Every now and then students reach rough patches in school where their grades, which were once As and Bs, drop to Cs and Ds.

In order to redeem themselves, they seek out extra credit opportunities. Some teachers at Fenwick are very generous with extra credit opportunities, and others, not so much. For those who do in fact offer extra credit, the credit does not come easily. In fact, some students need to work especially hard on extra credit assignments to gain full credit. So students then ask the question: Is extra credit truly worth the effort? Fenwick students have a variety of extra credit opportunities, such as how Italian Honors II students had to watch an Italian movie showing at a certain theater during the Italian Film Festival and then write a paper about it in Italian. This extra credit assignment was worth a total of 10 homework points. Some students did this assignment multiple times with different movies to see an increase in their overall grade in the class. One Theology class was given the opportunity to write an analysis after watching a woman’s empowerment lecture about morality on YouTube. Other students have had easier opportunities for extra credit, like how most teachers offer one point extra credit for student that bring in tissue boxes.

While extra credit opportunities vary from different forms of difficulty, it is very important that opportunities be given. Junior Rose Fagiolo claims, “It [extra credit] shows the teacher you care about the class and think about the future.” Grades form the structure of a GPA, which can change college opportunities. If grades fall lower than usual, it is important that students have a chance to raise their grades back up to where they once were. Junior Cameron Estes’ commented, “Extra credit is important because it gives a chance for many who are struggling to make their grades look good for college applications.” Therefore, extra credit is meant to help benefit students, especially when it comes to college applications and their GPA.

Extra Credit can be useful in different ways for different people. If there is a student with a high A, he/she may not need extra credit per se, but someone with a low B may need it. Therefore, every teacher should offer extra credit, and it is worth it because every student will have a different learning style and may need an extra boost.