<p>While I’m against extra credit in principle, it is more acceptable in some cases than others, imo. My physics teacher sometimes gives extra credit problems, but they are hard and really test one’s understanding of the material (to the extent that only people that were already getting high A’s could solve them) so this is acceptable in my mind. Some teachers indiscriminately give extra credit though and I think this is wrong. My economics teacher allows make-up tests and extra projects for people to boost their grades which I don’t consider fair. The extra credit is just free points and serves only to inflate grades.</p>
<p>@justacitygirl: Lol, I’ve honestly felt this way for years, but this year I finally grew a pair and decided to go through with it. I was tired of feeling like a hypocrite every time I brought up a libertarian view (like this one) and then got a 103% on a test due to EC.</p>
<p>But back on topic. I’ll reiterate my views: results are all that matter. I can respect you views, but I cannot agree with them because I don’t think that people should have any cushion. If you fail, your fault. I’ve failed several tests, but I didn’t go around asking for EC. I studied, worked hard, and ensured it didn’t happen again. That’s all there is to it. Work hard, and you will get results. If you don’t, that’s your choice, but you should have to live with it. EC should not be there as a safety net for you.</p>
<p>And for those people who are afraid to take AP courses, I’d say that everything is a risk. And if you aren’t willing to take the risk, then you won’t get anywhere. Nor does one deserve to, if they cannot take the first step. I wouldn’t be so sure these students will succeed in life; if they are unwilling to even take a step forward, their futures will result in conventional living and boredom. Nothing new; no success, no change. </p>
<p>Obsessing over grades isn’t the way to go, but one should have to take responsibility for his/her actions.</p>
<p>@RandomHSer: I agree with you. My AP Physics teacher does the same thing, and though I don’t accept EC for it, I don’t feel wronged by others choosing too. His problems really require thought and some creativity to solve. I love them lol.</p>
<p>The economics calls exemplifies everything that I find wrong with EC. It prevents students from taking responsibility for their actions, and hurts those with the ability to do well.</p>
<p>Yes when i made my comments i did not mean a pass/fail situation. Sorry if i implied that in any way. I meant more in the case of a difference between a B or an A. Or (in VERY rare cases-meaning a death or some crazy event happening.) C to B. Definitley NOT pass fail.
Plus, at my school you either get an A or a B. There is no + or - so if you get an 89.999999 doing your hardest work, that can bring your gpa down and no one will ever know that it was a borderline grade. In these cases, extra credit can really make a difference. I understand and respect your viewpoint though, and I get where you are coming from. I just disagree. 
I hope you understand where I am coming from.
Sent from my HTC One S using CC</p>
<p>@Pinkpoet: Regardless of the situation, whether it be Pass/Fail, A/B, or anything else, grade should be achieved on individual merit, not due to some assignment. As frustrating as an 89.9999 may be, it doesn’t merit a special assignment to bring that up to a 90. If you wanted a 90, you should have done better on the tests. </p>
<p>@halyconheather: Rights are a whole new category. Whether we deserve them is a different discussion. I personally believe we do, because they are the fundamentals of equality and freedom. However, these rights are “natural rights;” they are not to be given to people. In an ideal world, it would be implied that these rights are in existence (we are far from an ideal world). </p>
<p>But beyond those natural rights (life, liberty, property, pursuit of happiness; or in less vague terms, bill of rights), we have no right to anything else. I do not have a right to success. You don’t have a right to a grade. No one has a right to have extra credit. No one has a right to receive welfare checks. Rights are clearly defined but are limited to only personal freedoms, and that is how it should be; any rights that stretch beyond the personal sphere and attempt to enforce virtue take away from meritocracy.</p>
<p><em>read in a Shakespeare-type tone</em> Oh well. Life’s not fair, the world isn’t fair. Let us embrace the chance to receive extra points in our classes, so thou can be satisfied with life for the moment. At every turn in this world, we are without extra chances. Let us be coddled and passed through Kindergarten to 12th grade only to meet the real world, the world that will kill us with no extra points involved. End scene.</p>
<p>Been studying for my English exam too long, had to write something to break up this monotony of logicx proving his point.</p>
<p>I think EC isn’t unfair as long as you’re showing that you still understand the concepts and just didn’t study the EC to get extra points.
Of course, EC should never be too many points either.
