Methodology

The question set

The Rice Purity Test is a 100-question self-assessment that originated at Rice University as a student bonding activity. The question set has circulated publicly for decades and exists in many near-identical versions.

We use the widely circulated 100-question version that matches the canonical test most people are looking for. We do not add, remove, or reword questions to change the difficulty or the resulting scores. The test you take here is the test people mean when they say “the Rice Purity Test.”

How scoring works

You start at 100. Each item you check is one experience you have had, and each checked item subtracts one point. Your score is simply 100 minus the number of items you checked, so it always lands between 0 and 100.

All of this happens in your browser. We do not calculate your score on a server, and your answers are never sent to us — see our Privacy Policy for how to verify that yourself.

How we write score interpretations

We publish an interpretation for every possible score. These interpretations are editorial: they are our plain-language description of what a score range tends to reflect, written to be useful without judging the reader. They are not derived from a validated scoring rubric, because none exists for this test.

We deliberately avoid framing any score as good or bad, mature or immature, healthy or unhealthy. A score describes how many of one specific list of experiences someone has had — nothing more. Our full standard for this is in our Editorial Policy.

How we handle statistics

There is no official statistical authority for the Rice Purity Test. No representative sample, no published methodology, and no peer-reviewed dataset sits behind any average score you will read online, including on this site.

The figures we cite come from aggregated, publicly reported results. These are self-selected and self-reported, and they skew heavily toward the internet-using young adult population that seeks the test out. We treat them as a rough picture of that population, not as population-level statistics, and we name the source next to each figure. Where a reliable number does not exist, we say so rather than estimating one.

What we separate

Across the site we distinguish three kinds of statement and write them differently: verified facts supported by an identifiable source; editorial interpretation, which is our reading of the available information; and practical guidance, which is a suggestion rather than a scientific conclusion.

What this test is not

The Rice Purity Test is not scientifically validated. It has never been peer-reviewed, normed against a representative population, or shown to predict anything about a person. It is not a psychological assessment, a medical screening, or a measure of character, morality, or relationship compatibility. It is a self-reflection activity that became an internet phenomenon, and we present it as exactly that.

Corrections and updates

When we find an error, we fix it and — if it is substantive — log it publicly on our Corrections pagewith the date, the page, and what changed. This methodology page is itself versioned by its “updated” date above, and we revise it as our sourcing or process changes.