17 Practical Ways to Make Low-Stakes Quizzing Work in Secondary School

Low-stakes quizzing is now a familiar feature of many secondary classrooms. A short set of questions at the beginning of a lesson can help pupils recall previous learning, identify gaps and strengthen important knowledge.

However, a quiz is not automatically effective simply because it appears on a PowerPoint slide.

For low-stakes quizzing to improve learning, pupils need to retrieve information from memory, receive useful feedback and return to important content over time. The questions must be carefully chosen, and teachers need to respond to what pupils’ answers reveal.

Research reviews have found strong support for practice testing and distributed practice. Classroom studies have also found that retrieval activities can improve later performance across different subjects and age groups. At the same time, teachers should avoid reducing cognitive science to a rigid routine or assuming that every lesson must begin with the same type of quiz.

Here are 17 manageable ways to make low-stakes quizzing work in a secondary classroom.

1. Make it genuinely low stakes

Pupils should understand that the quiz is there to help them learn rather than to generate another recorded grade.

Avoid routinely entering scores into a mark book, displaying rankings or asking pupils to announce their results. These practices can make a supposedly low-stakes activity feel like another formal assessment.

Try saying:

“This is practice, not a test. It is useful to discover what you have forgotten because we can do something about it.”

Pupils can mark their own work, keep their score private and correct mistakes in a different-coloured pen.

Classroom research involving secondary pupils suggests that many pupils view retrieval activities positively and believe they help them prepare for later assessments.

Easy implementation: Do not collect the scores. Ask pupils only to identify one question they need to revisit.

2. Start with five carefully chosen questions

A useful quiz does not need to contain 20 questions or take half the lesson.

Five questions are often enough to reveal what pupils remember:

One question from the previous lesson.
One question from last week.
One question from an earlier unit.
One essential definition, fact or formula.
One question requiring explanation or application.

Give pupils three or four minutes to answer before reviewing the responses.

A short routine is more likely to remain sustainable. It also leaves enough lesson time for teaching, modelling and practice.

Easy implementation: Create a reusable slide containing five numbered boxes. Change only the questions for each lesson.

3. Use the last lesson, last week, last term approach

If every question comes from the previous lesson, pupils may perform well because the content is still fresh. That does not necessarily mean it will be remembered several weeks later.

Include material from different points in the curriculum:

last lesson;
last week;
last term;
last year;
a commonly forgotten topic.

Spacing learning over time is associated with stronger long-term retention than concentrating all practice into one period.

Easy implementation: Label questions on your planning as L, W and T for last lesson, last week and last term.

4. Make pupils retrieve before checking their notes

Retrieval practice requires pupils to try to bring information to mind.

If pupils immediately open their exercise books, copy from a knowledge organiser or search online, they are not practising retrieval. They may recognise the information without being able to recall it independently later.

Use the sequence:

Retrieve → Check → Correct

Pupils should attempt every question from memory first. Notes can then be used to check and improve their answers.

Research comparing testing with additional rereading has found that retrieval can produce stronger long-term retention, even when rereading initially makes pupils feel more confident.

Easy implementation: Use a two-minute closed-book rule before allowing pupils to consult any resources.

5. Make sure every pupil answers

A teacher asking a question and selecting one volunteer is not a whole-class quiz.

The pupil who answers may already be confident, while the rest of the class may remain passive. Teachers need responses from everyone if the activity is to support learning and provide useful information.

Possible response methods include:

mini-whiteboards;
answers written silently in exercise books;
A, B, C and D cards;
fingers held close to the chest;
online forms;
exit tickets;
think, write, pair, share.

Give pupils thinking time before requesting answers. This is particularly important for pupils who need longer processing time.

Easy implementation: Ask everyone to write an answer before taking any verbal responses.

6. Combine short-answer and multiple-choice questions

Different question formats reveal different things.

Short-answer questions require pupils to generate an answer themselves:

What is meant by acceleration?

Multiple-choice questions can quickly expose common misconceptions:

Which statement correctly describes acceleration?

A useful compromise is to ask pupils to think of an answer before displaying the options. This prevents the activity from becoming pure recognition.

Research in secondary classrooms has found that both multiple-choice and short-answer quizzes can improve later performance when pupils receive feedback.

Easy implementation: Use three short-answer questions, one multiple-choice question and one application question.

7. Base incorrect options on real misconceptions

The wrong answers in a multiple-choice question should be plausible.

Weak distractors make the correct answer obvious and tell the teacher very little. Better distractors are based on errors pupils commonly make.

