Find the score you need on your final, and the ceiling on what's achievable no matter how it goes.
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Holding your current grade at 85 percent and a 90 percent target, here is how the score needed and the maximum possible grade both shift as the final's weight changes, using this calculator's own formulas:
At 10 percent, even a perfect final only pulls the class average up to 86.5, so a 90 target is mathematically closed off before the exam even happens. Not until the final is worth about 38 percent does the max possible grade actually cross 90 and the target become reachable at all.
Your final grade equals current grade times the share the final does not cover, plus final score times the final's weight. This calculator solves that same equation twice: once for the final score that hits your exact target, and once with a perfect 100 plugged in for the final score, which produces the highest grade mathematically available to you regardless of target.
Worked example. At 85 current, a 20 percent final, and a 90 target: the 80 percent already graded contributes 0.80 × 85 = 68.0 points, so the final needs to add 90 minus 68.0, or 22.0 points, through its 20 percent share, meaning a 110 on the final, out of reach. The max possible grade tells the same story from the other direction: 0.80 × 85 + 0.20 × 100 = 68.0 + 20.0 = 88.0, a full two points short of the 90 target no matter what you score.
It is your ceiling: the highest overall grade you could reach if you scored a perfect 100 on the final. If your target sits above this number, no score on the final gets you there, and pushing harder on the final won't change that ceiling.
When the final is a small share of the total grade, even a perfect score on it can't pull a middling current average very far. The lower the final's weight, the closer your max possible grade sits to your current grade.
This tool adds a ceiling check, the highest grade achievable, alongside the score needed for your specific target. The final grade calculator on this site focuses purely on the score needed and skips the ceiling calculation.
Check the max possible grade result first; if your target is above it, no exam score changes that math. From there, the honest options are usually extra credit, a grade replacement policy, or adjusting the target itself, none of which this calculator can offer on its own.