20 formative assessment examples for the digital classroom
By Sidhi Baweja
Sidhi Baweja leads marketing at AssessPrep, the on-screen assessment platform used by 800+ international schools. She writes about formative assessment, classroom assessment techniques, and digital exam practice for IB, Cambridge and Pearson teachers.
TL;DR
Key takeaway | What it means for your class |
Formative assessment examples are quick, low-stakes checks during learning. | You catch confusion while there is still time to fix it. |
The best ones are fast to set and fast to read. | You get the data without losing your evening to marking. |
They sort into three types: on-the-fly, planned-in, and curriculum-embedded. | Pick the right tool for the moment, not the same one every time. |
Run them on-screen and each comes back with instant class data. | You walk into the next lesson already knowing who needs help. |
Formative assessment examples include exit tickets, hinge questions, think-pair-share, mini-whiteboard polls, low-stakes quizzes, peer and self-assessment, and quick concept maps: short, low-stakes checks teachers use during learning to see who understands and adjust teaching before a graded assessment.
You already use a lot of these. The hard part is picking the right one for the moment, and running it so reading the results does not eat your evening. This guide gives you 20 formative assessment examples mapped to IB, Cambridge and Pearson classrooms, with the on-screen version of each so you get instant class data instead of a stack to mark. It is the practical companion to our complete formative assessment guide.
What is a formative assessment?
A formative assessment is a low-stakes check of understanding during learning, used to adjust teaching while there is still time to act. It is usually not graded, and that is the point: students can be honest about what they have not grasped yet. For why it works and the evidence behind it, see our guide on what formative assessment is and why it works. This post is about the examples. On a digital assessment platform, every check below can run on-screen and come back with instant class results.
20 formative assessment examples for the digital classroom
Here are 20 formative assessment examples, grouped by how you run them. Each one works on paper, and each one works better on-screen when the data comes back instantly.
Quick checks during the lesson
1. Exit ticket. One short question students answer before they leave, so you see who got the lesson. After an MYP science class, set three questions on the key idea. Run as an on-screen check and they auto-mark, so you read the whole class in seconds.
2. Hinge question. A single diagnostic question at a turning point in the lesson. If most students get it wrong, you reteach before moving on. As a live poll, the results land before you have finished reading the room.
3. Mini-whiteboard or on-screen poll. Every student answers at once instead of the same three hands going up. You get a true whole-class snapshot, not a sample of the keenest.
4. Confidence check. Students rate how sure they feel with red, amber or green. A fast way to spot quiet confusion before a Cambridge IGCSE topic test.
5. One-minute paper. At the end of a lesson, students write one thing they understood and one thing they did not. It surfaces gaps you would otherwise miss until the test.
Questioning and discussion
6. Think-pair-share. Students think alone, talk in pairs, then share. The quality of answers jumps, and you can hear who is reasoning rather than guessing.
7. Cold call. You choose who answers instead of taking hands. It keeps every student ready and gives a truer read of understanding across the room.
8. Socratic questioning. A chain of "why" and "how" questions that pushes students to justify their thinking. Strong for IB DP reasoning and Theory of Knowledge style discussion.
9. Misconception vote. A true or false question built around a common error. The spread of answers tells you exactly what to reteach.
10. Two stars and a wish. A structured peer comment: two things that worked, one to improve. Students learn the success criteria by applying them to real work.
Low-stakes digital tasks
11. Ungraded auto-marked quiz. A short quiz that does not count towards a grade, marked instantly. Because it is low-stakes, students stay honest about what they do not know.
12. Multiple-choice diagnostic. A quick set drawn from a question bank to check prior knowledge before a unit. It tells you where to start instead of guessing.
13. Short-answer item. A one or two line written response. For Edexcel and Cambridge classes, mirror the command words of the real paper so the practice transfers.
14. Drag-and-drop or hotspot question. Students order steps or label a diagram on screen. This checks the process and structure, not just recall of facts.
15. Retrieval-practice starter. A few questions on last week’s content at the start of the lesson. Self-marked, it strengthens memory and flags what has faded. In maths, students can check an algebra starter against a simplification calculator’s worked steps to see exactly where their method slipped.
Reflection and metacognition
16. Self-assessment against criteria. Students score their own work against the rubric before you do. How close they get shows whether they understand the standard.
17. Peer marking. Students mark each other's work to the criteria. They spot common mistakes and learn the marking lens at the same time.
