McGraw Hill Connect homework: how assignments work

How does McGraw Hill Connect homework work?

Connect homework is a set of assignments your instructor builds in McGraw Hill Connect. McGraw Hill’s student guide says your list of assignments is “in the middle of your course home page,” that “Connect offers a variety of assignment types,” and that “your instructor has set specific policies for each assignment type.” Many courses open Connect from a link in Canvas or another LMS; others give you a course URL to register with.

To see an assignment’s policies, click the arrow at the end of its line. The guide is direct about why: “Some assignments, for example, only allow a limited number of attempts or have a time limit, so be careful before jumping in!” When you are ready, click Begin.

Inside the assignment, any resources your instructor allows are “located on the left side of the page and under the question,” and a references icon explains the question type. SmartBook is a separate, adaptive assignment type with its own grading rules, covered in How is SmartBook graded?

Does Save & Exit submit a Connect assignment?

Not reliably. McGraw Hill’s Connect Tips & FAQs tells students to “click on Submit on the top right hand corner of the assignment & not Save and Exit as this may not submit your assignment.” The student guide gives the order: “When you have completed the assignment, click the Submit button.” Once it is submitted, click Exit.

Save & Exit is still useful on an untimed assignment. The guide says that if it is not timed, “you may click Save and Exit at any time to save your work and return to it later.” On a timed assignment it buys you nothing: “the clock will still run even if you choose to Save and Exit.” The Tips page adds that “there is no way to stop the timer and your assignment may auto submit when the time expires.”

Does Connect submit automatically at the due date?

Only if your instructor turned it on. McGraw Hill’s instructor article explains how to make Connect “automatically submit any student "in progress" assignments at the due date”: the instructor checks “the automatically submit assignment on due date check box located under Set late submission policy.”

So an assignment you started and never submitted can go one of two ways at the deadline. With auto-submit on, Connect turns in what you have. With it off, work you only saved may not count as submitted. If your syllabus doesn’t say which applies, submit before the deadline and don’t count on either.

Why can’t I open my Connect assignment?

McGraw Hill’s “Can’t Access Assignment” article lists four reasons. Find yours:

If none of those fit, the problem is probably technical. The fixes are further down this page.

Can I get an extension on a Connect assignment?

Only from your instructor. McGraw Hill’s Assignment Extensions guide shows instructors how to “manage extensions” for a student, changing the due date, time limit or number of attempts, and says students then “see the extension parameters adjacent to the assignment.” If you have already used every attempt, the same guide tells your instructor to allow more attempts as part of the extension.

Ask before the due date if you can, and say which assignment and what you need: more time, a later due date or another attempt. On SmartBook, an extension granted after the due date needs one more step from you, covered under scores below.

Why is my Connect score not what I expected?

McGraw Hill’s “Score not what you expected?” article gives four reasons:

• It isn’t graded yet. “Your instructor might not have graded your assignment yet.” An orange flag on your assignment results report shows this.
• A late penalty. Your instructor may have a policy that “reduces your score a certain percentage depending on how late it was submitted,” counted in hours or days.
• SmartBook work after the due date. You can keep working, but “your score will ONLY reflect the progress you made up until the due date.” If you get an extension afterward, open the SmartBook assignment again so the score updates.
• Canvas shows a different number. If Connect and your school’s LMS disagree, your instructor may need to “run a manual synchronization to have the score updated.”

Check these before you use another attempt. A redo spends an attempt and won’t fix a pending grade or a sync gap. If you think a question itself was scored wrong, McGraw Hill’s advice is to “check with your instructor first and your instructor can submit any content or scoring related errors.”

How is Connect accounting homework different?

Accounting is where Connect homework looks least like a quiz. It is full of spreadsheet-style grids: account dropdowns, debit and credit columns and totals, often spread across several requirement tabs. A few habits save points on grids:

• Check each cell after you enter it. A value that didn’t register looks a lot like an empty cell at a glance.
• Open every requirement tab before you submit. A grid on a tab you never opened is still part of the assignment.
• Pick accounts by their exact names in the dropdown, and check the totals row against your entries before you move on.

The rules above still apply: attempts, timers and late penalties work the same way on an accounting assignment as on any other. Why a posted list of Connect answers rarely matches your version of a problem is in our guide Is there a McGraw Hill Connect answer key?

