There are a number of ways your instructor can set up their class and gradebook in Quest. The most contentious of them involves accruing negative points on questions with wrong answers.
Many instructors prefer this method of grading to dissuade students from flippantly answering a question without giving it proper consideration, or outright guessing. However, we realize how frustrating it can be to be honestly working through a problem and find that each time you re-try a question a negative score builds up. In these cases, we highly recommend attending office hours, or seeking a study group to help check each other's work, in order to give each attempt the best possible chance of being correct.