When I was about to start homeschooling a high schooler, I spent a whole summer trying to figure out how best to keep track of grades and other important records.
Free download
Gradebook+ v2.01 for Excel or Google Sheets (XLSX)528 KB
Please read this before you use it
DISCLAIMER: I have tried to the best of my ability to make sure all formulas in this spreadsheet are accurate, however, I cannot guarantee that it is without errors. Consequently, by using this Gradebook+, you assume responsibility for ensuring that calculations are accurate. I cannot be held liable if errors occur in calculations.
Version 2 is also new, and it hasn’t been through the years of real-world use that version 1 had. Please check the numbers against your own math before you rely on them for a transcript, and if you find something wrong—or something confusing—please tell me about it.
As usual, I looked around the internet, and although I found some spreadsheet templates for keeping grades, none of them seemed to be a perfect fit for us. And so (surprise, surprise!) I made up a gradebook spreadsheet of my own.
I was actually very excited about how it turned out, because it morphed into more than just a gradebook, which is why I officially dubbed it Gradebook+ (version 1).
What you’re downloading here is actually version 2, a much improved version which I’ve rebuilt from the ground up.
What’s new in version 2
- Weights fix themselves. A category with no grades in it yet is left out of the average instead of counting as a zero, so the running grade is right from the very first assignment. In version 1 you had to manage that by hand.
- Quarters and semesters. One drop-down switches the whole workbook between Full Year, Semesters, and Quarters. Each course shows a grade per term as well as a final.
- The term fills itself in. Put the last day of each term on the Setup sheet, and every grade lands in the right term automatically from the date you enter. You can still pick a term by hand any time you need to.
- GPA on a 4.0 scale, credit weighted, right next to the percentage.
- Drop the lowest score in any category, per term. You set how many.
- Bonus and extra-credit points can be added to any term.
- Fifteen courses instead of twelve, and unused course sheets stay blank and are ignored everywhere rather than dragging the average down.
- A report card you can print for any single term, not just at the end of the year.
- Attendance uses real dates, shades weekends, and counts down to the number of days your state requires.
- v2.01: grade cells now catch a common typo—typing a score with a % sign (which Excel quietly turns into a fraction) is flagged right away instead of silently showing up as 0/F.
Here is what else is included in Gradebook+
- A Summary Overview of all the current grades in each course
- An adjustable grading scale and weighted grades
- Room for recording information about each course, such as the curriculum and resources used
- The ability to record up to 5 different types of grades (such as daily, quizzes, tests, etc.) with each type having a different weight if desired
- A printable Book List, Extra-Curricular Activities Report, and Field Trip List
- A printable Report Card and Course List that are automatically generated
- A Start Here sheet with detailed directions about how to use the spreadsheet
Which file do I want?
The .xlsx opens in Excel and in Google Sheets. The .ods opens in LibreOffice and OpenOffice. They’re the same workbook. If you use LibreOffice, download the .ods rather than the .xlsx, because LibreOffice changes some formatting when it imports an Excel file, and the .ods is built to avoid that.
Save a fresh copy for each student and each school year, and back it up often.
I also want to say a huge “Thank You” to my wonderful friends Jessica, Jen, and Lynn, who tested the original Gradebook+ with Excel and spent a lot of time helping me troubleshoot errors. I could not have created Gradebook+ without them.
I hope this can help other homeschoolers who have high schoolers to keep track of their grades and credits for their high school transcript as they prepare for college.