Melissa, I know this practice as "bundled questions". Usually essay in nature, a given essay question may have, say, 4 points, but only 3 are counted. In this process, an entire exam may have a total of 220 points, but a score of 200 points would earn a student an "A". In this example, the student is being given the opportunity to potentially earn 20 bonus points. The benefit is a student is being prompted to share how much of a question topic they have learned. In the sense we want to measure learning there is merit in the process I've described. In the sense of extra credit, one could argue "what about the information not answered (correctly) contained in the 20 bonus questions. Shouldn't the student know all of the required information? And if not, shouldn't their grade reflect that deficiency? Any instructor or intitution that conducts this or a similar practice has to decide what they consider fair. Barry Westling