Check whether your what-if grade scenario still supports a pass after weighting, remaining marks, policy rules, and realistic score limits are applied.
Updated: 2026-05-08
What-if grade pass/fail scenarios show whether your projected marks still result in a pass once weighting, remaining work, and policy rules are applied. A scenario is valid only if both the overall grade and any required component scores meet the pass threshold under realistic assumptions. Use this guide after running the What-If Grade Scenario Simulator, then cross-check with the Weighted Grade Calculator and Target Grade Average Calculator before making a study or progression decision. Compare baseline, conservative, and target scenarios to confirm whether your pass result is secure or depends on one high-risk component.
The highest-risk scenario is usually the remaining assessment with the largest weight. A small score change in a high-weight exam, project, or coursework category can move the result from pass to fail, while low-weight components may barely change the outcome. Run baseline, conservative, and target scenarios before deciding where to focus effort.
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Run the parent simulator first, then cross-check weighted impact and target average before changing your study plan.
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Use this guide after running the What-If Grade Scenario Simulator when your result is close to a pass, fail, resit, progression, or classification boundary. The simulator shows how different marks could affect your outcome, but pass/fail decisions also depend on weights, minimum component rules, capped resits, and remaining assessment limits.
Next step calculators: What-If Grade Scenario Simulator, Weighted Grade Calculator, Target Grade Average Calculator
Keep confirmed marks, estimated marks, and policy assumptions separate. A reliable pass/fail scenario needs the current score, completed weight, remaining weight, target threshold, and any minimum component rules from the same course policy. When new marks arrive, rerun the baseline, conservative, and target scenarios instead of editing an old result without notes.
Start with a baseline scenario using confirmed marks and expected remaining scores. Then run a conservative scenario using lower scores on high-risk components. Finally, run a target scenario showing what score would keep the pass outcome secure. Compare the spread between scenarios to identify whether one assessment controls the pass/fail result.
Check whether the course uses minimum exam scores, attendance requirements, capped resits, dropped-lowest rules, late penalties, or rounding conventions. A scenario can appear to pass in aggregate while still failing a required component. If the required remaining score is above 100%, the pass target is infeasible under the current assumptions unless extra credit or a policy exception applies.
Copy confirmed marks and weights from the official gradebook. Run the What-If Grade Scenario Simulator, then cross-check with the Weighted Grade Calculator or Target Grade Average Calculator. Write down the next action for the highest-weight remaining component first, because that component usually has the most leverage over pass/fail risk.
Contextual links: What-If Grade Scenario Simulator, Weighted Grade Calculator, Target Grade Average Calculator
Output: A student averaging 58% needs 45% on a final worth 40% to stay above a 50% pass threshold.
Output: A baseline forecast passes at 54%, but a conservative scenario with one weaker project mark drops the result to 49%.
Output: A student finishes with 62% overall but fails the course rule requiring at least 50% on the final exam.
Output: A resit capped at 50% cannot support a scenario that requires 68% on that component.
Output: Raising a quiz worth 5% from 40% to 90% improves the final result by only 2.5 percentage points.
Output: With 45% of the course remaining, moving expected scores from 52% to 64% raises the forecast above the pass line.
It is a test of whether different future marks would keep your course result above or below the pass threshold.
Use it after running the What-If Grade Scenario Simulator when your result is close to a pass, fail, resit, progression, or classification boundary.
The largest remaining assessment weight usually matters most, especially if the score needed is far from your current average.
Use confirmed marks for the baseline. Estimated marks are useful for planning, but they should be labelled and rerun when official scores arrive.
Yes. Some courses require a minimum exam, lab, attendance, or coursework score even when the aggregate average looks high enough.
A required score above 100% means the scenario is not feasible under current assumptions unless extra credit or a policy exception applies.
A capped resit limits the maximum score you can earn, so it may prevent a pass scenario that would otherwise look possible.
A conservative scenario shows whether the pass outcome survives one weaker remaining result or depends on optimistic assumptions.
High-weight components can move the final result sharply, while low-weight components usually have limited pass/fail impact.
Rerun it after every new mark, weighting correction, policy update, dropped-score change, or resit decision.
Use the Weighted Grade Calculator to verify component weighting and the Target Grade Average Calculator to test the average needed on remaining work.
Focus first on the highest-weight remaining component or the component with the strictest pass rule.