What is Extra Credit?
Extra credit allows you to mark any question in your activity as a bonus question. When a question is marked as extra credit, the points students earn on that question are added to their score, but the question's total possible points are not counted in the denominator. This means students can score above 100%!
Extra credit is a great way to reward students who go above and beyond, while keeping the base score fair for all students.
Example: You have an activity with 3 regular questions worth 10 points each (30 points total) and 1 extra credit question worth 5 points. A student who gets everything correct earns 35 points out of 30 possible — that's a score of 117%!
Opt-in to Early Access
Extra credit is currently in Early Access mode (i.e. not yet fully released to the product). Teachers who would like to experience this new feature will need to opt-in to Early Access, following the steps below:
Click on "My account" on the left-side menu
Proceed to choose "Settings" to navigate to your account settings page
Scroll to the bottom of the page and under "Early Access" - toggle on the button nest to 'Early Access'
Click "Save" to confirm
Now, Extra Credit will be available in your formatives!
Mark a question as extra credit
Open your activity in the Edit tab
Click on the question you want to mark as extra credit
Scroll down to the Settings area at the bottom of the question (you'll see toggles for options like Randomize Order, Show Your Work, etc.)
Find the "Extra credit" toggle and switch it on
That's it! The question is now marked as extra credit. You'll see an "Extra credit" tag appear in the question settings summary to confirm it's active.
When the Extra credit toggle is on, you'll see an Extra credit label in the collapsed question settings bar, making it easy to see at a glance which questions are bonus questions.
How does extra credit affect scoring?
When a question is marked as extra credit, it changes how the score is calculated:
Points earned on the extra credit question are added to the student's total points (the numerator)
Possible points from the extra credit question are NOT added to the total possible points (the denominator)
This means the student's score percentage can exceed 100%
Scoring example
Here's an example of how scores are calculated with extra credit:
Score calculation:
Total points earned: 10 + 8 + 5 = 23 points
Total possible points: 10 + 10 = 20 points (extra credit question excluded) Score: 23 / 20 = 115%
View extra credit in Responses
When viewing your activity's Responses tab, extra credit questions are scored just like regular questions. The key difference is in how the overall score is calculated — the extra credit points are included in the earned total but not in the possible total.
On the Responses tab, you'll see student scores that may exceed 100% if they answered extra credit questions correctly:
Which question types support extra credit?
Extra credit can be enabled on any question type that has a point value, including:
Multiple Choice
Short Answer
True/False
Numeric
Categorize
Resequence
And all other question types!
Note: Extra credit does not apply to questions worth 0 points. If a question has 0 points, toggling extra credit on will have no effect on scoring.
Turn off extra credit on a question
To remove extra credit from a question:
Open the question in the Edit tab
Scroll to the Settings area
Toggle the "Extra credit" switch off
When you turn off extra credit, the question will return to being a regular question. Its points will count toward the total possible points as normal, and any existing student answers will be recalculated accordingly.
Frequently asked questions
Can students see that a question is extra credit?
Students see and answer extra credit questions just like any other question. After submitting, they will see their score summary which may reflect a percentage above 100% if they earned extra credit points.
Can I have multiple extra credit questions in one activity?
Yes! You can mark as many questions as you'd like as extra credit. Each one will add to the student's earned points without increasing the total possible points.
What happens if ALL questions are extra credit?
If every question in an activity is marked as extra credit, the total possible points will be 0, so no meaningful score percentage can be calculated. We recommend always having at least one regular (non-extra-credit) question in your activity.
Does extra credit work with auto-grading?
Yes! Extra credit works with all grading methods — auto-graded questions, manually graded questions, and rubric-graded questions. The scoring logic applies the same way regardless of how the question is graded.
Will extra credit scores appear in reports and exports?
Yes. Extra credit is factored into all score calculations, including the Responses tab, Insights, and any exported data. Scores above 100% will be displayed wherever scores are shown.