Test Review Games and Strategies
So, you’re a high school teacher and you need some activities to get your students to review for an upcoming test? Well, good because you found the perfect blog post! I’m going to share my best test review games and strategies for high school students. Ready? Here we go!
Take Home Test Strategy: Reduce Cheating
Take home tests are a great way to get your students exposed to the material that is going to be on their next test. It is an awesome way for both you and them to assess their understanding of the material. But if you give a take home test, and you want to grade it as a test, you don’t want just a few kids doing the work and then sharing out their answers. That defeats the purpose. So instead, this is what you can do.
You invest a decent amount of time and you create multiples of the test. Then you assign specific versions to specific kids, making sure that the kids with the same version either aren’t friends or don’t know each other. Boom – you have reduced the amount of “cheating” on your take home test. Yes, this is a lot of work. Yes, it will take a long time. I just did this with a test I am giving my students over the upcoming school break. I created a bank of 200 questions. The kids will have 2 weeks (really 18 days) to answer their 100 multiple choice questions. This is how I made my versions:
- The first 100 questions
- The second 100 questions
- All the even questions
- All the odd questions
- The first 50 and the third 50
- The second 50 and the fourth 50
Then I wrote the kids’ names on them, making sure kids with the same version weren’t friends. I told my students there were 24 versions and sent them on their way. Maybe that’s mean – but this is how I will get them to actually do their test on their own. It’s a great way for them to review old material too!
Trashketball for Test Review
I guarantee you already have the materials you need for this! You need a PowerPoint or Google Slides presentation with questions, a trash can and balls of garbage. These trashketball review game rules are super easy! Put your students into teams, and have them answer the question on the board. They should write the answer on paper (or whiteboards if you have them). If they get the answer right they get a point, the team gets an opportunity to “shoot the ball” for an additional point.
This changes what would have normally been a “really boring” review session into something much more fun. Plus you can get rid of that giant pile of old papers you don’t really need. Haha! Or maybe that’s just me. If you are interested in this being a more permanent addition to your classroom, you can even get a basketball hoop, like this one. The balls are from the Target dollar spot, but these are similar. You can check out my collection of Chemistry Trashketball activities right here.
Standardized Testing Practice – Finger Lights Glow Party
This is more of an individual review game for student assessment. You again, do a question set using Powerpoint or Google Slides, but the questions must be multiple choice. This time you turn out the lights and pull down the shades. The darker the room, the better. Each student gets a set of Finger Lights. They come in four colors, Red, Green, Blue and White.
The students take some time to answer the question, and when you say “Lights On!” the students turn on the light that matches the color of the answer they are choosing. This is so much fun! If you teach high school kids beware – they will spend some time taking and posting pictures. This is a great way for you to get a glimpse of what the students understand, and how many of them are grasping the concepts. Most of all, this is a perfect game for standardized testing practice or review. Check out my collection of Finger Lights review activities here.
Jeopardy Review Game
Using Jeopardy as a test review game is an age old teacher strategy, but here you have a tiny added twist. You use Eggspert buzzers so that there is a time component. There is nothing worse than having the students scream “Me, me, me!” when playing these types of games. The Eggspert buzzers will let you know who buzzed in first. It will time the students so they don’t have unlimited time to answer the question. Plus you can also randomly select students using the white egg/teacher buzzer. I love using the Jeopardy Review Game! It is perfect for open ended standardized testing practice.
If you’re not interested in the buzzers, you can also use flyswatters. (There are different colors, but realistically, you could choose all the same color.) Each team gets a flyswatter and they all have the same target. Let’s say it’s a spot on a spare desk. When students are ready to answer, they swat the flyswatter. It’s very easy to see who “buzzed in” first.
Game Boards
I have a board that I use for board games in my classroom. You can get it here. I have question cards that go with the boards. You could adapt this board for an unlimited number of question cards or topics. You can have students use coins or other small objects as game pieces, but I love these bingo chips. I use them for a lot of other purposes in my classroom. So many come in a package, that I don’t mind so much when they fall on the floor and get swept up by the custodian. I also laminate these games and cards so they can last forever. You can read more about how I laminate my things here.
Vocabulary Games for High School Chemistry
In my chemistry class, students are learning about 400 new vocabulary terms. Some of those words have multiple meanings (like saturated – saturated solution, saturated hydrocarbon). For this reason, I have created some dominoes for the students to review with. They match the words to the definitions and create a long line of terms. I circle the room and remove pieces that are in the wrong spot. This can be done for individual students or you can have teams of them play. I like to race. Sometimes I have teams of students stand in lines and they can only place one domino at a time. Once they’ve placed the domino, they go to the back of their team’s line and the next student gets a chance to place a domino. First team that correctly finishes wins!
I have tons of other vocabulary review options as well. We also use crossword puzzles, joke puzzles and flash cards. You can check out my chemistry vocabulary resources here.
Task Cards for Unit Review
I like task cards for things that are a little tougher or require more complex thinking like intermolecular forces. Task cards are kind of like taking a worksheet of free response questions and chopping it up and spreading it around the room. The students can either write their answers on looseleaf, or in a notebook, or on an answer collection sheet. I have kids play games with these too. I usually color code my questions by type. So for instance: bond polarity, molecule polarity, definitions, effects of intermolecular forces. I then tell the students they need to answer X number of each color. They can pick which questions they want to answer. But I can make sure they are getting a little bit of everything. This is also great for differentiation! You can read more about how I use task cards in my classroom here.
Quizlet Live
Quizlet Live will only work if your students have devices. Here, the students are organized into teams. There is a question presented to all of the students in the team, but the answers are distributed amongst all members of the team. They need to talk to each other to ensure the correct answer is chosen. If the students pick the wrong answer, they start the question series over. You can project the status of each team on your board, as they race against each other. There are plenty of premade question sets, but you can also make your own and tailor it to your student’s specific needs.
Kahoot or Blooket
Again, your students will need devices for this. Kahoot is one of my students’ favorite review games These are quiz questions, where students compete individually for points. There are lots of premade Kahoots, and you also have the option to make your own. Kahoot is great because at the end of the game, you can collect data on your students’ performance. That makes it great for data analysis and reteaching.
There is also a newer thing my students and I play a lot for test review. That is Blooket. It’s mostly the same thing, except the questions have been converted into games, aside from just answering multiple choice questions. Now you can answer questions, but also steal gold from classmates or race to the finish line. Along the way students can earn points, and collect avatars to play with. They absolutely LOVE it. It’s a lot like Kahoot in that you can make your own, or borrow from other teachers. Here’s the Blooket question sets I’ve made for chemistry.
Practice Test in Google Forms
This is another tactic for devices. I like this for the students to do at home. I make a quiz in Google Forms, and I click on the following settings:
- Make a quiz
- Check “Missed questions”
- Check “Correct answers”
- Check “Point Values”
- Check “Release Grade Immediately after each submission”
For this, you will need to build a multiple choice quiz, and then plug in the answers. The students can take the quiz multiple times, and will be told their score and what the correct answers are. This is a great way for them to see what they know and what they need to go back and read in their notes.
Chemistry Study Guide
Those there you have it. My (and my students’) favorite test review games and strategies for your classroom.
If you’re in need to study guides for your unit tests or your final exam, you can get my chemistry study guide for free. It’s editable so you can make it exactly what you need.
