<p>is the student under an obligation to alert the professor?</p>
<p>Ethically, or legally?</p>
<p>Personally, I would keep my mouth shut.</p>
<p>Maybe if the class was really important or if I was in the brink of failure</p>
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<p>Both? Although I’d be highly surprised if it were legally impermissible to keep quiet.</p>
<p>My general experience has been that teachers appreciate it if students bring it to their attention, but don’t consider it an obligation. I’m curious to see what others think.</p>
<p>Ethically, yes. Legally, no.</p>
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Whether a student is credited too much is subjective IMO. So the person in the scenario may think he or she is credited too much but the professor/TA may not have the same opinion, not aware, or are generous I guess.</p>
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I have heard one of my undergraduate professors and several of my grad student TA friends make fun of students who don’t keep the extra points. (Not in front of the student, of course.)</p>
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I was assuming that it was an obvious mistake, like points being added up incorrectly or a grade being misrecorded in the gradebook.</p>
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<p>In this case it happens to be clear, because the TA/prof (both of whom graded the exam) marked off a certain number of points as they went through the exam but then wrote a higher score on the front of the test.</p>
<p>It gets more complex for me at this point. I assume the score on the front is based on the number of points, a percentage or a letter grade. If the score is the number of points then it may be a mistake or either the TA/prof is generous for some reason. If it is either a percentage or letter than it is due to generosity or a curve. </p>
<p>Another way to consider it: Because two people went through the test, the score in the front was calculated through counting the points earned but someone miscalculated and gave more points than what the test-taker should have. So it could be a mistake. </p>
<p>Regardless, is the person’s semester grade is not badly affected should the extra credit not be considered for the exam score, the person may feel better by letting the professor know.</p>
<p>You pretty much always get to keep the points, in my experience… I’ve done this multiple times</p>
<p>One of those times, I actually later submitted my midterm for a regrade because there was another problem marked wrong that I did correctly (or rather used a different but valid method - it was combinatorics). I think it would have been awkward if when they went to add the points back in they found I had more than 100%. (I also ended up with an A+ in the class so it’s not like I was hurting for points)</p>
<p>On the other hand, if you write a terrible paper but still get a good grade just laugh and move on.</p>
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One of my professors says that if he accidentally gives a student more points than the student should have gotten, the student should not mention that to him, as that would be detrimental to the student’s grade.</p>
<p>I would–and have–reported it, but I have an extremely guilty conscious and like to sleep at night. 
I’ve never had a professor/teacher take back the points and most have said that they appreciated my honesty.As an instructor and TA (I’ve been both), I personally wouldn’t take back the points, fwiw, though I would be impressed with the integrity of a student who told me. YMMV.</p>
<p>That happened to me in Fluid Mechanics, a very difficult class. I was on the borderline between a B and an A. The prof added up points wrong and gave me a score about 7 or 8 points too high. I felt like I had to tell him. I was hoping he would say, “Don’t worry about it,” but he didn’t! I ended up with an A- in the class. I’m glad I did the right thing. You DO remember these situations, even many years later.</p>