Why quizzes and games work so well for revision

Which is the better use of ten minutes: reading a page of notes three times, or reading it once and then writing down everything you can remember without looking? The second, almost every time. Rereading makes notes feel familiar, and familiarity is easily mistaken for knowing. A blank exam page tests something else: whether you can pull the information back out.

Practising exactly that is called retrieval practice. Quizzes, flashcards, games and "write down everything you know" tasks all count, as long as the answer has to come from memory.

Why recall helps

Each successful recall makes a memory easier to find next time, and recall that takes some effort seems to help most. That is why a quiz that feels slightly hard is often more useful than one that feels easy.

The idea connects to the work of the German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus, who tested his own memory using lists of nonsense syllables and published his findings in 1885. He described what is now called the forgetting curve: new material is lost quickly at first, then more slowly. Reviewing at intervals, especially by testing yourself, slows that loss.

Quizzing has a second benefit that rereading lacks. It shows pupils what they do not know.

What makes a good revision quiz

1. Low stakes. No marks recorded, no rankings. The aim is practice, not judgement, and anxious pupils avoid anything that feels like a verdict.
2. Short. Five to ten questions.
3. Mixed in time. Include material from last week, last month and last term, not just today. A quiz on something taught ten minutes ago mostly tests short-term memory.
4. Followed by feedback. Pupils check straight away and correct in a different colour. A wrong answer that is never corrected can be remembered as if it were right.
5. Not only facts. Ask "why" and "explain" as well as "what". Instead of "What is photosynthesis?", try "Why do plants left in a dark cupboard eventually die?"

Allow thinking time before revealing answers. The effort of trying is part of what helps.

Formats that need almost no preparation

Brain dump. Give a heading, such as "the water cycle" or "causes of the First World War", and two minutes to write everything remembered. Then books open, and pupils add what they missed in another colour.

Five-a-day starter. Five questions on the board as pupils arrive: two from last lesson, two from last month, one from last term. Silent answers, then marked together.

Three-pile flashcards. Sort into "know it", "nearly" and "no idea". "No idea" comes back tomorrow, "nearly" in a few days, "know it" next week. That builds spacing in without any app.

Games. Matching games and quick-fire quizzes work because pupils will happily play them more than once, and repetition is exactly what retrieval needs. ModernScholar's games are free, cover many subjects and suit a five-minute starter or homework warm-up. A game counts as retrieval only if pupils have to recall something to play; if the answers stay visible on screen the whole time, it does not.

Worked example: a mixed Year 8 science starter

Answers: Na; carbon dioxide; the newton; the heart; particles in a solid vibrate in fixed positions, while particles in a liquid can move past each other. The last question is deliberately an "explain" question, because writing even one line of explanation is harder, and more useful, than recalling a single word.

Worked example: turning notes into questions

Pupils often say they cannot quiz themselves because they have no questions. They can make them from their own notes. Take this Year 7 geography note:

Evaporation: the sun heats water in seas and lakes and it turns into water vapour. Condensation: the vapour cools as it rises and forms clouds. Precipitation: water falls as rain, snow, sleet or hail. Collection: water gathers in rivers, lakes and the sea, and the cycle begins again.

Questions a pupil might write:

1. What is the name for water turning into water vapour?
2. Why does water vapour form clouds as it rises?
3. Name three types of precipitation.
4. Put these in order: precipitation, evaporation, collection, condensation.
5. Why is it called a cycle?

Questions 1 and 3 test facts, 2 and 5 test understanding, and 4 tests sequence. A good set covers all three.

A one-week plan for any topic

• Day 1: Write ten questions from the notes, mixing facts and "why" questions.
• Day 2: Answer them without notes. Mark in a different colour.
• Day 4: Answer only the ones you got wrong, plus three you got right.
• Day 7: Two-minute brain dump on the whole topic, then all ten questions again.

Compare days 2 and 7. Pupils are usually surprised by how much more sticks when the gaps grow.

Try it: Before your next topic test, replace a planned recap lesson with two short quizzes a few days apart. Ask pupils to rate their confidence on each question before answering. The gap between confidence and score is often an eye-opener.

For parents

You do not need to know the subject. Ask your child to write five questions from their exercise book, hand you the book, and answer while you check. Or ask them to teach you one thing from this week in two minutes, then say "What else?" until they run out. These sessions fit neatly into a regular slot; see our guide to building a homework routine.

For older pupils, retrieval should make up most of revision time, with rereading kept for filling the gaps quizzes reveal. The revision timetable guide for Years 9 to 11 shows how to schedule return visits to each topic, and past paper questions are retrieval practice in exam format; see using past papers properly.

Sources and further reading

• Hermann Ebbinghaus (Britannica) – background on Ebbinghaus's memory experiments and the forgetting curve.
• Downloadable materials (The Learning Scientists) – free posters on retrieval practice, spaced practice and interleaving, suitable for classrooms.
• Retrieval Practice – free classroom resources and research summaries on retrieval practice for teachers.

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