You’ve spent hours aligning content standards, planning rigorous activities, delivering engaging lessons, and grading student work (well, maybe not everything… your secret’s safe with us). Formative assessments reveal that most of your class “gets” a particular concept, but you’re hoping upcoming assessment results showcase everyone’s hard work.
Why does test prep matter?
While assessments don’t always paint a complete picture like academic growth, there is no doubt that testing matters. Setting students up for success to demonstrate learning is critical, and test preparation helps students become familiar with the test format. But test prep does more than that. Test review allows students to practice skills, pinpoint areas of concern for more study, and build confidence for the actual test setting.
Recalling information during test review activities is a form of retrieval practice, the idea that “active retrieval of information from memory improves memory.” As students activate prior knowledge, they increase the “long-term retention of those concepts or facts” ( Test-enhanced learning: Using retrieval practice to help students learn, Vanderbilt).
How to make test prep fun
It often seems easier to pay attention and engage with learning if it feels like fun. When interest is there, motivation naturally follows. Making test prep fun has real benefits. It brings students into the learning process to hone specific skills and practice question styles without added stress.
But without student engagement, even the most thoughtfully planned retrieval activity will be pointless. Students must be involved and interested to make learning count. Here are seven low-prep, engaging games and activities for your next review session.
7 engaging test review games to boost retention
When considering ways to review for tests, give students a reason to participate. Exam preparation not only helps students perform well, but it also teaches them valuable study skills that they can use throughout their school careers. Incorporate a few of these fun ways to review for a test and show your students that preparation doesn’t have to be boring.
1. Snowball Fight
Get your students on their feet with this fast-paced flurry of a review! Ask students to write review questions on pieces of paper, crumple them into "snowballs," and toss them around the room. Each student picks up a snowball, reads the question, and answers it. Toss the snowballs a few times so students can answer several questions.
Age: Middle-high school
2. Dry Erase Desk Review
Dry-erase markers clean easily from surfaces like desktops. This low-stakes, hands-on study game encourages independent problem-solving practice.
Age: Upper elementary-high school (best for math)
3. Glow Gallery Walk
Movement through review questions and inexpensive props that glow (such as glow sticks) combine for a colorful test prep session.
Age: Upper elementary-high school
4. Trashketball
Students try to shoot baskets in the trash can every day! Make it worthwhile by turning it into a test review game. Shoot, score, study! Teams compete to answer questions in this whole-class game.
Age: Elementary-high school
5. Shaving Cream Race
Don’t be afraid to get a little messy! Put a small amount of shaving cream on student desks and ask them to spread it around on the surface. Students can write answers or solve problems using their fingers in the shaving cream. Afterward, simply wipe the foam off their desks. Kinesthetic and fast-paced, kids love this review almost as much as teachers (hello, clean desks!).
Age: Upper elementary-high school (best for math)
6. Digital Review
Students are digital natives, so bringing edtech resources, like ExploreLearning math and science solutions, on board will tap into tools they already know and love. Low-prep fun for some friendly class competition.
Age: Elementary-high school
7. Prize Box
Students work for points to shop for prizes through a self-paced study idea or group test review game. It doesn’t take much to set up a box of treasures to use for rewards. Students love all kinds of things, such as stickers, pencils, and treats. Have you ever thought about putting some of those school pictures in a Prize Box? Students love them!
Age: Elementary-high school
Make test review more fun and effective with digital tools
You can take review game ideas up a notch with fun, friendly rivalry. Reflex Competitions allow teachers to host competitions among different classrooms in the same school building while engaging students in learning or test reviews. Now, students in one classroom can face off against other classes in a school for fun rivalry while building fact fluency. Coming in the Spring of 2025, Frax Competitions will allow teachers to host competitions in the same way while boosting their understanding of fractions.
With engaging classroom review sessions, your students will be well on their way to acing their next test. Looking for other classroom tips? Check out these ideas!
- Team Up For Test Prep Success (Includes student and parent resources!)
- Finding More Time In Your Classroom
- A Teacher’s Guide to Strong Academic Recovery
- Shifting the Focus to Academic Growth
- Now for some fun! Print out these encouraging messages for your kids to color!
