On a 25-question test each question is worth 4%. Missing 2 leaves 92%. Missing 3 leaves 88%, below the cutoff.
| Grade | Minimum | Most you can miss | Score then |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | 90% | 2 | 92% |
| B | 80% | 5 | 80% |
| C | 70% | 7 | 72% |
| D | 60% | 10 | 60% |
This uses the common 90/80/70/60 scale. Your teacher or school may use different cutoffs, so check your syllabus.
How the wrong-answer limit is worked out
Start with the score you would have after a given number of misses: correct answers divided by total questions, times 100, rounded to one decimal place. Keep adding one miss at a time until that rounded score slips under the minimum for your target grade. The last count that still cleared the bar is your limit.
The rounding step matters because it is the figure printed on a score report. A raw 89.96% shows as 90.0%, so it counts as an A, which is the same rule the Quick Grade chart follows.
Why the limit is always a whole number
Nobody can miss half a question, so the limit lands on the last whole miss that stays above the line, and the score at that point usually sits a little higher than the cutoff itself. On a 28-question quiz an A needs 90%, yet the most you can miss is 2, which leaves 92.9%. The gap between 92.9% and 90% is score you cannot spend.
The next miss costs a full step: 3 wrong would leave 89.3% and drop the result a letter.
A rough way to estimate in your head
For an A on the 90% line, a tenth of the questions is a fair first guess: 28 questions suggests about 2. The exact answer from the calculator is 2, so the shortcut happens to agree here. It can be off by one when the tenth is not a clean number, which is why the exact figure is worth checking before a high-stakes exam.
Tests that do not weigh every question equally
This page assumes one point per question. A paper with a few heavy essay items and many one-mark items needs points instead of a head count: add up the marks you could lose and compare them with the points possible. The test grade calculator handles that case and also accepts bonus points.
Turning the limit into a study plan
Treat the limit as a budget. If you are allowed four misses, you do not need to master every topic, but you do need to avoid spending that budget on material you could have learned. Many students rank the topics, secure the high-value ones first and accept that the weakest area may cost a miss or two.
The limit is arithmetic, not a prediction. It tells you the margin on paper, and your teacher still decides the official grade, including any curve, rounding policy or partial credit.
Worked example: a 28-question quiz
With 28 questions, a single miss moves the score by 3.57 points. Here is the largest miss count that holds each grade on the A–F scale, followed by two plus/minus grades.
- Hold an A (90%)
- 2 wrong, 92.9% left
- Hold a B (80%)
- 5 wrong, 82.1% left
- Hold a C (70%)
- 8 wrong, 71.4% left
- Hold a D (60%)
- 11 wrong, 60.7% left
- Hold an A- (90%)
- 2 wrong, 92.9% left
- Hold a B+ (87%)
- 3 wrong, 89.3% left
Going one past each limit costs a letter, so the room for an A on this quiz is only 2 questions while the room for a C is 8.
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