25 exit ticket ideas for any lesson 

What is an exit ticket, and why does it work?

Exit tickets are also called exit slips. Robert Marzano described four uses for exit slips in ASCD's Educational Leadership (2012): collecting formative assessment data, letting students analyze their own effort, getting feedback on a teaching strategy, and opening a channel for students to tell you what would help. The first suits most days; the other three fit in once a week or so.

There is also a learning reason to end with a question. In a well-known study, Roediger and Karpicke (2006) had students either restudy a text or take recall tests on it. Restudying looked better after five minutes. After two days and after one week, the students who had been tested remembered substantially more. Restudying also made students more confident, even though they retained less. An exit ticket is a small retrieval test, so it helps students remember as well as telling you what they know.

Decide before the lesson what each answer will trigger. For example: everyone who picks option C joins a five-minute reteach group at the start of the next lesson.

What makes a good exit ticket question?

Check each question against these five points.

1. One target. It checks the single most important idea from today.
2. Under 60 seconds to answer. If it takes longer, it is a quiz.
3. Sortable answers. You can put each answer into "got it", "nearly" or "not yet" at a glance.
4. A revealing wrong answer. For multiple choice, at least one option should match a common misconception, so a wrong answer tells you why a student is wrong.
5. A clear next step. You know what you will reteach, and to whom, for each pile.

25 exit ticket ideas, grouped by what you need to know

Did they learn today's target?

1. "Which of these is an example of [today's concept]?" with four options.
2. "Solve this one problem." Pick a problem one step harder than your worked example.
3. "Which step comes first?" for any procedure, such as balancing an equation or citing a source.
4. "True or false: [statement]. Explain in one sentence." The explanation tells you if a correct answer was a guess.
5. "Pick the best summary of today's text" from three options, where two are close.
6. "Which unit would you use to measure [x]?" for quick science and math checks.
7. "Put these four events in order."

Where are the misconceptions?

8. "A student says [common wrong idea]. Do you agree? A: Yes. B: No. C: Not sure."
9. "Which answer is wrong, and why?" Show a worked problem with one error.
10. "What happens to water at 100°C at sea level?" Options that include "It melts" reveal who mixes up the terms.
11. "Which of these is NOT [concept]?" Non-examples are harder than examples.
12. "Here are two answers. Which is better?" Good for writing and argument.

How confident do they feel?

13. "How ready do you feel for Friday's test? A: Very ready. B: Fairly ready. C: Not quite. D: Not at all."
14. "Rate your understanding from 1 to 4, then answer this question." Comparing confidence with the actual answer shows who is overconfident.
15. "Could you explain today's idea to a friend? Yes, with notes, or no."
16. "Which part of today do you want to see again tomorrow?" with the lesson segments as options.
17. "How hard did you work today?" One of Marzano's self-analysis prompts.

Can they connect and reflect?

These work best as open answers on paper or on a device.

18. "Write one question you still have."
19. "Where might you use this outside school?"
20. "How does today connect to last week's topic?"
21. "Write a headline for today's lesson in six words or fewer."
22. "3-2-1: three facts, two connections, one question." Use this one sparingly; it takes longer than a minute.

How is your teaching landing?

23. "Which helped you most today: the demo, the group task or the worked example?"
24. "What is something I should do to help you understand this better?" Marzano's open-communication prompt.
25. "Was today's pace too slow, about right or too fast?"

Use target and misconception prompts most days, confidence prompts before tests, and feedback prompts every week or two.

How do you sort exit tickets in five minutes?

This routine takes about five minutes for a class of 30:

1. Make three piles: got it, nearly, not yet. Do not write feedback on the slips.
2. For multiple choice, tally each option. If a third of the class picked the same wrong answer, that is your warm-up tomorrow.
3. Plan the first ten minutes of the next lesson: the "not yet" group works with you, the "nearly" group gets a short practice set, and the "got it" group gets an extension task.
4. Keep the tally, throw away the slips. A running count per topic is more useful than a folder of paper.

Multiple choice answers can be tallied in seconds, so make at least one exit ticket question multiple choice, even if you also ask an open one.

Paper, devices or clickers: which exit ticket format should you use?

Phones are now off the table in many schools. At least 40 US states and the District of Columbia require districts to ban or restrict student phone use, according to Education Week's tally (updated October 2026). In England, the Department for Education's guidance that schools should be mobile phone-free by default became statutory on 29 June 2026, with schools following it from 1 September 2026. An exit ticket that relies on students' phones works against those rules.

Clickers (also called keypads or voting handsets) cover closed questions without phones. With OMBEA Response, the question is a slide at the end of your PowerPoint deck, students press a key on a ResponsePad, and the chart fills as answers come in. Results are saved, so you get the tally without sorting anything.

How do you run a phone-free exit ticket with clickers?

A clicker exit ticket fits in the last two to three minutes.

1. Add three question slides at the end of your deck: one target question, one misconception question, one confidence rating.
2. Choose anonymous or named. Use anonymous for confidence and feedback questions, where students may hold back if their name is attached. Named results let you see who needs the small group tomorrow.
3. Start the questions when you have three minutes left. Do not wait for the bell.
4. Glance at the chart before students leave. If most of the room missed question one, say so: "We'll start with this tomorrow."
5. Open the report after class and write down which students go in which group.

Clickers also raise the number of students who answer. In a study of simulated psychology lectures, Stowell and Nelson (2007) found the highest participation in the clicker group, then response cards, with hand-raising lowest.

Clickers have a limit: they collect choices and ratings, not sentences. For prompts 18 to 22, keep a paper slip or ask the question out loud at the door. The features page shows which question types clickers support.

For more ways to check understanding at other points in the lesson, see check for understanding techniques and formative assessment ideas.