7 Fun and Active Test-Prep Activities

As we enter the final weeks and months of the school year, it seems that the testing, and preparing students for testing, never ends. Are you as tired of multiple-choice questions as I am? While research shows that retrieval practice and self-testing are among the most effective learning strategies, the constant review and multiple-choice practice exercises can feel heavy and dull. I’d rather have my students up and about, collaborating and discussing content versus spending more time on a screen. Here are some ideas I’ve found effective to keep the drudgery out of test prep, without adding the time already needed to prepare for three different science classes, two of which have end-of-course exams.

7 Active Review Ideas

1. Snowball fight. This first game is easy. Simply print out your answer key with each question on a separate page, formatted so the answer prints on the back. (Hint: Canva PDF editor works well for this!) Have students work together to answer the question and then check their answer on the back.

For correct answers, students crumple up the paper and throw it (gently) at another group. For incorrect answers, students throw the paper at the teacher. This engaging strategy normalizes failure while also providing real-time feedback during the review.

2. Build the test. To make this next game, give kids one set of questions and another set of answers, with each question and answer printed on a separate sheet of paper. Give the students a big pile and have them sort the slips of paper into question-answer pairs. Students benefit from seeing how questions and answers connect, even if they aren’t solving them yet. This is especially helpful for scaffolding testing practice for students who feel defeated by a run of wrong answers.

3. Egg hunt. Level up the “build the test” activity and get students moving by bringing in some leftover plastic eggs. Print out the test, single-sided, on paper. Print all the questions on a single side, but this time fold each answer into a plastic egg. Game play is simple. Students do the following:

1. Open an egg.
2. Match the answers inside the egg to the question on their guide.
3. Record their answer to check later.

Then students re-hide the egg, adding fun collaborative energy as students try to find secret locations.

4. Colors. As a science teacher, I need to teach both content topics and scientific processes, as outlined by the Next Generation Science Standards. I use the colors game to help me review both types of information. I organize the questions by content (such as life science versus chemistry) or process (such data analysis versus measurement) and separate each question type onto a different-color paper. Print one question per page by color. Place the color sets in various places in the room, and challenge students to answer questions in a pattern or collect a certain number of each color. This activity lets you mix up various topics, harnessing the power of the learning strategy of interleaving. While the mixing up of topics can seem counterintuitive, interleaving has a robust body of research support.

5. Scavenger hunt. For students who need more support, reduce the number of answer choices to two. Print the questions with the two answer choices and provide an associated location in the classroom or school building for each. For example, “If the answer is A, go to the reading center. If the answer is B, go to the teacher’s desk.” For correct answers, the location can correspond to the next question; incorrect answers will send students back to try again. You can also take this activity and digitize it by making a Google Slides version with clickable links, such as this Metric Estimation Scavenger Hunt.

6. Bingo. Who doesn’t love a good game of Bingo? Take 25 questions and their associated answers. Organize the correct answers options into a 5 x 5 grid. Print the questions and then have students mark off the answer choice that correctly corresponds to each question on their Bingo board (I call my board PHYS-O for physics). This format supports students who feel overwhelmed by even two choices while still reinforcing content and organization of content.

7. Lock box. If you have time (and a little money), you can buy an inexpensive set of resettable combination locks and make your own lock box. I made mine with drawstring bags, placing a prize inside the inner bag, then securing the drawstring with a lock around the top. The code to open the lock corresponds to answers to questions. Once students open one bag, they find the next set of questions. Students want to get to the end and find the prize, so the fun of the puzzle is a great motivation to persevere (though be careful of students who try to game the game by just trying all the different combinations!).

Implementation Strategies

I hope you are feeling excited to interject some levity into the test-preparation tedium. One lingering question might be where to find enough questions to create a variety of games. While paid resources exist, released test question banks are the best source I’ve found. My favorite sources are state released tests, such as the New York Regents Exam.

You might also wonder how to justify this “playtime” to observing administrators who think students should have their nose in the books. You can share research about how play is a brain-friendly strategy, even for teens. As philosopher C. Thi Nguyen argues, the purpose of a game isn’t just to win, but to take on challenges for the sake of overcoming them. When we, as teachers, turn strategic studying into a game, the time investment to create obstacles to overcome returns many times over through the joy and energy that these games bring to our tired, over-tested students.