For example:

Science: Mass and weight are the same quantity.

Mathematics: Multiplying two negative numbers gives a negative answer.

History: An event that happened first must be the most important cause.

English: Naming a language technique automatically explains its effect.

Ask pupils not only which answer is correct, but why the other options are wrong.

Multiple-choice questions can reinforce incorrect information when pupils select a plausible distractor and receive no correction. Clear feedback helps reduce this risk.

Easy implementation: Keep a departmental list of common misconceptions and turn one into a question each week.

8. Always include useful feedback

A quiz without feedback may confirm that pupils do not know something without helping them learn it.

Feedback can be simple:

display the correct answer;
model a worked solution;
ask pupils to improve an incomplete response;
explain a common misconception;
compare two possible answers;
ask pupils to attempt the question again;
provide a short verbal explanation.

Feedback does not have to involve teacher marking. Self-marking can be effective when pupils are expected to correct and improve their responses.

Retrieval can help without feedback, but feedback generally strengthens the benefits and is particularly important when pupils have answered incorrectly or are unsure.

Easy implementation: Spend longer discussing the two questions that produced the weakest responses rather than explaining every answer equally.

9. Require corrections, not just ticks and crosses

Self-marking can become meaningless if pupils simply place a cross next to an incorrect answer.

Use a clear correction routine:

Tick correct answers.
Correct inaccurate answers in another colour.
Add any missing key words.
Underline the part that caused the mistake.
Attempt one follow-up question.

A meaningful correction might read:

I used mass instead of weight. I needed to calculate weight using W = mg first.

This is more useful than replacing one number with another without understanding why.

Easy implementation: Display the instruction: “Correct the answer and explain the mistake.”

10. Add a confidence rating

A correct answer does not always mean secure knowledge. A pupil may have guessed.

Before revealing an answer, ask pupils to record their confidence:

1: complete guess;
2: partly confident;
3: very confident.

The most useful responses may be:

a wrong answer given with high confidence, suggesting an established misconception;
a correct answer given with low confidence, suggesting fragile knowledge;
repeated uncertainty about the same topic.

Confidence ratings can help pupils judge their learning more accurately and help teachers identify misconceptions that may otherwise remain hidden.

Easy implementation: Ask pupils to place one, two or three dots beside each answer.

11. Bring difficult questions back

A correction made once is easily forgotten.

When a large proportion of the class answers a question incorrectly, place it in a future quiz. Do not repeat it immediately every day, as pupils may simply remember the recent correction. Leave a gap and then ask it again.

A possible sequence is:

introduce the idea on Monday;
retrieve it on Friday;
ask it again two weeks later;
include it in a mixed quiz the following month;
apply it in an unfamiliar context before the assessment.

This combines retrieval practice with spacing and helps pupils relearn material that was not securely remembered.

Easy implementation: Keep a “questions to return to” section in your planner.

12. Use more than factual recall

Factual knowledge matters, but pupils also need to explain, compare, select, apply and justify.

Include questions such as:

Why does this happen?
What is the difference between these two ideas?
Which method would be most suitable?
What is wrong with this answer?
What evidence supports this conclusion?
What would happen if one variable changed?
How is this idea connected to an earlier topic?
Which information is relevant to solving the problem?

Retrieval practice can support transfer to different questions and contexts, although this is more likely when pupils retrieve relationships, explanations and applications rather than isolated facts.

Easy implementation: Make the fifth question an explanation, comparison or application question.

13. Adapt quizzes to the subject

Low-stakes quizzing should reflect the knowledge and thinking required within each subject.

English

Retrieve a quotation.
Identify a language feature.
Improve an analytical sentence.
Connect a quotation to a theme.
Correct an inaccurate interpretation.

Mathematics

Recall a fact or formula.
Complete one step of a calculation.
Choose the correct method.
Spot an error in a worked solution.
Explain why a method works.

Science

Recall a definition.
Label a diagram.
Select a formula.
Describe a practical method.
Explain a relationship between variables.

History

Place events in chronological order.
Recall key evidence.
Match causes to consequences.
Compare two interpretations.
Judge the importance of a factor.

Modern languages

Translate vocabulary in both directions.
Complete a verb form.
Correct a grammatical error.
Produce a sentence from a prompt.
Retrieve language from an earlier topic.

Geography

Locate a place.
Recall case-study evidence.
Sequence a physical process.
Interpret a graph or map.
Explain a relationship between factors.

Retrieval practice should be interpreted through subject knowledge and curriculum goals rather than applied as the same generic routine in every department.

