> I expect them to not make excuses for getting the wrong answers. Ok. Do you think it would be good to fire all the professors who made more than zero mistak

> I expect them to not make excuses for getting the wrong answers. Ok. Do you think it would be good to fire all the professors who made more than zero mistakes on the quiz? I agree that mistakes are bad. I don't think all policies of the form "inflict punishments on people who make mistakes" are a good idea. It's easier to fix stupid mistakes on homework, when you have plenty of time and can consult the textbook and such. Therefore, if, as I advocate, students are permitted to base their grade solely on test scores, then, to the extent that they do this, this will actually increase the degree to which students are punished for stupid mistakes. So if you hate mistakes that much, you should support such a policy and encourage students to make that choice. I submit that, at least for seriously-sized tests (like a final, usually at least an hour long), for a student to become practiced enough to expect to get a perfect score, with enough confidence to make it worth jeopardizing their grade if they did make a single mistake, is a difficult enough task that almost no one would do it. Therefore, the "perfect score on test => homework doesn't matter" would do very little to incentivize students to take the "tests-only, harsh punishment for mistakes" option. Therefore, my proposed "anyone can choose tests-only" option is better. You didn't clarify whether "ace a test" meant "perfect" or just "really good score". I'm now guessing it's the latter. That is much more achievable, and certainly would have covered most of the scenarios I'm thinking of.