Back to the interactive quiz

Free printable · 1 student page + 1 answer key page

Ancient & Medieval Quiz — printable worksheet

The ancient & medieval quiz as a worksheet you can photocopy. 7 multiple-choice questions with tick boxes and no answers on the student pages, spanning 2570 BC to 1455. The teacher answer key prints on its own sheet at the end with the correct letter, the year and a one-line explanation for every question, so you can hand out the quiz and keep the answers. Same questions as the online quiz — nothing is generated at print time.

7 questionsGrades 6–12 · KS2–KS5 · ages 11–1810–20 minutesA4 & US Letter
Play it on screen instead

How to run it

  1. 1Print 1 worksheet page per student. The last 1 page is the answer key — print that separately, or your class marks itself.
  2. 2Run it closed-book first, then let pairs compare answers before you reveal anything. The argument between two confident wrong answers is the lesson.
  3. 3Mark from the key, then ask students to write the decade they were sure about next to every question they missed.
  4. 4Follow up on screen: the same 7 questions are playable at historyguesser.app/quiz/ancient-medieval-history-quiz, with the explanation shown the moment they answer.

Free to photocopy for your classes. Keep the footer credit and use it as often as you like.

Preview — this is exactly what prints

Ancient & Medieval Quiz — printable worksheet

Tick one box per question. Guess if you have to — a wrong answer you can explain is worth more than a blank.

HistoryGuesser

Name
Class
Date

7 questions · 2570 BC to 1455 · one answer per question · no notes unless your teacher says otherwise.

  1. 1.

    In what year did this happen: Colosseum Construction, Ancient Rome?

    • A 65 BC
    • B AD 78
    • C AD 180
    • D AD 184
  2. 2.

    Which of these events happened first?

    • A Gutenberg's Print Shop, Mainz
    • B Eruption of Mount Vesuvius, Pompeii
    • C Zheng He's Treasure Fleet Expedition
    • D Signing of Magna Carta at Runnymede
  3. 3.

    In what year did this happen: Parthenon Under Construction, Athens?

    • A 777 BC
    • B 617 BC
    • C 614 BC
    • D 430 BC
  4. 4.

    Which of these events happened first?

    • A Colosseum Construction, Ancient Rome
    • B Signing of Magna Carta at Runnymede
    • C Construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza
    • D Zheng He's Treasure Fleet Expedition
  5. 5.

    In what year did this happen: Gutenberg's Print Shop, Mainz?

    • A 1339
    • B 1380
    • C 1455
    • D 1572
  6. 6.

    In what year did this happen: Signing of Magna Carta at Runnymede?

    • A 1113
    • B 1215
    • C 1239
    • D 1278
  7. 7.

    In what year did this happen: Zheng He's Treasure Fleet Expedition?

    • A 1308
    • B 1370
    • C 1406
    • D 1420

Score and reflection

Score / 7

Which question were you most confident about, and what made you sure?

Which one caught you out, and what would have given the date away?

Student sheet 1 of 1 · free to copy for classroom use.historyguesser.app

Ancient & Medieval Quiz — answer key

Teacher copy. Correct letter, the year, and why it is right. Do not photocopy with the student pages.

HistoryGuesser

  1. 1.

    In what year did this happen: Colosseum Construction, Ancient Rome?

    B — AD 78

    Colosseum Construction, Ancient Rome — AD 78. The Colosseum's arena floor could be flooded for mock naval battles, and underground trap doors lifted gladiators and wild animals to the surface.

  2. 2.

    Which of these events happened first?

    B — Eruption of Mount Vesuvius, Pompeii

    Eruption of Mount Vesuvius, Pompeii came first, in AD 79. Vesuvius buried Pompeii so quickly that bread was still in ovens—volcanic ash preserved the city as a time capsule for 1,700 years.

  3. 3.

    In what year did this happen: Parthenon Under Construction, Athens?

    D — 430 BC

    Parthenon Under Construction, Athens — 430 BC. Building the Parthenon required transporting 13,000 tons of marble from a quarry 10 miles away—all without modern machinery.

  4. 4.

    Which of these events happened first?

    C — Construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza

    Construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza came first, in 2570 BC. The Great Pyramid was the world's tallest structure for 3,800 years and was built so precisely that a piece of paper can't fit between many stones.

  5. 5.

    In what year did this happen: Gutenberg's Print Shop, Mainz?

    C — 1455

    Gutenberg's Print Shop, Mainz — 1455. Before 1450, Europe had 30,000 books; by 1500, over 9 million. Gutenberg ironically died penniless after losing a lawsuit to his financial backer.

  6. 6.

    In what year did this happen: Signing of Magna Carta at Runnymede?

    B — 1215

    Signing of Magna Carta at Runnymede — 1215. King John never signed Magna Carta—he sealed it, then immediately got papal annulment. It only became law after his death when reissued by his nine-year-old son.

  7. 7.

    In what year did this happen: Zheng He's Treasure Fleet Expedition?

    D — 1420

    Zheng He's Treasure Fleet Expedition — 1420. Zheng He's 400-foot treasure ships dwarfed Columbus's ships 70 years later—his fleet of 300 vessels reached East Africa decades before European explorers.

Marking bands (out of 7)

  • Time Lord7
  • Grand Historian6
  • History Buff5
  • Apprentice3–4
  • Tourist0–2

After the quiz

  • Mark sequence questions separately from date questions — students who can order events but not date them need a timeline, not more facts.
  • For every miss, ask which decade they were sure of. The size of that window tells you more than the tick.
  • Every event has a written account at historyguesser.app/moments if a class disputes a date.
Answer key 1 of 1 · teacher copy · 2 pages in total.historyguesser.app

More printable quizzes

Printing these quizzes

Are the printable quizzes free?

Yes. Every quiz worksheet is free to print, photocopy and use in class — no account, no email, no watermark. Keep the small footer credit and run them with as many groups as you like.

How do I turn a quiz into a PDF?

Open the printable version of any quiz and press Print, then choose 'Save as PDF' as the destination. The pages are laid out for A4 and US Letter with normal margins, so the browser's own dialog produces the handout.

Do the printed quizzes include an answer key?

Yes, and it prints on its own page at the end with the correct letter, the year and a short explanation for each question. Print only the student pages if you want to keep the answers to yourself.

Are the printed questions the same as the online quiz?

Identical, and in the same order. Each quiz is generated deterministically from a fixed library of documented events, so the worksheet you print today matches the quiz your students play on screen.

All classroom printables — evidence sheets, clue checklists, timeline cards