18. Learning log. A running record of what a student is understanding and finding difficult across a unit. Tools like Flipsnack can help students organise reflections, project updates, and supporting materials into an interactive digital publication.
19. KWL chart. What students Know, Want to know, and have Learned. A clean before-and-after picture of a topic.
20. Concept map. Students map how ideas connect. It reveals whether their knowledge is joined up or just a list of facts.
Run any of these on-screen and the marking and the class analytics come back on their own, which is what makes doing them regularly realistic.
Types of formative assessment
The 20 examples sort into three types of formative assessment, defined by when you use them. The point is to use all three across a unit, not the same one every lesson.
Type | When it happens | Examples from the list |
On-the-fly | Spontaneous, mid-lesson | Cold call, confidence check, mini-whiteboard |
Planned-in | Built into the lesson plan | Exit ticket, hinge question, low-stakes quiz |
Curriculum-embedded | Recurring across a unit | Learning log, peer marking, concept map |
Mixing the three gives you both the quick read in the moment and the longer view of how understanding is building. The fastest way to do this is by using AssessPrep’s curriculum aligned question banks, so the planned checks and the spontaneous ones live in one place.
How to run formative assessment on-screen at scale
Formative assessment only works if it is sustainable, and marking 30 exit tickets by hand every lesson is not. Going digital is what makes the habit stick: auto-marking, instant item-level analytics, a reusable question bank, and AI grading for the open responses that used to take longest.
An MYP science teacher we work with swapped paper exit tickets for a four-question on-screen check. She walked into the next lesson already knowing which two students to pull aside, without marking a single slip. That is the difference: same technique, no evening lost to it.
AssessPrep runs all of these formats for 800+ schools across 85+ countries, with the same checks mapped to IB, Cambridge and Pearson teaching. If you want the rollout view rather than the classroom one, see implementing digital assessments in IB schools.
Conclusion
Good formative assessment is not about doing more. It is about quick, regular checks that show you who is following and who is lost, while you can still do something about it. Pick a handful of these formative assessment examples, run them on-screen so the data comes back to you, and let the results steer the next lesson.
Key Takeaways
Formative assessment examples are low-stakes checks during learning, not graded tests.
The best ones are fast to set and fast to read, so you can run them often.
They fall into three types: on-the-fly, planned-in, and curriculum-embedded. Use all three.
Running them on-screen gives you instant class data and removes the marking that kills the habit.
The same examples map cleanly onto IB, Cambridge and Pearson teaching.
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Frequently asked questions
What are examples of formative assessment?
Common formative assessment examples include exit tickets, hinge questions, think-pair-share, mini-whiteboard or on-screen polls, low-stakes quizzes, multiple-choice diagnostics, self-assessment, peer marking, and concept maps. They are all short, low-stakes checks used during learning to see who understands before a graded assessment. On a platform like AssessPrep, used by 800+ schools in 85+ countries, each one runs on-screen and returns instant class results.
What is an exit ticket?
An exit ticket is one short question students answer at the end of a lesson, before they leave, so the teacher can see who understood the key idea. It is quick, low-stakes, and usually ungraded. Run digitally, a three-question exit ticket auto-marks and gives the teacher a whole-class snapshot in seconds, which makes it practical to use every lesson rather than once in a while.
What are the types of formative assessment?
Formative assessment sorts into three types by when you use it. On-the-fly checks are spontaneous and mid-lesson, like cold call or a confidence check. Planned-in checks are built into the lesson, like an exit ticket or hinge question. Curriculum-embedded checks recur across a unit, like a learning log or peer marking. Using all three gives both a quick read in the moment and a longer view of how understanding is building.
What is the difference between formative assessment and a quiz?
A quiz is one format, while formative assessment is the wider purpose of checking understanding during learning to adjust teaching. A quiz can be formative when it is low-stakes and the results change what you teach next, or summative when it counts towards a grade. The key is intent: formative checks are used to inform teaching, not just to record a score.
How do you run formative assessment online?
You run formative assessment online by setting short, low-stakes checks on a digital assessment platform that auto-marks them and shows class-level analytics instantly. Exit tickets, polls, diagnostics and quizzes mark themselves, and AI grading handles open responses. This removes the marking that makes frequent formative assessment unsustainable on paper. AssessPrep does this for IB, Cambridge and Pearson schools from a single question bank, which is what separates it from a basic quiz tool.
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