Weight exam results to make a total
When you have columns that you need to combine to make a single total, often you need to weight the columns so they contribute varying amounts to the total.
With the Calculation Assistant command you can
- Choose the Calculation Assistant command in the Help menu.
- Choose Next to skip the Introduction.
- At the Calculation Columns step, click in the box on the left of the exam columns that you want to weight so they are checked, and then choose Next. (You must check more than one column to weight results.)
- At the Store Results step, leave the Yes, store the results in a new column option selected and choose Next.
- At the New Column step, enter the new column name. For example, you may want the new column to be named Term Total.
- Change the maximum result of the new column at if you don't want it as a percentage, and choose Next.
- At the Calculation Type step, select the Weight the columns while adding option and choose Next.
- At the Weightings step, enter the weight of each listed exam. For example, if you have three exams worth 50%, 30% and 20% each you would enter 50, 30 and 20 for each row and then choose Next.
- At the Classes step, leave the Yes, affect all classes option selected and choose Next.
- At the Check Details step, review the calculation details and choose Next.
The total from the weighted exams are stored in the new column.
- In step 7, if you want the columns to be weighted so that the distribution of the results are taken into account you could instead select the Scale the columns before adding with weights option. This sets up a more complex calculation that uses the mean and standard deviation of each column.