Accounting courses built on a Cambridge Business Publishers textbook use a different platform; see the My Business Course answer key and login page.

Connect assignment not loading? Try these fixes

McGraw Hill’s Tips page and its Technical Support Troubleshooting article suggest these steps:

1. Don’t use your browser’s Back and Forward buttons, or two browser tabs, while you work. The Tips page warns against both.
2. Refresh the page. If you see “Sorry! There has been an error. Please try again.” and it keeps coming back, contact McGraw Hill support.
3. Clear your browsing data, including history and cookies, or try a private window (Incognito in Chrome).
4. Allow pop-ups. In Chrome, make sure “Block third-party cookies” is not selected. In Safari on a Mac, turn off “Prevent cross-site tracking” and “Block all cookies,” then quit and reopen Safari.
5. Turn off browser extensions for a test. McGraw Hill notes that “Internet Browser Extensions can interfere with our digital products.”
6. Update your browser, or switch to another supported one: Chrome, Firefox, Edge or Safari.
7. Check status.mheducation.com, McGraw Hill’s platform status page, in case the problem is on its side.

If it still fails, McGraw Hill asks for a screenshot of your system information from its platform system check, with the date and time visible, when you contact support.

Where to get help with McGraw Hill homework

McGraw Hill lists tech support by email and live chat 24 hours a day Monday to Thursday, with shorter hours Friday to Sunday, and phone support from 8:00 AM to 1:00 AM ET Monday to Thursday. Your eBook opens from Read under your course materials, or at myebooks.mheducation.com. McGraw Hill also says Connect “includes AI-powered tools to support students in working through challenges.”

Not ready to pay? Connect is usually paid, through an access code or a purchase on McGraw Hill’s site; how each option works is in McGraw Hill Connect access code and 14-day temporary access. Connect’s Temporary Access lets students use a course “for 14 days without an access code or purchasing access online.” The 14 days start on the day you register, and “any work you complete during the 14-day free access period will be saved when you officially register for the course,” as long as you use the same email. McGraw Hill says most Connect access codes give 180 days of access. Refund requests for digital products bought directly from McGraw Hill go through its online form; anything bought from a bookstore goes back to the place of purchase.

Is there an AI that does McGraw Hill Connect homework?

Several tools say they can, and McGraw Hill’s own rules come first. McGraw Hill’s Terms of Use, last updated October 16, 2026, bar using any “agent, robot, spider, or other automatic device or program” to access its services. They also bar letting third-party software, including an “AI agent,” an “AI-enabled browser” or a “browser extension,” act for you, including to “view, complete, answer, or submit any assessment, assignment, or other activity.” McGraw Hill says it may suspend or terminate an account. Your school’s academic-integrity policy applies on top of that.

Silent Student, which we make, is one of those tools. It is a desktop app for Mac and Windows that opens Connect homework from your Canvas course, answers each question in Connect’s assignment player, fills accounting grids cell by cell, presses Submit and looks for Connect’s confirmation. It runs on our general screen-reading agent, which is less predictable than a solver written for one platform, and it does not take proctored exams. In our reading, McGraw Hill’s Terms reach it, so read them before you decide. Plans are $11.99, $24.99 and $49.99 a month, with no free plan. The details, including our replica test, are on our McGraw Hill Connect bot page, and the other options are compared in Best AI for McGraw Hill Connect. For SmartBook assignments, see the McGraw Hill SmartBook bot page.

Sources

Every quotation on this page was checked against its source on October 20, 2026.

• McGraw Hill, Completing Assignments - Student (PDF)
• McGraw Hill support, Connect - Tips & FAQs
• McGraw Hill support, Connect - Auto Submit In Progress Assignments on Due Date
• McGraw Hill support, Connect - Can’t Access Assignment
• McGraw Hill support, Connect - Score not what you expected?
• McGraw Hill support, Connect - Assignment Extensions
• McGraw Hill support, Technical Support Troubleshooting
• McGraw Hill support, Connect - Temporary Access
• McGraw Hill support, Connect Access Code and Purchase FAQ
• McGraw Hill, Connect Student Support (hours and contacts)
• McGraw Hill support, Refund Requests for Product Purchases
• McGraw Hill, AI-Powered Learning Tools for Student Success
• McGraw Hill Terms of Use (last updated October 16, 2026)