Easy implementation: Agree within departments on the five or six types of retrieval question that are most valuable in the subject.

14. Make quizzes accessible without removing the thinking

Low stakes should not mean low expectations, but pupils need to be able to engage with the questions.

Helpful scaffolds might include:

reading the questions aloud;
reducing unnecessary written instructions;
using a clear layout;
displaying one question at a time;
providing a diagram;
giving the first letter of a key word;
supplying a word bank after an initial attempt;
breaking a calculation into stages;
allowing additional thinking time;
letting pupils discuss an answer after first trying independently.

The support should help pupils retrieve the knowledge rather than provide the entire answer.

Easy implementation: Allow everyone an independent attempt first, then reveal one optional hint.

15. Use alternatives to a traditional quiz

Retrieval practice does not always need five numbered questions.

Brain dump

Pupils write everything they can remember about a topic for two minutes.

Sketch from memory

Pupils draw and label a circuit, cell, map, graph or process.

Complete the steps

Pupils recall the stages of a method, calculation or historical event.

Spot the mistake

Pupils find and correct an error in a worked response.

Odd one out

Pupils identify which item does not belong and justify their decision.

Retrieve and connect

Pupils recall three facts and explain how they are linked.

Explain to a partner

Pupils explain an idea without looking at their notes.

These activities preserve the central principle: pupils must bring previously learned material back to mind.

Easy implementation: Replace one weekly quiz with a two-minute diagram, explanation or brain dump.

16. Use the responses to change something

Low-stakes quizzing should inform teaching.

The answers might reveal that:

most pupils have remembered the key knowledge;
two ideas have become confused;
an earlier topic has been forgotten;
pupils know a formula but cannot select when to use it;
pupils can recall facts but cannot explain them;
a small group needs additional support;
the whole class requires reteaching.

The response does not always need to be immediate or extensive. A teacher might:

give a two-minute explanation;
model another example;
adapt the next activity;
place a question in a future quiz;
provide a scaffold to one group;
plan a short reteaching task for the next lesson.

Low-stakes quizzes can support both learning and diagnosis, but their value is reduced when teachers gather scores without using the information.

Easy implementation: After each quiz, write down one sentence: “As a result of these answers, I will…”

17. Teach pupils to quiz themselves

The long-term aim is for pupils to use effective study strategies independently.

Many pupils prefer rereading or highlighting because these activities feel familiar and comfortable. Familiarity, however, can be mistaken for secure learning.

Teach pupils to:

turn headings into questions;
cover the answer before attempting it;
create flashcards with one clear question on each card;
retrieve information in both directions;
mix questions from several topics;
return to difficult cards more frequently;
leave gaps between study sessions;
explain answers aloud;
complete diagrams from memory;
answer past questions before opening the mark scheme.

Research reviews have rated practice testing and distributed practice more highly than passive rereading as approaches for producing durable learning.

Easy implementation: Model one ineffective revision method and one improved retrieval-based alternative during a lesson.

A Seven-Minute Low-Stakes Quiz Routine

A simple routine might look like this:

Minute 1: Pupils enter and begin five questions silently.

Minutes 2–4: Pupils answer from memory without notes.

Minutes 5–6: Display answers and discuss common misconceptions.

Minute 7: Pupils correct their work and identify one area to revisit.

The teacher does not need to collect or mark every quiz. The purpose is to make pupils think, provide feedback and inform the next teaching decision.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Low-stakes quizzing is less likely to help when:

every score is recorded;
pupils are publicly ranked;
questions cover only the most recent lesson;
pupils see the answers before trying to retrieve them;
the quiz is too long;
questions are either extremely easy or impossibly difficult;
mistakes are not corrected;
multiple-choice distractors are unrealistic;
only factual recall is tested;
the same confident pupils answer aloud;
speed matters more than careful thinking;
technology or competition becomes the main focus;
teachers collect data but do not act on it;
every department is required to use exactly the same format;
quizzes replace rather than support good explanations, modelling and practice.

Conclusion

Effective low-stakes quizzing is not about testing pupils more frequently. It is about giving them regular opportunities to remember important material, discover gaps, correct misunderstandings and revisit knowledge before it is lost.

The most successful routines are usually simple. Five well-chosen questions, a few minutes of silent thinking, whole-class participation and purposeful feedback can be more useful than an elaborate online competition.

Keep the atmosphere calm, make mistakes normal and bring important questions back over time. Most importantly, use what pupils’ answers tell you.