Test Review Games and Strategies
Test review days can be a little tricky. You want students to actually review the material before their upcoming chemistry test, but handing them another worksheet isn’t exactly going to get them excited about studying. And let’s be real, there’s only so much enthusiasm you can expect from a room full of teenagers when you announce that it’s time to review for a test! (I can hear the moans and groans as I write this!)
Over the years, I’ve tried all sorts of test review games and activities in my high school chemistry classroom. Some were incredibly simple, requiring nothing more than a trash can and a few pieces of paper, while others involved technology, teamwork, and a little friendly competition. The best part? Many of these games can be adapted for just about any chemistry unit, so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time a test rolls around.
I’ve rounded up 10 of my favorite test review games and strategies, including options that don’t require student devices, activities that get students moving, and a few digital games that make reviewing a little more exciting. Hopefully, you’ll find a few new favorites to add to your classroom rotation!.
Choosing the Right Test Review Game
Not every review game is going to work for every classroom. Sometimes you have a full class period to review, and other times you’ve got 20 minutes left after finishing a lesson. You might have access to student devices, or you might be looking for something that doesn’t require technology at all.
Here’s a quick comparison of the review games I’m sharing so you can find something that works for your students!
Trashketball for Test Review
Trashketball is one of my favorite low-prep test review games because you probably already have everything you need sitting around your classroom! All you need is a trash can, a few balls of crumpled paper, and a set of review questions. I typically use a PowerPoint or Google Slides presentation to display the questions, but you could just as easily write them on the board.
Divide your students into teams and display a review question. Each team works together to come up with an answer, which they write on a piece of paper or a small whiteboard. If they answer correctly, they earn a point and get an opportunity to shoot a paper ball into the trash can for an additional point. You can even create different shooting lines worth different numbers of points if you want to make things a little more competitive!
I love this game because it works with almost any chemistry topic, from naming compounds to stoichiometry calculations. It also gives students a reason to work through practice problems without feeling like they’re completing another worksheet. Just make sure every team answers the question before anyone gets to shoot, otherwise you might end up with a few students doing all the work!
If you plan on playing Trashketball regularly, you might want to invest in a small basketball hoop and some reusable balls. You can usually find a basket ball hoop Easter Basket from the Dollar Tree in the spring. I used balls from the Target dollar spot, but crumpled paper works just as well!
Standardized Testing Practice – Finger Lights Glow Party
Finger Lights is one of my favorite ways to review multiple-choice questions, especially when preparing students for standardized tests. And yes, it involves turning your classroom into a glow party!
You’ll need a set of finger lights for each student, ideally in four different colors. I used red, green, blue, and white. You’ll also need a presentation containing multiple-choice review questions with four color-coded answer choices on a black background.
Turn off the classroom lights, pull down the shades, and display a question on the board. Give students time to work through the problem independently. When you’re ready, say “Lights on!” and have everyone turn on the finger light corresponding to their chosen answer. The result is a classroom full of colorful lights, and a pretty good indication of how well your students understand the material!
I especially like this activity because I can quickly see which questions are giving students trouble. If half the class chooses the wrong answer, I know we need to spend a little more time reviewing that concept. It’s a fun way to incorporate formative assessment without giving students another quiz. One warning: expect your students to spend at least a few minutes taking pictures of their glowing fingers. Haha!
Jeopardy Review Game
Jeopardy is a classic classroom review game, and for good reason! It’s easy to adapt to almost any subject, and students generally enjoy the friendly competition.
I like to organize my Jeopardy questions into categories based on the concepts we’re reviewing. For example, a chemical bonding review might include ionic bonds, covalent bonds, Lewis structures, molecular geometry, and polarity. Each category contains questions worth different point values, with the more challenging questions earning more points. There are tons of templates available online!
One of my favorite additions to this game is a set of Eggspert buzzers. These allow students to buzz in when they’re ready to answer, rather than having everyone yell over one another. They also have a timer, so students can’t spend forever trying to figure out their answers.
