Here’s How You Can Limit Quiz Retries in Articulate Storyline

A common question that pops up in the community is "how can I limit the number of quiz attempts in a Storyline course?" It's a great question because you might not want to give learners endless opportunities to retake a quiz. In Articulate Storyline, you can adjust how many times a learner can attempt both a question and a whole quiz. Today, I want to talk about limiting how many times learners can attempt a whole quiz. Here’s how you do it:

Step 1: Allow the User to Retry the Quiz

In the quiz results slide, select “Allow user to retry quiz.” This will display the “Retry Quiz” button on the results slide once learners complete the quiz.

Step 2: Create a Number Variable

In this step, you’ll create a number variable to count the number of quiz retries. Here, I call mine “Count” and set its default value to “0.”

Step 3:  Add a Trigger to Increment the Variable

On your results slide, select the “Retry Quiz” button and add a trigger that adds the value of “1” to the variable whenever the user clicks it (see image). By incrementing the variable like this, you can track the number of times a learner retries the quiz. In this example, the first time learners click the Retry Quiz button, the variable will add one and show “1” as its value. (Note: be sure to move this trigger above any other triggers associated with the Retry Quiz button so the variable adjusts before you jump away from the slide).

Step 4:  Add a Trigger to Hide the Retry Button

Finally, add a slide-level trigger that hides the Retry Quiz button when the variable reaches the number of attempts you indicated. With nothing selected on the screen, create a new trigger that copies the trigger you see in the image below. For example, if you want learners to have two retry attempts (for a total of 3 attempts at the quiz), then set it up to hide the Retry Quiz button when the variable is greater than or equal to 2.

And that’s it! You have now designated how many times learners can attempt your quiz.  If you'd like to watch the process in action, I'll walk you through the process in the following Screenr:  

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