Build on Last Attempt

I was wondering if there was a way to allow students to take a quiz again after they have gotten all of the answers correct on Build on Last Attempt? I want to allow students to take the quiz again as a post lesson study aid and then as a review before the exam, but it seems like once you get the question right you can never try it again.

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Chris

Hi @AngelicaTopete57,

As far as I know, those two desires aare currently incompatible with a single quiz. What I would recommend is making a duplicate copy of the quiz to use as the study aid, changing its settings to remove build on last attempt and also making the grade not count towards the final score. Do you think that would work for your scenario?

-Chris

jeremyfw

What you’re running up against is a hard design limit of “Build on Last Attempt” in Canvas. Once a student answers an item correctly, Canvas intentionally locks that item out on future attempts. There’s no setting to “reset” questions for later review while keeping the same quiz instance.

If your goal is ongoing practice + later exam review, the cleanest solution is to move the question bank outside of Canvas and treat Canvas as just one delivery channel, or as Chris noted, duplicate the quiz for different purposes.

A practical third-party approach (single source of truth)

Tools like Canvas Question Bank Platform are designed specifically for this use case:

One central question bank (the authoritative source)
Import existing Canvas quizzes or item banks, where you can revise, edit, mix and match
Re-export in different formats

From a workflow perspective, this solves the exact problem you’re describing.

What this enables pedagogically

Using a platform like this, you can:

Import
- Existing Canvas quizzes
- Canvas Item Banks (or Classic Question Banks)
- QTI 1.2 files (e.g., New Quiz export zip file)
Maintain
- One canonical version of each question
- Edits made once, reflected everywhere
Export / Publish
- Back into Canvas (as a new quiz for review, even with item banks, or a collection of item banks where you can set how many questions are chosen from each bank)
- Study/review formats for:
  - Quizlet
  - Kahoot
  - Quizizz (now Wayground)
  - etc.

Why this works better than Canvas alone

Canvas quizzes are optimized for assessment integrity.
External question banks are optimized for learning cycles.

Trying to force one tool to do both usually leads to frustration.

With a single source of truth outside Canvas:

Canvas handles grading and tracking
External tools handle repetition, variation, and review
You regain instructional flexibility without duplicating work

A common implementation pattern

Many instructors end up with:

Canvas Quiz A → instructional check (Build on Last Attempt ON)
Canvas Quiz B → review quiz (exported fresh from the same bank or duplicated as Chris noted)
Quizlet / Kahoot etc. set → low-stakes exam prep

Same questions. Different moments. No re-authoring.

Bottom line

If you want students to:

Re-attempt questions after mastery
Use quizzes as study tools, not just assessments
Avoid Canvas’s built-in locking behavior

… then a third-party question bank platform like Canvas Question Bank Platform is currently the most sustainable solution. Canvas alone isn’t designed to be that system of record - but it integrates well when you let it be the delivery layer instead.

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