37 Physical Education Survey Questions for PE Students

All 37 physical education survey questions

We have ticked the core 12 for you. Pick the set that fits this unit, such as school sport, facilities or the knowledge check, then share it to phones, print it for the gym, or copy the text into another form tool.

Fitness knowledge check (after a unit)6 questions

Six quiz questions with one right answer each, taken from the WHO and CDC activity guidance. The answer is in each line below and in the answer key further down the page.

13
On average, how many minutes of activity should young people get each day?
20 min30 min60 min120 min
Answer: 60 min of moderate to vigorous activity, averaged across the week (WHO, ages 5 to 17).¹
14
On how many days a week should young people do muscle and bone strengthening activity?
1 day2 daysAt least 3 daysNone needed
Answer: at least 3 days a week, along with some vigorous activity.¹
15
Which of these is a bone-strengthening activity?
SwimmingCyclingJumping ropeStretching
Answer: jumping rope. Jumps, running and lifting weights load the bones; swimming and cycling count as aerobic.¹
16
During moderate activity, what can you usually do?
Sing a songTalk but not singSay only a wordNothing at all
Answer: talk but not sing. That is the talk test for moderate effort.²
17
During vigorous activity, what can you usually do?
Sing a songChat easilyA few words, then a breathBreathe as normal
Answer: say a few words before pausing for breath.²
18
Which kind of sitting should young people cut down on most?
Sitting in classSitting at mealsScreen time for funReading
Answer: screen time for fun. The guidelines single out recreational screen time.¹

Skills, tactics and grading5 questions

Add these at the end of a unit with a skills test or a grade attached.

19
I know how my work in PE is graded.
Strongly disagree12345Strongly agree1 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Strongly agree
Clear criteria. If this is low, show the rubric at the start of the next unit.
20
I understand the rules and tactics of our games.
Strongly disagree12345Strongly agree1 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Strongly agree
Game sense as well as skill. Low scores ask for more time on tactics before full games.
21
I know how to warm up on my own before exercise.
Strongly disagree12345Strongly agree1 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Strongly agree
A skill for life outside the gym, and a check on whether warm-ups are taught or only led.
22
I'm comfortable with how fitness tests are run.
Strongly disagree12345Strongly agree1 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Strongly agree
Testing in front of classmates can feel exposing. This shows whether your set-up works for the class.
23
Which skill or sport would you like to get better at?
Open answer
Gives you goals for the next unit in the students' own words.

Sport and activity outside PE6 questions

For planning teams, clubs and lunchtime leagues, or for a school activity report.

24
In the last 7 days, on how many days were you active for 60 minutes or more?
0 days1 to 23 to 45 to 6All 7
Holds your class against the guideline of an hour a day for young people. Report the share who answer All 7.¹
25
How many sports teams (school or club) have you played on in the last 12 months?
None123 or more
The share with one or more compares with the national figure: 58% of US high school students played on a sports team in 2025.³
26
Which of these do you do outside school?
School teamClub sportGymDanceWalk or cycleNoneTick all that apply
Shows the activity you never see in the gym, and which units connect to it.
27
What stops you joining a school team or club?
Skill levelNo timeCostGetting thereNot interestedNothingTick all that apply
Each barrier has its own fix: a beginners team, a lunchtime slot, a kit loan or a later bus.
28
Would you join a lunchtime or intramural sport if the school ran one?
YesMaybeNo
Counts the demand for intramurals before anyone books a court.
29
Which sport or activity should the school add?
Open answer
Students suggest activities that are on no list. Count the repeats before you decide.

Facilities, kit and safety5 questions

For a department review or a budget request, when you need the student view of spaces and equipment.

30
There is enough equipment for everyone in PE.
Strongly disagree12345Strongly agree1 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Strongly agree
Short equipment turns into waiting time. Read it next to the core statement about moving, not waiting.
31
The changing rooms give me enough privacy.
Strongly disagree12345Strongly agree1 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Strongly agree
Privacy is something a school can change with cubicles, curtains or split changing times.
32
I feel safe using the PE equipment and spaces.
Strongly disagree12345Strongly agree1 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Strongly agree
Safety as students feel it. Follow a low score with a walk around the gym and the field.
33
The gym and fields are clean and in good repair.
Strongly disagree12345Strongly agree1 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Strongly agree
Upkeep of the spaces, kept apart from equipment and changing so each answer points to one fix.
34
Do you have the clothes and shoes you need for PE?
AlwaysMost weeksSometimesRarely
Missing kit keeps students on the bench. Those who answer Sometimes or Rarely may need a spare-kit box or a looser kit rule.

