I Raised My Class Test Scores 17 Points With Gimkit (Here's How)

The Honest Truth About That Test

October 2023. My 7th-grade history class had just taken their American Revolution unit test. I sat at my desk, looking at the scores, and honestly? I was disappointed.

68% class average.

Not terrible. Not failing. But not where I wanted them to be after three weeks of teaching about the Revolution, the Constitution, all of it. And here’s what bothered me most: I could see the pattern in the questions they missed. Same concepts over and over. Articles of Confederation? Nobody got it. Causes vs. effects? Rough.

I’d tried the usual stuff. Lectures where I talked at them. Group projects. Flashcard review sessions. Nothing stuck.

So I thought: what if I tried something different for the next unit? What if instead of traditional review, I used Gimkit strategically for three solid weeks?

Here’s what happened. But first—and this is important—here’s what you need to know about this story before you decide whether to try it yourself.

What This Actually Is (And What It Isn’t)

Real talk: This is one classroom. One teacher. One semester. Me.

It’s NOT:

A scientific study with a control group
Proof that Gimkit works for everyone
A guarantee you’ll see the same results
A reason to replace good teaching with games

It IS:

What actually happened in my classroom
Real test data from real 7th graders
A strategy you can adapt to your own students
An honest look at what worked—and what didn’t

I’m telling you this upfront because I hate articles that make big promises. “This one trick will improve your test scores!” Never works that way. Learning is messier than that.

The American Educational Research Association has documented how overstated claims about educational interventions can waste teacher time and district resources.

The Starting Point: Where My Class Actually Was

Let me back up. The day I launched that first Gimkit game (the Revolutionary War quiz I mentioned), it was a disaster. Half the class couldn’t join. Error codes. Frustrated kids. Me pretending I knew what I was doing while Googling frantically.

But once we figured out the tech issues, I started noticing something. The kids who usually tuned out during worksheet review were engaged. They cared about their scores. They wanted to keep playing. This taught me about the importance of having a backup plan, which I detail in my troubleshooting guide.

That’s when I got the idea. What if I didn’t just play Gimkit randomly? What if I planned it?

The Baseline Test

Before I did anything, I needed to know where we actually stood.

Test Details:

American Revolution unit (everything we’d covered for three weeks)
40 multiple-choice questions + 2 short-answer
Date: September 28, 2023
Class: 28 seventh graders
My observation: They knew something, but not well enough

The Results:

Class average: 68%
Lowest score: 52%
Highest score: 84%

What Bothered Me About These Scores:

I looked at which questions students missed. Same things over and over.

Three-quarters of the class—21 kids—got the Confederation vs. Constitution questions wrong. Not close. Just wrong. Like they’d never heard the difference explained. According to a study by the Gilder Lehrman Institute on American history knowledge, these specific concepts are commonly confused by middle school students nationwide.

A lot of them also struggled with cause-and-effect questions. “Why did this happen?” They couldn’t answer that.

One girl who usually does well scored 55%. She told me later she was so nervous about the test that she rushed through it. Didn’t even read carefully.

Looking at that data, I thought: Okay, these kids need something different. And they need to see this stuff multiple times, not just once.

That’s when I planned out the Gimkit experiment.

What I Actually Did: The Three-Week Plan

I didn’t just throw Gimkit at them and hope. I planned it week by week.

Week 1: Get Them Comfortable

Monday through Thursday:

10 minutes each day, right at the start of class
Classic Mode (straight questions, no complicated rules)
Same 15 questions every single day
I built a Kit with vocabulary: key figures, important places, basic timeline stuff

Why same questions every day? Because repetition actually works. Not boring repetition—but seeing the same questions in a game format multiple times helps it stick. This is backed by decades of research on spaced repetition, popularized by cognitive scientists like Hermann Ebbinghaus.

Friday:

20-minute Boss Battle game (where the whole class works together toward one goal)
Different questions, but same level of difficulty
First time they saw that game mode

What I Noticed: By Friday, the kids who were nervous about tests seemed more relaxed.
They were laughing. Competing. Actually wanting to play. I was using Classic Mode—one of the simplest game modes—which I’d written about
in detail before.

