To add grades to your gradebook, open your school gradebook file and navigate to the class and student for which you would like to add a grade.

Adding grades can be done using multiple entry methods. Regardless of the method used, the grade will be converted internally to a percentage grade and then displayed according to the preference selected in the button ribbon at the top of the screen. You can choose to have your grades displayed as a Letter Grade, Percentage Grade, or a Number Grade. For reference, the grade equivalencies can be seen in the grading key on the right hand side of the window. For this tutorial, we will start by selecting the Letter Grade Option.

Let’s now examine the 4 methods you can use to enter grades. First, you can type in a letter grade such as A+,  B, or C- and the grade will be displayed and averaged according to the grading scale displayed in the top right of the window.

A second method is to enter the grade as a percentage. For example you could enter 88 if the student scored an 88% on an assignment. Note that in our case it will be automatically converted to a letter grade after moving out of the grading cell. This is because we have selected the “as Letter” option in the Grade Display Preference at the top menu bar. One thing to note here is that the numbers 1 – 13 are reserved numbers as they represent the number grade equivalents as shown in the grading key. This means that if your student scores between a 1 and 13%, these percentage grades, when entered, will be considered by the program to be number grade entries instead of percentages. To demonstrate this, suppose the student’s score was 8%. This is clearly a failing grade, however, entering an 8 will result in a C letter grade. This is because the software assumed that the number entered was a number grade and NOT a percentage grade, and  the letter equivalent to the number grade 8 is a C. For this reason, if a score is between 1 and 13% inclusive, do not enter the grade as a percentage grade, but rather as an F, or a 13. 

The third method to enter a grade is as a number grade. This is the number found in the Grade Key that corresponds to the percentage score achieved by the student. Once familiar with these equivalencies, this is the fastest way to enter a grade. For example, if the student’s score is 100%, then you can enter the number 1, since this corresponds to 100%. If the grade is a 90%, then you can enter the equivalent number grade 5. Note again that visually the recorded grade changes automatically to the appropriate letter grade, reminding us that we have selected the letter grade option in the display preferences.

A fourth method to enter grades is to type in a pair of numbers separated by a space. The first number indicates the number of lost points or the number wrong, and the second number represents the total possible points for the assignment. For example if the student got 3 wrong out of a total of 10 problems, the grade could be recorded as 3 space 10 and the program will automatically convert this into a number grade. Note that the order in which you enter the pair does not matter. In this example, typing in 10 space 3 will result in the same grade.

As more grades are added to the gradebook, the Average grade will continue to update, allowing you instant feedback on how well your student is performing. If desired, the average grade display can be toggled back and forth between a letter grade and a percentage grade depending upon your preference.

Also, recall from earlier that the grade display can be changed any time by going back to the grade display preferences and selecting a desired preference.  

It is sometimes desirable to keep track of the type, names, page numbers, or dates of certain assignments. This can be done be typing the information into the appropriate cell above the grade.

It is often desirable, perhaps in the case of a test, quiz, or large project, to apply more weight to the grade than other less important assignments. For this reason A+ Gradebook features a means to provide a custom weight to a grade, by typing a desired weight in the Assignment Weight row above the desired grade location. For example, you might want to make a test score 5 times more important than a small assignment. You can do this be typing the value of 5 in the Assignment Weight Row above the test grade. Visually you will see a change in the color of the column to indicate a different weight has been applied. Internally, the program automatically makes the test grade in this column impact the overall average 5 times more than a typical assignment that has the weight of 1. Another way to think of this is that the test is worth 5 assignments all having the same score.

It is common, especially in highschool courses, to base a student’s final grade on a grading system that is set up at the beginning of the course. To do this we first select the desired class and then click the + Grade System button in the right pane. In this resulting window you can select one of the suggested categories from the drop down menu, or create your own. Additional categories can be created by clicking the add Category button. Once you have chosen your categories, enter the corresponding percentage weights for which to apply to the category by clicking the up or down arrows. A good tip here is to use the arrows keys on your keyboard to adjust the numbers as it will be significantly faster.

Let’s do an example. We will select Assignments, Tests, and Quizzes from the drop down menus. Next, we assign the desired weights for each category. We will choose 60%, 30%, and 10%. With this system, 60% of the final grade will be based upon the average grade of all the assignments in the course. In like manner, 30% will be based upon the test average, and 10% on the quiz average.

Once you have completed setting up your grade system, you will be asked which category is likely to be the most used. In our case we will assume that “Assignments” will be used more than any other category.

Once finished we can see several changes in the gradebook screen. On the right side, we see a grading system key that reminds us of the grade system choices we selected in the setup. In the grading weight row, we see that instead of being able to add our own custom weights as before, we are now given a choice to select the type of assignment for which we will be grading. Once this is selected, the program will automatically calculate the final grade based upon our grade system choices.

If you are curious as to how your student is doing in any one category, simply click the binocular icon in the OverAll Average column and a popup will display the current grade status for each category.  

Finally, remember that grade systems are specific to the courses for which they were created. In our case, the system is specific to the Algebra course. If desired, other grade systems can be set up for other courses by selecting the course and then repeating the same procedure.

This concludes our tutorial on recording grades. To learn more about other program features please see our other tutorials.