How 31 out of 60 works out to 51.7%
Divide the score by the total and multiply by a hundred: 31 ÷ 60 × 100 = 51.7%. Each of the 60 questions is worth 1.67%, so the grade can only land on multiples of 1.67% — there is no way to score 52.5% on a sixty-question test.
51.7% is rounded. 31 ÷ 60 does not terminate: the exact figure is 51.6667%, which we show to one decimal place like every other percentage on this site. If your school rounds to a whole number instead, this score is recorded as 52% — and where that crosses a letter boundary it is worth checking which convention the gradebook uses, because the rounding rule and not the marking decides the letter. Ours is set out on the methodology page.
29 questions were wrong out of 60, and together they cost 48.3%. If any of them were marked with partial credit the real figure is a little higher — the test grade calculator takes half marks.
51.7% as a letter grade
Schools do not all cut letters at the same percentage, so 51.7% has more than one correct answer. Here is where it lands on the three scales in common US use:
| Scale | Where 51.7% lands | Grade points |
|---|---|---|
| Plus/minus, the most common US scale | F | 0.00 |
| Straight letters, 90/80/70/60 | F | 0.00 |
| Seven-point, 93/85/77/70 | F | 0.00 |
On the plus/minus scale this site uses throughout, 31 out of 60 is an F, worth 0.00 grade points on an unweighted 4.0 scale. A school that grades in straight letters would record it as an F too. A seven-point scale reads it as an F as well. The full band table for all three, and what each letter is worth on the 4.0, 4.3 and 5.0 scales, is on letter grade to GPA.
What it takes to reach a D-
The next letter up is a D-, which starts at 60%. On a sixty-question test that is 36 out of 60 — 5 more correct answers than you have.
What 31 out of 60 needs to pass
A sixty-question test allows 24 wrong answers before a 60% pass mark is missed. This paper has 29 wrong — 5 too many — which puts the shortfall at 8.3% of the grade, or 5 more correct answers (36 out of 60). That is a gap of substance rather than a marking argument.
A single failing test is not usually a failing course. If this paper is worth 20% of the grade and everything else is at 85%, the course still sits at 78.3% — the table further down shows the other weightings. The number that decides the outcome is the course grade, not this one, and the final grade calculator will tell you what the remaining work has to be.
The scores either side of 31 out of 60
One more correct answer is 32 out of 60, 53.3% — still an F. One fewer is 30 out of 60, 50% — still an F. Nothing exists in between. A sixty-question test has exactly 60 achievable grades above zero and 51.7% is one of them; a percentage that is not a multiple of 1.67% cannot come off a test this length, whatever a rounding rule does to it afterwards.
What 51.7% does to a course average
One test is rarely the whole grade. If everything else in the course is averaging 85% and this test is worth the share in the left-hand column, the course grade lands here:
| Test is worth | Course grade | Letter |
|---|---|---|
| 10% of the course | 81.7% | B- |
| 20% of the course | 78.3% | C+ |
| 30% of the course | 75% | C |
| 40% of the course | 71.7% | C- |
Because 51.7% is below that 85% baseline, this test pulls the course average down by 6.7 points at a 20% weighting. Weightings vary, and a syllabus that puts the final at 30% is a different problem from one that puts it at 10% — put your own categories into the grade calculator, or work backwards from the grade you need with the final grade calculator.
51.7% on other test lengths
51.7% is only reachable on a sixty-question test out of the eight test lengths charted here. On every other length the nearest achievable score rounds to something else, which is the practical reason two students with the same understanding can end up with different letters: the test length decides which grades exist before anyone answers a question. Compare the charts if you want to see where the boundaries fall.
About sixty-question tests
A sixty-question test, usually a final, a practice standardised paper or a two-period exam. Every score on one, from 1 to 60, is charted on the out of 60 page, and the easy grader turns the same table around for marking a stack of papers: count what is wrong rather than what is right.