Attendance Rate Calculator
Your attendance percentage, how many more classes you can miss and still meet a requirement, and how many you must attend to recover.
Attendance is sessions attended over sessions held.
How the attendance rate calculator works
Attendance is sessions attended over sessions held. The two useful questions are forward-looking: how many of the remaining sessions can I miss, and if I am already below the line, how many must I attend to climb back over it.
The second is the one that surprises people, because recovering from below a threshold takes far more attendance than the shortfall suggests — every missed session raises the denominator as well as failing to raise the numerator.
Formula: rate = attended / held; can miss = attended + remaining − required × total
Worked examples
| Inputs | Attendance so far | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 32 of 40, 20 to go, 80% required | 80% | must attend 16 more |
| Well behind | 37.5% | no longer possible |
| A lower requirement | 80% | plenty of room |
FAQFrequently asked questions
How is attendance calculated?
Sessions attended divided by sessions held, as a percentage. Most institutions count the whole course, not the term to date.
How many classes can I miss?
It depends on the total, not the percentage. At 80% required over 60 sessions you can miss 12 in all — the calculator subtracts what you have already used.
Why is recovering so hard?
Because each missed session both fails to add to the numerator and adds to the denominator. The damage compounds.
What counts as a session?
Whatever your institution counts — usually timetabled contact hours. Check whether lectures and tutorials are weighted differently.
Does a medical certificate help?
Usually the session is excluded from the denominator rather than counted as attended, which is a better outcome. Check your own rules.
Where these figures come from
- Brysbaert (2019), Journal of Memory and Language — How many words do we read per minute? — the 238 wpm silent reading rate, from 190 studies
- Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency — the Australian higher education regulator
Last checked: September 2026. Reading and writing rates are from published meta-analyses, cited on the page.