If you don’t want to purchase buzzers, flyswatters work too! Give each team a flyswatter and designate a target, like a spot on an empty desk. When a team is ready to answer, they swat the target. It’s surprisingly easy to see who gets there first.
Jeopardy works particularly well for reviewing definitions, conceptual questions, and shorter calculations. For more complicated chemistry problems, I recommend giving everyone time to work through the question before allowing teams to buzz in. Otherwise, your fastest students might end up doing all the reviewing!
Board Games
If you’re looking for a test review activity that students can complete in small groups, classroom board games are a great option. You can buy classic games, like Chutes and Ladders or Candy Land. Dollar Tree often has “mini” versions of these games fairly cheap. Or you can try a local secondhand store. For the most part, it won’t matter if you have all the pieces since you’ll modify the game a bit. Or you can create a board game yourself. You can use these with practically any chemistry unit.
I have a set of game boards that I laminate and reuse throughout the school year. Students work in small groups, answering review questions to move their game pieces around the board. (Task cards work REALLY well for this!) You can use coins, colored paper clips, small erasers, or bingo chips as game pieces. Personally, I love bingo chips because they’re inexpensive and useful for all sorts of other classroom activities. The best part is that you don’t need to create a new board every time you want to review. Just swap out the question cards!
For example, you could use the same game board to review atomic structure in September, chemical bonding in November, and Stoichiometry later in the year. Students already know how to play, so you don’t have to spend half the class period explaining the rules.
I recommend laminating both the game boards and question cards if you plan to reuse them. It’s a little extra work upfront, but it saves a ton of preparation time in the long run.
Vocabulary Games for High School Chemistry
High school chemistry students learn a LOT of new vocabulary. In my curriculum, students are introduced to roughly 300 vocabulary terms throughout the school year. Some of those words have multiple meanings depending on the context, which can make learning them even more challenging. Vocabulary dominoes are one of my favorite ways to help students practice those terms without simply memorizing definitions.
Each domino contains a vocabulary word and a definition that belongs to a different word. Students work to connect the vocabulary terms with their correct definitions, eventually creating one long chain of dominoes. You can have students complete the activity individually, in pairs, or in small groups. I like to walk around the classroom while students work, removing dominoes that have been placed incorrectly. This encourages students to reconsider their answers rather than relying on me to tell them exactly what they’ve done wrong.
Sometimes I turn it into a relay race! Students line up in teams, and each student can place only one domino before moving to the back of the line. The first team to complete the chain correctly wins. Vocabulary dominoes are especially useful for units with lots of similar terminology, like chemical bonding, intermolecular forces, and organic chemistry.
If you’re looking for more vocabulary review ideas, check out my blog post on Strategies for Teaching Chemistry Vocabulary. I’ve also shared some free chemistry vocabulary resources to help you get started!
Task Cards for Unit Review
Task cards are one of my favorite ways to review chemistry concepts that require a little more thinking, especially topics involving calculations, diagrams, or multiple steps.
Think of task cards as a worksheet that’s been broken into individual questions and spread around the classroom. Instead of sitting at their desks completing 20 problems in a row, students move around the room, answering questions at different stations.
I like to organize my task cards into categories and color-code them based on the skills being practiced. For example, when reviewing intermolecular forces, I might have separate categories for bond polarity, molecular polarity, identifying intermolecular forces, and predicting physical properties. Then I tell students how many questions they need to complete from each category. They get some freedom to choose which problems they want to work on, but I can still make sure they’re practicing a variety of skills.
This is also a great way to differentiate instruction. Students who need additional practice can work through more foundational questions, while students who are ready for a challenge can tackle more complex problems. You can have students record their answers on notebook paper, an answer sheet, or even small whiteboards. I especially like using task cards for review days when students need to practice calculations but could benefit from getting out of their seats.
Looking for Ready-to-Use Chemistry Review Questions?
You can get an entire year’s worth of chemistry unit review task cards for free. I created them for you and your students so you can have quality review in your classroom that is easy to differentiate, and keep students working through tough chemistry concepts. Get it for free, here.
