Exit Tickets and Their Role as Learning Cues
What Exit Tickets Are and Why Teachers Use Them
An exit ticket is a quick task—usually one short question—given at the end of class so students can show what they understood and what still feels shaky. An article from Teachers College, Columbia University, describes them as “authentic data, in real time,” because the teacher sees student thinking immediately after the lesson and before major exams. Teachers who use exit slips can adjust the very next lesson instead of waiting for unit tests, and the exit tickets end up being solid predictors of end-of-year performances.
Exit tickets also offer a safe voice for quieter students. Shy or multilingual learners can often share confusion more openly on a slip than aloud in class. Edutopia notes that students feel a sense of ownership when they jot down a lingering question, as it signals that learning is their responsibility, too.
Building a Strong Exit Ticket
A good prompt targets one lesson goal, not five. Edutopia suggests writing a single, straightforward question linked to that day’s objective, which lets students finish in under five minutes. Format can vary—paper slips, sticky notes, or digital forms—so long as the teacher can sort the answers quickly. Anonymous online polls often pull more honest feedback, especially about confusion or pacing.
Recent work at Vanderbilt University reveals another design twist: asking students to judge their own strategy, rather than just providing an answer. Traditional exit tickets ask for a fact, a quick summary, or a lingering question. The Vanderbilt project reframed the prompt so that students look inward, assessing their own preparedness and confidence.
What the Research Says About Impact
Studies across subjects echo the same theme: Frequent exit tickets nudge achievement upward. A science study in the Philippines suggests “that teachers may adapt the use of exit slips in their classes to improve academic performance among learners.” At Clemson University, research has found that instructors who used exit tickets in college courses observed clearer patterns of misunderstanding and reported smoother pacing in subsequent lectures. In another study involving Grade 9 science classes, the use of exit tickets was tied to significant gains on mid-unit quizzes after teachers regrouped students based on their responses.
Common Hurdles—and Simple Fixes
One snag is time. Students need a couple of minutes to respond, and teachers must scan the results before planning tomorrow’s lesson. Another issue is the tendency to provide superficial answers: if students think nobody reads their slips, they often scribble anything. Columbia’s team recommends showing next-day adjustments—“Yesterday, many of you asked about step two, so let’s start there”—to prove that their words matter.
Well-crafted exit tickets act as quick mirrors of learning, showing what stuck, what slipped, and where tomorrow’s lesson should begin. When teachers scan those slips and pivot instruction, research reports higher achievement and a bolder student voice, even from the quiet corners of the room. Because the routine costs almost nothing, meaningful reflection stays within reach of every classroom.
