McGraw Hill Connect Answers: Feedback, SmartBook & Study Tips

In McGraw Hill Connect, correct answers appear where your instructor's feedback policy puts them: either after each question you submit (with your score, the correct answer and, where available, an explanation and solution) or after each attempt, sometimes held until a release date. On top of that, instructors can enable check my work, hints, eBook links, practice questions and study attempts after the due date. This guide explains each of those settings in plain terms, how SmartBook's adaptive questions work, what Proctorio does on proctored Connect assignments, and how to study so your Connect scores reflect what you actually know.

Last verified: October 12, 2026 against the official documentation linked below.

What McGraw Hill Connect is (and why it feels different from your LMS)

Connect is McGraw Hill's homework and assessment platform, sold with many of its textbooks. It is not a learning management system like Canvas, Blackboard, Brightspace or Moodle. Many schools link Connect assignments from their LMS so grades sync back, but when you click through, the assignment runs on McGraw Hill's own pages, with McGraw Hill's question player, rules and feedback. That is why a Connect assignment inside Canvas follows Connect's settings, not Canvas's quiz settings.

Two families of assignments account for most of what students see:

• Question bank assignments. The instructor picks questions from the publisher's bank for the textbook and assigns them as homework, practice, a quiz or an exam. The category matters, because it brings default policies with it (homework is typically more forgiving than an exam).
• SmartBook. An adaptive reading assignment: you read a chapter and answer questions as you go, and the system decides what to ask next based on your answers.

Depending on the discipline, Connect also includes interactive formats: algorithmic math and science problems where numbers change per student, accounting worksheets, graphs you manipulate, labelling exercises and more. Each has its own input rules, which is one reason Connect can feel harder than the same material on paper.

Where Connect shows correct answers: the feedback policy

McGraw Hill's support article Control when students see assignment answer feedback describes the setting instructors choose in the assignment's policies section, under feedback. There are two modes:

The "held" option is the one that surprises students most. If you finish a quiz and see only a score, the instructor has probably delayed feedback until after the due date so that classmates still working can't see answers. Check the assignment again after the date passes, or ask your instructor when feedback will be released.

To see feedback once it is available, open the assignment from your Connect section (or from the link in your LMS) and view your attempt. McGraw Hill's student guides note that viewing an attempt shows your answers and whatever feedback your instructor's settings allow.

Help while you work: check my work, hints, eBook and more

Separately from feedback, instructors decide which help resources appear inside an assignment. McGraw Hill lists these in Connect resource assistance types:

A few details are worth knowing. For chemistry, physics, math, astronomy and engineering questions, McGraw Hill's support documentation gives a default of three "check my work" uses per question, which the instructor can change. When you run out on an algorithmic question, you may get a "try another" option with new values; on a static question you can't check again in that attempt. The deduction for checking, if set, applies once per question no matter how many times you check.

These resources are the intended way to get unstuck in Connect. Using a hint for a small deduction and understanding the method is almost always a better trade than guessing.

Attempts and study attempts

McGraw Hill's policy settings for student attempts give instructors these choices:

• Number of attempts: one, two, three or unlimited.
• Retake format: start over with a fresh attempt, or revise the previous attempt (you keep your earlier answers and fix the wrong ones).
• Score deduction on additional attempts, optionally compounded with each extra attempt.
• Study attempts: unlimited retakes after the due date that do not affect your grade. The instructor must set a due date and auto-submit for this to work, and students with extensions get study attempts only after their extended date.

McGraw Hill's own best-practice note recommends multiple attempts for homework and practice and a single attempt for exams. If your course has study attempts enabled, they are one of the best exam-prep tools in Connect: you can redo the actual homework questions, with feedback, as many times as you like once the deadline has passed.

Instructors can also scramble question order, and algorithmic questions give each student different numbers, so two students rarely see an identical assignment.

SmartBook: how the adaptive questions work

McGraw Hill describes SmartBook as an adaptive reading and learning platform that continuously assesses your understanding. According to the product page, it works in mini-cycles of no more than five concepts at a time; once you demonstrate understanding, related questions stop appearing, and if you keep struggling you are more likely to see repeated questions. In other words, SmartBook is designed to find what you don't know yet and keep you on it.

McGraw Hill's student blog post How SmartBook can help you study adds two practical details. Passages are highlighted as you work, with green indicating material you seem to understand and yellow indicating material to reread and practise. And the Recharge feature asks questions about a chapter you have already completed, reports what you seem to have remembered or forgotten, and points you to excerpts and questions to review.

This has an important consequence for anyone looking for "SmartBook answers": because the next question depends on your previous answers, there is no fixed answer list to work from, and rushing through with guesses usually makes the assignment longer, because the system keeps returning to concepts you haven't shown mastery of. The fastest way through SmartBook is to read the highlighted section, then answer honestly.

Proctored Connect assignments: what Proctorio does

Some Connect exams use Proctorio, which McGraw Hill's Proctorio syllabus description calls "a browser-locking and remote proctoring solution." The facts students need:

• Proctored assignments are labelled "Proctoring Enabled" in the assignment title, and the active settings are shown when you start.
• Depending on the instructor's settings, Proctorio may record video, audio and screen activity, or none of these. It may require a webcam and microphone, and the instructor decides whether a desk scan or ID check is needed.
• It runs as a browser extension only during the proctored assignment. McGraw Hill's Proctorio quick tips list Chrome or Edge on Windows, Mac or Chromebook (no mobile), a stable connection, and tell students to disable other browser extensions before beginning.
• It tracks events such as leaving the page or the camera disconnecting. Proctorio itself does not grade or judge anything: the instructor reviews what was recorded and alone decides whether an integrity issue occurred.
• Virtual machines and proxy connections don't work, and McGraw Hill encourages students to take the practice quiz first to test their setup.

