Interleaving: The Simple Trick to Make Practice Stick

You’ve probably had this experience: students ace a review on one skill at a time, then freeze when the test mixes everything together.

They could solve linear equations yesterday… but today, mixed in with inequalities and proportions, it all falls apart.

The problem isn't that students "forgot" overnight. It's that most practice is blocked—one skill at a time—while real assessments and real life are interleaved—skills mixed together.

The good news? You can fix this with a small shift in how students practice, especially when you're using game-based tools like BrainFusion.

---

What Is Interleaving (And Why It Works)?

Interleaving means mixing different topics, skills, or question types within a single practice session instead of focusing on just one.

• Blocked practice: AAAA BBBB CCCC
• Interleaved practice: ABC CAB BAC

At first, interleaved practice feels harder for learners. That’s actually the point.

Because students must decide which strategy to use on each question, they:

• Pay closer attention to what the problem is actually asking
• Practice choosing between multiple procedures
• Build flexible understanding instead of memorizing a pattern

Research in math, science, and other domains shows that interleaving:

• Improves long-term retention
• Boosts ability to transfer learning to new situations
• Reduces the "I studied, but the test looked different" problem

In other words, interleaving helps students recognize when to use a skill, not just how.

---

Interleaving vs. Retrieval Practice vs. Spaced Practice

It’s easy to mix up different learning science terms, so here’s a quick breakdown:

• Retrieval practice → having students recall information from memory (not just re-read it).
• Spaced practice → revisiting content over time instead of cramming.
• Interleaving → mixing different topics or skills in one practice set.

You can (and should!) combine all three:

A short BrainFusion game that mixes questions from multiple past lessons (interleaving), played every few days (spacing), where students must answer from memory (retrieval).

That’s where the real magic happens.

---

Why Games Are Perfect for Interleaved Practice

Game-based learning is especially well-suited for interleaving because:

• You can mix questions from multiple games without creating everything from scratch.
• Students experience mixed practice as a fun challenge, not a punishment.
• Leaderboards, streaks, and power-ups keep motivation high even when questions are harder.
• You can quickly see which topics students still struggle with when everything is mixed.

BrainFusion bakes interleaving directly into the platform through its interleaved game builder—one of the biggest differentiators compared to traditional quiz tools.

---

---

How to Use Interleaving in BrainFusion

Here’s how to turn interleaving from theory into something you can run this week.

Step 1: Create (or Reuse) Topic-Based Games

Start with “blocked” games that focus on individual concepts. For example:

• Fractions with unlike denominators
• Solving two-step equations
• Proportions and unit rate

In BrainFusion, you can:

• Use AI to generate each game from a short prompt
• Import questions from a document or CSV
• Duplicate and tweak existing sets

Step 2: Use the Interleaved Game Builder

Once you have a few topic-based games, use BrainFusion’s interleaved builder to:

• Combine questions from multiple games into a single mixed set
• Control how many questions come from each topic
• Save the new interleaved game for reuse

Think of it as creating a “playlist” of questions across topics.

Step 3: Choose the Right Game Mode

You can run your interleaved set in any mode, but here are some good starting points:

• Quiz Quest → fast, whole-class mixed review
• Artifact Adventure → exploration-style review with a mix of concepts
• Ninja Fruit Frenzy → great for shorter, high-energy mixed checks
• Flashcard Fusion → ideal for spaced, interleaved practice over time

Step 4: Look at Question-Level Data

After the session, BrainFusion’s analytics show:

• Which questions (and topics) students miss most
• Which learners need more support on specific skills
• Whether students are choosing the right strategies when topics are mixed

This is where interleaving shines: if students only struggle once skills are mixed, you’ll see it immediately.

---

Practical Interleaving Examples by Subject

Math

Blocked:
Monday – only solving equations
Tuesday – only graphing lines

Interleaved game idea:
Create a BrainFusion game that includes:

• Solving linear equations
• Graphing from slope-intercept form
• Interpreting points on the graph

Students must decide:
“Is this an equation I solve, a graph I read, or a graph I draw?”

---

ELA

Blocked:
One week on theme, another on point of view.

Interleaved game idea:

• Mix questions asking students to identify:
  • Theme
  • Point of view
  • Text evidence

Each new question forces students to determine what reading skill is being assessed.

---

Science

Blocked:
Today – photosynthesis vocabulary
Tomorrow – cellular respiration

Interleaved game idea:

• Mix:
  • Diagrams labeled with either process
  • “Which process is represented?” questions
  • Scenario-based items that ask students to distinguish between the two

Interleaving helps students compare and contrast related concepts.

---

World Languages

Blocked:
Unit on present tense, then unit on preterite.

Interleaved game idea:

• Use BrainFusion’s conjugation and quiz modes to mix:
  • Present vs. preterite forms
  • First vs. third person
  • Regular vs. irregular verbs

Students must first recognize which tense and which subject before they can conjugate.

---

Where Interleaving Fits in Your Week

Interleaving doesn’t have to replace everything you do. Think of it as the bridge between initial learning and long-term mastery.

Here are some simple routines:

1. Mixed Monday Warmup

• 4–5 interleaved questions from last week’s topics
• Run as a quick BrainFusion game as students settle in

2. Wednesday Spiral Review

• Interleaved game that pulls questions from:
  • Current unit
  • Previous unit
  • “Power standards” from earlier in the year

3. Friday “Test-Style” Game

• Interleaved questions in the same format as upcoming assessments
• Students get used to switching strategies from item to item

Over time, your students will rarely see practice that is purely blocked—which is exactly what prepares them for mixed assessments.

---

Best Practices & Common Pitfalls

Best Practices

• Interleave only after initial learning.
  Students still need focused instruction and blocked practice when a concept is brand new.

• Mix related but different topics.
  For example, different types of equations or reading skills that are often confused.

• Use interleaving as a diagnostic tool.
  If students can do it in isolation but not when mixed, you know where to focus.

• Explain the “why.”
  Tell students, “This feels harder on purpose, because your brain is learning to recognize which strategy to use.”

---

Pitfalls to Avoid

• ❌ Throwing every topic from the year into one game too early
• ❌ Using only speed-based modes with struggling learners
• ❌ Assuming poor interleaved performance means students never learned the skill
• ❌ Skipping the debrief after the game

A quick post-game discussion—“Which types of questions felt hardest? What clues helped you know what strategy to use?”—turns the game into a powerful metacognitive moment.

---

How BrainFusion Makes Interleaving Easy

Many tools require you to rebuild questions every time you want a new mix. BrainFusion was designed differently:

• Create once, play many ways.
• Build interleaved sets in a few clicks.
• Use AI to fill in gaps or add variations.
• Run multiple modes from the same question pool.

This means you can focus on which skills to mix—and let the platform handle the rest. Start with 5 free games and 3 AI credits.

---

Final Thoughts: Interleaving Is a Small Shift With Big Impact

Interleaving doesn’t require a new curriculum, extra prep periods, or more tests. It’s simply a smarter way to organize the practice you’re already doing.

With BrainFusion’s interleaved game builder, you can:

• Help students learn when to use each strategy
• Reduce the shock of “mixed” tests
• Turn review into something students actually look forward to
• Gather clearer evidence of who’s truly ready to move on

A few interleaved games each week can transform how well learning sticks.

---