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Exit Tickets
Gathering Evidence to Guide Next Steps [FREE GUIDE]
Jamie Clark
August 15, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 8 minutes
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In this edition of ⚗️DistillED, we explore how exit tickets—short, focused tasks at the end of a lesson—can provide instant insights, strengthen retrieval, and guide your next teaching move.
What are exit tickets?
Exit tickets are short, low-stakes reflections at the end of a lesson that check whether students have grasped the key learning objectives. They might be a single multiple-choice question, a short written answer, or a quick problem to solve. Their purpose is simple: find out what students have learned so you can respond.
In a nutshell, the main elements of an exit ticket are:
Focused – directly linked to the lesson’s learning objective.
Concise – quick for students to complete and for teachers to review.
Practical – minimal materials and no unnecessary workload.
Actionable – provides information that can shape the next lesson.
“Exit tickets are simple but powerful: designing and using them can help us refine our planning, find out what students have understood and teach more responsively.”
In terms of format, exit tickets don’t have to be limited to small slips of paper. They might take the form of a short paragraph, a completed diagram, or a set of answers in an exercise book—the format is entirely a matter of practicality and teacher preference.
That said, a particularly effective and efficient option is to use simple multiple-choice questions directly linked to the lesson’s learning intention. This approach is quick to complete, easy to analyse, and ideal for spotting misconceptions before the next lesson.
Why are exit tickets effective?
Exit tickets deliver formative data so that you can determine what misconceptions are emerging, which ideas have landed, and where students need more support. When crafted around the lesson’s learning objective, exit tickets promote retrieval practice, prompting students to recall without aids—an evidence-backed way to strengthen long-term memory.
Most importantly, they enable responsive teaching: quickly pivoting instruction based on what the data reveals. A core idea explored by Dylan Wiliam in his work on formative assessment:
“Formative assessment describes all those processes by which teachers and learners use information about student achievement to make adjustments to the students learning that improve their achievement. It's about using information to adapt to your teaching and adapt the work of the students to put the learning back on track. ”
So, now we know what exit tickets are and why they’re important, let’s jump into how to implement them so they have impact.
How do I implement exit tickets?
Exit tickets work best when they are tightly aligned to the lesson’s learning objectives. Begin by writing one or two focused questions that capture the core knowledge or skills taught. After instruction, give students 1–3 minutes to complete their responses—keeping the process smart, simple, and swift.
Collecting and analysing this data allows you to spot misconceptions, address gaps, and plan your next steps with precision.
If all students understood: move on.
If none understood: reteach.
If some understood: use techniques like model answers, RAG-marking, or targeted groupings to support understanding
The table below outlines Harry Fletcher-Wood’s Divide, Dig, Decide framework which is an effective method for organising and responding to exit tickets.
Step | Explanation | Example |
|---|---|---|
1. Divide
| Split exit ticket answers into three groups: Yes (fully correct), No (incorrect), and Maybe (partially correct or unclear). | After a lesson on fractions, place responses into piles: Yes – correctly simplify 4/8 to 1/2; No – incorrect answers; Maybe– correct answer but unclear working. |
2. Dig
| Examine the No and Maybe piles to find recurring errors or misunderstandings that need targeted attention. | Notice that most No responses confuse numerator and denominator when simplifying fractions. |
3. Decide
| Choose appropriate follow-up: reteach, provide extra modelling, give more practice, or address in the starter of the next lesson. | Begin the next lesson with a short modelling session on simplifying fractions, followed by guided practice. |
Classroom Example
Mrs. Thompson, a secondary maths teacher, uses exit tickets at the end of a lesson on quadratic equations to check understanding. She sorts responses into Yes (clear understanding), No (misunderstood), and Maybe (partial understanding).
The results show 30% in Yes, 40% in No, and 30% in Maybe. Reviewing the No pile reveals confusion about applying the quadratic formula; the Maybe pile shows computational errors and incomplete solutions.
Next steps: she reteaches the quadratic formula in a small-group session for the No students, and builds more guided practice for the Maybe group, pairing them with Yes students for peer support.
Address common misconceptions in your next lesson, perhaps through a strong starter, or offer brief 1:1 support where needed.
If you're tech-enabled, digital exit tickets via Google Forms, Microsoft Forms, or Poll Everywhere can streamline collection, sorting, and visualisation—giving you the full picture at a glance!
Until next time — stay curious, stay clear!
Jamie
Where can I find out more?
FREE One-Page Guide
Get this exclusive NEW one-page guide on exit tickets FREE in this edition by tapping the download button below.
FREE! Exclusive new one-page guide!
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Checklist and Slideshow
This week’s ⚗️DistillED+ resources include an Exit Tickets checklist and a CPD-ready PowerPoint. They cover the WHAT, WHY and HOW—designing sharp prompts, using Divide–Dig–Decide, and planning responsive next steps.
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