<p>My daughter, a HS Junior, just tallied her AP Lit semester scores and finds she will miss an A by 10 points out of 1200. I had tried to emphasize throughout the year that the little assignments that were often neglected/forgotten could make a big difference in the end, and now we have the depressing proof of that. Does anyone have a similar experience, and would it be inappropriate to ask the teacher for the opportunity to gain the missing points through extra credit etc.?</p>
<p>I know many kids who have asked. I’m personally against offering extra credit. In many cases the extra credit has little to do with the actual required content of the class.</p>
<p>If this is something that matters <em>to your daughter</em> and she wants to try, I don’t see what the harm is. The teacher can always say no. He might think it’s great she wants to put in the extra effort to boost the grade up to an A or on the other hand say, well, you should have thought of that sooner, but if she doesn’t ask she’ll never know. </p>
<p>Sometimes we make mistakes in life. Quite often it is what we do <em>after</em> we make the mistake that makes all the difference.</p>
<p>It would be inappropriate for YOU as the parent to ask. Your daughter can ask, as Deborah T has stated.</p>
<p>Some teachers tell their students from the start that they do not give extra credit under any circumstances. If this teacher has that policy and has not posted final grades, your daughter might want to weigh the benefit vs. risk as asking for something that has already been specifically stated as not allowed.</p>
<p>Olderwisermom nailed it.</p>
<p>Thanks for the great replies! I should have made clear that it is my daughter’s idea to ask for the extra credit. The teacher had a policy of offering 5 points extra credit to kids who donated their annotated novels once they were finished. My daughter wanted to keep all of her novels, so she didn’t participate. However, under the circumstances, she is willing to part with them. We’ve never encouraged grade groveling, but in this case I said I didn’t think it could hurt to ask.</p>
<p>I don’t think there’s anything wrong with your daughter asking, UNLESS the teacher has a stated policy of not offering extra credit. If the teacher has been clear all along that extra credit is not available, I don’t think it would be appropriate to ask. Otherwise, I don’t see the harm - the teacher can either say yes or no. Some teachers might also be inclined to round for that small a difference. At my kids’ school, teachers who offer extra credit rarely round, no matter how close, and those who don’t are more likely to round.</p>
<p>I am with Erin’s Dad on this one. If I had a $1 for everytime I heard the question “do you think I can get some extra credit?” </p>
<p>I am against extra credit assignments (and unless there are some really extenuating circumstances, I do not advocate on my students behalf for them getting extra credit) because if you are doing what you are supposed to be doing in class, you will not need extra credit. It is essentially “rewarding” students for not doing what they should have done the first time. </p>
<p>Op’s daughter is missing getting an A by her own hand because of the little assignments that were neglected/forgotten . This behavior should not be rewarded because it is unfair to the students who turned in all of the assignments and turned them in on time.</p>
<p>In my eyes giving extra credit would only be fair if the entire class had the same opportunity to get the extra credit.</p>
<p>stepping down from soapbox.</p>
<p>Most of S2’s teachers don’t give extra credit but there are times that they will still allow a missing assignment to be turned in for a portion of the credit. So maybe it’s a matter of using different terminology.</p>
<p>I would not exactly say it comes off as tacky as much as grade grubbing (especially at the end of the term, where there was more than ample time to get this resolved).</p>
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Personally, I’d use this as a great teaching moment. Let her suffer the consequences of her actions and she won’t repeat them. Teach her that she doesn’t have to follow rules and she’ll try this next time too. This is not a life and death matter and she’ll learn far more by suffering this one time.</p>
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<p>cbug, yes, I was thinking along these lines too.</p>
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<p>Some kids have <em>very</em> heavy schedules these days with a mega AP load, etc. We don’t know the OP’s daughter’s situation. She may have been really bogged down. 10 out of 1200 is really close and an extra push might do it. Calling it grade grubbing because a kid is right on the border and would like to push it up over the top? Harsh. It’s not like the OP’s kid had such a poor grade to begin with. She’s close and might just have been really busy and thought she was okay in that class. I do agree with others, though, if the teacher has a clearly laid out no extra credit policy, then that’s the way it is. </p>
