Test Score Calculator

Divide the correct answers by the total and multiply by 100: score = correct ÷ total × 100. Getting 18 of 20 right is 18 ÷ 20 × 100 = 90%, an A-. The letter comes from the standard US scale, so you get both numbers at once.

This assumes every question is worth one point. If some are worth more — a two-point short answer, a ten-point essay — add up the points earned and enter those against the total points instead of counting questions. The math is identical; just use points, not question counts. This also handles a test with a mix: a section of ten one-point multiple-choice items plus a twenty-point essay is a 30-point total, and "correct" becomes however many of those 30 points were actually earned.

A raw score answers "what share of the possible points did I earn," and nothing more — it says nothing about how hard the test was. A 70% on an exam where the class average was 55% is a strong result; the identical 70% on an exam averaging 85% is a below-average one. That is exactly why teachers curve grades and why large standardized tests report a scaled score instead of a raw percentage: a scaled score is built to mean roughly the same thing across different test forms and different years, which a bare percentage cannot do on its own.

A raw score is the starting point. Teachers sometimes curve grades — shifting or rescaling every score by some rule specific to that class — or give partial credit on questions that are not simply right-or-wrong, neither of which this calculator models. Use the percentage here as the honest baseline, then apply whatever curve or partial-credit adjustment your specific class uses on top of it.

A score that lands right at a letter-grade cutoff — 89.5%, sitting between a B+ and an A- — depends entirely on how the instructor rounds, and that is a policy decision, not a math one. Some round up at the half-point, some truncate, some do not round at all and simply post the raw number. If a grade is sitting exactly on a boundary and it matters, the syllabus or the instructor directly is the source to check — this calculator reports the unrounded percentage and lets the standard scale's own cutoffs decide the letter.