About you (optional)3 questions

Add these for a split by grade, sex or health needs, and publish only totals from groups too large for anyone to be recognised.

35
What grade are you in?
Grade 4 to 5Grade 6 to 8Grade 9 to 10Grade 11 to 12Prefer not to say
Lets you compare grade bands, which usually take different PE courses.
36
Which best describes you?
GirlBoyAnother wayPrefer not to say
Shows whether girls and boys experience PE differently, starting with the comfort and changing statements.
37
Does a health condition or injury limit what you can do in PE?
NoSometimesMost of the timePrefer not to say
Read the skill-level statement for this group to see whether adapted tasks are working.

Exit ticket for the final lesson of a unit

Five questions fit the last minutes of the final lesson in a unit: enjoyment, confidence, time moving, fair groups and one idea from each student. Ask them after every unit and the scores become a trend.

01I enjoy most of my PE lessons.
02I feel confident trying the skills we learn in PE.
03We spend most of PE moving, not waiting in line.
04Teams and groups in PE are chosen fairly.
05What would make you enjoy PE more?

Surveying in the gym without losing the lesson

Four habits for surveys in the gym, where students are on their feet and lesson time is precious.

A clipboard survey and a tablet with rating rows on a gym bench, beside cones, a ball and a whistle

Survey in the last lesson of a unit

A unit is freshest on its final day. Keep five minutes at the end, put a QR code on the gym wall or pass round paper copies, and collect the answers before students head to the changing rooms. Run the same core after every unit and single scores turn into a trend you can show your department.

Ask how confident students feel

Confidence earns its own question. A Finnish study followed 333 students from grade 7 to grade 12: those who felt more physically competent at the start were more active six years later.⁴ A review of 265 PE studies points the same way, tying motivation to three needs, namely choice, competence and belonging, with the teacher shaping the first two most.⁶ The core asks about all three.

US high school students who played on a sports team, 2025

All students

58%

Boys

61%

Girls

55%

Youth Risk Behavior Survey 2025, CDC.³

Ask about sport beyond the lesson

Most teenagers play sport somewhere. In 2025, 58% of US high school students played on a sports team: 61% of boys and 55% of girls.³ The sport set shows who plays, who would join a lunchtime league and what keeps the rest away, the list you need before you plan intramurals.

Equipment for five PE units, each with a stack of vote tokens, the tallest in front of the badminton racket

Let the answers choose the next unit

Show the class the favourite-activity counts and let them pick between the top two for next term. Students who see their votes turn into a unit have every reason to answer the next survey with care.

The activity question makes a quick vote at the start of term. Project it in the gym and start a live poll that the class votes on from their phones. For warm-ups and discussions in other lessons, try these poll questions for students.

Turn the paper answers into a class chart

Type the tallies for the ten core statements into the panel, one number per answer point. Agreeing is the healthy answer throughout, so begin with the shortest bars. Print the chart for your department or the class noticeboard.

1Share agreeing means students at 4 or 5, divided by all who answered that statement. The chart does the division for you.
2Find the two shortest bars, then look them up in the table below for a change to try.
3Sort the paper sheets by grade band, or by girls and boys, and enter each stack separately to compare them.
4Tell the class which two things you are changing, then run the same core after the next unit.

PE class results

Strongly disagreeDisagreeNeutralAgreeStrongly agree

If a statement scores low, try this next unit

Every core statement points at something a PE teacher can change inside a single unit.

Low score on	Try this next unit
1. I enjoy most of my PE lessons	Open with a game students already like, and check the favourite-activity counts
2. I get some say in what we do	Offer two activities, or roles such as captain, coach and referee, and let students pick
3. I feel confident trying the skills	Break each skill into short steps and practise them before the full game
4. My teacher's tips help me improve	Give each student one specific tip per lesson, tied to the unit's main skill
5. We spend most of PE moving	Smaller teams, a ball each and stations instead of one long line
6. Activities suit every skill level	Set an easier and a harder version of every task
7. Teams are chosen fairly	Make the groups yourself or at random, never by captains picking in front of everyone
8. Comfortable when I make mistakes	Praise effort and progress out loud, and practise in small groups before a whole-class game
9. OK about changing clothes	More changing time, private cubicles, or PE kit worn to school on PE days
10. Activities I want to keep doing	Name a local club, park or free app that continues each unit after school

Work on the two lowest statements, not all ten. For statement 5, the benchmark is at least half of the lesson spent at moderate to vigorous effort, the target the CDC and the UK Association for Physical Education set.⁵ Surveys for other parts of the school day are in our education survey questions.

