Weighted averages and final grades

Most grading systems need at least one number MarkBook works out for you: a term average, a weighted category grade, an annual mark. In MarkBook that is a calculated column. This page explains how formulas read the grid, gives a formula for each common rule, and shows how to carry a result from one term into the next.

Where: a calculated value type is created under Configuration → Assessment → Markbook Templates → Columns Configurations with Data type Calculated. Its formula is set per template: open the template, Template settings tab, and click the calculated column in its zone. The formula panel has three tabs: Arithmetic, Weighted and Advanced. You need the Markbook templates or Value types permission. See also Calculated Columns & Formulas.

How a formula reads the grid

1. It names columns by short label. TST means the column whose Short label is TST. A label with spaces goes in square brackets: [End of Year Grade].
2. It reads the same pupil and the same subject. A formula never reaches into another subject.
3. It reads the same checkpoint. In Term 2, TST means Term 2's TST. If the column has no Term 2 cell, the formula uses the column's year-level (Target area) cell, or its only cell.
4. It reads a number from every cell.

Column	Number the formula gets
Number	The number typed
Grade label	The grade's Weight (points): GCSE 7 → 7, A− → 3.7, 5− → 4.75
Judgement scale	The value's Weight or Numeric value
Yes / No	1 or 0
Calculated	Its result, before display rounding

5. Averages use the marks that exist; arithmetic needs every value. avg(), min(), max() and the Weighted tab leave a missing mark out. avg(N1, N2, N3, N4) with N3 empty is (N1 + N2 + N4) / 3. If all the marks are missing, the result is empty. Plain arithmetic (A - B, A * 0.4 + B * 0.6) and sum() stay empty if any value is missing. MarkBook never replaces a missing mark with zero. To average marks where some may be missing, write avg(...) or use the Weighted tab, not (A + B + C) / 3.

The three tabs

Tab	What it does	Result shown as
Arithmetic	Pick columns and operators (Add, Subtract, Multiply, Divide) in a row	Whole number
Weighted	Weighted average, Drop lowest, then average, Lowest (min) or Highest (max) over a list of columns, each with a Weight	Number with 0–4 Decimals
Advanced	Type an expression	Number with 0–4 Decimals, or Signed (+2 / −1)

The Arithmetic tab has no "times before plus"

It works strictly left to right: A + B × C means (A + B) × C. For anything with more than one kind of operator, use the Advanced tab, which follows normal maths rules and brackets.

Use Advanced for brackets, functions and a signed display. Use Weighted for a weighted average when marks can be missing. Most examples below use Advanced. Press Preview with test values to try a formula with sample marks before you save.

Functions on the Advanced tab

Function	Example	Result
avg(a, b, …)	avg(7, 8, 9)	8
sum(a, b, …)	sum(2, 3)	5
min(a, b, …) / max(a, b, …)	max(6, 9)	9
round(x) / round(x, n)	round(8.5) / round(4.446, 2)	9 / 4.45
floor(x) / ceil(x)	floor(8.9) / ceil(8.1)	8 / 9
abs(x)	abs(-2)	2
clamp(x, low, high)	clamp(112, 0, 100)	100

Operators: + - * / and brackets. round sends .5 away from zero (8.5 → 9, −1.5 → −2). A formula may be up to 500 characters, name up to 32 columns, and give a function up to 16 values.

Formulas for common rules

Plain average

avg(N1, N2, N3, N4)

Weighted average with weights that add to 1 (US categories)

0.1*HW + 0.2*QZ + 0.4*TST + 0.2*PRJ + 0.1*PART

Weighted average with whole-number weights (Polish średnia ważona)

(3*S1 + 3*S2 + 2*K1 + 2*K2 + 2*O1 + Z1 + A1) / 14

Divide by the sum of the weights (here 3+3+2+2+2+1+1 = 14).

On the Weighted tab you can enter the same weights in the Weight column. Weights there are relative: 3, 2, 1 works as well as 50%, 33%, 17%, and the Share column shows each one's real share. Set Decimals to 2. Unlike the formula above, the Weighted tab leaves a missing mark out and re-divides by the weights that are present. Tests 50%, quizzes 30%, homework 20% with homework missing: tests count 50/80 and quizzes 30/80.

Drop the lowest

(Q1 + Q2 + Q3 + Q4 - min(Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4)) / 3

Or the Weighted tab, Drop lowest, then average, Drop 1. This one is a plain average of the marks that are kept; the weights are not used. It also copes with a missing quiz and never drops the last remaining mark. The formula above stays empty if any quiz is missing.

Best mark

max(EXAM, RESIT)

A raw score as a percentage

T1 / 40 * 100

Coursework and exam, 40 / 60

0.4*CW + 0.6*EXAM

Rounding the way your country does

Country	Rule	Formula	Decimals
Romania	Annual average: mean of all the year's marks, rounded to the nearest whole number, .50 up	round(avg(N1, N2, N3, N4, N5, N6, N7))	0
Poland	Weighted average shown to two decimals	(3*S1 + … ) / 14 or the Weighted tab	2
Bulgaria	Average to two decimals, read against the bands	avg(T1, T2, T3, T4)	2
Bulgaria	Whole mark from an average, .50 up	round(avg(T1, T2, T3, T4))	0
US	Percentage to one decimal	0.1*HW + …	1
Any	Always round down	floor(avg(A, B, C))	0

Decimals only changes how the result is shown. Another formula that reads the column gets the full value. To pass a rounded value on, round inside the formula, as a Bulgarian term mark does.

Carrying a result into the next term: the annual average

Because a formula reads its own checkpoint, an annual average cannot simply say "average of the term averages" with one term-average column. Use one column per term, each kept in its own term:

1. Create one calculated value type per term, for example Average term 1 (AV1) and Average term 2 (AV2), both Repeated in every reporting period, with the same formula.
2. Add both to the Reporting period zone. In the Live preview, disable AV1 in Term 2 and AV2 in Term 1.
3. Create the annual column, Only in the final reporting period, with avg(AV1, AV2).

AV1 exists only in Term 1, so the annual formula finds it there. (Romania no longer needs this: since 2024 it closes one annual average over the whole year, so one period is enough.) The same pattern gives a US semester grade (0.4*Q1G + 0.4*Q2G + 0.2*EX1) and a Bulgarian annual guide (avg(SO1, SO2), where SO1 and SO2 are term marks the teacher picks).

A formula can read another calculated column, as the annual column reads AV1. Formulas must not refer to each other in a loop.

Showing the result

• A calculated column shows a number, not a grade label. To show the grade too, keep a grade-label column beside it (Report Grade, Ocena roczna, Годишна оценка) for the teacher to fill in, or colour the number.
• Colour bands. Edit the calculated value type, turn on Colour-code this column by its value, and add up to eight bands. Each band includes its From value and stops just before its Up to value, so bands 4.5–5.5 and 5.5–(No limit) meet without a gap. See Conditional Colours.
• Calculated columns are never typed into. Their cells are read-only in the grid, and a change to any mark updates them at once.

Worked example: a weighted term mark

Science, Term 1, weights: practical 20%, two tests 30% each, homework 20%.

Column	Short label	Mark
Practical	PRAC	72
Test 1	T1	65
Test 2	T2	81
Homework	HW	90

Formula on the Advanced tab, Decimals 1:

0.2*PRAC + 0.3*T1 + 0.3*T2 + 0.2*HW

Result: 14.4 + 19.5 + 24.3 + 18 = 76.2. If Test 2 were still unmarked, the cell would stay empty until it is entered.

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