A screener, not a diagnosis

ADHD test for adults

This is the ASRS v1.1, the scale the World Health Organization developed with its adult ADHD workgroup. Six questions, roughly two minutes. No account needed, and your answers stay in your browser.

Please answer the questions below, rating yourself on each of the criteria shown, choosing the answer that best describes how you have felt and conducted yourself over the past 6 months.

Question 1 of 6

How often do you have trouble wrapping up the final details of a project, once the challenging parts have been done?

Your answers stay in your browser and are never sent anywhere. We do not see them and we do not store them.

What this scale is

ASRS v1.1 stands for the Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale. It was created in collaboration with the WHO by the psychiatrists and researchers Lenard Adler, Ronald Kessler and Thomas Spencer. The full version has 18 items mirroring the DSM-IV criteria.

What you answer here is the first six of them, Part A. In Kessler's 2005 study this short part predicted a clinical diagnosis more accurately than all 18 items together, at 97.9% correct classifications against 96.2%, which is why screening uses it rather than the long form.

The item wording is reproduced exactly as published. The licence permits an electronic version but forbids editing the text, and rewording an item would in any case detach it from the psychometrics quoted below.

How the score works

On the paper form some cells are shaded dark, and an answer counts when it lands in the shaded zone. The threshold is not the same for every question: for the first three, a frequency of "sometimes" already counts, while for the last three only "often" and "very often" do.

After that it is a simple tally. Four or more out of six means your symptoms may be consistent with ADHD and the result is worth showing to a clinician.

How accurate the result is

In a sample of adults who were also assessed clinically, the six-question screener reached a specificity of 99.5% and a sensitivity of 68.7%.

Those two numbers mean very different things in practice. High specificity says a positive result is rarely a false alarm, so if you cross the threshold there really is something to discuss. Moderate sensitivity says the opposite: the scale misses roughly one person in three who does have ADHD, most often the inattentive presentation with no hyperactivity visible from outside.

The conclusion is simple. A negative result does not close the question. If trouble with attention, organisation and finishing things is getting in the way of your life, go and see someone regardless of what the questionnaire said.

What to do with the result

Adult ADHD is diagnosed by psychiatrists and clinical psychologists. A GP or a neurologist will usually refer you onward.

It helps to bring more than the total. The button under your result copies your answer to every item as one block of text.

Preparing examples from your own life helps too: where exactly the day falls apart, what happens to deadlines, how school went. A clinician will ask about childhood, because the criteria require the signs to have been present from an early age.

Common questions

Can an online test diagnose ADHD?
No, and no online test can. A screening scale answers a single question: whether this resembles ADHD closely enough to be worth a specialist's time. A diagnosis comes after an assessment that reviews your history from childhood, rules out other causes, and weighs how much the difficulties actually cost you.
Why are there only six questions?
This is Part A of the full eighteen-item scale. In the 2005 study six items predicted a clinical diagnosis better than all eighteen, so the short version was kept for screening.
What does a result of four or more mean?
That your answers landed in the significant zone at least four times out of six. The scale's authors treat that as grounds for a fuller assessment. It does not confirm that you have ADHD.
My score was low but I am struggling. What does that mean?
That the scale did not catch you. The difficulties are still real. Sensitivity is around 69%, so roughly one person in three with ADHD is missed, most often with the inattentive presentation. Anxiety, depression, burnout, chronic poor sleep and thyroid problems produce a similar picture as well, and all of them are worth a clinician's time.
Are my answers stored?
They never reach our servers. Scoring happens in your browser, the draft sits in your own browser storage, and a button wipes it at any point.
Is the test free, and do I need an account?
It is free, no account is needed and no email is asked for.
Does the scale work for teenagers and children?
No, the ASRS is designed for people aged 18 and over. Children are assessed with different instruments, filled in by a parent or a teacher.
How common is ADHD in adults?
Research puts it at several percent of the adult population. A large share of those people have no diagnosis, because the symptoms get read as personality, laziness or the after-effects of stress.

What this test is not

This page is informational. It is not a medical device and not a diagnostic procedure. We do not diagnose, treat or prevent any condition, and we do not replace medical advice, psychotherapy or medication decisions. If you are in distress right now and having thoughts of harming yourself, please reach urgent professional help.

Sources

Scale copyright

The 6-question Adult Self-Report Scale-Version 1.1 (ASRS-V1.1) Screener is a subset of the 18-question Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale-Version 1.1 (Adult ASRS-V1.1) Symptom Checklist. © New York University and the President and Fellows of Harvard College.