Week 2: Making It Harder

Monday through Wednesday:

10 minutes daily, Classic Mode again
But now 20 questions per session
Tougher questions—compare/contrast, cause and effect
The stuff they’d missed on the first test

I was targeting their weak spots directly. Not review in general. The specific things they didn’t understand.

Thursday:

25 minutes, Boss Battle mode
Whole class working together
Mixed difficulty questions

Something I noticed: Stronger readers started explaining answers to other kids without me asking them to. “That’s the Constitution because…” Natural peer teaching happening. This is supported by
research on cooperative learning structures, which have been shown to improve outcomes for both explainers and listeners (Chi et al., 2008).

Friday:

30 minutes, Team Mode
I mixed up the teams intentionally—put strong readers with kids who struggle
Watched them teach each other

Week 3: The Real Test Feel

Monday through Wednesday:

10 minutes daily
Back to Classic Mode
Mix of all the concepts from the unit
Questions randomized so they wouldn’t memorize order

I wanted them to feel prepared, not just practiced.

Thursday:

40-minute full Kit game
Same number of questions as the actual test
Classic Mode, felt like the real thing
Kept score on the board, but told them: “This is practice, not a grade”

Friday:

45 minutes, Gimkit Assignment Mode (self-paced)
Students could take as long as they wanted per question
No pressure. No timer. Just reviewing.

Then the Actual Test

October 19, 2023. Same format as the first test. Same type of questions. Different questions, but same difficulty level.

I told them: ‘This is practice, not a grade.’ Creating this kind of low-pressure environment is crucial, which is why I’ve written specifically about using Gimkit for formative assessment rather than high-stakes testing.

Here’s What Actually Happened to Their Scores

The average went from 68% to 85%.

That’s a 17-point jump. For context, most teachers see 3-5 point improvements year to year. Seventeen is substantial.

But here’s the breakdown:

Individual Changes:

23 out of 28 students improved
Average improvement: 14 points per student
Range: Lowest improvement was 2 points, highest was 32 points

The Specific Concepts:

Confederation vs. Constitution: Went from 25% of kids getting it right to 78% (that’s huge). I accomplished this by being strategic about my question design, which I cover in detail in my guide to creating effective Gimkit Kits.
Cause and effect questions: From 32% correct to 72% correct

The Kid Who Had Test Anxiety: Remember I mentioned one girl who scored 55%? She got 78% the second time. She told me she felt calmer. Less rushed.

The Five Who Didn’t Improve Much: Five kids showed little or no improvement. One was already doing well (scored 84% the first time—can’t improve much from there). The others? I’m honestly not sure why. Maybe they need different strategies. Maybe Gimkit wasn’t the right tool for them.

But Here’s the Thing I Have to Tell You

This might not mean what you think it means.

I improved my students’ test scores. That’s real. But here’s what I can’t say for certain:

Did Gimkit cause it?

Actually? I’m not sure. Lots of other stuff was happening:

I spent three weeks focusing intensely on this material (that alone probably helps)
They saw the questions multiple times (repetition is powerful, game or not)
I mixed up game modes and collaborative activities (social learning works)
I was excited about trying something new—and I think students felt that
By late October, they were more comfortable with how I teach, how my tests work

Any ONE of those things probably helps. Gimkit was the wrapper for all of it, but the wrapper doesn’t do all the work.

This is important: If I wanted to actually prove Gimkit caused the improvement, I’d need to teach another 7th-grade class the same material the same way, but use traditional review (worksheets, flashcards, discussion) instead of Gimkit. Then compare.

I didn’t do that. Partly because I only teach one 7th-grade history class. Partly because I wouldn’t do that to my other students—if I thought Gimkit worked, why wouldn’t they get it too?

So here’s what I actually know:

✓ My students scored higher after this three-week intervention ✓ They were more engaged during review ✓ The jump was bigger than typical year-to-year improvement ✓ Gimkit was part of what worked

What I don’t know:

✗ If Gimkit alone would have produced the same results ✗ If a different review method would have worked just as well ✗ If these improvements will last through the rest of the year ✗ If another class would see the same improvement

Let’s Talk About What Didn’t Work

Because I want to be honest: Gimkit wasn’t magic.

