# Tile Grab: a mystery tile review game for the whole class

> A mystery tile review game for teams: answer right, open a numbered box and win points, a star, a bomb or a magnet. Free, one screen, no student devices.

Source: https://olyclass.com/classroom-games/tile-grab/ · Updated 2026-10-29

Tile Grab is a mystery tile review game: teams answer questions, and every right answer lets them open one numbered box to see what is inside. Points, a star, a bomb or a magnet keep the scores moving until the last box, so even the team at the bottom stays in the game. It works with any subject and suits classes from about age 6 to teenagers.

![The Tile Grab board in a candy shop: twelve numbered gift boxes, box 3 open with a red magnet showing +2, and a key on the left with the star +5, lightning +1, magnet +2 and bomb −2](https://olyclass.com/classroom-games/tiles.webp "Team 1 answered right, opened box 3 and found a magnet: +2. The key on the left shows what the special boxes do.")

## At a glance

| Players | 2–4 teams free (up to 8 with Oly Pro), the whole class |
| Time | 10–20 minutes for 12 to 16 questions |
| Works with | Every English question format and every subject |
| Best for | Review before a test, vocabulary, big classes, touch screens |
| You need | One screen (projector, TV or interactive display) and your phone |

## How to play Tile Grab

1. **Make or pick a question set.** Snap a textbook page, paste a word list, type a topic, paste your own questions, or open a set from the [free library](https://olyclass.com/library/).
2. **Pick Tile Grab, set the teams and start.** Teams take turns. The board has 12 boxes for up to 12 questions, 16 for up to 16, and 20 for more.
3. **Play.** The team whose turn it is answers. If the answer is right, the team picks a box by its number (tap it on the screen or on your phone) and the box opens. A wrong answer opens nothing. The game ends when every box is open or the questions run out; the team with the most points wins.

## Rules and scoring

Most boxes hold points from +1 to +5. The special boxes:

- **Star:** +5. There is one per board.
- **Lightning:** +1 and the same team plays again with the next question.
- **Bomb:** −2. A score never goes below zero.
- **Magnet:** takes up to 2 points from the team in the lead. If no other team has points yet, it is simply +2.

What you can switch on the start screen or during the game:

- **Power-ups:** turn off the star, the lightning, the bomb or the magnet one by one; they become ordinary point boxes. Handy if bombs upset a young class.
- **Steal** (off by default): when you turn it on, after a miss another team can answer the same question. If they get it right, they open the box.
- **Double or triple questions:** mark a question in the editor and the points won from its box are doubled or tripled. Losses never are.
- **Also:** a timer per question (running out counts as wrong), wrong answers losing a point (off by default), and hiding the score for the whole game.

![A Tile Grab question: a cartoon camel with "What is it?" and four answers, panda, camel, shark and snake, with "Team 1, your turn!" above](https://olyclass.com/classroom-games/tiles-ask.webp "Each turn starts with a question for one team. Students answer out loud or tap a choice, and you mark it right or wrong from your phone.")

## What you can teach with it

For English, Tile Grab takes every question type Oly makes: picture (what is it?), find the picture for a word, listen and choose, the missing letter, the English word for a meaning, putting a sentence in order, and your own questions. Some ideas:

- **Animals or food at A1:** picture and listening questions, so even beginners can play.
- **Past simple verbs:** your own questions like "go → ?" with three wrong answers.
- **Sentence order at A2:** each team says the sentence aloud, you judge it.

For other subjects, it plays multiple choice, true/false and open questions:

- **Math:** times tables or quick mental sums.
- **Science:** true/false statements about plants, the body or the weather.

## Tips from the classroom

- **With 40 students,** make four teams of ten and call one student per team each turn. Type your class list on the start screen and Oly names the student for you.
- **Turn on steal** when the other teams start chatting during a turn: they have a reason to follow every question.
- **One team far ahead?** That is what the magnet is for. Leave it on, and don't switch off the bomb either.
- **On an interactive display,** students can come up and tap the box themselves.
- **Excited class?** Set the effects to calm, or off, in the look settings.

## Play it without a screen

- Draw a grid of numbered squares on the board, 12 to 20.
- On paper, secretly write a value for each number: mostly 1 to 5, plus one star (+5), one or two bombs (−2) and a magnet (take 2 from the leader).
- Ask a question; a team that answers right calls a number, and you read out what it hides and cross it off.
- Keep score in the corner of the board.

The screen version deals the boxes for you, keeps the score, and lets you run it all from your phone while you walk around the room.

## Questions teachers ask

### Is Tile Grab free?

Yes. You can play it free with up to 4 teams, with library sets and your own typed questions. The free plan also makes 10 AI question sets a month; Oly Pro allows up to 8 teams and more AI sets.

### Do students need devices?

No. The whole class plays on one screen. Only you use a phone, as the remote, and even that is optional: the keyboard works too (C for correct, X for not yet, Space for the next question).

### What do the bombs do?

A bomb takes 2 points from the team that opened it. Scores never go below zero, and you can switch bombs off before or during the game.

### Can a team lose points?

Yes: from a bomb, from another team's magnet, or from a wrong answer if you switch that rule on.

### Can I use my own questions?

Yes. Type or paste them as question, answer and wrong answers, or edit any question Oly writes for you.

### How many students can play?

Any number. The class splits into 2 to 4 teams on the free plan, up to 8 with Oly Pro, so it works for a class of 12 or of 45.

If your class likes surprises, try [Lucky Wheel](https://olyclass.com/classroom-games/lucky-wheel/) or [Mystery Picture](https://olyclass.com/classroom-games/mystery-picture/) next.