Exam Review Games

Traditional exam review formats tend to feel like obligations rather than genuine learning opportunities, and student engagement is often low as a result. I wanted to create something more engaging for my courses.

Objectives

The accounting cycle is covered on the first exam, and I wanted something more engaging for students to work through in my face-to-face class. After some searching, I came up with a way to make an accounting cycle escape room.

Five phases, and students had to solve a task at the natural breaks of the accounting cycle. They worked in groups of 4 to solve the tasks, then had to check in with me to see if their answer was correct to receive the next card.

Results

Students loved it! They finished in 25-30 minutes. Many noted areas they needed to focus on before the upcoming exam. A few commented they didn't know accounting could be so fun, and others asked that we have more review games.

I will continue this style of review for the upcoming academic year and report back on how additional classes react. So far it's a hit!

Five cards with top screte and confidential printed on them. Each one labled Phase and a number. Image of a paperclip and investigator tip printed on each card. Cards are fanned out on a cutting mat.

Front of Cards

These were printed on Cardstock and trimmed to about a 6x9 size then laminated.

Five cards fanned out on a cutting mat. Each one has a task students need to complete. Tasks are not fully ledgible in the picture.

Back of Cards

I recommend using a glossy lamination film so students could use dry erase markers to write on the card and you can recycle them. Or have students use scratch paper for their answer sheet.

Exam 2: The Heist

A Station style game with questions, and students had to answer and then place a bet based on their confidence level. Correct answers doubled their bet; incorrect answers resulted in 0. Worked in pairs.

Oceans 11 In Person intro.mp4

Micaela created the video to play before I gave the instructions to the course, and the station cards/answer sheets

This exam covered Internal Control Elements, Cash Flow Statement categories, AR/Net Sales, Inventory, and Depreciation. Students enjoyed the stations and betting.

Results:

They felt the questions were a little too simple and not broad enough in scope. I am considering how to make a two-level game. Most finished in about 20 minutes.

Other Exam Review Games

I created additional games for the different exams based on the enthusiasm from the first exam review. These have not been tested yet. Check back to see how they went and images!

Exam 3: a Jenga game where each block has a number that corresponds to a question bank. Students will work in groups to answer the questions and see if they can keep their tower standing.
Final Exam: This is a deal or no deal style webpage game. It is set up to play as teams or individually. See the Online Exam Review page for the final exam.

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