The Chromebook Drill is a free 30-round game you can play with a whole class at once. Press play, and the screen gives every student a job and a countdown. They do it on their own Chromebook before the ring runs out, then score themselves. It takes about eight minutes and needs no preparation, no accounts, and no sound. The full answer key is further down this page, free to print.
How a round works
Each round shows one instruction in plain language, such as: Bring back the tab you just closed. A countdown ring starts. Students race it on their own machines. When the clock runs out, the answer appears with the keys shown as keycaps and a one-line explanation of what just happened.
The ring is the scoreboard
The countdown ring does not just drain. It drains through gold, then silver, then bronze. Whatever colour the ring is showing when a student finishes is the medal they earned. There is no key to memorise and nothing to read: a class works out the entire scoring system by watching one round happen.
- Gold if they finished in the first 40 per cent of the clock
- Silver if they finished in the first 70 per cent
- Bronze if they finished at all before time ran out
Students mark their own score. Every five rounds it stops on a scorecard so the room can total up and compare.
What is in the thirty rounds
The rounds are grouped and colour coded, and they get harder as they go. The first three are shortcuts most students already half know, so the room scores early and stays interested.
- Tabs — opening, closing, reopening, and jumping between them
- Windows — new windows, private windows, snapping to half the screen
- Screen — full and partial screenshots
- Files — the Files app, Downloads, hidden files, saving and printing
- Search — the address bar, finding words on a page, bookmarks, history
- System — Caps Lock, locking the screen, the settings panel, screen zoom
How to run it in a lesson
- Print the answer key below, one per student, or have them number 1 to 30 on paper.
- Ask every student to open a few tabs before you start. An empty browser makes half the rounds do nothing visible.
- Put the video on the projector and play it. The first card explains the rules visually, so you do not need to.
- Every five rounds, the video stops on a scorecard. That is the moment to let the room compare and to catch anybody who has fallen behind.
- At the end, count golds. Then run it again another day and let them beat their own score.
The answer key
Every answer here comes from Google’s own Chromebook keyboard shortcut page. The last column is left blank so this doubles as a score sheet.
| # | The task | Answer | Group | Clock | Got it? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Open a new tab. | Ctrl + T | Tabs | 6s | |
| 2 | Close the tab you are on. | Ctrl + W | Tabs | 6s | |
| 3 | Bring back the tab you just closed. | Ctrl + Shift + T | Tabs | 6s | |
| 4 | Move to the next tab along. | Ctrl + Tab | Tabs | 7s | |
| 5 | Jump straight to your first tab. | Ctrl + 1 | Tabs | 7s | |
| 6 | Jump straight to your last tab. | Ctrl + 9 | Tabs | 7s | |
| 7 | Open a brand new window. | Ctrl + N | Windows | 6s | |
| 8 | Open a private window. | Ctrl + Shift + N | Windows | 7s | |
| 9 | Make your window fill the whole screen. | Alt + = | Windows | 7s | |
| 10 | Shrink your window out of the way. | Alt + – | Windows | 7s | |
| 11 | Snap your window to the left half. | Alt + [ | Windows | 8s | |
| 12 | Snap your window to the right half. | Alt + ] | Windows | 8s | |
| 13 | Take a picture of your whole screen. | Ctrl + Show windows | Screen | 7s | |
| 14 | Take a picture of just part of your screen. | Shift + Ctrl + Show windows | Screen | 10s | |
| 15 | Open the Files app. | Shift + Alt + M | Files | 7s | |
| 16 | Open your Downloads. | Ctrl + J | Files | 6s | |
| 17 | Show the hidden files in the Files app. | Ctrl + . | Files | 8s | |
| 18 | Save this page to your Chromebook. | Ctrl + S | Files | 7s | |
| 19 | Print this page. | Ctrl + P | Files | 6s | |
| 20 | Put your cursor in the address bar. | Ctrl + L | Search | 6s | |
| 21 | Find a word on this page. | Ctrl + F | Search | 7s | |
| 22 | Jump to the next match you found. | Ctrl + G | Search | 7s | |
| 23 | Bookmark this page. | Ctrl + D | Search | 6s | |
| 24 | Show or hide the bookmarks bar. | Ctrl + Shift + B | Search | 7s | |
| 25 | Open your history. | Ctrl + H | Search | 6s | |
| 26 | Turn Caps Lock on, then off again. | Search + Alt | System | 8s | |
| 27 | Lock your screen. | Search + L | System | 6s | |
| 28 | Open the settings panel in the corner. | Shift + Alt + S | System | 8s | |
| 29 | Show every shortcut your Chromebook has. | Ctrl + Search + S | System | 8s | |
| 30 | Make everything on the screen bigger. | Ctrl + Shift + + | System | 8s |
A note on managed Chromebooks
School Chromebooks are often locked down by admin policy. A few rounds may not work on your devices, most likely round 8 (private window), round 27 (lock screen), and round 29 (the built-in shortcut list). It is worth trying those three yourself before the lesson so nothing surprises you in front of the class.
Free to use in your classroom
The video is free on YouTube, and this page is free to print and share in any classroom, with no attribution needed. If you use it, I would genuinely like to know how it went and what you would want next.
If your students want to go deeper on any single shortcut, these explain a few of them properly: how to restore closed tabs, copy and paste on a Chromebook, and take screenshots.
