Semester Credit Planner
The most your institution lets you register for at once.
Credits to take each term
18.75
4 whole terms fit between those two dates
- Still to earn75 credits
- Courses a term at that rate1.25
- Soonest finish at the ceiling2 terms
Move a course in or out of this term
Try -1 for dropping one course, or 1 for picking one up.
- Change to this term−15 credits
- This term becomes3.8 credits
- Every later term becomes23.8 credits
- Or keep the old rate and finish1 term later
Credits are counted in whatever unit your handbook prints — ECTS, semester hours, CATS points, units. The tool never converts between them, so keep every figure above in one system. Terms are assumed to be spread evenly through the year and only whole ones are counted, because a term that is half over is not a term you can register a course in.
This is arithmetic, not an academic record. Progression rules, prerequisite chains, compulsory modules, credit transfer caps and the number of times a course actually runs will all constrain a plan in ways no calculator can see. Take the number to whoever signs your registration off.
Two ways of being behind, and they need different answers
Falling behind on a degree is really two separate problems wearing the same face. Either the finishing date is fixed — funding runs out, a visa expires, a job starts in September — and the load per term has to move; or the load is fixed by what you can actually carry, and the finishing date has to move. Almost every conversation about credits goes wrong because one person is holding the date still while the other is holding the workload still.
The planner does the division both ways and shows both. Credits still to earn, divided by whole terms left, gives the rate that meets the date. The same shortfall divided by the rate you can sustain gives the number of terms it really takes. Where the two disagree, the disagreement is the plan.
A worked example over four semesters
Take an award of 120 credits with 45 already banked, two semesters a year, and a deadline two years out. Four whole semesters fit, so 75 remaining credits become 18.75 a semester — one and a quarter courses at 15 credits each, which is not a thing you can register for. Rounding up to two courses in some terms and one in others is the real plan, and seeing the fractional figure is what tells you the rounding is unavoidable.
Push the deadline back by a single semester and the rate drops to 15. Pull it forward by one and it climbs to 25, which is above many institutions’ registration ceiling. The rate is far more sensitive to the date than people expect, which is why the date belongs in the calculation rather than in the back of your mind.
What dropping one course actually costs
Dropping a course feels like removing work. It removes it from this term only. Those credits do not disappear from the award, so they land somewhere later, and the tool prices both destinations: the higher rate every remaining term has to carry if the date holds, or the extra terms needed if the rate holds. Adding a course works identically in reverse, and the same figure tells you whether the overload is worth what it buys.
The unwelcome case is the one where redistributing pushes every later term past the registration ceiling. At that point the deadline is no longer reachable by working harder later, and it is better to know in week two than in the final year.
A credit is not a universal unit
ECTS credits, US semester hours, UK CATS points and whatever your handbook calls its own units are different quantities with different sizes, and the conventional conversions between them are approximations that institutions apply case by case. Nothing here converts between systems: put every figure in on the same footing and the arithmetic holds, mix them and it silently does not.
The same caution applies to terms. Real academic years are not evenly spaced, so only whole terms between the two dates are counted — a term already half over is not one you can register a new course into.
Credit systems, part terms and resits
Which credit system should I type in?
Whichever one your own handbook prints, used consistently for all four figures. The tool treats credits as a plain quantity and never converts between ECTS, semester hours or CATS points, so a plan mixing two systems will produce a confident answer that means nothing.
Why does it ignore the part term at the end?
Because you cannot enrol in a term that has already started running, and counting it would flatter the plan by exactly one term. Whole terms between the two dates is the conservative reading, and it is the one that matches how registration deadlines actually work.
What should I put as the ceiling on credits per term?
The maximum your institution will let you register for in one term, which is usually in the academic regulations rather than the prospectus. It is what turns an impossible deadline into a visible one, so leaving it out removes the most useful warning the tool can give.
Do failed and resat courses count towards the total?
Only if your institution awards the credit on the resit, and the rules for that vary enormously — some cap the mark, some cap the number of attempts, some require the whole year to be repeated. Count credits you have actually been awarded, and ask your registry about anything outstanding.