Hi, Since the AP exam review season is upon us, I thought I’d share a review game that my students enjoy.
The game is called the Unfair Game. I did not create this game, I’m not sure of who did or where I first played it!
To play it you need some MC questions that students can access, and whiteboards and markers for each team. I have vertical whiteboards for each team around my room, and for AP review I create an assignment on AP classroom,
and have all students open it up on their computer so they can easily see each problem. I usually start by giving students 5-10 minutes to work through the questions individually to process the questions before the game, or assign them as homework ahead of time.
Each team gets a part of their whiteboard to draw their team mascot. I draw a rectangle about the size of a sheet of paper on the corner of the team’s whiteboard, and set a timer for 90 seconds for the team to draw. Each team gets a team number.
I open two random number generators on tabs on my projector computer. One tab is to pick which team will answer the question- randomly chosen to help with engagement, your team could be called to answer at any time.
The other random number generator is for the score for a correct answer. I have set that as from negative 50 to positive 100. Yes you can get points subtracted, this game is unfair, it’s right in the title 
I have other rules based around the randomly generated score. If score mod 10 = 1 then the team gets candy.
If the team’s score mod 20 == 0 then we mix up team members! For example, I have everyone with the longest hair in the group shift one team to the right, or whoever has the most siblings shift two teams to the left, etc. If there is a team that is relying too much on one person, you can strategically use this to mix them up.
You can make up rules like this as you go too, since it is an unfair game.
For example if a team’s random score is prime, you can give them a bonus question to double their score, etc.
BUT the thing my students LOVE about this game is the “attacks” on each other’s mascots. Today I had that if their random score mod 2 == 1 (so an odd score) then that team gets to use the little eraser on top of their whiteboard marker to attack another team’s mascot. An attack is to erase a single straight line across the mascot. Students really enjoy this aspect of the game! We didn’t get many odd scores for a long time in class today, so I unfairly changed the rules that the rest of the correct answers would get to attack and odd scores would get two attacks.
Today, I had the winning team have the lowest, most negative score, because one team kept getting negative scores, and I thought that would be a funny ending. Sometimes I generate a random number and the winning team is closest to that number. The winning team can pick more candy, and then I usually give anyone else who wants candy some as they head out the door.
Do you have any go to multiple choice games? I’d love to hear them because as much as my students love this, it gets stale after a couple of times playing it, I try to mix things up during AP review.
Best,
Lindsay