Understanding Category Weighting in Grade Calculation

Category weighting involves assigning different levels of importance to various types of assessments (e.g., assignments, quizzes, projects, final assessment) when calculating a final grade. This method recognizes that some components of coursework are more significant indicators of student performance than others.

Not to be confused with Averages, which typically treat all assessments equally when calculating the final grade.

Category Weighting

When using category weighting, each type of assessment is assigned a percentage that reflects its importance in the overall grade (F1 Grade).

With this method, the teacher uses specific categories and assigns a percentage value to each. In doing so, they need to ensure that the total weight sums up to 100%.

  • Here are some common examples of Category Weightings here at FHS:
    • English Info Text 10
      • Speaking and Listening – 30%
      • Reading and Viewing – 40%
      • Writing and Reporting – 30%
    • Technology 9
      • Classwork – 80%
      • Final Project – 20%
    • Intro to Applied Tech 110
      • Ongoing Assessment- 85%
      • Safety – 15%

Example (Intro to Applied Tech 110)

Lets use the example of the Intro to Applied Tech 110 course.

In the summary below, the student has completed the course with the following category weighting:

  • Ongoing Assessment – 85%
  • Safety – 15%

Meaning that assessments categorized as Ongoing Assessment will contribute towards 85% of their overall mark and assessments categorized as Safety will contribute 15% toward their overall mark. Each of these two categories would include any number of assignments with their combined marks totaling Possible Points. Points Earned reflects the student’s actual achievement in this category.

At the end of the semester we focus only on category totals calculated in the F1 Reporting Term.

In the table above you can see that this student earned 683.75 of a total 837 possible points in the Ongoing Assessment category and 134 points of a possible 145 in the Safety category.

This equates to them earning 82% in the Ongoing Assessments category and 92% in the Safety category.

We then have to apply these percentages to the category weighting of the course:

Ongoing Assessment – 85 points (Category Weighting) x 0.82 (Percent of Points Earned) = 69.7 points (Points Toward Total Mark Out of 100)

Safety – 15 points (Category Weighting) x 0.92 (Percent of Points Earned) = 13.8 points (Points Toward Total Mark Out of 100)

Total Grade – 69.7 points + 13.8 points = 83.5% (Final Grade for Course)

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