Grade Star support

Grade Star is a free iPhone app for tracking your course grades. Enter your scores as they come back and it shows your current grade, forecasts where you'll finish, and works out the score you need on the final exam to reach the grade you're aiming for.

It follows your own syllabus: weighted categories, points or percentages, dropped scores, a final that replaces your lowest exam, extra credit, and each course's own grading scale. Your grades stay on your iPhone and in your own iCloud account. There is no account, no advertising, and no subscription.

Grade Star requires an iPhone with iOS 18 or later. · Privacy policy

Getting started

Grade Star opens with a filled-in Sample Course, so you can see how everything fits together before you add your own. The sample never counts toward your GPA, and you can delete it whenever you like.

To add a course, tap the course name at the top of the screen and choose Add Course. You'll need your syllabus: it takes three short steps — the course name, which categories the course has, and what each category is worth. The weights need to add up to 100%.

After that, open a category and enter scores as you get them back.

Common questions

What's the difference between Current and Projected?

Current is what you've earned so far, counting only work that has been graded. Projected is where you'll finish if the rest of the term goes the way you expect: it adds the work still to come at each category's expected score.

Where does the expected score come from?

Until something in a category is graded, its expected score is blank and the category is left out of the projection. Once you have a score, the expected score follows your most recent one — your latest quiz, your homework score, or your attendance so far. Type your own number to use that instead; it stays until you change it. Clear the box to go back to following your scores.

The final exam's expected score stays blank until you type one, because there's no earlier final to follow.

How does “What you need on the final exam” work?

Pick the grade you're aiming for, and Grade Star finds the lowest final exam score that gets you there, assuming your other expected scores hold. It also tells you when a grade is already earned, whatever you score on the final, or out of reach even with a perfect score on the final.

My grade doesn't match my school's gradebook

Check these first:

Weights. Make sure each category's weight matches your syllabus and the total is 100%.
Points or percentages. Most gradebooks weight bigger assignments more within a category (points). If your course counts every item equally, switch to percentages in Course Settings.
Dropped scores. If your syllabus drops the lowest quiz, or lets the final replace a low exam, set that in Course Settings.
Rounding. Grade Star doesn't round by default, so 89.6% is a B+. If your course rounds, open Course Settings, then Grading scale, and turn on “Round to nearest whole percent”.
Grading scale. Each course has its own scale, under Grading scale in Course Settings. Make sure its cutoffs match your syllabus.

Many gradebooks count missing work as zero in their final score, while Grade Star uses your expected score for work that isn't done yet. That difference is intended.

A score above 100% won't go in

Grade Star stops scores above 100% unless you allow extra credit, so a typo like 105 for 95 gets caught. Open the category and set its Extra credit allowance — for example, 2 points lets a 20-point quiz score 22.

How do I change a category's weight?

Use Edit Weights in the … menu on the course page. All the weights are edited together, so you can see that they still add up to 100%.

Why is my GPA missing?

The term GPA appears on the Courses list, below your courses, once you have two or more courses of your own. It's weighted by credit hours, which you can set for each course in Course Settings.

iCloud backup

Are my grades backed up?

If your iPhone is signed in to iCloud, Grade Star backs up your courses automatically. You can check at the bottom of the Courses list: it shows “Backed up” when everything is saved. If backup stops working, a notice appears on your course page.

I have a new iPhone, or I deleted the app

Sign in to the same Apple Account on the iPhone and install Grade Star. Your courses come back from iCloud on their own, usually within a minute. Keep the app open while they arrive.

It says “Not backed up”

Tap the iCloud Backup row at the bottom of the Courses list to see why and what to do. The usual reasons are that the iPhone isn't signed in to iCloud, or its iCloud storage is full. Your grades are still saved on the iPhone in the meantime.

If it says backup didn't start, don't delete the app — your grades are only on that iPhone. Swipe Grade Star away in the app switcher and open it again. If that doesn't fix it, email us.

Contact

Found a problem, or have a question the page doesn't answer? Email justin@physicsway.com. It helps to include your iPhone model, its iOS version, what you were doing, and a screenshot if you have one.