How much can a final affect your grade?

Question

I have an 88% in algebra 2 going into the semester final. math is easy for me, so the only reason i dont have an A is because i slacked off.

anyways is it theoretically possible for me to pull that up to a 90% due to the final exam? if i knew the conditions of the grading system, i would do the math myself. (what i mean by that is, i dont know what % the exam is worth towards my final grade).

assuming its 20%, and it wouldn't be higher, i need to get a perfect score. which is possible, this stuff is pretty basic. but im skeptical i can pull it off and get an A. im hoping someone can prove me wrong.

everyone makes such a big deal about finals, but when you really think about it, unless you bomb a test your grade won't change much at all. and in my case, that sux cuz its gonna be hard to raise it.

to comment #3- teacher doesn't round. she should, but according to student handbook its at the "teacher's discretion concerning rounding of grades".

Answer 1

Over here a final exam is worth half your grade, so you've got 80 percent say here, you're going into your exam with 40 percent, you will need to score over 40 percent to maintain your 80 percent level.

Like average 60 percent goes into with 30, you need 60 percent to maintain it.

Answer 2

Theoretically, you could get as low as 50% on the Final and still end up with a 70% - 71% for the year. For every 5% more on the Final, your grade will improve by approximately 1%. So if you get 55% on the Final, your overall grade would be 71%. That means that for a comfortable 73% - 74%, you would need about 65% on the Final. However, I think you should be cautious here. Many teachers don't actually compute the grades out so that the Final is exactly 20% or whatever. These numbers are often -- at least in practice -- more like "guidelines" than strict math. I think the teacher is going to look for a good grade on the Final as a representation of your overall achievement in the class. That means that a bad grade is going to have a bad affect on the teacher. I think that there is a real danger of a student whose average is 76% -- but who does really poorly on the Final -- will end up with a grade that is worse than expected mathematically. In your case, if you score no more than 50% on the Final, that is going to be a severe temptation to the teacher to give you a grade lower than C. Try to get at least a 70% on the Final to be sure of keeping your C.

Answer 3

That all depnds on the percentage. We can't tell you how your school grades. At my school, finals are worth 20% of your grade. If you're in algebra 2, I assume you've taken finals before, shouldn't you know how much they're worth? Look in your handbook or in course information.
I know what you mean though, finals can't really help your grade if you've got above, say, a B because no one does better on finals than they're doing in the class unless they were already doing poorly in the class.

Answer 4

Actually, if the final is worth 20% of your grade, you can make a 98% on the final and get and A.

Answer 5

Quite a bit.