Alright, so with the AP World exam looming, just reading notes felt kinda boring. I figured, hey, why not make studying a bit more fun? I decided to put together a Jeopardy game based on the course material. Seemed like a decent way to review everything.
Getting Started: The Plan
First thing, I had to figure out the categories. I looked over the main units we covered in class:
- Early Times (Like Units 1 & 2)
- Trade & Interactions (Units 3 & 4 focus)
- Big Changes (Empires & Revolutions – Units 5 & 6)
- The Modern Mess (20th Century onwards – Units 7-9)
- Random Important People
Yeah, kept the names simple. Then I just used the standard Jeopardy point values: 100, 200, 300, 400, 500 for each category. The idea was tougher questions would be worth more points, obviously.
Digging for Questions
This part took a bit of time. I basically went through my class notes, the textbook chapters, and even some old review sheets I had. For each category, I started writing down facts or concepts that could be turned into answers (you know, Jeopardy style where the answer is given, and you need the question). I tried to match the difficulty to the point value. So, 100-point questions were pretty basic recall, while 500-pointers were more about connecting ideas or specific details. I just dumped all these questions and answers into a document first, sorting them by category and points.
Building the Actual Game Board
I decided to use Google Slides for this – seemed easy enough. I made the first slide the main game board. I created a table, basically, with the category names across the top and the point values (100 to 500) listed below each one. Just typed the numbers into boxes.
Making it interactive was key. For each box with a point value (like “Trade & Interactions” for 200), I needed to make it clickable. This was probably the trickiest part to get right initially.
Linking Questions and Answers
Okay, so after the main board slide, I made a separate slide for every single question. So, if I had 5 categories with 5 questions each, that’s 25 question slides. Then, another 25 slides for the answers.
Here’s how the linking worked:
- On the main board, I selected the text box for “100” under “Early Times”. I used the link feature in Slides to link this box directly to the slide containing the “Early Times 100” question.
- On each question slide, I put the “answer” (which is really the clue in Jeopardy). I added a simple button or text at the bottom saying something like “Show Answer”. I linked this button to the corresponding answer slide.
- On each answer slide, I put the actual question (the response players need to give). Then, I added another button like “Back to Board” and linked that back to the main game board slide.
I also tried to figure out how to make the point values disappear or change color on the main board after they were clicked. In Slides, you can set links to change color after being visited, which worked okay to show which ones we’d already done.
Testing and Fixing
Once I had everything set up, I went into presentation mode and started clicking. Clicked every single point value, checked if it went to the right question, clicked “Show Answer,” checked if the answer was correct, and then clicked “Back to Board.” Found a few links that went to the wrong slide and some typos in the questions/answers. Just had to go back into edit mode and fix them one by one. Took a little patience but got it sorted.
Game Time!
I first tried it out with a couple of friends in my study group. We just hooked my laptop up to a bigger screen. It was actually pretty fun! Much better than just quizzing each other with flashcards. People got competitive, which helped everyone remember stuff. It highlighted areas we were weak on too.
Was it Worth It?
Honestly, yeah. It took maybe an afternoon to put together, mostly gathering the questions and doing all the linking. But it was a cool way to review a ton of material without it feeling like a total chore. Plus, now I have this reusable game for final review. If you’re looking for a different study method for AP World (or any subject, really), give making a Jeopardy game a shot. Didn’t need any fancy software, just slides and some time.
