Calculating a Percentage Using an Absolute Reference  

To calculate a percentage, you need to divide each raw mark by the maximum total for each test and set the number format to percentage.  

You can use absolute referencing to “get” the total mark into a formula which calculates the percentage.  

An absolute reference fixes the exact address of a cell in a formula regardless of the position of the cell that contains the formula. An absolute cell reference takes the form $A$1 .  

Here is an example. You can find this starting document here.

Set up the formulas in both the percentage columns to automatically calculate the total percentage.  

1. In cell E8 enter the following formula = D8/$B$17 (make sure that you format the column E to percentage number format. Set the number of decimal places to 0). Notice the use of dollar sign in the formula which denotes an absolute reference to cell B17.