those rules, so check them before you let anything go. Choosing the next boundary up shows what that would take.
Out of reach means full marks on the rest would still fall short. The table under each course shows which boundaries are still open, and what each one needs.
Grading scales differ
The UK, South African and US presets are common examples. Where the boundaries fall, what they are called, how marks are rounded and how a GPA is worked out all vary between institutions, and sometimes between departments. Check yours, or type your own boundaries under Custom.
It cannot see which topics are costing you marks.
It only knows the marks you type in. Inside SymbioLearn you add your own study material for a course, and it finds the Concepts in it and gives you Quick Quizzes on them. Mistakes keeps what you got wrong, with the line of your study material it came from.
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