How to Create a Romeo and Juliet Quiz for Acts 1-5 That Doesn’t Waste Students’ Time—or Yours

Quizzes on Romeo and Juliet are one of those things I know I need to give—but I also kind of dread. 

I want to know if my students are understanding the play, to see if I need to change things up, to get some grades in my grade books, and yeah, to be honest, I want to catch that kid in the back of the room who said he was paying attention when I’m pretty sure he was not.  

But I can’t stand the idea of wasting their time and mine making them take inane quizzes that focus on plot recall or trivial details.  Questions asking them to choose whether Romeo compares Juliet to A) the sun, B) the moon, C) the stars, or D) an angel when he first sees her is just not worth the paper it’s printed on. 

But getting students to analyze the metaphors Romeo and Juliet use—and what those reveal about their ideas of love? Now that’s worth my time and theirs.

A good quiz shouldn’t just check if students were paying attention—it should extend the learning.

If you’re just looking for something ready to use that avoids all that busywork, I’ve put together quizzes for every act—you can check them out here. Or if you’d rather create your own non-inane quizzes, read on for my suggestions.

Here are my tips for creating quizzes on the acts of Romeo and Juliet that aren’t just busywork—no matter how you’ve taught the play. 

I start off with a quote ID section.  For the first section of the quiz, I have students match a speaker to a quote. I like quote IDs over multiple choice because they reward students who have grappled with the text. Students don’t have to understand every word—but if they’ve spent time working through the language beforehand, they tend to do well with quote IDs.

I like to include a quote bank for these questions, because honestly I didn’t remember which one is Tybalt and which one is Benvolio until I could picture John Leguizamo’s fabulous red vest.  But what’s really important is that I make sure that there is more than one clue in the quote for students to identify the speaker.  

So, for example, I might give students the quote “With love’s light wings did I o’erperch these walls, / For stony limits cannot hold love out, / And what love can do, that dares love attempt.”  While they might not remember every detail of Act 2 Scene 2, they will likely remember that Romeo climbs the wall to see Juliet, that he says that he was able to climb the wall with love, or that he is excessively effusive with his statements of love—any of these details will help them figure out the right answer.

I also like to give them choice for these IDs.  For a fairly simple quiz on the acts, giving students fifteen quotes and having them answer ten means means they need a strong understanding of the act—but if they zoned out during one discussion, they’ll still be okay.  If it’s an honors class, I might have them answer twelve out of fifteen instead.

Then, I have students write short essays based on the quotes.  Since they have fifteen quotes to choose from, students will also have plenty to write about—assuming that the quotes have also been chosen to fit the themes of the short essays.  So I might give them this prompt: “Discuss the play’s portrayal of love. Questions to consider: How do Romeo and Juliet view love? How do the other characters view love? How does the play as a whole view love? What point does the second act make about love?” And then they can use Romeo’s quote about love giving him wings to answer their question. They might write about how in the second act of Romeo and Juliet, the characters believe that love is a powerful force that is able to overcome almost any hurdle, but the play as a whole casts doubts on those views.  If I’m quizzing them on Act 3, I might give them a prompt about death or parenting, or if I’m quizzing them on Act 4, I have them write on the theme of marriage or how to raise a daughter. This kind of short essay gives them choice, a way to show their understanding of the big ideas of the play, as well as an opportunity to improve their writing skills.  

When I grade the short essays, I use the same rubric every time, so students know what to expect.  It focuses on ideas, evidence, and organization.  So when I grade their short essays, I get feedback on who’s confused about whether or not Juliet is a Capulet or a Montague—but I also get feedback on who needs to work on writing idea statements and who needs a review of how to incorporate evidence into an argument.

I hope you can take these tips and create some quizzes for your Romeo and Juliet unit that manage to show who’s paying attention—and who’s just faking it—without resorting to inane gotcha details. 

If you like this approach but don’t want to build it all from scratch, I’ve put together quizzes for every act using this exact format—with carefully chosen quotes that include multiple clues, prompts that connect to those quotes and to the play’s themes, plus answer keys and sample essays so you can see what strong responses look like (and share them with students if you’d like). You can check it out here.