Quizzes in Class: Writing Questions That Check Understanding
What the game is
One question on the screen, answer options as tiles labelled A, B, C. A wrong answer shows the correct one and costs a life if lives are on. Each question has 2–6 options, and more than one can be correct. You can add a picture or a sound to a question.
Everyone knows what a quiz is. The hard part isn't the template, it's the questions: a bad quiz can be passed without understanding the topic.
What makes a good question
It checks one thing. "Which of the following is true about photosynthesis?" with four long statements checks careful reading. "Where in the cell does photosynthesis happen?" checks knowledge.
The wrong options are plausible. The best wrong option is a typical student mistake. If you know your class mixes up perimeter and area, put the area answer into the perimeter question. Then a wrong answer tells you exactly what wasn't understood.
Options are the same length and shape. The longest, most detailed option is usually the right one, and students know it.
No "all of the above" or "none of the above". They test quiz logic, not your subject.
Questions about understanding, not memory
A quiz can do more than "in which year". A few forms that work well:
- Example or non-example: "Which of these sentences is a complex sentence?"
- Prediction: "What happens to the pressure if the volume is halved?"
- Spot the error: "Which solution contains a mistake?", followed by four short solutions.
- Application: a problem where students choose the result, not the definition.
There is more on this in Higher-order questions in class.
Three ways to run it
Projector plus mini whiteboards. Show the question, everyone writes a letter at the same moment and holds it up. You see the whole class in a second. Then choose the answer most students picked and talk it through.
Live game. Any quiz can be hosted live: the question is on the projector, students answer on their phones, and after each question everyone sees how the answers split. See Live games in class.
On their own or at home. Send a link with "Assign to class". The results have a "By question" tab, so you can see the question almost the whole class got wrong.
Settings
- Lives add tension. For a knowledge check, leave them off so every student reaches the end.
- Timer: against the clock or untimed.
- "Go on right after an answer" speeds things up. Turn it off if you want students to look at the correct answer.
- "Show answers" at the end: useful for going over the quiz together.
How many questions
5–7 for a warm-up and 10–15 for a topic check. More than 20 in a row tires out even adults, so split it into two quizzes.
After the quiz
Go over the two or three questions with the most common wrong answer. Ask, "Why might someone have chosen B?", and have someone who didn't make the mistake answer. It takes the awkwardness away and makes the reasoning visible.
Ready-made quizzes by subject are in the game library.