5 Fresh Ideas for Spring Test Review Season

Engaging, Low-Prep Math Review for Middle School Teachers Who Are Over It This Time of Year

Let’s Be Real: Spring Test Prep Is… a Lot

You know the drill—testing season rolls in just as your patience runs out. Your students are squirrelly, your to-do list is screaming, and somehow, you're still supposed to prep them for the big test while staying cool, collected, and caffeinated.

If you’re anything like me, you’ve tried the cram sessions, the review packets, and maybe even bribed them with Jolly Ranchers… but at the end of the day, we both know: the kids need something fun and effective, and we need something that doesn’t eat up our Sunday night.

These five ideas are teacher-tested, student-approved, and designed to keep your sanity (and theirs) intact. Bonus? They pair perfectly with my Digital End-of-Year Test Prep Bundle for 6th Grade Math—12 digital resources that cover everything from integers to expressions to percent proportions.

Let’s dive in, shall we?

1. Mix It Up with Digital Stations

Why this works:
Stations are the OG differentiation tool—but digital stations? Chef’s kiss. Your students stay engaged, your classroom flows smoothly, and you get to pull small groups or float around like the review rockstar you are.

Set it up like this:

• Station 1: Multiplying & Dividing Fractions
  
  
• Station 2: Solving One-Step Equations
  
  
• Station 3: Graphing on the Coordinate Plane
  
  
• Station 4: Teacher Table (a.k.a. the Reteach and Reassure Zone)
  
  

Use Google Forms, drag-and-drop, and self-checking slides so students can actually see how they’re doing, without raising their hand 82 times.

Pro tip: Use a visual timer and play low-fi beats in the background. It’s the productivity “café” your classroom didn’t know it needed.

2. Host a Review Game Day (That Basically Runs Itself)

Why this works:
Kids love games. (So do we, if we’re being honest.) When the content is solid and the structure is tight, game-based reviews hit that sweet spot of fun and focus. 

Try this:
Break out a Kahoot, Quizizz, or even one of the digital games in my bundle. I love using Percent Proportion Challenges or Integer Word Problems for this. They’re competitive, fast-paced, and low-prep, which is a win in my book.

Teacher Tip: I set a “passing percentage” goal. If students hit it, they keep going. If not, they pause and review with me for a few minutes in a small group. Simple, fair, and super effective.

3. Let Students Choose with Choice Boards

Why this works:
Choice = power. And when students feel in control of their learning, they engage in a different way. Plus, you’re not stuck walking them through every. single. step.

Try this:
Build a board with 6–8 tasks—three Must-Dos that target key skills (like Decimal Ops or Expressions), and a couple May-Dos they can complete for bonus points or classroom cash.

My Choice Boards are Google Classroom-ready and are standards-focused, which means they keep students on track with the review standard you're covering. 

💡 Teacher hack: I use these during centers, early finisher time, and even as homework. Total flexibility.

4. Let Peer Teaching Do the Heavy Lifting

Why this works:
When students teach, they really learn. It’s like math magic. And let’s be honest—sometimes their classmates explain things in ways that click way faster than our teacher-talk ever could.

Try this:
Assign each group a different standard to “master” and teach the class. Let them present with a mini-slide deck, whiteboard demo, or poster that they create in Canva. Students love to create in Canva. Thank me later. 

💬 Add a twist: Give each group a “pep talk rubric” and have students shout out something awesome another team did. It builds classroom community and makes the math stick.

5. Keep It Consistent with Spiraled Warm-Ups (Bellringers)

Why this works:
Review doesn’t always need to be a full-blown event. A quick, focused warm-up every morning helps your students revisit key skills in bite-sized ways—and helps you stay on track without reinventing the wheel. This is a staple in my classroom, even after the test is over. 

Try this:
Use 3-question mini sets from earlier in the year—think graphing, integer operations, and area. Your students won’t even notice they’ve seen it before, and you’ll save yourself HOURS in review planning.

Efficiency bonus: Have students self-grade or swap papers for peer grading. Easy peasy.

👉 Want A Done-for-You Review?

If you’re thinking, “I need this kind of prep in my life,”
Check out my End-of-Year Digital Test Prep Bundle for middle school math. You’ll get:

• 12 interactive, self-checking activities
  
  
• Skills like Ratios, Unit Rates, Equations, Volume, Expressions, and more
  
  
• Digital formats that work for centers, homework, whole group, and early finishers
  
  
• Everything prepped and ready to assign—no stress, no mess
  

Review Doesn’t Have to Run You Ragged

You don’t need to reinvent the wheel or run yourself into the ground to help your students crush their end-of-year math test. With the right mix of structure, student choice, and digital tools, review can actually be something you enjoy—yes, even in May.