<p>Also, for the poster who uses the term grade grubbing, do you call it the same thing if a kid takes the SAT more than once for a higher superscore? Just curious. My child only took the SAT once, btw.</p>
<p>Now if it’s mom who is really the one with the concern about this class… Well, that’s another matter.</p>
<p>i doubt it’s that big of a deal either way. it’s a b+, right? fairly respectable! ask if only for peace of mind – i don’t have any moral objections to extra credit as long as the asker realizes that it’s a gift and not an obligation on the teacher’s part and that if the answer is “no” to accept with dignity (no whining, arguing, etc)</p>
<p>My son’s high school had a blanket policy forbidding extra credit assignments because the the cans of worms they can open.</p>
<p>Would the extra credit assignment be available to all students in the class? It would not be fair for it to be offered to the OP’s student only, as there are other likely other students on the cusp between grades.</p>
<p>And if a teacher in one class offers extra credit, what about students in other classes–AP or otherwise–in which teachers do not offer extra credit? </p>
<p>What if Ms. A offers extra credit to the students in AP French and Mr.Z in AP Spanish does not?</p>
<p>A good number of students in Mr.Z’s class could be adversely affected because they might be stuck with the non-optimal grades–and class ranks as well as gpa’s would suffer relative to the lucky kids in Ms. A’s class who are given a chance to bump up their grades.</p>
<p>It’s not just one kid who might get the benefit…if there are 5 or 6 kids in each of the two classes who are getting approximately the same grades (as happens with smart kids in advanced level classes), the Kids in Ms. A’s class all could move ahead of all the kids in Mr. Z’s class just because of extra credit bumping up the grades</p>
<p>My boys’ high school didn’t want to deal with constant “issues” from parents and did away with extra credit years ago…kids get the grades they earn, and assignments were spelled out in the syllabus at the beginning of each semester.</p>
<p>This seems like textbook grade grubbing to me, especially since the child will be asking for something that, presumably, will not be offered to the rest of the class/school. Obviously I am no expert, and certainly no authority, on the definition, but this is pretty much what I have come to understand the term to mean.</p>
<p>With that said though, so long as there are no rules being broken, who cares? What can the teacher do besides say “no”? If it is a matter of guilt because it seems unfair, well, it is unfair. You can rationalize it if you like, I doubt there is a shortage of grade grubbing amongst your child’s classmates, it seems to be quite common. But that is a personal matter for you and your child. </p>
<p>As far as teaching the child a lesson goes, it depends on which lesson you want to teach. ‘Grade’ grubbing does not go away in the real world, which is not fair either.</p>
<p>PS</p>
<p>just saw the post by boysx3, every high school should be so wise in their extra-credit policy…</p>
<p>My kid is not a candidate for valedictorian because of .50 of a grade point from a class she took in her freshman year. At the time, she was devastated, cried, etc. but decided to accept it. Fast forward to the junior year. She now says if she knew then what she knows now, she would’ve at least gone to talk to the teacher. </p>
<p>She might or might not have been allowed extra credit. She’ll always wonder. Some things in life are negotiable - lesson learned.</p>
<p>I agree, no harm in trying. Just make sure that your daugher is respectful and that there is no expectation that it will be offerred. Remember, asking for extra credit is a favor and do not get angry if the teacher says no.</p>
<p>I don’t really know how this is “unfair.” If your student takes the initiative to ask and is rewarded extra credit, that’s fine. I’m sure if other students took the same initiative they would be rewarded the same opportunities as your daughter. </p>
<p>When I was in high school, I bombed a physics test and approached the teacher to ask if there was anything I could do to fix my grade. After I took another test for partial credit, she told me that about half of the class had failed the test, but since I was the only one who took responsibility for my grade, I would be the only one receiving the partial credit opportunity (unless someone else did what I had done.) </p>
<p>If your daughter never takes the initiative and tries, she will never know. The worst that can happen is that she’ll be denied extra credit. Might as well try and see!</p>
<p>Reading these responses is like listening to the dialogue in my own head. One side knows it is indeed grade grubbing and should be discouraged, the other side knows that the upside of asking holds no bad consequences but the downside might mean a GPA that falls below some mysterious cutoff. She is not asking for credit that was not offered to everyone, but it would be a late action on the credit.</p>
<p>Some teachers like to see the willingness to put in the extra work, others do’t. There is no harm in your DD asking.</p>