Since the week of Nov. 5, AP US History (APUSH) students have been involved in a Civil War simulation, pitting Combs’ students against Monte’s.

Here is how the game works: The rivals identify each other by their red or black lanyards. A student with a red lanyard may challenge a student with a black lanyard (and vice-versa) with one of the 158 questions they were given to study for the war and their upcoming test. Students of each side are limited, though, to challenging students within their own territories. If a student is unable to answer a question he is challenged with, he has to surrender a clip or “provision” to his challenger. Different clips have different point values, and the value of the surrendered clip depends on the level of difficulty of the question asked. If a student runs out of clips, he dies. If he dies, he fails, and failing is out of the question.

Whatever you have witnessed, one thing is undeniable: these students are studying harder than they ever would have if it was not for this war. In fact, APUSH student Abby Marks says, “[the game] has really helped me remember important information that I most likely wouldn’t have remembered if we hadn’t done this. It really forced me to study hard.”