7 Things You Need to Know About Boom Cards

I LOVE using Boom Cards for instant feedback with students, but if you’re new to the platform, it can be a bit tricky. That’s exactly why I’ve put together this list of Boom Card FAQs to help you get started with confidence and clarity!

Do I have to pay to use Boom Cards?

No. You can set up your free teacher account and assign them to your students using a fast pin.

How do I create a fast pin?

Here are the step by step instructions:

1. Sign up or sign into your Boom Account
2. Add a deck to your library (if you don’t have any yet) or just..
3. Go to your library to find the deck you want to use.
4. Click Action
5. Choose Fast Play
6. Share the link with your students on whatever platform you use!

A fast pin link works for 2 weeks with the generated code. At the end of a fast pin play, there’s a little screen to tell them how they did. This is what some of my friends have their students submit to them. You can also just share the link as practice!

How do I redeem Boom Cards purchased on TPT?

Here are the step by step instructions:

1. Download the PDF
2. Click the redemption link
3. Sign into Boom or create your account
4. Fill out the redemption form

If you’re not sure what your order number is, that can be found in your receipt which you can access on your My Purchases page!

Real Talk: Boom Card FAQs for Everyday Teachers

Let’s be honest. You do not have time to sit through long tech tutorials or troubleshoot why a student says the screen “ate their answer.” I get it. That’s why I wanted to go a step further with these Boom Card FAQs and give you real talk on how teachers actually use them in a classroom that is sometimes organized chaos.

First off, Boom Cards are magic for practice. Whether you’re reviewing vocabulary, working on listening skills, or reinforcing grammar, they give instant feedback that feels like a win. Want a quick check-in? Use the fast pin. Need a quiet work day? Assign a deck and let your students plug in their headphones and go.

Another tip? Mix and match with paper. Yes, digital is great, but sometimes you just want to print a few and use them in stations. Boom Card FAQs come in handy here too because teachers are often surprised by how many flexible options the platform offers, like customizing the deck or hiding cards you want to skip.

It says there are X number of cards in the deck, but my students are only seeing 20 when they play. Why?

Some decks have 50-80 cards! The default play is 20 and it draws from the “bank” of cards automatically. If you want to, you can increase or decrease the number of cards played.

This might be nice if you don’t want students to play through 20, or if you wanted to do a quick exit ticket of 5-10 questions.

You could also give students a larger assignment than the default of 20, but something to keep in mind is that they may grow fatigued if the assignment is too long! Click here for a detailed tutorial.

Is there a way to choose which cards students practice with in a large deck?

Yes! You can customize decks like this:

1. Sign into your Boom Learning account
2. Go to your Library
3. Find the deck you want to customize
4. Click Action
5. Select Hide Cards from the menu that appears
6. Navigate through the deck, clicking “Hide card” on any cards you would like to hide from student play.
7. To undo, follow the same steps, but select “Unhide Card”

Click here for a more detailed tutorial.

The fill in the blank cards are marking everything wrong and showing a long list of answers when they click “Give up”. What is going on ?

This is because it is a computer grading. The computer cannot “read” the student answer and know, “Oh, they were close, I’ll give them the point!”. There are multiple correct answers shown because I’ve added variations to try to account for students adding or forgetting the punctuation.

Any of the answers shown will be accepted, but they do not have to submit a long list of answers. Students do not have to type in all possible answers.

For example, they might type, “Tengo 10 años.” or “Yo tengo 10 años.” Both of those would be marked as correct, but the student does not have to type in “Tengo 10 años. Yo tengo 10 años.” in order to get that card scored correctly.

Please let me know if you have any further questions about the fill in the blank cards!

Can I print Boom Cards?

It’s very simple to print a set of Boom Cards. Go to your Library on Boom Learning, click Action and select Print. Then just choose your formatting, click print and follow the instructions on your device! Watch a full tutorial here.

Want to grab a set to try?

Go Beyond the Basics with Boom Card FAQs

Now that you have the basics, let’s talk about making Boom Cards part of your routine without losing your mind. Use them as warm-ups, exit tickets, sub day saviors, or even part of a game day rotation. You can assign different decks to different levels and track progress if you want that data piece. But the best part is still how little prep is needed once your decks are ready.

If you are still feeling stuck, revisit this post and scroll through the Boom Card FAQs section for troubleshooting help and extra ideas. It’s meant to grow with you. Whether you are just starting or a Boom Cards regular, there is always something new to try.

Want to give it a go? Click here to try a free set and watch how easily it fits into your class flow.