It starts like this: a quiet kid in the back of the classroom suddenly becomes animated during review time. Hands shoot up. Voices get louder. The room feels less like a worksheet factory and more like a gaming lounge. The reason? A platform called Gimkit, where knowledge meets gameplay, and where kids are quietly using a series of tricks to make school feel more like a game.
Some of these tricks are ingenious. Others are manipulative. All of them point to something we should be paying attention to: students want to be challenged, but they also want control, strategy, and meaning. In a world where rote memorization feels increasingly disconnected from real life, Gimkit has become a kind of Trojan horse for engagement. And it’s prompting a growing number of teachers to rethink what “educational technology” really means.
Let’s unpack what’s happening.
What Is Gimkit, and Why Are Students Hooked?
At its surface, Gimkit looks like just another quiz app. Teachers build question sets, students answer them live in class or as homework, and everyone walks away with a score. But there’s a twist. In Gimkit, each correct answer earns players virtual currency. That currency can then be used to buy power-ups like more points per question, faster game speed, shields, or even sabotage tools in competitive modes.
In short, it’s quiz-based learning dressed up in the mechanics of an online game.
What makes it stand out, though, is the level of agency it gives students. It’s not just answer and move on. It’s answer, earn, strategize, upgrade, repeat. For kids raised on Roblox and Fortnite, this model feels familiar. It taps into the same reward systems, the same sense of autonomy and investment.
But students aren’t just playing Gimkit. Increasingly, they’re hacking it.
The Tricks: How Students Are Turning Gimkit Into a Game Within a Game
Let’s be clear, most of these Gimkit hacks aren’t cheats. They’re uses of the system that bend toward gameplay over pedagogy. They’re the equivalent of finding the shortcut in Mario Kart or stacking resources in Minecraft, not rule-breaking but rule-stretching.
- Racing Mode Tweaks
Racing Mode, students race to finish a set of questions. But some clever players discovered that you can slow down movement speed, add invisible barriers that only disappear with virtual purchases, and tweak energy regeneration rates. The result is a mental maze that rewards long-term planning over speed.
As one student shared in a forum post:
“You can make a mode where movement is slow and you have to buy speed-ups with energy. The questions are tied to an item granter. Basically, every answer helps you move faster. It’s like racing with training wheels you have to earn.”
- Power-Up Hoarding
Instead of using power-ups to win immediately, students delay gratification, saving virtual currency and then unleashing a barrage of upgrades late in the game. It’s a classic risk-reward calculation, and it mimics real gaming strategies. - Tag and Capture the Flag Mode Escapes
Teachers love these modes for encouraging teamwork and fast thinking. Students love them because you can dodge the academic part. Some use the modes’ mechanics to simply play tag or chase without focusing on the questions.
One teacher said it this way on Reddit:
“Kids in my middle school found a way to play on Gimkit without actually reviewing anything. I think it’s the tag or Capture the Flag one. Basically, ruined the fun because they didn’t want the educational part, just wanted to be off task.”
- Creative Mode as a Sandbox
Gimkit’s Creative Mode lets players build their own maps with spawn points, mazes, traps, and power-up vending machines. Students have started designing levels that are less about question mastery and more about architectural brilliance or trolling friends. - Questionless “Gaming” Sessions
In some cases, students have figured out how to strip out the questions altogether. They paste the link to a kit but disable the actual quiz items, creating a playground where game dynamics take center stage. The educational element disappears. But the energy? Off the charts.
What’s Driving This Behavior?
You could chalk it up to distraction. But that misses the deeper point.
Students are seeking challenge, strategy, creativity, and agency. They’re pushing against passive learning models that reward recall more than reasoning. They want to play with ideas, not just consume them.
In a traditional classroom, success means coloring within the lines. Gimkit lets them redraw the lines.
These tricks are a signal, not of disengagement, but of misalignment. Kids aren’t checking out. They’re showing up, just not for what the curriculum thinks they should be. They’re showing up for power, narrative, and autonomy.
How Teachers Are Responding
The reactions vary. Some educators shut it down. Others lean in.
- Rethinking Mode Selection
Teachers who’ve noticed tricks taking over are starting to choose game modes intentionally. Classic review modes get used for core content. Creative modes get slotted into free periods or used as a reward. - Bringing Play into Pedagogy
Some teachers are flipping the script. They assign students to design review games or explain why their power-up strategy worked, turning gameplay into a metacognitive exercise. What used to be a side-hustle for fun becomes a reflection on strategy and learning. - Building Boundaries with Flexibility
There’s a sweet spot: set clear parameters like questions must stay active or creative mode requires a quiz link, but leave room for creativity. Some teachers allow gameplay-heavy sessions after a quiz or project, as a decompression tool that’s still connected to learning. - Surfacing the Learning Behind the Play
After a chaotic Capture the Flag session, one middle school teacher asked students to write journal entries on what strategies worked best and why. The answers weren’t about scores. They were about decision-making, team dynamics, and risk analysis.
Should Teachers Embrace or Tame the Tricks?
Here’s a thoughtful breakdown:
| Strategy | Benefits | Risks |
| Embrace with Structure | Engagement skyrockets; students feel agency | May distract from core content; uneven results for all kids |
| Control Game Modes | Keeps learning aligned and content-first | Loses some creative and strategic engagement |
| Blend Play and Reflection | Builds metacognitive skills: “Why did that trick work?” | Requires time and planning; not one-size-fits-all |
The Case for Letting Kids Play, But With Purpose
Gimkit isn’t perfect. Like any tech tool, it can distract as much as it can engage. But when kids start bending the rules of the system, not to avoid work but to reshape it, we should pay attention. Not to shut it down, but to learn from it.
Because school could use more design thinking. More autonomy. More creative constraint.
When students feel like players instead of pawns, everything changes. They experiment, take risks. They think out loud; that’s flow.
And maybe the future of education isn’t about banning the tricks.
Maybe it’s about building better games.
