How many attempts do you get on MyLab Math, and is there partial credit?

Usually three per step. Pearson’s homework help says: “A question is complete when you answer correctly or when you have used the number of tries allowed (usually three) for each step in the question. Before your last try, the Check Answer button changes to Final Check.” Its player guide puts it the same way: “In most courses, the player gives you three chances to answer the question before it tells you the answer.”

The count is per step, so a question with three parts can give you three tries on each part. Pearson’s instructor help shows where the number comes from: an instructor can “set the number of tries per part of a question,” and that setting “does not affect the number of times that students can attempt the entire question.” If your course shows a different number, your instructor changed it.

Your score moves as you go: “Your score is automatically updated in your instructor’s Gradebook each time you complete a question.” You do not have to finish in one sitting. The Homework Overview help says you can begin an assignment and return to it as many times as you want until the due date. An idle player times out after about 60 minutes and saves your work.

It can. After you check an answer, you can click Similar Exercise or Try Again “to practice the same question with different values,” and Pearson’s homework help adds: “Your score on the question (correct or incorrect) is determined by your most recent attempt.” A new version you get wrong can replace one you got right.

There is also a ceiling. “Similar Exercise does not appear when your instructor has limited the number of times you can work a question and you have used all your attempts.” The Homework Overview lists how many times you can click Similar Exercise or Try Again for that assignment.

Reviewing is different. Pearson’s review help says you can review an assignment once you have completed at least one question “and you can try again without changing your homework score,” and its player guide says “any changes you make in review mode will not affect your score.”

Sometimes. Pearson’s student help on how questions are graded says: “Generally a response to an assignment question is correct or incorrect. However, your instructor can allow you to earn partial credit for a question that has multiple parts. If partial credit is not available, you receive the question’s full point value if your answer is completely correct; otherwise the question is scored as incorrect.”

When it is on, “each question part is scored separately,” and partial credit “is awarded when at least one answer is correct and at least one is incorrect.” The Homework Overview has a Partial Credit count, with the note: “Some courses do not give partial credit.”

Two more cases. An answer that is right but not simplified gets “No credit” by default; Pearson’s instructor help lets an instructor award a percentage for it instead. And on a Show Work question you may see a partial score such as 0.75 of 1 until your instructor reviews your work.

As many as your instructor sets for that test. The Homework and Tests page shows them in the Attempts column, “for example: 1 of 3,” and an infinity symbol “means that an unlimited number of attempts is allowed.” Tests use a different player mode: “you cannot check your answers and you usually do not see any tutorial help on the question.” A timed test shows Time Remaining.

When a test allows several attempts, your instructor picks which score counts: best score, most recent, average, or all of them (how results are calculated).

Leaving without submitting matters. Pearson’s test help says: “Do not click the Back button on your browser or close your quiz or test without clicking Submit. If you do, your assignment will not be scored and will show as incomplete.” Whether you can go back in “depends on your course”; you may need your instructor’s permission. Per the resume help, “Starting a new test or quiz does not affect the number of attempts you’ve made.”

On the Homework and Tests page, a crossed-out date means past due. “If the due date has passed for a test or quiz, the link is disabled.” For homework you are still allowed into, “you can click the linked name to review the assignment, but you can’t work on it for a score.” If no time is shown, the assignment is due at 11:59 PM on that date.

If your instructor accepts late work with a penalty, the Homework Overview shows a Late Submission Penalty: “If the assignment is not late, you see how your score would be affected by late submission. If you handed in the assignment late, you see how many points you lost.”

Mastering, MyLab’s sister product for science, documents its late penalties in more detail (updated 18 September 2025): a per-hour or per-day penalty is charged “for each fraction of the hour or day,” so at 10% per hour, 1.5 hours late costs 15%. It also warns that “the assignment due date for a timed assignment takes precedence over its time limit.” That page is about Mastering, so check your MyLab assignment’s own settings.