Our method

Last updated 2026-09-12

This page explains, plainly, what this site's free ADHD test is, what it measures, how the score is calculated, and what it cannot tell you. We wrote it because a screening tool that touches mental health deserves to be explained rather than left as a black box. If you take one thing from this page, take this: our test is a structured way to organize your observations. It is not a diagnosis, and it was not built or reviewed by a clinician.

Who built this and who reviewed it

This site was built by Jack Squire, the founder. Jack is not a clinician, a psychologist, or a psychiatrist. No clinician has reviewed this site or its test. We say this plainly because many ADHD screening sites imply clinical authority they do not have, and we do not want to do the same. What we have done instead is build the test directly from the published DSM-5-TR symptom list, describe our scoring method in full on this page, and link out to primary sources so you can check our work. See our editorial policy for how we write and source content, and our about page for more on why this site exists.

The instrument: what the test actually is

The test is 18 items mirroring the DSM-5-TR ADHD symptom list: 9 inattention items and 9 hyperactivity-impulsivity items, each rated on a frequency scale from "Never" to "Very Often." Every item is worded to reflect one of the 18 published symptom criteria.

It is important to be precise about what this test is not. It is not the ASRS (the Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale, a different screener you may also see referenced elsewhere), and it has not undergone independent clinical validation. We built it based on the DSM-5-TR symptom criteria, and that is the most accurate way to describe it. If a site tells you its self-test is "clinically validated," ask what validation study backs that claim and who ran it.

Exactly how scoring works

Here is precisely what the code behind this test does, described in plain language rather than left as an assumption:

• Each of the 18 items is answered on a 5-point frequency scale. A response of "Often" or "Very Often" counts as a present symptom for that item. Every other response (Never, Rarely, Sometimes) does not count toward the symptom total.
• The first 9 items are summed separately as the inattention cluster, and the last 9 items are summed separately as the hyperactivity- impulsivity cluster.
• A threshold is then applied to each cluster based on the age range you select: 6 symptoms for ages 16 and under, 5 symptoms for ages 17 and older, matching the DSM-5-TR's own age-based threshold. If a cluster's symptom count meets or exceeds that threshold, the tool reports that the cluster "meets" the DSM-5-TR symptom count for that presentation. If it does not, the tool reports "below."
• All of this runs in your browser. Your answers are used to calculate a result on your device, and we do not store your individual answers on our servers.

What the test does not, and cannot, measure

Meeting a symptom count threshold is only one part of the DSM-5-TR criteria for an ADHD diagnosis. The full criteria also require:

• Symptoms present for at least 6 months
• Several symptoms present before age 12
• Symptoms present in two or more settings, such as home, school, work, or social situations
• Clear evidence that symptoms cause impairment in daily functioning

Our quiz does not measure any of these four things. It asks about current symptom frequency and nothing else. A single self-report questionnaire, answered on one occasion, cannot establish childhood onset, cross-setting pervasiveness, or functional impairment. Those require a clinical interview, and often, input from people who know you well or knew you as a child, plus a clinician's judgment about what "impairment" means in your specific circumstances. This is true no matter how a result reads. Whether your result says "meets" or "below," it reflects current symptom frequency only, not a diagnosis.

Why we describe it this way instead of claiming more

It would be easy to make this tool sound more authoritative than it is. We chose not to, because overstating what a self-report screener can do does a disservice to anyone using it to think seriously about their own mental health. A test that quietly implies clinical weight it does not have can push someone toward false reassurance or false alarm. We would rather be precise about the limits of a free, browser-based tool and point you toward the professionals who can actually evaluate the four criteria listed above.

Sources we rely on

The symptom list and thresholds described on this page come from the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, Text Revision (DSM-5-TR), published in 2022. For general public information about ADHD, we also point readers to the National Institute of Mental Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Where our approach was informed by prior screening research, we cite it directly rather than implying our own tool shares its validation, for example Kessler and colleagues' 2005 paper on the World Health Organization Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS) in Psychological Medicine, which we mention only as a different screener you may also see, not as a description of this tool.

Get in touch

If you find an error on this page, in the test itself, or anywhere else on the site, or if you have a question about how a result was calculated, contact us at hello@freeadhdtest.org. We read every message and correct mistakes when we find them; see our editorial policy for how corrections work.

Related resources

• Take the free ADHD test
• Understanding your results
• DSM-5 ADHD criteria explained
• Editorial policy
• About this site