Five ways to improve your grade with Mastering

Updated 04 Apr 2025

 

  • The provided estimated assignment completion times can help you plan your work to avoid any late penalty that may apply.

  • You could lose time on online assignments if you lose your internet service unexpectedly. If this happens, all of your submitted answers are saved. (Losing your internet does not stop the timer on a timed assignment.)

 

  • Avoid choosing Request Answer. You won't get credit for questions you answer this way. Avoid choosing Request Answer if you can still get some credit for late answers.

  • When available, use hints. It's usually to your advantage to open hints.

  • An adaptive learning engine tracks items you have trouble with on some assignments. Then you receive tutorials or similar questions in an Adaptive Follow-Up for another chance to learn or practice similar material.

  • Avoid guessing on multiple-choice questions. You'll almost always lose points if you're wrong. About the grading of multiple-choice questions

 

  • The grading policy can vary from assignment to assignment. When available, check the grading policy for individual assignments for details about the number of answer attempts allowed, late penalties, and more.

  • How grading works

  • Find out about grading tolerance and significant figures, for physics or other math-intensive disciplines.

  • Don't lose credit to cheaters. Don't share your Pearson account with any other students who say they wants to "try out" Mastering. Any wrong answers will count against your grade. Your account may also be flagged and you could be disenrolled or dropped from the Mastering course.

 

  • Pearson eTextbook — You can add notes, highlights, and flashcards in your eTextbook. When available, play a Study Prep video for better understanding. Study with your eTextbook

  • Dynamic Study Modules — When available, use these to test your knowledge, close gaps in your learning, and then retest yourself. Your instructor may also assign Dynamic Study Modules for credit.

  • Rework items for practice — You may be able to rework some assignment items for practice to help prepare for exams. Your instructor controls whether this is available for an assignment.

  • Study Area — When available, check out the Study Area from the course menu for self-paced learning and practice activities.

 

  • When assignments allow you multiple completion attempts, take advantage of this to keep your best score on the assignment.

  • Automatic item scoring helps you to identify areas of weakness in the moment.

  • Dynamic Study Modules can help you to retain information so that you can be better prepared for other coursework.

  • Studies show that if you work a little each day on your assignments, you'll do better overall in the course. By the end of the term, most students not only like Mastering, they'd recommend it to other professors and students.