Creditable

I always include some sort of extra-credit question on exams.   They're not worth a heck of a lot, but they do require some thought, and can make up for some unfortunate boondoggling elsewhere.   The questions take one of two forms: 1) identify the work from a parody; 2) identify the author from the work (not read for class).  For obvious reasons, the second type requires much more effort, since the student must be able to recognize an author's stylistic quirks in order to respond.  This time around, I recycled an identification that had had virtually no takers when I put it on an exam three years ago, and added a not-so-subtle hint.  (Look! There's a major clue! Elsewhere on the exam!) The results were much better, but I don't know if I'll use it again. 

As an undergraduate, the best extra-credit question I ever saw came in a Chaucer course.  The professor, Stephen Barney, had edited Troilus and Criseyde for the Riverside Chaucer (which I see he has repurposed for Norton).   There I was, noodling my way through the exam, and...

"Who edited Troilus and Criseyde in the Riverside Chaucer?"

It was easy to pinpoint when a student stumbled across that question, thanks to the sudden cascade of giggles.  This may have been the only time when an exam made students jovial instead of glum--for a moment, anyway.  (Still, I suspect that anyone who missed that question--or failed to answer it, at least--might have been in trouble...) 

Comments

[Deb]

Reminds me of a story, possibly apocryphal, about a Ph.D. candidate (in the pre-internet days) who was asked on his orals about the color of the binding of one particular set of books (because there was only one set of the books available and, thus, he must have consulted them). The fast-thinking candidate responded, "I'm not sure, I'm color blind."

[Jonathan Dresner]

There's another, almost certainly apocryphal, story about a Japanese university exam -- Japanese university students are notorious for skipping class, buying lecture notes, and just showing up for the final -- which featured a selection of face pictures and the question "which one is the professor" as 50% of the final grade.

I don't always give extra credit -- though it's more common than not -- but the answers are usually very obvious for people who were present and awake.

[jkcohen]

Steve Barney was a wonderful professor -- rigorous and sympathetic at once. He helped me at an important point in my career. My one regret is that I never learned Old English at the level he expected of me.