The Bottom Line
Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? translates fairly well to a board game format. The game itself is perfect for family play, but to keep everyone's attention the rules need to be tweaked. According to the instruction booklet, only one person plays the game at a time. This can get really frustrating for kids, even those who are actually in the fifth grade, especially if there are more than two players. With a few adjustments to the recommended method of play, the game becomes enjoyable for the whole family.
Pros
- Questions can be tricky, especially at the fifth grade level, but not impossible
- Fun for family game play
- Remains true to the actual game show
Cons
- Players are meant to play through the game one at a time, making it dull for younger players
- Rules in the instruction booklet can be confusing
Description
- Made by Hasbro
- Recommended for ages 8 and up, two to four players
- Contains 300 question cards with a vinyl sleeve to read questions through
- Uses the three cheats from the show, "Peek," "Copy," and "Save"
- Game play works the same as it does on the show
- Players can stop and walk away at any time, or play through to the million dollar question
- At the end of the game, the player who reached the highest money level wins
Guide Review - 'Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?' Board Game
My son got this game as a gift from his grandmother, and we've had lots of fun playing it together. We've had to make some adjustments, however, to the recommended method of play. The instructions say that only one player should be answering questions, while the others write down their answers in case a cheat is used, and ask the questions from the cards. This style of play wasn't interesting enough to keep my children engaged, so we had to make some changes.
Instead of letting one person play through until they "walk away" or make it to the million dollar level, we take turns like you would with almost any other board game. You'll need to keep track of what cheats have been used by each player with this method, since the game only comes with one set of cheat tokens. If you have younger kids wanting to play, it's fairly easy to offer them only multiple-choice questions and extra cheats so they have a decent shot at winning.
The questions themselves follow some of the same subjects as those on television, including Science, Math, Social Studies, and Grammar, at various grade levels. The questions come from actual school textbooks, and can prove to be fairly tricky for those of us who haven't opened an elementary school book in many years!
If you're a fan of the show, or enjoy trivia-based games that almost any age group can take a shot at, then this is a really enjoyable board game.
