Why Is My Percentage Going Down?
Dear Mr. Hall, It's Patrick Nunez from your third period. I was wondering why my percentage is going down but my points for Quia and Typing Club are going up. Sincerely, Patrick |
Hi Patrick,
I double-checked your grade and I couldn't find any mistake. You're doing very well in my class and you should be proud of yourself!
As for why your percentage is going down, it's because—even though you're meeting your weekly goals—you're doing less work than you did the first week (or weeks) of class.
Think of it like this:
- 100% means that you've done all your work.
- 200% means that you've done twice as much work as I've asked you to do since the beginning of the year.
So let's imagine that I assign 100 points every week.
- The first week, you earn 200 points. That's twice as many points as necessary! Your grade = 200/100 = 200%
- 2nd week: You earn 150 points. That's more points than necessary, but it's less than you earned the first week. Your grade = 350/200 = 175%
- 3rd week: You earn 150 points. Your grade = 500/300 = 166%
- 4th week: You earn 150 points. Your grade = 650/400 = 162%
- 5th week: You earn 150 points. Your grade = 800/500 = 160%
- 6th week: You earn 150 points. Your grade = 950/600 = 158%
As you can see from this example, even though you are exceeding your weekly goals every week, your overall percentage keeps dropping. In order to keep your original percentage of 200%, you'd have to earn twice as many points every week.
Here are some more things to keep in mind:
- As long as you meet your weekly quota, your grade will never drop below 100%.
- At the beginning of the year, 100 points can make a big difference to your grade: It can easily be the difference between an A and an F.
- As the year goes on, 100 points becomes less significant, because, each week that passes, 100 points becomes a smaller percentage of the total points assigned.
- By the end of the year, if you fail to do a 100-point assignment, it will hardly affect your grade at all, because at that point, 100 points will be only a small fraction of your overall grade.
Here's another way to look at it:
- At the beginning of the year, it's very easy to raise your grade (or to lose your grade if you fail to do an assignment), since each individual assignment is "worth more" (It's a greater percentage of your overall grade).
- At the end of the year, it's very hard to raise your grade (but also very hard to lose your grade), since each individual assignment is "worth less". (It's a smaller percentage of your overall grade).
In the end, it's all fair, because your grade is always a reflection of the total amount of work that you have done, compared to the total amount of work that the teacher has assigned.
I hope that answers your question!