How Many? in the classroom

For teachers, lecturers and workshop facilitators. How Many? asks students two things: the question itself, then "how many of your classmates got it right?" Only the second earns points. That makes it a low-pressure way to break the ice, review material, and find out what the room really understood.

Why it works with a class

• Not knowing isn't losing. A student who missed the answer can still top the round by guessing the count well. Nobody sits out because they're behind.
• Students think about each other's understanding. To guess the count, they have to ask "is this something we covered well?" That's a useful habit, and it often starts the discussion on its own.
• You get a number straight away. Every result shows how many of the students who answered got it right. Twelve out of twenty-eight tells you more than a show of hands.
• The surprise is the lesson. When the class expected "almost everyone" and the real count is a third, you've found exactly what to revisit.

Setting up the room

1. On the projector computer, open howmany.games, enter your name and create a room. Choose Host only: you run the game and don't compete, which matters because you know the answers.
2. In the lobby, copy the Big screen link and open it on the projector. It shows a large QR code and the four-letter room code.
3. Students scan the QR code with their phone camera and type a name. No app, no account, no email. Names can be up to 12 characters and must be unique, so first name plus initial works well.
4. Pick your questions (below), set the rules, and once everyone is in, turn on Lock room if you don't want anyone else to join.

If a name is inappropriate, tap it in the player list and choose Remove; that device can't rejoin the room.

Writing your own questions

For lesson review you'll want your own material. In the lobby, tap Questions and choose Write your own:

• Write up to 50 questions per room, up to 200 characters each. They're asked in the order you list them, and you can reorder them in the question list, so you can follow the lesson.
• Multiple choice takes 2 to 6 options. It's the safest type for review because answers are checked automatically and spelling can't trip anyone up.
• Short answer is checked against what you wrote, ignoring spaces and capitals. Add up to 10 other accepted answers, one per line, for alternative spellings. For number answers, students can write the number any way they like; you can add a unit and a margin of error from 0 to ±50% for estimation questions.
• This or that has two options and no right answer. Useful for opinions and quick self-checks.
• Add a link to a question and it shows up only on the result screen as "Read more" — after the reveal, so it can't be used to look up the answer.
• You can give important questions 2× points and tag each with a difficulty and topic, which students see while guessing.

Your questions are kept in the browser you wrote them in. If you sign in with Google, you can save them to your library as question sets (up to 20 sets of 50 questions) and load them in any room, on any device — handy for reusing a review set with several classes. Duplicate a set to make a variant for another group.

Using the results to discuss

The result screen has no timer. The game waits for you, so take the time to talk:

• The count. "Eleven of you got it. Let's hear from someone who chose B — what made it look right?"
• The guess chart. Every result shows what everyone guessed next to the real number. If most guesses were high, the class overestimated itself; ask why.
• Common wrong answers. Once at least 10 students get it wrong, the big screen shows a cloud of the wrong answers, sized by how many gave each one, with no names. A misconception shows up as one big word.
• Recent questions. During guessing, students can open "Review the last 3 questions" to see the earlier hit rates, which helps them calibrate.
• The wrap-up. The final screen picks out the "Biggest surprise" — the question where the class guessed worst. That's your best candidate for next lesson's starter.

Example questions

Icebreakers (built-in this-or-that questions)

These come from the built-in list. They appear as polls in Party Mix and as spotlight questions in Spotlight; in your own set, the this-or-that editor's "Pick from examples" offers several of them (early bird or night owl, coffee or tea, books or movies), and you can type any of the others yourself.

1. Early bird or night owl?
2. Books or movies?
3. Planner or wing it?
4. Window seat or aisle?
5. Coffee or tea?

Spotlight puts one person in the spotlight each round, so it suits a small seminar or a workshop table better than a lecture hall.

Warm-ups from the built-in packs

From General Knowledge, Geography, Pub Quiz and Riddles. A good five-minute starter while people settle in.

6. How many continents are there? (Geography — typed: 7)
7. What's the largest ocean on Earth? (Geography — Pacific)
8. Which country has the most people? (Geography — India)
9. What's the largest hot desert in the world? (Geography — Sahara)
10. Which gas do plants take in from the air? (General Knowledge — carbon dioxide)
11. What's the chemical symbol for gold? (General Knowledge — typed: Au)
12. Who wrote Romeo and Juliet? (Pub Quiz — William Shakespeare)
13. What's the longest bone in the human body? (Pub Quiz — femur)
14. What has to be broken before you can use it? (Riddles — typed: egg)
15. What has hands but can't clap? (Riddles — typed: clock)

Lesson review ideas to write yourself

These aren't in any pack — they're patterns to adapt to your subject with Write your own.

16. Multiple choice on a common confusion: "Which of these is NOT a renewable energy source? Solar / Wind / Natural gas / Geothermal."
17. Spelling as multiple choice: "Which is spelled correctly? Necessary / Neccessary / Necesary."
18. Typed number: "What is 15% of 80?" (answer 12).
19. A date: "In what year did the Second World War end?" (answer 1945, margin 0%).
20. Estimation with a margin: "Roughly how far is the Moon from Earth, in km?" Answer 384,400, unit km, margin ±10%, so 350,000 counts.
21. Formula with accepted answers: "What's the chemical formula for table salt?" Answer NaCl; add "sodium chloride" as another accepted answer.
22. Workshop recap: "What was the first step in the framework we just covered?" with the real steps as options.
23. Self-check (this or that): "I could explain today's main idea to a friend: Yes / Not yet." Hide names for this one.
24. Prediction about the class: "Did you do the reading before today? Yes / No." The guess round becomes "how many of us actually did?"

Classroom tips

• Devices. Any phone, tablet or laptop with a browser works. If some students don't have one, pair them up: one device, one player, and they'll discuss their answer.
• Timing. Standard timers give 30 seconds to answer and 20 to guess. For typed or calculation questions, raise the answer time in Rules & timers (any value from 5 to 300 seconds). Each step ends early once everyone has submitted, and you can tap Close now to stop waiting. Ten questions with discussion fit comfortably in 15–20 minutes.
• Start with practice. Turn on the practice round: one easy built-in question with no points. It doesn't use your own questions.
• Group size. A room holds up to 300 players. With 8 or fewer answering, points depend on how close the guess was rather than on rank, which keeps small seminar groups competitive. For a large class, avoid Players ask — everyone writing one question means dozens of rounds. In a small group, though, having each student write a question about the material is an excellent review exercise.
• Keep it inclusive. Turn off Show who got it right so results show counts only. Wrong answers never show names, and the wrong-answer cloud only appears with at least 10 wrong answers, so individuals can't be singled out. With names on, poll results show who picked which side, so switch names off for any personal question.
• Keep the last round alive. Double points in the last round gives students at the bottom a reason to stay focused.
• Language. Each student can switch their screen between English and Korean; the questions stay in the room's language.
• Privacy. Students don't sign in. Names and answers stay in server memory only while the room is open. See the privacy policy.

For every setting in detail, see the host guide. For other settings, see ways to play and the FAQ.

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