By Karen Phan
Extra credit varies among teachers; some offer it at the expense of their students, and others strictly adhere to their no extra credit policies. While extra credit has its benefits, it should not be offered.
Many students don’t hesitate to complete extra credit assignments to cushion or boost their grades. Some may also take advantage of extra credit to save them in the end, when they put minimal effort into the class to begin with. Whatever the reason may be, students essentially prioritize their grades over learning.
It’s true that grades seldom take into account the student as a whole, but they are the most accurate reflection of a student’s academic performance and need to be as true as possible. Extra credit does the exact opposite by inflating grades, thus making them inaccurate measures of student progress and mastery.
Students’ grades may also increase drastically, perhaps to the point where it is unfair to others who put forth all of their effort. This is because extra credit is offered frequently and has a large point value. As a result, students may become reliant on extra credit and put in minimal effort, then end up with a final grade that they do not deserve.
But, extra credit assignments typically have little point value. They boost grades slightly, and some may argue that small extra credit assignments do little harm. However, there really is no point in extra credit when it boosts a grade a tenth of a percent.
As previously mentioned, extra credit is unfair to students. Some students have many extracurriculars, jobs or other commitments and simply do not have the time to do extra work. It is also unfair to students who are doing well, because they may end up with the same grade as someone who did loads of extra credit and slacked off all semester.
Many extra credit assignments also have little correlation with the class or learning material. For example, computer science students are wasting their time when they go to a sports game for extra credit because they’re not learning anything relevant to the class.
When we fall short, we may not get second chances. As young adults, we need to begin to be responsible for ourselves, accept the consequences and find an effective solution or learn from our mistakes. In the situation where a student’s final grade is 89.94%, it is better for them to discuss with their teacher about rounding up instead of asking for extra credit.
It is important to recognize that extra credit is unfair to all students in many aspects, and promotes the idea that we’ll probably get second chances to make up for our mistakes. Extra credit does not need to be part of the picture; students simply need to put forth effort to succeed.
