Class Options: Grade Scale
A grade scale is used to convert the percent on an assignment, a category average and the overall average to some meaningful label called a grade. For example, it may be used to convert a 98% to an A+.
A scale consists of one or more grades with a minimum or cutoff percent for each. Grades can be letters (A,B,C), words (Outstanding, Satisfactory) or numbers (4.00, 3.00). A class may have multiple grade scales. Each student is assigned the first grade scale but you can have different scales for different students. You can even assign scales to score categories in case you wish a category of assignments to always use a certain scale.
To edit scale options:
1 Open the Class Options window to the Scale view.
2 To view or edit a scale, first click on its row number. The grades and minimum percents will appear in the list to the right.
3 To create a new scale, click the New button. Type the name of the scale and then type the grades and minimum percents in the list to the right. The minimum percents must be in descending order and the last percent must be 0. Use the small blue arrows to insert or delete a row anywhere in a scale.
4 To duplicate or delete a scale, first click on its row number. Then click the appropriate button below the list.
5 The first grade scale in the list is the most important one because it is initially assigned to all students. To move a scale to the top position, press on its row number and drag.
6 To assign a scale to a student (other than the first scale), exit from the Class Options window and choose Students from the Chart menu. In the Grade Scale column, select a scale for the student.
7 To assign a scale to a score category (other than the student's scale), click the Category tab in the Class Options window and make your selection from the pop up menu after the category's name.
 

FAQ: What is grade-clicking? How does it work?
Easy Grade Pro allows you to enter scores by clicking on grade buttons in a process known as grade-clicking. You can also enter scores by typing grades if the 'Allow typing of Grades and Special Scores' option is on in the Gradebook Options window.

What score does a student get when an A+ or C+ is clicked or typed? The score is based on the grade-click value of the grade. The grade-click value for the top grade is always 100%. For other grades, it is the average percent for the grade. If an A+ is the top grade, the student will get a score that is equivalent to 100%. If a C+ ranges from 76% to 80%, the student will get a score that is equivalent to 78%.

Grade-click values are automatically set and editing is usually unnecessary. To edit them, click the blue arrow above the scroll bar on the right in the Scale view of the Class Options window.

FAQ: How do I set up my 5-point (or some other point) grading system? (Part 1)
The simplest way to do this is to set the maximum score on assignments to five and type the numbers one through five as scores into score cells.

Before you do this, be sure you understand how this will affect student percents: since a score of 1 out of 5 is a 20%, 2 out of 5 is a 40%, etc., students may have assignment and overall percents that are much lower than what is typically considered acceptable. To compensate for this, you can create a grade scale that looks something like this: +5 (90%), +4 (70%), +3 (50%), +2 (30%), +1 (10%) and +0 (0%). You will almost certainly want to hide percents in reports so you don't get questions from parents like "My daughter has a 49% and this is OK?". You might be wondering why we added the '+' before each grade -- this is so you can tell the difference between the number five and the grade of five onscreen and in reports -- grades and numbers are not the same!

The biggest drawback of this method is that, once set up, you must use it for every assignment in the class. Since a grade scale applies to a student, you don't want a situation in which a 50% is good on one assignment (grade of +3) but bad on another (grade of F).

This topic is continued in Part 2.