The exit ticket is one of the most familiar routines in teaching: a short question at the end of class, answered before students walk out the door. It is also one of the easiest routines to run on autopilot. If your exit tickets end up in a pile you skim once, or if every answer says "good" or "I understood," they are not doing their job.
A good exit ticket is a small piece of evidence that changes what you do next. Here is how to design one.
Start with the decision you need to make
Before writing the question, ask yourself: what will I do differently tomorrow depending on the answers? Maybe you need to know whether to move on to the next topic, whether a particular group needs extra support, or whether one stubborn misconception is still hanging around.
If you cannot name a decision, the exit ticket will probably produce information you never use. Work backward from the decision to the question.
Avoid questions that only measure feelings
"How did you feel about today's lesson?" and "Did you understand?" are tempting because they are quick. The trouble is that students often do not know what they do not know. Someone can feel confident and still hold a misconception.
Feelings are still useful, just not on their own. Pair a self-rating with a question that actually tests the skill. When the two do not line up, you learn something important.
Five exit ticket formats that reveal thinking
1. Apply it to a new example
Instead of asking students to define a term, give them a fresh case and ask them to apply it. "Is a bat a mammal or a bird? Name one feature that tells you." Applying an idea to something new is a much better signal than repeating a definition from the board.
2. The diagnostic multiple-choice question
Write one multiple-choice question where each wrong answer matches a specific misunderstanding. When you review responses, you are not just counting correct answers; you are sorting students by the kind of mistake they made.
3. Two-part tickets
Combine a quick check with a reflection:
- Solve this problem.
- On a scale of 1 to 5, how confident are you in your answer?
This pairing helps you spot students who are struggling but do not realize it, and students who are doing fine but lack confidence.
4. One thing I learned, one question I still have
This classic works best when you ask for something specific. "Write one step of today's method that you could teach to a friend" gets far better answers than "What did you learn?"
5. The next-step question
Ask students to attempt a small piece of tomorrow's content. "Based on today, what do you think happens if we double the force?" You get a preview of their readiness, and they arrive at the next lesson already curious.
Keep it short
An exit ticket should take two or three minutes. One or two questions is plenty. Longer tickets lead to rushed answers and give you more to read than you can act on.
Tip: Start the exit ticket a few minutes before the bell, not while students are packing up. Rushed answers tell you very little.
Read the results in five minutes
The point is to use the information before the next lesson. A quick routine helps:
- Sort into three groups: got it, partly there, not yet.
- Look for patterns in the wrong answers rather than reading every response in detail.
- Pick one action: a short reteach, a targeted small group, or a warm-up question that revisits the gap.
- Open the next lesson with it. Showing a common mistake anonymously and fixing it together closes the loop.
Close the loop with students
Students take exit tickets more seriously when they see that their answers matter. Start the next class with "Yesterday, a lot of you said the second step was confusing, so let's look at it again." That one sentence tells the class their answers were read and acted on.
Over time, this also changes how students answer. When they know you will respond, they write more honest and more specific answers, which makes your exit tickets even more useful.
Running exit tickets in LetMeAdd
LetMeAdd includes a ready-made exit ticket template you can adapt in a few minutes. Students join with a 6-character code or by scanning a QR code, with no account required, so the ticket starts in seconds. Combine a multiple-choice question for the diagnostic check, a rating question for confidence, and an open question for "one question I still have."
Turn on anonymous participation when you want students to be candid. If you teach the same lesson to several classes, run each one as its own live session within the same event. Results are kept per session, so you can compare groups and export them, for example as CSV or PDF, for your records.
For more ways to check understanding, see our page on classroom quizzes.
Make your next exit ticket count: sign up for LetMeAdd.