With exams fast approaching and student motivation levels wearying after a tough year, we have put together strategies to enhance engagement whilst simultaneously increasing exam preparedness. These strategies can be implemented with or without digital access and used at any year level. We hope they work as well in your classrooms as they have in ours!

Lucky Dip:

Cut up questions from past exam papers (where the study design is still relevant) and pop them in a hat. Encourage students to take one each and complete their question, then swap the question and answer with a peer for feedback.

In English, this works well with practice essay topics where students are given a timer (5/10 minutes) to complete a detailed plan, before swapping and explaining their plan with a peer.

In Literature, you can also use this for passages where the student grabs out three passages from their text and then creates a plan for how they would respond to them.

To do this digitally or online, compile exam questions/essay topics and attach a number to each. Get students to use a random number generator to select their exam questions.

You can also buy a Jenga set and number each of the blocks beforehand, in order for students to take a block they must answer the exam question associated with that block.

Revision train:

Divide the class into two groups and have them stand in two vertical lines. The two students at the front of the line will ‘face off’ as you read an exam question. Out of the pair, if a student thinks they can answer it, they clap three times and are given a shot. If they get it correct, they get a point for their team. If they are incorrect, the student on the team gets a chance to answer the question and score the point.

You can get creative with this game and add additional rules - for example, if neither pair can answer the question, they can use a ‘lifeline’ and ask a teammate to answer the question for them. This game can get quite competitive and is great for quick recall style questions.

Put it on a post-it:

As you know, we love a good post-it activity at Tomorrow’s Teacher! We find that many students have difficulty being concise in their answers, especially when put under time pressure. For this activity, give each student a post-it and write up/project an exam question that requires a short answer. Set a timer and have students write their answer using only the small space provided on the post-it. Put all the post-its together on the board and share the responses. After discussing the answers as a class, give students an opportunity to rewrite their answers using keywords/phrases from their peers’ work.

To do this activity digitally, use a program that enables students to collaborate and view responses live, such as Padlet, Microsoft OneNote or Jamboard.

Blooket:

We have had a few followers reach out and tell us about Blooket which is a free online gaming tool similar to Kahoot or Quizlet. We tested Blooket in our own classes and can confirm the students love it! You can create a new set of questions or use pre-existing sets (the site even lets you copy sets across from Quizlet!). There is a stack of different games to choose from notable mentions that are favourites of our students are: Cafe, Crypto Hack and Racing.

Try it here: https://www.blooket.com/

Want more? Check out our previously shared revision strategies here.