How Grade Exemptions Affect Calculations

Grade exemptions affect any calculation that depends on the values of the constituent grade items.

Category scores that include exemptions

For category scores, grade exemptions affect the scores as follows:

• Exempted grade items are excluded from the calculation of category scores. The grade item is treated as though it does not exist within the category.
• In a category with drop rules, exempted items are removed before the specified number of grade items are dropped. Then, the category is calculated with the remaining items.
• If all the items in a category are exempted, there are no grade item scores to use in calculating a category score. In this case, the category does not have a score.
• In a weighted grade book, the exemption of a category item results in the remaining item weights not reaching 100%. Brightspace Learning Environment automatically scales the weights of the remaining items proportionally to each other.

Calculated grade items that include exemptions

For calculated grade item scores, grade exemptions affect the scores as follows:

• Exempted items are excluded from the calculated score.
• If all items in a calculated grade item are exempted, the item does not have a calculated score.

Final Grades that include exemptions

For final grade items, grade exemptions affect the scores as follows:

• Exempted items are excluded from the calculation. These grade items are treated as empty grades, not as 0.
• If all items are exempted, there are no grades to use to calculate a final grade. The final grade will not have a score.

Formula grade items that include exemptions

For formula grade items, grade exemptions affect the scores as follows:

• Formulas treat exemptions as empty (null) grades; however, the Treat Ungraded Items as 0 setting is ignored. If a learner is exempted from a grade, then the exemption and its cascading results are treated as null.
• If a formula grade item used in another formula and the former is empty (null), then it is treated as though it were exempted during the formula calculation.

The following table describes the updated evaluation rules for formulas: