Weight Assignments Individually Or By Category

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Updated 08 Jan 2026

An instructor or a section instructor with the Gradebook privilege can adjust the weighting scheme to determine how much an individual assignment or a category of assignments contributes toward final grades in Mastering. Different weighting schemes can produce significantly different grades.

Mastering courses paired with an LMS — Any weighting you set in Mastering doesn’t get applied to the Mastering assignment grades in the LMS. Only raw, unweighted points are automatically synced to the LMS gradebook

When you create a new course, no weighting is in effect. —Assignments are worth their raw point values. However, weighting may already be applied in a copied course. For example, Test and Quiz scores may be weighted more heavily than Homework scores, or specific assignments may be given more weight.

Specify a weighting scheme for the course

1. From the Course Home: Select Categories and Weighting from the Quick Links (right) in the Mastering Performance area.

   From the course menu: Select Gradebook.

2. Choose an overall weighting scheme for all categories in the course from the Category Weighting menu on the right:

   By Points — [Default] No weighting applied. The number of points in all assignments in a category determines the how much the category is worth. A category with items totaling 400 points in all assignments counts twice as much as a category totaling 200 points.

   Equally — Scores in each category contribute equally toward the Mastering course grade. Mastering calculates the Assigned Weight based on the number of categories in the course. If you make assignments in four categories, each is worth 25% of the Mastering total score.

   Custom — Lets you edit the Weighting Factor for each category. For example, you might want the Assigned Weight for Quiz scores to be 50% of the grade, with Homework worth 30%, Labs worth 15%, and Learning Catalytics worth 5% . Enter each Weighting Factor as a whole number. Mastering calculates the percentage.

3. Choose an assignment weighting scheme for individual assignments within a category from the Assignment Weighting menu opposite the category name:

   By Points — [Default] No weighting applied. The number of points in each assignment determines how much the assignment is worth. An assignment worth 20 points counts twice as much as an assignment worth 10.

   Equally — Grades in each assignment or offline activity contribute equally toward the weighted subtotal for the category. Mastering calculates the weight percentage for each assignment based on the number of counted assignments in the category, which can change over the course of the term, as you add more assignments.

   Custom — Lets you edit the Weighting Factor for each assignment individually. For example, you may want to give a lower weight to assignments earlier in the semester, when some students may be new to Mastering. An assignment with a weight of 2 counts twice as much as an assignment with a weight of 1. Enter each Weighting Factor as a whole number. Mastering calculates the percentage.

4. Select Save.

Explain weighted scores on the Scores page to students

When you select equal or custom weighting for categories or assignments in the course, the effect is visible on a student's Scores page to you and to the student. The Scores page displays both raw scores and weighted scores, and sometimes displays both Current Weights and Assigned Weights.

You should explain the weighting scheme for the course so your students can understand their weighted scores. For more information, see Review a student's work for an entire course on the Scores page.

Important: If you export scores to use in an external gradebook, only raw scores are exported. Neither weighted scores nor the categories to which assignments belong are exported.

See also: Assignment categories | Create your own categories | Delete a category from a course | About the Adaptive category | About the Dynamic Study Module category | About the Learning Catalytics category