How to Study Using the Basketball Review Game

For most students, studying can be a real chore, which is why it's important to find methods and strategies that are engaging and productive. One such method for learning and studying material is the basketball review game, which gets students involved as a team while allowing them to win a chance to throw a ball in a "hoop." The game can be completed in one full class session.

How to Play

The basketball review game can be played with anything from a small group to a large classroom. You will need some basic materials to prepare the game in advance.

1. Write at least 25 easy review questions. If you'd like, you can make the questions multiple-choice, as they would be on a traditional test.
2. Write at least 25 hard review questions. Make sure to keep mark these questions in some way so that you can distinguish them from the easy questions.
3. Buy or make a small ball. A small foam ball or a tennis ball would be perfect, but even something as simple as a wad of paper with a few layers of masking tape around it will do.
4. Set up the room with a (clean) garbage can in the front. This will serve as the basket.
5. Place a piece of masking tape on the floor approximately 3 feet from the basket. This will mark one of the shooting lines.
6. Place a piece of masking tape on the floor approximately 8 feet from the basket. This will mark the other shooting line.
7. Divide the students into two teams.
8. Explain that each student must answer the question given to them. Easy and hard questions will be mixed up so that students won't know until they've answered one correctly which it is.
9. Keep score for the questions. Easy questions are worth one point each and hard questions are worth two points each.
10. If a student gets an easy question correct, he has a chance to shoot for an extra point. Have him shoot from the tape mark that is farthest from the basket.
11. If a student gets a hard question correct, she has a chance to shoot for an extra point. Have her shoot from the tape mark that is closest to the basket.

Tips and Variations

1. Make sure you make it clear, especially if you're playing this game with young students, that if someone makes fun of another student, his team will lose points. While this game can be fun and engaging, it can also lead to rowdiness if the students become too competitive.
2. If you wish, allow each student to confer with another student on their team before answering a question.
3. To make this game even more challenging, change the scoring system so that students lose a point when they answer a question incorrectly. Alternatively, when a student answers incorrectly, you can turn the question over to the over team and allow them to score a point instead.