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24 Feb 2017

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Extending time limits beyond 120 secs – Support Chief weekly “hacks”

In this week’s “weekly hack” by Support Chief Bryan, you will find out how to extend the time limit for answering each kahoot question beyond 120 seconds.

As Support Chief, I focus on helping our K!rew understand all challenges reported to us via support channels. This means I regularly help users with their questions, working to find both immediate and long-term solutions. One of the things I love most about my role is working with users to discover creative new ways to tackle challenges!

One such challenge I’ve uncovered is the occasional need to either pause a kahoot or extend a time limit beyond the maximum 120 seconds. By playing the below kahoot, you will find out how to “hack” your way to a solution to this challenge:

How to guide for the “hack”

Question #1 should be a preparation question, like “Get your calculators out!”.

Present the students with the actual question in the image field, and give the students 120 seconds to solve the question, with no wrong answer alternative.

The answer alternatives in this first question therefore needs to be very generic:

Calculation question example

If time runs out, you can use the “show image” button to display the question.

If the game option “automatically move through questions” is off, this also lets you manually move to the 2nd question once you’re confident everyone is ready, or has had sufficient time to be ready.

In the 2nd question you ask your students to provide an actual answer. Here you will have one right answer, with points:

Calculation question example

To help prevent a tie, shorter time limits result in faster point deductions. We therefore recommend 10, 15 or 20 second time limit for this question.

I’ve noticed this hack can be especially handy for:

Complex math problems and lengthy word problems

  • You can give practically any amount of time to solve without worry that the bulk of time spent solving will impact points awarded.

Groups that struggle staying motivated due to the points system

  • If you don’t want to create a survey to eliminate points altogether, this will greatly reduce the amount of time players need in order to pick an answer. Answer Streak Bonus will hold much stronger weight in ensuring “consecutive right answers” reign supreme.

Connect with us

I hope this hack serves you well and that you find new and creative ways to play with it! I’d love to hear about your experiences and discoveries. If you’re an educator and want to share a your own story with us, please feel free to join our Facebook Community, or tweet us @GetKahoot!