Also, those that say “Life isn’t fair”
If life isn’t fair to everybody, wouldn’t that make life fair? Think about it.</p>
<p>Not everyone experiences the same amount or kind of unfairness. Unfairness can even go in your favor, but no one complains about it then. Some people see more of that type of unfairness than others.</p>
<p>I’ve seen extra credit assignments that are more participation, and assignments that are challenging and supplement the class well. For example, on a take-home math test, a question asked to explain the behavior of a certain graph. I ended up typing a one-page explanation with a color-coded replication of that graph attached, and my teacher awards me extra credit. I think that’s fair, since that demonstrates a thorough understanding of the concepts being tested. The question was not explicitly extra credit, and most people didn’t even receive full points for their answers, but I think that it works. It rewarded students who were not only willing to go above and beyond but also only those who deserved it. Randomly awarded extra credit (happens in this math class, which the students know, but is rare) is also especially effective because it forces students to work hard all of the time, not just for the one or two extra credit assignments.</p>
<p>I should also note that while there is a homework category in this math class, it consists of about only a few assignments because the district requires my teacher to have some kind of participation component in the grading. Even homework is checked for accuracy. Recommended problems are given and called homework but aren’t checked for completion. (I don’t do my “homework” ever :P) The rest of the grade comes from tests and quizzes, since there are no projects in math (usually). IMO, more classes should be like this…there isn’t any busy work because the students decide which problems they need to review in order to build their understanding, students who don’t need the homework problems to understand the content don’t have to do it, and students generally receive the scores they deserve.</p>
<p>So what do people think of points given for participation/contributing to class discussions? They’re not tests, and whether you’ve actually contributed something useful is pretty subjective, but giving a few points will get more people to talk in class.</p>
<p>@halyconheather: I think you already know what I’m going to respond to that. No. Absolutely not. If you have something to say, then you shouldn’t need points as an incentive.And if you don’t have anything to say, then keep your mouth shut. I personally don’t think we need everyone to talk, because pressuring people to participate or rewarding those who do simply dilutes the quality of class discussion. It takes away from those who actually want to speak.</p>
<p>@lindayay: I agree wholeheartedly with your description of the homework system.That’s how it should work.The EC thing…not so much. Just because you answered a question “better” than someone else did does not make your answer deserve more points. Each question is a certain number of points, and regardless of whether you answer the bare minimum or give copious amounts of info, the point value should be the same regardless. Why encourage extra, unneeded work, when the student has already shown understanding by getting the question right?</p>
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<p>Lol, I was just joking when I wrote that, it was after I spent 2 hours studying for my English exam so I was in the mindset.</p>
<p>“Each question is a certain number of points, and regardless of whether you answer the bare minimum or give copious amounts of info, the point value should be the same regardless.”</p>
<p>From what I’ve seen of non-inflated grading scales, “bare minimum but correct” gets a B for “good” and going above and beyond gets an A because it’s “excellent.”</p>
<p>For papers/work shown, I mean. “Prettier” work shouldn’t get a higher grade unless it’s an art class.</p>
<p>Not about extra credit, but what about when tests/classes have different numbers of points?
For example, if I miss two questions on a 50-point test, I get a 96%, an A.
But if I miss the same two questions for the same reason (i.e., not knowing or studying the right stuff) on a 15-point test, I end up with a 90%, a B.
Sure, you could say that the second person would always miss 10% of the points no matter how many there were, but that’s usually not the case in reality, and having fewer points accentuates people’s mistakes, probably more than it should. It’s difficult to get a grading system that’s truly fair.</p>
<p>@halyconheather: For math class, if the question is “What is the derivative of (4x+4)^3?,” and you write the answer, 12(4x+4)^2, but someone else writes the answer and an essay on the chain rule should they get more points? No they should not, because both of you have proved understanding and answered the question. Extra work != better grade.</p>
<p>For english, that changes of course, because the boundaries of an accurate answer are not as clearly defined. So yes, sometimes doing more work will give you more points because you answer the question “better” or “more directly.” But only in the humanities can this type of logic work, not in STEM, and definitely not in the situation I was referring to.</p>
<p>“someone else writes the answer and an essay on the chain rule should they get more points?”</p>
<p>No, of course not, because that’s not remotely what was asked for in the assignment. If I were I teacher I’d probably take off points and tell them to get a life. :)</p>
<p>I would, however, say that an essay on the chain rule probably demonstrates more understanding than someone who just memorized it and applied it. It’s way too easy to BS understanding in high school math classes. People just memorize a bunch of formulas, which I don’t think should be rewarded because that doesn’t help anyone later in life or demonstrate understanding/learning. Testing people on how well they can remember a derivative rule for 10 minutes before they forget it has no merit whatsoever. </p>
<p>My statement doesn’t apply as much to math…I’m thinking more of English/social studies papers than anything else. For example, if a teacher says “write a 7-10 page paper on such-and-such” and someone writes a good 7-page paper that has correct answers but is fairly simplistic in style and vocabulary, they should get a B in an ideal system where B actually means “good” like it’s supposed to and not “average to bad” like it does now because of grade inflation. And someone who wrote a 10-page paper that still answered the question but was <em>better</em> for whatever reason would get a A because it would be “excellent.”
This seems to be what is done by the teachers who are considered “hard graders” in my school.</p>
<p>In AP Physics, I got a free 100 test grade (we only have 2 tests per grading period) for correctly memorizing 50 physics equations, many of which we had not learned yet. I was the only one in my class to get the extra credit.</p>
<p>Everyone got the opportunity, but I was the only one that benefited. Is that unfair?</p>
<p>Ok I read only the first post mind you.</p>
<p>This is how I feel. I think Extra credit is a good thing. Just recently I got extra points for being very unique in Spanish class (everyone else used posters or a piece of paper.) The way I see it, extra credit presents you the opportunity to do more outside the normal coursework and in some cases thinking outside the box like I did. As for grade… hahahahaha! You got teachers showing bias to students. Especially with the new merit pay in effect.</p>
<p>Extra credit is not a “good thing.” It will never be a “good thing.” It is a way to give undeserved points to a student. No one cares if you “work hard” or a “conscientious student.” It’s about the results. And if you can’t produce results, then you have no business asking for extra credit, or anything of the sort. You don’t know the material; learn it, and do better next test, or fail. </p>
<p>The choice is yours.</p>
<p>But logicx, what about extra credit for knowing things that are already part of the curriculum?</p>