If a Connect exam is proctored, prepare as you would for an in-person exam: nothing else open, notes away unless the instructor says otherwise, and your setup tested ahead of time. If your school blocks extension installs on school devices, contact IT before exam day.

What your instructor can see

Even without proctoring, Connect is a graded platform with detailed reporting. Instructors can review each attempt with your answers and score, and McGraw Hill provides assignment statistics reports. For SmartBook, McGraw Hill says instructors get real-time reports on where the class is struggling, which many use to plan review sessions.

Common Connect frustrations and what is behind them

Many "Connect is wrong" moments come from policy settings rather than mistakes in the questions. Knowing the setting behind the behaviour tells you what to do next.

• "My number was right but marked wrong." Connect grades numeric answers against a tolerance that instructors can configure (McGraw Hill documents both numeric and language answer-tolerance settings). Re-read the question for the required rounding, units or sign, and carry full precision in intermediate steps. If you still think the grading is off, use "ask the instructor" so they see the exact question.
• "My second attempt started from scratch." The instructor chose the "start over" retake format instead of "revise the previous attempt". Make notes on attempt one so attempt two is quicker.
• "My score dropped on a retake." Additional attempts can carry a percentage deduction, sometimes compounded. Check the assignment policies before starting another attempt on a nearly finished assignment.
• "The assignment submitted itself." Instructors can auto-submit at the due date (it is a requirement for study attempts). Work saved by then is what gets graded.
• "My classmate's question has different numbers." Algorithmic questions generate values per student, so comparing final answers with a classmate rarely helps. Comparing methods does.
• "I can't open study attempts." If you have an extension, study attempts open only after your extended due date passes.

How to study for McGraw Hill Connect

Connect rewards steady work more than cramming, because the assignments are built to be done chapter by chapter. A study system that fits the platform:

1. Do SmartBook before the homework. It is designed as the reading step. Doing it first means the question bank homework tests material you have already practised.
2. Use hints and check my work deliberately. Try the question first, check once, and if it is wrong, find the error before checking again. If check my work is limited to three tries, treat each one as information, not a guess.
3. Keep a log of missed questions. A McGraw Hill student blog post recommends writing down every question you got wrong and reviewing that notebook before the exam. Add one line on why the right answer is right.
4. Mind the input rules. Fill-in-the-blank answers are matched against expected text, so spelling matters; numeric answers may need specific rounding or units. Read the instructions under the question.
5. Use study attempts and Recharge before exams. If your instructor enabled study attempts, redo past homework after the due date. Use SmartBook Recharge on the chapters the exam covers.
6. Use practice questions on STEM assignments. When available, they give you non-scored versions of the same problems with new values: ideal for checking that you can repeat a method.
7. Ask the instructor through Connect. The "ask the instructor" resource sends a picture of the exact question, which makes it easy to get targeted help.

For general techniques like spaced repetition and active recall, see our guide on how to study with AI tools.

Using an AI study assistant with Connect material

AI explanations are most useful for Connect when you are stuck on the method: why a journal entry debits one account and not another, which equation applies to a physics problem, why one answer to a biology question is better than another. The best workflow is to attempt the problem yourself, then ask for an explanation of the concept, then rework the problem without help.

To be clear about QuizAce: it is built and tested for Canvas, Blackboard, Brightspace, Moodle, Google Forms and Microsoft Forms, and McGraw Hill Connect is not one of its supported platforms. The extension reads questions that render as ordinary content on the page, but we have not tested it on Connect, and Connect's interactive formats (worksheets, graphs, algorithmic STEM problems and SmartBook's adaptive flow) are not what it is designed for. If your course also has quizzes in your LMS, that is where QuizAce can explain questions while you practise.

Whatever tool you use, the rules for graded Connect work come from your instructor and your institution. Read the syllabus and academic-integrity policy, and never use outside tools on an exam marked "Proctoring Enabled" or described as closed-book. For how review settings work on the other platforms in your schedule, see our guides to Moodle quiz review options and Brightspace quiz results.

Sources

• McGraw Hill Support: Connect, control when students see assignment answer feedback
• McGraw Hill Support: Connect, resource assistance types
• McGraw Hill Support: Changing the number of times a student can check their answer
• McGraw Hill Support: Connect, policy settings for student attempts
• McGraw Hill: SmartBook
• McGraw Hill blog: How SmartBook can help you study
• McGraw Hill Support: Proctorio syllabus description
• McGraw Hill Support: Proctorio quick tips for students

FAQ

How do I see the answers on McGraw Hill Connect?

Open the assignment and view your attempt. If your instructor chose "show feedback after each question", you see the correct answer as soon as you submit each question. If feedback comes after attempts, it appears after you submit, or on a release date the instructor set.

Why does Connect only show my score and not the correct answers?

Your instructor is holding feedback until a set date, or chose not to show correct answers for that assignment (common on exams). Check again after the due date, or ask your instructor when feedback will be released.

Does "check my work" give you the answer?

No. It shows a check mark or an "x" for your current answer. The number of checks can be limited (three by default on many STEM questions) and may carry a deduction.

Can you retake McGraw Hill Connect assignments?

If the instructor allows multiple attempts (one, two, three or unlimited). Some courses also enable study attempts: unlimited, ungraded retakes after the due date.

Are there answer keys for SmartBook?

Not in a useful sense. SmartBook is adaptive: the questions you see depend on your previous answers and repeat until you show understanding. Reading the highlighted material and using Recharge is the quickest way through.

What does Proctorio record on a Connect exam?

It depends on the settings your instructor chose: video, audio, screen activity, or none of these, plus events such as leaving the page. Your instructor reviews the record and makes any decision; Proctorio does not grade you.