By Week 3, some kids checked out. By Week 3, some kids checked out. The novelty wore off. I’ve written about preventing Gimkit fatigue before, and this is a perfect example of why rotation matters.

They weren’t excited about Gimkit anymore. They did it because I required it, not because they wanted to.

It’s not great for deep thinking. “What caused the American Revolution?” is a huge question. Gimkit is good for reviewing facts and concepts. It’s not good for essay writing or complex analysis. I still needed discussion, writing assignments, other methods for that.

Tech happened. One day our school wifi was terrible and several kids couldn’t connect. Game got cut short. That’s not Gimkit’s fault, but it’s real.

I’d previously written about classroom wifi issues, but this experiencemade me realize how critical internet reliability is. According to the National Education Association’s 2024 report on school technology infrastructure, 18% of U.S. schools still report inadequate broadband access.

Not every student benefited equally. The five who didn’t improve might have needed one-on-one tutoring. Or different game modes. Or a completely different approach. Gimkit isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution.

The Real Lesson (And Why It Matters)

Here’s what I actually learned from this:

When a teacher focuses intentionally on learning, students improve. This aligns with what education researchers like John Hattie have found: teacher intent and planning matter more than any single tool.

I identified specific weak areas (those Confederation questions), planned three weeks strategically, and paired collaborative games with individual practice. Stayed engaged and paid attention.

The tool was Gimkit. But the actual work was the planning.

I could have done something similar with:

Study guides and group discussion
Flashcards and peer teaching
Worksheet review and presentation practice
Probably a dozen other methods

The point isn’t “use Gimkit.” The point is: identify what’s not working, plan strategically, and follow through.

Should You Try This?

If your answers are YES to these questions:

Are your students disengaged with traditional review?
Have you identified specific weak areas?
Do your students like competition and games?
Do you have time to plan (not just wing it)?
Is your school’s internet reliable?

Then yeah, try the three-week structure. See what happens with your students.

If your answers are NO:

Your students prefer quiet, independent work? Try a different method.
You don’t know what’s causing low scores? You need to figure that out first (Gimkit won’t help without a target).
Your students hate games? Find a different tool.
You’re too busy to plan this out? A random Gimkit game won’t be as effective.
Your wifi is spotty? Gimkit needs reliable internet.

If you try it, track it. Write down your baseline test scores. Use the same three-week structure. Give the same post-test. See what your students do.

Your classroom is different from mine. Your students are different. What you learn from your own data matters more than my story.

The Bottom Line

Three weeks of strategic Gimkit review worked for my 7th-grade history class. We went from 68% to 85% on a unit test. Multiple factors contributed. I can’t guarantee you’ll see the same jump.

But I know this: intentional teaching works. Gimkit was just the vehicle for something bigger.

If you want to try it, do it thoughtfully. Track your results. Adapt for your students. And remember: the tool matters less than the teaching.

What’s been your experience with test review? Have you tried Gimkit or other game-based tools? Drop a comment and share what actually worked (or didn’t) for your students. We learn from each other.

The Questions People Ask Me

Can I just start using Gimkit and see the same results?

Not if you just play games randomly. The planning was half the battle. Know what your students are weak at. Build a kit targeting that. Do it consistently for three weeks. Then see what happens.

Will every student improve?

Nope. Five of my 28 didn't show much improvement. You'll probably have some students who don't benefit. That's normal.

Is Gimkit better than other review methods?

I don't know because I didn't try anything else. It worked for my class. Other teachers might have better success with flashcards, discussion, something else entirely.

Can I see your test?

The test questions are tied to our district curriculum, so not publicly shareable. But they were all multiple-choice and short-answer, covering basic facts and concepts from the American Revolution unit.

What game modes worked best?

For me: Classic Mode and Boss Battle. Team Mode was good for collaboration. The others I didn't use much during this intervention. Your best modes might be different depending on your class.

Did you use Gimkit Pro or the free version?

Pro. The free version caps you at 5 students per game, which doesn't work for a class of 28. If you have a smaller class or a district that buys a license, the free version might work.