SchoolStackQuiz apps are often saved for the Friday before a test: a fast, noisy game that students enjoy. That has its place. But the same apps are more useful as a way to find out, during a lesson, who has understood and who hasn’t. The difference is in how you set them up and what you do with the results.
Compare the main options in our quiz and assessment app ranking.
Start with the question, not the app
A formative check only helps if the questions reveal thinking. Some tips:
- Write wrong answers that match real mistakes. If students often confuse area and perimeter, make one option the perimeter. When a third of the class picks it, you know exactly what to reteach.
- Ask one idea per question. If a question tests two things, a wrong answer doesn’t tell you which one is the problem.
- Mix in “explain why” questions. Most apps support short open answers. Five open responses tell you more than twenty multiple-choice clicks.
Three to six good questions are enough for a check in the middle of a lesson.
Slow the game down
Speed scoring rewards fast guessing, which hides what students really know. For formative use:
- Turn off speed points. In Kahoot! you can set questions to give no points, and you can lengthen the timer.
- Use self-paced modes. Kahoot!’s assigned challenges and Blooket’s homework mode let students work at their own speed.
- Use a teacher-paced quiz. Socrative lets you move the whole class through questions one at a time and see answers come in before you reveal the correct one.
Removing the timer also helps students who process information more slowly or use assistive technology.
Look at the results before you reveal the answer
The most useful moment in a formative quiz is the pause after everyone has answered and before you show the correct option. Look at the spread:
- Most of the class is right. Move on, and note the few who weren’t.
- The class is split between two answers. Ask students to discuss with a partner who chose differently, then ask the question again. This is one of the most effective things you can do with a quiz app.
- Most of the class is wrong. Stop and reteach. The rest of your lesson plan can wait.
Exit tickets
A two or three question check at the end of a lesson tells you where to start tomorrow. Many apps have a quick exit ticket mode, or you can build a short quiz. Keep it under three minutes. Then sort the class into three groups for the next lesson: ready to move on, needs a quick reminder, needs reteaching.
Use the data, then delete it
Most quiz apps keep a report per student and per question. The per-question view is the most useful. It shows which ideas the class finds hardest, and which wrong answer was most popular.
You don’t need to record every quiz in your gradebook. Formative checks work best when students know a wrong answer won’t count against them. If students think every quiz is graded, they’ll copy and guess, and the data stops being honest.
Spaced review
Quiz apps are good for spaced practice: short reviews of older topics spread over weeks. Once a week, run a five-question quiz that mixes this week’s topic with topics from one month and three months ago. It helps students remember, and it shows you which topics have faded.
Common mistakes
- Only using quizzes as a reward. You miss the best use.
- Too many questions. Twenty questions in a game take most of a lesson and produce too much data to act on.
- Not acting on the results. If the quiz doesn’t change what you do next, it was entertainment, not assessment.
- Leaving devices out of the plan. If students don’t have devices, see our article on using apps in a phone-free classroom.