101 Great Exit Ticket Questions To Check For Understanding

Questions are the very essence of exit tickets. Without them, your goal of checking students’ understanding of the lesson is futile.

What Is an Exit Ticket and How Does It Work?

Exit ticket questions encourage students to show what they know by responding to a sentence that is meant to gauge their understanding of a learning objective.

These brief, informal assessments are typically assigned at the beginning or end of a lesson.

Based on this data, teachers differentiate future lessons in order to optimize the learning process.

What’s more, these questions help students reflect on the lesson, express ideas, think critically, and deepen their knowledge of academic concepts.

There are many great uses for exit slip questions.

Following you will find examples of good exit ticket questions for students that are useful for all subject areas.

General Exit Ticket Questions

The following questions also work well as social-emotional learning (SEL) exit tickets.

• How would you define… (Insert key concept from the lesson. E.g. How would you define matter?)

• How can you apply a skill you learned today in real life?

• You’re talking over dinner with your parents and they ask you what you learned in school today. What are two concepts you’d mention?

• Imagine a peer is absent from class today. How would you explain the lesson to him?

• What happens after (insert sequential step, action, or event)?

• How does something you learned during the lesson connect with a fact you already knew?

• Today you worked in a small group activity. What was an accomplishment of your group?

• Which part of the topic would you like to know more about?

• Which materials helped you to grasp the main point of the lesson?

• Today you worked with a partner. What’s one positive from that experience?

• In what situation would you use the skills or knowledge that you learned today?

• Moving forward, what’s one goal you have as it relates to (insert topic or subject)?

• Which part(s) of the lesson surprised you?

• Think for a moment about what you learned in class today. How can you apply that knowledge to another class or subject?

• In one sentence, what is the main idea of the story/video?

• Which part of the experiment was most interesting?

• On a scale of 1 (poor) to 5 (great), how would you rate your understanding of the lesson?

• What questions do you still have about (insert subject or topic)?

• How can you apply what you learned today to your own life in a meaningful way?

• What could you have done to help yourself understand the lesson better?

• On a scale of 1 (poor) to 5 (great), how much effort did you put forth today?

• If you were creating a quiz about today’s lesson, what are two questions you’d include?

• How would you briefly explain to someone in the grade right below you what you learned today about (insert subject or topic)?

• What activities would you have added to this lesson to make it more appealing?

• Was the activity too slow, too fast, or “just right”? Explain.

• How can the teacher make the concepts clearer or easier for you to comprehend?

• If you were the teacher, which part of the lesson would you have omitted and why?

General Questions to Detect Strengths & Weaknesses

• Which concept in (insert subject or topic) is currently the most difficult for you?

• What is one question that you still have about the lesson?

• During an upcoming class period, will you please review…?

• Which concept has been the most confusing for you?

• What challenged you today and why?

• Which parts of the lesson would you like for me to review tomorrow?

• Which part of the activity left you puzzled?

• What is one learning objective that you don’t 100% understand yet?

• If you had to repeat the lesson right now, what actions would you change so that you were more engaged?

• What is one idea from the lesson that you still don’t understand 100%?

• What is one idea that you understand 100% from today’s lesson or from this week?

• How do you relate what I taught today with something you already knew?

• What is one “aha” moment you had during the activity?

• During the lesson, what was a turning point for you?

• What is one thing you’re proud of yourself for this week?

• In what ways were you successful today?

• What are two things from the lesson that you added to your schema today?

Reading/ELA Exit Ticket Questions

• What are two key facts that you gathered from the reading today?

• How is the text we read today similar to (insert relevant text)?

• What is the main problem in the story?

• What’s a question you’d ask the author of the selection?

• Are there any examples of figurative language in the book? Share one or two examples. 

• What was your favorite part of the book?

• Which text features did the author use to help you understand the information better?

• What is the genre of the text? How do you know?

• Which illustrations did you find most helpful in understanding the story?

• What is one deep connection that you have with one of the characters?

• Which parts of the selection did you have trouble understanding?

• What is a text-to-self connection you have after reading the text?

• In what ways did the author make the text enjoyable?

• What reading strategies did you apply in order to comprehend the text better?

• Why was the title a good one for this book?

• What is one image that you would choose to symbolize the main idea of the story?

• Which characters and events in this book would make for a good movie?

• What lesson do you think the author is trying to teach you?  

• Based on evidence from the text plus your prior knowledge, what do you think will happen next in the story?

Exit Ticket Math Questions

• What is the first step in solving a word problem?

• Which strategy (ies) guided you in solving the math problem?

• What new vocabulary term did you learn today in math? Define it.

• Do you prefer working independently, with a partner, or in a group? Why?

• Which part of the lesson did you most enjoy?

• How has your thinking been shifted about (insert math topic) after the lesson?

• Which parts of the lesson left you scratching your head?

• After completing the lesson, what did you learn that you didn’t know before?

• Which parts of the lesson left you a bit puzzled?

• What prior knowledge did you tap into in order to better understand the math lesson today?

• How would you explain how to (insert math skill such as “add two factions”)?

• What are the key mathematical ideas we discussed today?

• In what way did the teacher make the math lesson enjoyable?

• What are a few “lingering questions” that you still have after the lesson?

• Which text features in the math textbook did the author use to help you understand the information better?

• What’s a question you still have about (insert math skill or topic)?

• Which parts of the math lesson are still confusing to you?

Science Exit Slip Questions

• What are two or three facts that you learned after completing the experiment?

• Which step of the scientific method do you still need help understanding?

• What is one text-to-world connection that you had during the lesson?

• On your anticipation guide, how would you change one of the false statements to be true?

• What is one question that you still have about the science lesson?

• In 15 words or less, how would you summarize the science lesson?

• Are there any parts of the science lesson that were confusing for you?

• What are any new words you discovered using context clues?

• Is there anything that you still wonder about after completing the science experiment?

• Which text features help you to understand the science text better?

• In what way did the teacher make the science lesson enjoyable?

Social Studies Exit Slip Questions

• Which text features in the social studies textbook did the author use to help you understand the information better?

• What are 2 cause and effect examples that you can demonstrate from the lesson?

• What information is provided through illustrations such as diagrams, drawings, charts, and maps?

• How has your thinking been shifted about (insert social studies topic) after the lesson?

• What is one fact about the (insert social studies topic) that you found very interesting?

• How would the story of (insert significant historical figure) be different if it were set in a different time period?

• Why should this historical event be taught in schools?

Exit Ticket Questions For Teachers

• Which parts of the workshop left you scratching your head a bit?

• In what way did the presenter make the activity engaging?

• How was your prior knowledge confirmed or challenged after the session?

• Is there anything about the topic that you’d like to know more about?

• How would you summarize today’s learning?

Final Thoughts

As you can see, there are many types of exit tickets that you can use in your classroom to gauge student comprehension.

So use this assortment of exit ticket questions to quickly assess students’ level of understanding.

If you’re teaching remotely, consider using Flip to ask students exit slip questions virtually.

Assessing what your students “took away” from the lesson shouldn’t be a hassle.