This article reports the results of a classroom experiment on the effects of "extra credit pop quizzes" on course attendance, classroom participation, and successful course completion. In response to low and sporadic attendance and a high fail rate within the context of an English for Specific Academic Purposes (ESAP) course at an Italian university, an extra credit scheme was devised in an attempt to increase and stabilize attendance and participation and lower the fail rate. The aim was to accomplish these goals without augmenting learning objectives and assessment criteria, lowering educational standards, or causing grade inflation. The results indicate that such a reward scheme can improve regular attendance, active participation, and the overall pass rate for a course, without the common drawbacks associated with extra credit. There was however no indication of an increase in average performance and there is some doubt regarding the effect that attendance and pop quiz performance had on performance on end-of-course assessment. It also remains uncertain if the students were merely responding to the novelty of "extra credit" and "pop quizzes," which are not common practices in Italian higher education, and whether these effects could be sustained. Several other challenges, such as increased workload for the instructor and less individualized feedback for students, arose as a result of increased attendance.