Before every difficult unit test, teacher Trish Lucas has a fun tradition for preparing her students. She organizes a jeopardy game where each different table group is a team. Whatever team earns the most points receives extra credit on the unit test. All the questions are actual questions on the upcoming test so if the students write down the questions and answers there is a high probability of scoring much higher on the test.

“When I first started teaching 24 years ago everybody watched jeopardy, so it was a really common thing that the kids knew,” Lucas said. “So, I just thought if I could tap into something the kids knew. It would be more fun for the kids to review because review isn’t really a fun thing, but I was trying to make it fun.”

Lucas said the students that try hard and take notes really improve their test grades by playing jeopardy.

“I’ve asked students and they have said that jeopardy really helped,” Lucas said.

Student Dania Vargas has Lucas’ class fifth period for biology and enjoys playing jeopardy and bonding with her table mates.

“It’s fun to collaborate with my group because I feel like I learn more about the subject in question,” Vargas said. 

Vargas said that Lucas’ tests are very difficult and taking them without jeopardy would be scary.

“It makes studying a lot less stressful,” Vargas said. “Even if we don’t win, I still learn and I get a lot of questions and doubts answered.”

Getting extra credit can raise test grades and the overall grade in the class.

“Jeopardy has really helped me on the tests,” Vargas said. “I get to write down questions I will have trouble with and the extra credit if you win is really great.

According to Mad Mikes America, “Jeopardy has aired on NBC since 1964, and it’s still a popular game show today.”

“I would assume that the younger teachers would probably not like the way I do my game because it is just on the board,” Lucas said. “But with the buzzers and stuff, yeah I would highly recommend jeopardy because it’s a good way to review and I think it gets all of the students involved and engaged instead of just the two people that are paying attention and know what they are doing. Plus, it makes learning kind of like a fun game.”