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When someone gets a 98% score and complains about it, what do you call them?

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In American English this kind of person, one who is close to perfect but not quite and seeks those extra points, is called a

grade grubber

They are complaining in order to get those few extra points that, to everyone else, they don't really seem to need. It is a very light pejorative.

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  • Unless I'm mistaken, you can be a grade grubber even with a not so good score of 98%. And your goal is not necessarily 100%, you just want a better grade than your current one and try to convince your teacher about it. – Guru Jun 17 '20 at 14:54
  • @Guru Yes, exactly! – Mitch Jun 17 '20 at 16:02
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I would call a person who scores 98% on a test and complains about it a Type A personality. From Wikipedia:

Type A and Type B personality hypothesis describes two contrasting personality types. In this hypothesis, personalities that are more competitive, highly organized, ambitious, impatient, highly aware of time management and/or aggressive are labeled Type A, while more relaxed, less 'neurotic', 'frantic', 'explainable', personalities are labeled Type B.

The complaint arises mostly from a combination of (1) competitiveness, and (2) ambition with the high degree of organization required to achieve that ambition. While our someone may have scored 98%, members in her "peer group" may have scored higher. From her perspective, not good. Also, the ambition was to score 100%, not 98%. Not good enough.

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