Find the weight of an assignment in your grade.
An assignment's weight is its share of the course's total points, not its own point value. Fifty points sounds substantial until you learn the course totals eight hundred — that is a 6.25% weight, so even a zero costs you barely six points of final grade. The contribution figure converts your expected score into the final-grade percentage points the assignment actually delivers, and the forfeited figure is the remainder still on the table. Those two numbers together are what should drive how much time an assignment gets.
Assignment weight
Weight % = assignment points / total course points x 100; delivered = weight x score %
Add every graded item on the syllabus — assignments, quizzes, midterms and the final. If the syllabus lists category weights (for example 40% homework) instead of points, the category weight already is the weight and you can enter 100 as the course total.
Weight sets the ceiling on how much an assignment can move your grade, so it is the right first filter. But the forfeited-points figure matters too: a 30% assignment you already expect to ace has less room to gain than a 12% one you would otherwise fail.
Enter the category weight as the assignment points and 100 as the course points, then divide by the number of equally weighted items in that category to get one item's weight.