Exit tickets: three questions that tell you who understood
For teachers in Gulf schools, from Grade 1 to Grade 12.
You finish the lesson and the class nods. Tomorrow you find out that half of them did not have it. An exit ticket closes that gap in five minutes: three questions on a slip of paper, handed out at the end, collected at the door. It is not a quiz and it carries no marks. It is the fastest evidence a teacher can get about today, and this page is how to write one that is actually useful, with printable slips.
What an exit ticket is, and what it is not
- It is three questions, five minutes, no marks. Its only job is to show who understood today's objective and who did not.
- It is not a test. The moment it carries marks, students write the answer they think you want, and the evidence is worth less.
- It is not homework. An exit ticket collected at the door tells you something before the next lesson; one sent home tells you nothing in time to use it.
The three questions that work
Three questions, each doing a different job. Together they tell you more than ten questions would, because you will read every one of them before tomorrow:
| Question | What it shows | Example (equivalent fractions) |
|---|---|---|
| One recall or definition | Where the explanation landed | "In your own words, what does it mean for two fractions to be equivalent?" |
| One single-step application | Whether they can use it, or only repeat it | "Write a fraction equivalent to 3/4." |
| The mistake you expect | Who has it, and how many | "A student says 2/3 equals 4/5 because they added the same number to both parts. Are they right? Explain in one line." |
The third question is the one worth writing carefully. You already know the mistake you will see in the marking, so ask about it directly and count the answers.
Write the answers before the lesson
Three lines of answer key, written while the questions are fresh, do two things: they tell you before the lesson whether the questions are answerable, and they make reading thirty slips a five-minute job rather than a half hour. If you cannot write the answer to question three in one line, the question is too open.
Reading the slips: what happens tomorrow
Sort them into three piles as you read, and let the piles decide tomorrow rather than your memory of the lesson:
| What the slip shows | Tomorrow |
|---|---|
| All three answers right | Move on. Question three is the one that earns the next lesson, not question one. |
| Two right, with the same error in the third | Five minutes at the start, on that one error, with one worked example. Nothing else. |
| One or none right | Re-teach the idea tomorrow before moving on. Today's lesson was heard, not learned, and adding to it makes the gap wider. |
Three piles and one decision per pile. An exit ticket you read but do not act on is a twenty-minute loss for the class, twice over.
Twice a week, not every lesson
An exit ticket every lesson burns the five minutes you need, and students start writing the shortest answer that will do. Twice a week, plus the lesson before a test and the first lesson of a hard topic, is enough to know how a class is doing.
The mistakes that repeat
- Ten questions on the slip: it becomes a quiz, the last five questions go unanswered, and the pile becomes a marking job.
- Marks attached: the answers stop being evidence.
- Collected and never read: the whole point is what you know before the next lesson.
- Sending it home uncollected: a third of the slips come back, and the third that does is not the third you needed to hear from.
The slips, ready to print
Two pages: the first holds three identical slips on one sheet, each with the topic, the three questions and answer lines — print one sheet per three students and cut; the second holds the answer key and the same three-pile decision table, for the teacher. Print it, fill it in by hand, or move the wording into your school's own slip.
The slips are free and need no subscription. You will be asked for your name and email so we know who downloads our files, and the consent box is optional: you get the file either way. See ourprivacy notice.
And a set drafted for you
In EdSmartly, give the topic of today's lesson and the mistake you expect, and the Exit ticket quick task drafts three questions with their answers — the three jobs above, written out. Read them, change them, approve them; until you approve them the draft stays marked "not yet reviewed".
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For school leaders
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