Quizlet Live
If your students have access to devices, Quizlet Live is another fun way to review chemistry vocabulary and important concepts. In the team-based version of Quizlet Live, students work together to match terms and definitions. The catch is that the correct answers are distributed among the different team members, so students have to communicate to figure out who has the right answer. I love this because students can’t just sit quietly and let one person do all the work. They have to talk to one another and work together to complete the activity.
Quizlet Live works particularly well for vocabulary-heavy units, but you can also use it to review concepts like identifying elements, recognizing chemical formulas, and matching scientific terminology with examples. There are plenty of premade Quizlet sets available, or you can create your own using the vocabulary from your current unit. Once you’ve built a collection of sets, they’re easy to reuse from year to year.
Just remember that students will need access to their own devices, and you should check the current game options before planning your lesson.
Kahoot Review Games
Kahoot is another popular option for reviewing chemistry concepts, especially when you want something fast-paced and competitive. Students answer multiple-choice questions on their devices while the questions are displayed on the classroom screen. They earn points for correct answers, and depending on the game settings, how quickly they respond.
One of my favorite things about Kahoot is that you can review student performance after the game. If a large percentage of students miss a question, that’s a pretty good indication that you should revisit the concept before the test. I recommend including a mix of straightforward questions and more challenging application questions.
For calculation-heavy questions, make sure students have enough time to work through the problem. Chemistry isn’t always a race, and I don’t want students guessing just because the timer is running out! You can create your own games or browse the premade question sets available on Kahoot.
Blooket Chemistry Review Games
Blooket is easily one of the most entertaining digital review options I’ve used with high school chemistry students. It takes traditional multiple-choice review questions and incorporates them into different game modes, giving students a little more variety than a standard quiz game. Depending on the game mode, students might collect gold, compete against classmates, or work toward other in-game objectives. And while the games can get a little competitive, students are still practicing chemistry questions along the way.
One of the things I appreciate most about Blooket is that you can reuse the same question set with different game modes. That means you don’t have to create a brand-new review activity every time you want to practice the same concepts.
I’ve created chemistry Blooket question sets aligned with the units in my high school chemistry curriculum, so teachers can easily find review questions covering the topics they’re teaching. They’re also linked in my free chemistry unit review bundle. You can use the Blooket games for whole-class review, then have students work through the study guides to identify which concepts they still need to practice before test day.
Whether you’re using my curriculum or teaching chemistry with another program, these resources can help you save planning time while giving students additional opportunities to practice.
Google Forms Practice Tests
Okay, so this last one isn’t technically a game, but it’s one of my favorite strategies for helping students prepare independently for an upcoming chemistry test. Google Forms allows you to create practice quizzes that students can complete on their own devices, either during class or at home. You can include multiple-choice questions, assign point values, and set the quiz to provide feedback after students submit their answers.
I like allowing students to see which questions they missed and review the correct answers. This gives them an opportunity to identify the concepts they need to study rather than simply receiving a score and moving on. You can also allow students to complete the practice test multiple times. That way, they can revisit their notes, study the concepts they missed, and try again to see whether they’ve improved.
I especially like using Google Forms for cumulative review because students can practice questions from several units without needing to print a giant packet of worksheets. Just be sure to double-check your quiz settings before assigning it. You can control when students receive their scores and which answers or feedback they can see. If you’re reusing questions from your actual assessment, you’ll want to be careful about what information gets released.
Study guides aren’t the same thing as practice tests. If you need some study guides, check out this free, editable document.
Make Chemistry Test Review a Little More Fun!
Reviewing for a chemistry test doesn’t have to mean another day of worksheets and practice problems! Whether you’re looking for a quick game that requires almost no preparation or something a little more elaborate, there are plenty of ways to get your students reviewing important chemistry concepts without making it feel like a chore.
And remember, you don’t have to create something new for every single test! Find a few review games that work well for your students, build up a collection of questions, and reuse those activities throughout the school year.
