Grade Tracker
Hold the Grade v 1.6
If you want to see Hold the Grade (formerly Grade Tracker) please follow this link. To learn more about version 1.6, please continue reading.
Don’t be confused, this is the spreadsheet formally known as Grade Tracker. The name changed because I went to Google’s blog search and there were a lot of things called Grade Tracker. Some were free, some weren’t. Some were designed more for teachers to replace the paper grade book. So before this really takes off, I wanted to give it a name that won’t be so common. So I decided to go with “Hold the Grade” because when I designed this for myself the idea was to make something that would let me know what I needed to do to hold a B in certain classes.
Why Version 1.6 is Better Than Version 1.5
There aren’t a lot of updates from 1.5, but the updates are high quality.
- I figured out how to hide the “Points Lost” column on the Semester Grades sheet. Basically, I put it on another sheet called “Dirty Work” and had “Semester Grades” and “Dirty Work” talk to each other.
- Hold the Grade now plays nicely with assignments that haven’t been turned in yet and assignments where you got a 0 at the same time. Before if you got a 0 it treated the assignment as if you hadn’t turned it in. I don’t expect any of you to get a 0 on an assignment, but if you do this will correctly reflect that.
I’m still working on making this a stand alone program. But I’m still excited about this release.
Is there anything else you would like to see in Hold the Grade? Can you see yourself using this or recommending it to others? Please let me know in the comments below.
Table of contents for Grade Tracker
Grade Tracker 1.5
Please note that the above will always be the most current version on Zoho.
Grade Tracker has come a long way in a relatively short time. But this is the first major release (it has been released before in a very limited format). It has been tested in a Windows XP environment using OpenOffice by me and Microsoft Excel by my girlfriend. There is no guarantee that it will work for you, but I will do my best to help you out if asked to do so. Also please note that this is released for free (donation accepted using the PayPal donate button in the left sidebar and highly appreciated) under a Creative Commons Attribution/Non-Commercial license, which means that you can take it and share as much as you want as long as you give me credit and don’t sell it. Here is what you can expect from Grade Tracker.
- Know your current grade in a class. This is the grade you would recieve today if you did no more work for the rest of the class.
- Know the highest grade you can get in a class. This is a bit misleading in that it doesn’t take into account that you could earn additional extra credit points. But there is almost no way for me to rite that in and have it work for everyone.
- Know how many points you need to earn in order to receive a certain grade at the end. There is no need to put fake grades in to see what the lowest grade you can get is and still hold your A. If there is a grade level that is not used, simple place a 0 in. Also, please note that the number of points needed to reach each grade level will need to be entered by you because of difference in grading scales.
- Over on the GPA sheet, all you need to do to find your GPA is to enter the hours a class is worth, the grade that you earned in each class and possibly adjust the points scale in Column J. Everything else is taken care of. The Psych Grades sheet works exactly the same way (down to the scale being tied to the one on the main GPA sheet), except that it was designed to be major specific.
But it’s far from perfect. Here is what I’m planning for the future.
- Find a way to lose the ‘Points Lost’ column. Right now that is used to help calculate the Max Grade value. But other than that, I think it serves no purpose. I’d love to have that hidden.
- Adjust the Points Lost formula so that it doesn’t check for a 0 in the Points Earned column. Right now, if you actually get a 0 on an assignment the Max Grade will be calculated as if that assignment wasn’t even turned in. My main hangup with this is if I should have X’s be in for assignments that haven’t been turned in or if I should have it check for a blank.
- Get rid of the negative points in the table that says how many points you need to earn for each grade level. It’s highly unlikely that you would lose points that have been earned. Again, it’s the visual aspect that’s holding me up with this. Should it be a check mark for grade levels that you’ve reached? And if not, what should be shown?
- I would also love to make this a stand alone program. That is currently in the very early stages of planning.
If you have any questions, comments, or concerns I would love to hear them. Aagain please note that this is released under a Creative Commons Attribution/Non-Commercial license, which means that you can take it and share as much as you want as long as you give me credit and don’t sell it.
Table of contents for Grade Tracker
Grades Template Revisited
Do you remember when I tried to show you how to use Excel to keep track of your grades? That was a bit of a disaster, with the template never downloading. Well, we’re going to try it again, with a lot of improvements. Check out the template, and after the jump you can see what’s changed.
Table of contents for Grade Tracker
- How To Use Excel to Keep Track of Grades
- Grades Template Revisited
- Grade Tracker 1.5
- Hold the Grade v 1.6
How To Use Excel to Keep Track of Grades
If you’re in college then you know how important grades can be. And if you’re like a lot of college students then you like to know exactly what grade you have in a class right now and what you need to do to get that A you’re shooting for.
At least I know that I’m that way. And with a little bit of Excel know how, it is a very easy process to have most of the work done for you. See how after the jump below.
Table of contents for Grade Tracker
- How To Use Excel to Keep Track of Grades
- Grades Template Revisited
- Grade Tracker 1.5
- Hold the Grade v 1.6