Classroom review games students actually like
Eleven review games for any subject, from no-tech Trashketball to a projector Jeopardy board. Filter by the time and tech you have; the digital ones run free here, with no student accounts.
Find a game for your lesson
11 of 11 games match.
Jeopardy review board
Five categories, clues worth 100 to 500. Teams pick a clue, answer, and win or lose the points. A Daily Double and a final wager round keep trailing teams in it.
Teacher tip: Put the hardest content in the 400–500 row, so the scoreboard rewards the material you most need reviewed.
Build a Jeopardy boardBuzz-in team quiz
One question on the projector, four answer options. The first team to call out the right answer gets the points; the host taps the team to award them.
Teacher tip: Make teams of 3–4 and rotate the spokesperson each question so everyone has to know the answer.
Start a buzz-in quizTrashketball
Ask a question to every team. Each team that answers correctly earns a point and a shot at a bin with a paper ball, from a 1-point or a 2-point line.
Teacher tip: Have every team write its answer on a whiteboard at once, rather than one team answering per turn, so nobody sits idle.
Grudge Ball
Every team starts with 10 marks on the board. A correct answer lets a team take a shot and then erase marks from other teams. A team at zero can still answer to get back in.
Teacher tip: Set a rule that a team can’t take marks from the same team twice in a row, which keeps it friendly.
Hot Seat
One student sits with their back to the board. You write a term; their team gives clues without saying the word until the student guesses it.
Teacher tip: Ideal for vocabulary. Ban gestures for older students so the clues have to be definitions.
Around the World
Two students stand; you show a flashcard and the first to answer moves on to challenge the next seat. See who gets furthest around the room.
Teacher tip: Best for quick facts like times tables or vocab, where answers take a second, not a paragraph.
Sink or Swim
Two teams stand. A correct answer lets the student “sink” an opponent (they sit) or “swim” a seated teammate back up. The team with the most people standing wins.
Teacher tip: Alternate questions between the teams and let teammates help with a 10-second huddle.
Quiz-Quiz-Trade
Every student gets a flashcard. Pairs quiz each other, swap cards, then find a new partner. Over ten minutes everyone sees a dozen or more cards.
Teacher tip: Print a deck with the printable flashcard maker so every student holds a card with the answer on the back.
Print the cardsFour Corners
Label the corners A, B, C and D. Read a multiple-choice question and students walk to the corner of their answer. Ask one person per corner to explain their pick.
Teacher tip: The explanations are the point: a wrong corner tells you exactly which misconception to fix.
Solo speed round
Each student plays a 60-second multiple-choice blitz on their own device from the same deck, then reports their score.
Teacher tip: Run it at the start and end of a lesson; the score change is a quick read of what stuck.
Open flashcard gamesPractice test relay
Print a practice test and cut it into question strips. One student per team runs to collect a question, the team answers, and the runner brings it back to be checked before taking the next.
Teacher tip: Generate the test with an answer key so checking takes seconds.
Make a practice test
What makes a review game work
The useful part of any review game is the moment a student has to pull an answer out of memory. That is retrieval practice, which Dunlosky and colleagues’ 2013 review of study techniques rated as one of the two most effective strategies (more on active recall). So judge a game by how many students are answering at once, not by how exciting it looks:
- Everyone answers, every question. Whiteboards or team huddles beat “hands up, one student answers”.
- Feedback straight away. Show the right answer before moving on, and spend ten seconds on why.
- Luck keeps it close. Shots, Daily Doubles and wagers let trailing teams catch up, so nobody checks out at half time.
- Mix the questions. Pull from several units rather than only last week’s; spacing reviews out is the other high-utility strategy (spaced repetition explained).
Online review games without student accounts
Hosted tools such as Kahoot, Blooket and Gimkit put a game on every student’s device, which needs a teacher account and a join code. When you’d rather skip the logins, run the game on one screen: the buzz-in quiz and the Jeopardy game maker run in the browser from a deck you paste in, and the ready-made Jeopardy templates are playable in a minute. Comparing hosted tools? See games like Blooket and our Kahoot alternatives.
Questions people ask
What are some fun online review games for teachers?
A projector Jeopardy board and a buzz-in team quiz work for any subject and need no student devices. Hosted tools like Kahoot, Blooket and Gimkit run games on every student’s device, with a teacher account.
What are some fun activities to review for a test?
Jeopardy, Trashketball and Grudge Ball for whole-class energy; Quiz-Quiz-Trade and Four Corners for calmer practice; a printed practice test relay when you want test-style questions.
What are some good classroom quiz games?
Buzz-in team quizzes, Jeopardy boards, Around the World and Four Corners all turn a question list into a game. The best ones make every student answer every question.
What review games need no technology?
Trashketball, Grudge Ball, Hot Seat, Around the World, Sink or Swim, Quiz-Quiz-Trade, Four Corners and the practice test relay. All you need is a question list, which you can print from a deck here.
How long should a review game be?
Ten to thirty minutes. Longer games tend to lose the students who fall behind; two short games with different formats usually beat one long one.