function right_answer($username, $password)
{

// OR instead of overloading the function
// you can globalize username and password.
// assuming they are already logged in. Like this:
global $username;
gloabl $password;

$connection = @mysql_connect("xxxxx", "xxxxx", "xxxxx") or die(mysql_error());
mysql_select_db("user_db", $connection);
$result = mysql_query("SELECT math_score FROM `user_info` WHERE user_name='$username' AND user_pass='$password'");
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
  {
  $row['math_score'];
  }
$new_score = $row['math_score'] + 5;
$update_user = "UPDATE `user_db`.`user_info` SET math_score='$new_score' WHERE user_name='$username' AND user_pass='$password'";
$edited = @mysql_query($update_user, $connection) or die(mysql_error());
}

function wrong_answer($username, $password)
{

$connection = @mysql_connect("xxxxx", "xxxxx", "xxxxx") or die(mysql_error());
mysql_select_db("user_db", $connection);
$result = mysql_query("SELECT math_score FROM `user_info` WHERE user_name='$username' AND user_pass='$password'");
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
  {
  $row['math_score'];
  }
$new_score = $row['math_score'] - 2;
$update_user = "UPDATE `user_db`.`user_info` SET math_score='$new_score' WHERE user_name='$username' AND user_pass='$password'";
$edited = @mysql_query($update_user, $connection) or die(mysql_error());
}