Knowledge check answer key

Mark the six quiz questions with this key. Each one also runs as a live poll, so the class can vote before you reveal the answer.

Question	Right answer	Show it in the gym
Minutes a day	60, on average across the week¹	Add up the active minutes of today's lesson
Strength days	At least 3 days a week¹	Put one muscle move and one jump in the warm-up
Bone strengthening	Jumping rope¹	A skipping station in the circuit
Moderate effort	Talk but not sing²	Chat in pairs during an easy jog
Vigorous effort	A few words, then a breath²	Sprint a length, then try to talk
Sitting to cut	Screen time for fun¹	Students log their own screen hours for a week

Score it question by question: count how many students got each one right. The question most of the class missed is the first thing to reteach at the start of the next lesson.

PE questionnaire and results sheet to print

Keep a class set on a clipboard by the gym door and collect the sheets at the end of the lesson. Letter and A4 both print without resizing.

PE questionnaire

Sheet one is the core 12, ticked in pencil. The optional sets, from skills to the quiz, fill the sheets after it.

Download PDF

Results worksheet

Tally the ten statements, work out the share agreeing, count the favourite activities, and note which two changes the class will see next unit.

Download PDF

Using these questions for a PE research project

For a class project or a thesis on PE, choose the research question first, then the sets that answer it.

Your question	Sets	Compare
Do girls and boys enjoy PE equally?	Core 12 and About you	Share agreeing with statement 1, by group
Does confidence go with activity outside school?	Core 12 and Sport	Statement 3 against active days
What keeps students out of school sport?	Sport and activity	Count of each barrier
Do students know the activity guidelines?	Knowledge check	Share correct on each question

Get permission from the school, and from parents for younger students, before the survey goes out. Keep it anonymous and ask entire classes, not just your friends, so the answers stand for the year group. If your supervisor wants a published scale as well, PE studies often use the Physical Activity Enjoyment Scale⁸ or the newer Engagement in Physical Education scale,⁷ cited and used on their authors' terms. Our items are new wording and belong to neither scale.

PE survey questions worth rewriting

PE surveys often carry questions like these four. Each has a sharper version beside it. For examples on other subjects, browse our survey questions by topic.

Instead of

Do you like PE?

Ask

I enjoy most of my PE lessons.
What would make you enjoy PE more?

Yes or no hides how much. A five-point statement shows degree, and the open follow-up tells you what to change.

Instead of

How fit are you?

Ask

In the last 7 days, on how many days were you active for 60 minutes or more?

Fitness is hard to rate and awkward to admit. A count of active days is concrete and lines up with the guideline.

Instead of

Are the gym, the equipment and the changing rooms good?

Ask

There is enough equipment for everyone in PE.
The changing rooms give me enough privacy.

Three places in one question. A student happy with the gym but not the changing room has no honest answer.

Instead of

Don't you think PE should have more team sports?

Ask

Which kind of PE activity do you enjoy most?

The weak version steers students to one answer. A list of five kinds lets every preference count.

What PE teachers ask about student surveys

Quick answers for PE teachers and department heads.

What should a PE survey ask students?

Ask about the lesson from the student side: enjoyment, choice, confidence, useful feedback, time spent moving, fair groups, feeling comfortable, changing, and whether PE leads to activity outside school. Add the favourite kind of activity and one open question. The core 12 covers every one of these.

How long should a PE survey take?

About five minutes for the core 12. A longer survey eats into activity time, so add one optional set at a time and rotate the sets across the year.

Can elementary students answer it?

From grade 4, most students can read the statements on their own. With younger classes, read each one aloud and let students answer with a thumbs up, sideways or down. The favourite activity question also works as a picture vote.

Should a PE survey be anonymous?

