How to use the raw score needed for a target grade calculator
Once a target grade is set, the next question is always the same one: what raw score does that grade take, and how many questions does that mean. On a test where every question is worth the same, one division answers it. On a test that mixes two-, three- and four-point questions, the answer depends on which questions you get right. Enter the cutoff and the point distribution, and this page works back to the raw score needed and the range of correct answers behind it.
The distribution gives the exam total, and the cutoff you entered is the raw score needed as it stands. The share of the total needed is cutoff ÷ total × 100. The question counts come out two ways: filling the score from the highest-value questions down gives the fewest questions, while filling from the lowest-value questions up gives the most. Questions cannot be split, so the last one is counted whole, and the wrong answers you can afford is the total number of questions minus the fewest correct answers needed.
A couple of limits. No official table links a share of questions to a grade, and cutoffs move every time the test is given. This page does not calculate how many points you need to gain from a current score; it works back to the raw score a target cutoff represents and the questions behind it. Scaled scores and percentile ranks are out of scope, and tests with partial credit, or with point values that are never published, do not fit this approach.
Frequently Asked Questions
When questions carry different point values, several combinations reach the same score. Answering the high-value questions first reaches the cutoff with fewer questions; starting from the low-value ones takes more. The page shows both ends of that range.
Grade cutoffs move with every administration, every section and every group of test takers, so there is no fixed figure to build in. This page takes the cutoff from the source you are using and calculates only inside it.
Every question has to be correct, so the fewest and the most correct answers needed both equal the total number of questions and the wrong answers you can afford reads zero.