Speed scoring, also known as fastest finger, is available to Pro plans and up. If you would like to upgrade, click here.
Speed scoring is ideal for gamifying student engagement, spicing up conference content, and reinforcing subject matter. In fastest finger mode, participants must respond to a question quickly — the participant with the most correct answers in the shortest time earns the highest score. This ensures a clear winner and avoids ties on the leaderboard. If a participant responds quickly but answers incorrectly, they won't receive a score for that question.
If there's a tie on your individual leaderboard, you can resolve it by flipping it to the speed leaderboard, which determines the winner based on response time. By default, speed scoring is turned off and can be activated in the settings menu. You can use speed scoring alongside the individual/standard leaderboard or use it instead, as it essentially duplicates the leaderboard information while including response times.
As with any quiz, participants can be anonymous or identified. When identified, their names are displayed alongside their time and scores. The top three fastest participants and their response times are showcased per poll, with scoring precise to a thousandth of a second.
Note that:
- When you do not have any correct answers to your polls there are no scores or timing.
- Speed scoring is not activated for team leaderboards and only works with individual leaderboards.
- The speed leaderboard is visible in Present view, the participant app, and the dashboard.
- Although the breakdown of speed scoring times per poll is not included in the data report, a clear winner can still be seen in Present view.
In this article we cover:
- Setting up & displaying the speed leaderboard
- What you see in the:
- Standard leaderboard vs speed leaderboard
- Using the speed leaderboard shortcut
Setting up & displaying the speed leaderboard
You can set up the speed leaderboard in advance or display it on demand during your session.
1. Turn on speed scoring
Before displaying the speed leaderboard, make sure speed scoring is turned on in the session settings:
Select the Settings option in the main navigation on the left-hand side.
Choose Polls and toggle the Speed scoring button to on. Then click Save.
2. To set up a speed leaderboard in advance & display it:
Add a speed leaderboard directly to your presentation slides by selecting: Add Content > Non-polling content > Leaderboard > Individual Leaderboard > Score type: Points and speed. For full steps, see Add a leaderboard to your presentation slides.
The speed leaderboard will appear automatically when you reach that slide in Present view using the control bar.
3. How to display the speed leaderboard on demand
In Present view, run the quiz as normal. When it is time to display the speed scoreboard, click on the leaderboard icon (trophy) in the control bar. The speed scoreboard will immediately display the times next to the names.
Press the Full List button to display a complete list breakdown. Click it again to hide the list.
The Full List provides a breakdown of all participants by the number of correct answers submitted. Click on the X to remove the speed leaderboard from view.
For example, both Fatima and Finn scored a perfect 10/10 but Finn was quicker. Aaron secured 9/10, while Kevin, Mitchell, Sandy and Steph all achieved a score of 6/10 with Mitchell being the fastest.
What you see in Present view & on the participant app
Present view will display the name, number of correct answers as well as the cumulative time it took to submit all the answers. Use the Full List button to scroll through all participants' positions. The participant app will indicate your individual position and time it took you to answer the polls along with the first three top scorers and their corresponding timing for the last poll.
If the quiz was set to anonymous the names will be replaced by the word "anonymous", but participants will still see their individual score position on their device.
The speed leaderboard in Present view displays:
- The ranking/positions
- Time taken to answer all polls per participant (only correct answers receive a time)
- The average score for the quiz
- The number of participants taking part
- The most difficult question
- The average time it took to answer the last poll
- Number of participants who answered the last poll correctly
The participant app will display:
In the correct answer screen (left)
- Your answer (human icon next to the answer option)
- The correct answer with the correction mark
- How long you took to respond to that poll
- Correct answer explanation (if set up)
- The three fastest correct respondents - this person voted the fastest.
In the speed leaderboard screen (right):
- Your ranking/position
- Your score - 4 correct answers from 4 polls
- Your cumulative time to answer all polls
- Number of participants in the quiz
- Group average so far
- The three fastest correct answers and times
What you see in the dashboard
Once you display the correct answer to your poll, in the dashboard, there will also be an indication of the three fastest positions and times in relation to the specific poll.
Individual leaderboard vs speed leaderboard
The Individual/standard leaderboard provides the same information as the speed leaderboard but without response times. However, this can result in ties with quiz scoring, as it only considers the number of correct answers and not the speed at which they are submitted.
When you display the Full List for the individual leaderboard, positions are arranged alphabetically for tied scores.
Fatima and Finn are grouped together because they both scored a perfect 10/10. Aaron secured 9/10, while Kevin, Mitchell, Sandy, and Steph all achieved 6/10.
The speed leaderboard resolves ties by ranking participants on their cumulative response time — even if two participants have the same number of correct answers, a clear winner can be determined.
Using the speed leaderboard shortcut
If speed scoring wasn't activated in advance and you encounter a tie, you can still determine a clear winner directly from the individual leaderboard. Use the speed leaderboard shortcut button to flip to the fastest finger scoreboard. For example, Finn and Fatima both achieved a perfect 10/10, but Finn secured the top spot by answering more quickly (54 seconds) compared to Fatima (1 minute 22 seconds).