Your marks going into your final exam can both motivate you to study harder or give you some well deserved peace of mind. Sometimes this can be difficult to work out, especially if you are not mathematically minded.

Thankfully this can be simplified using Microsoft Excel, and I will show you how.
First, gather all the assessment that you will have over the year and insert it in a table using the following format:
 
In this table the 2nd column is the percentage weight. For example, the assignment is worth 20% (or 0.2), the presentation is 30% and the final exam is 50%.

The third column shows what percentage you got in each piece of assessment – 90% in the 20% assignment.

In the fourth column, ‘Total Course Mark’ enter the following: =B1*C1, and =B2*C2. This uses excels calculator to calculate how many marks of the total course you have achieved. These can then be added together in the total mark section using =C1+C2+C3.

From this you can modify your value for ‘Your Grade’ of your final exam to see what you need to pass. In this case you only need 19% in the final exam to pass.

If you can create your excel spreadsheet at the start of the year and constantly modify it, you will always have a clear picture of where you are heading.