Yes. Questions about changing, confidence and mistakes only get honest answers when nobody can tell who wrote what. Share a link that never asks for a name, or collect paper in a sealed box, and give back totals for a class or grade.

Is there a validated questionnaire for PE research?

Yes. The Physical Activity Enjoyment Scale has a PE version,⁸ and a 2024 scale measures four kinds of engagement in PE lessons.⁷ Use them on their authors' terms. The questions here are original, practical items for running a class survey.

QR code up before the final lesson

Open the PE survey in the builder now, add the set this unit needs, and put the QR code up before your final lesson.

Download the PDF

Health, fitness and motivation next

Student health questionnaireSleep, food and activity across the whole week, beyond PE lessons.Fitness and exercise surveyWorkout habits and goals, for older students, staff fitness clubs or a school gym.Student motivation surveyWhy students try hard in one class; it works for PE as well as other subjects.Teacher evaluation questionsStudent feedback on teaching, when PE staff want a wider view of their lessons.Student engagement surveyEngagement across the school day, to set PE beside other lessons.Art class surveyFor the art room down the hall: a first-day sheet and an exit ticket after each project.

Browse every education survey, or build your own in the free form builder.

How this question set was built

Written and tested by Michael Hodge, BSc Psychology (University of Wollongong). The page used to list 50 questions in five sections, two of them about exercise in general rather than PE. We kept the questions students can answer about their own PE class, gave each one answer options, and grouped the rest into sets for skills, sport, facilities and a knowledge check. The core statements follow the three needs that research ties to motivation in PE: choice, competence and belonging.⁶ The quiz answers come from WHO¹ and CDC² guidance. All 37 items are new wording, screened against the published PACES⁸ and Engagement in PE⁷ items. Poll Maker runs the online survey.

Sources

1.Bull, F. C., Al-Ansari, S. S., Biddle, S., and colleagues (2020). World Health Organization 2020 guidelines on physical activity and sedentary behaviour. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 54(24), 1451-1462. https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2020-102955
2.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. How to Measure Physical Activity Intensity. Physical Activity Basics, updated December 2025. https://www.cdc.gov/physical-activity-basics/measuring/index.html
3.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Youth Health in Focus: Physical Activity. Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 2025 data. https://www.cdc.gov/yrbs/youth-health-in-focus/physical-activity.html
4.Jaakkola, T., Yli-Piipari, S., Watt, A., and Liukkonen, J. (2016). Perceived physical competence towards physical activity, and motivation and enjoyment in physical education as longitudinal predictors of adolescents' self-reported physical activity. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, 19(9), 750-754. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsams.2015.11.003
5.Hollis, J. L., Williams, A. J., Sutherland, R., and colleagues (2016). A systematic review and meta-analysis of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity levels in elementary school physical education lessons. Preventive Medicine, 86, 34-54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2015.11.018
6.Vasconcellos, D., Parker, P. D., Hilland, T., and colleagues (2020). Self-determination theory applied to physical education: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Educational Psychology, 112(7), 1444-1469. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000420
7.Stringfellow, A., Wang, C., Farias, C. F. G., and Hastie, P. A. (2024). The development of an "Engagement in Physical Education" scale. Frontiers in Sports and Active Living, 6, 1460267. https://doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2024.1460267
8.Motl, R. W., Dishman, R. K., Saunders, R., and colleagues (2001). Measuring enjoyment of physical activity in adolescent girls. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 21(2), 110-117. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0749-3797(01)00326-9

Unlock and Upgrade

Remove all limits from your Polls

PE survey questions: what students think of physical education

All 37 physical education survey questions

The core 1212 questions

Fitness knowledge check (after a unit)6 questions

Skills, tactics and grading5 questions

Sport and activity outside PE6 questions

Facilities, kit and safety5 questions

About you (optional)3 questions

Exit ticket for the final lesson of a unit

Surveying in the gym without losing the lesson

Survey in the last lesson of a unit

Ask how confident students feel

US high school students who played on a sports team, 2025

Ask about sport beyond the lesson

Let the answers choose the next unit

Turn the paper answers into a class chart

PE class results

If a statement scores low, try this next unit

Knowledge check answer key

PE questionnaire and results sheet to print

PE questionnaire

Results worksheet

Using these questions for a PE research project

PE survey questions worth rewriting

What PE teachers ask about student surveys

QR code up before the final lesson