Extra Credit Points

Should I stop providing extra credit assignments for my students?

It's not that I mind grading the extra work. I actually enjoy it.  Nor is there a lack of students with the ambition to work for the extra points. There always are.

The issue is WHO is completing these extra credit exercises and WHY.  One would think that the failing or near failing student with the 55% in the class would jump at the opportunity to lift his / her grade to a passing score.  Not so.

In my experience, it is the A-student, that's right, the A-STUDENT that routinely juices her grade with extra credit points.  The D-students, and failing students (i.e the students that REALLY need the extra credit points) seldom ask for extra credit work. At first, this phenomenon seemed strange to me until I really thought about it from the A-student's perspective.  The A-student wants to build in a buffer to be sure she maintains the grade she has worked so hard for during the semester.  An "insurance policy" so to speak on her previous work.  The failing student, however,  is often failing,  not do to lack of BRAINS, but lack of effort.  In other words, an A-student is often an A-student because she is willing to do the things a failing student is NOT willing to do--including extra credit.

But it gets stranger.  The A-student who completes her extra credit assignments invariably tallies her total points near semester end, and makes a very rational but very disheartening (disheartening to me that is) calculation:  do I have enough REGULAR points plus EXTRA CREDIT points to NOT study for the final exam?  In other words...can I FAIL THE FINAL EXAM and STILL GET AN "A" IN THE CLASS?  The answer is often a rational but disheartening "YES."

So let me summarize:  1)  I provide extra credit so that... 2)  I take time to grade the extra credit from the A-students that do it so that...3)  The A-students who don't need the extra credit have the opportunity to intentionally FAIL the final exam and still receive an "A" in the class.

Like I asked before...are my extra credit assignments a good thing?


I think the example of A-students completing extra credit assignments when they don't need to is instructive.  I think it demonstrates that those who operate at the highest level---whether as a student, an employee, manager, athlete...or as a parent, succeed not just because of brains or talent, but the willingness to do the things that most others are UN-willing to do. Things that make us work more, discipline ourselves more, smile more, volunteer more....care more.

As we head into another week,  I say we ask ourselves what "extra credit" are we committed to doing?  The extra credit required to get that promotion at work, earn that "A" in class, that personal record on the track...or re-build that relationship with that parent.  What efforts are we willing to expend to get there--efforts that may exhaust us--even humble us-- but also provide our careers and lives with meaning--the meaning derived only from giving our very best and making a difference.

AMJ