Rice Purity Test

1924quizclassic

The Rice Purity Test is a 100-question self-scored quiz that rates how 'pure' a person is based on their sexual, romantic, and rule-breaking history. Originally printed by Rice University's student newspaper in 1924, the modern web version at RicePurityTest.com went online in 2012 and spread widely on TikTok, Twitter and Reddit through the late 2010s and early 2020s.

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Overview

The Rice Purity Test is a self-scored quiz of 100 yes-or-no questions covering sex, drugs, alcohol, dating and minor brushes with the law. Takers start at 100 and subtract a point for every question they answer yes to, so a high score signals inexperience and a low one signals a wild backstory3. The current web version lives at RicePurityTest.com and is run by Rice University's undergraduate newspaper, the Rice Thresher1.

Questions range from tame prompts like holding hands or being in a relationship to explicit ones about oral sex, drug use and running from the police5. The gimmick is the flatness of the scoring, where a first kiss and doing heroin each cost the same single point, which the Thresher itself flagged as an obvious philosophical hole in the format back in 20124. Score-swapping is the whole point of the ritual, with people comparing numbers at sleepovers, in group chats and inside college orientation groups5.

The test is best known as a middle-school and college bonding activity that later jumped to social media. Urban Dictionary entries describe swapping scores as a status game, with a 100 marking someone as 'pure' and a low number treated as a badge of chaos6.

How It Spread

The 'official' web version of the Rice Purity Test picked up massive traffic in the late 2010s. In the twelve months leading up to August 2017, the Thresher-run site was visited 1,524,204 times, with Atlanta as the top city for test takers, followed by Houston, Dallas, Chicago and New York2. Traffic spiked around Rice's own orientation events, jumping from roughly 100 daily tests to 274 on Dis-Orientation Saturday in 20172.

Search interest hit a new high in April 2020 as COVID-19 lockdowns pushed people back to the quiz, and lifestyle site Society19 ran an explainer on April 28, 2020 that framed it as a nostalgic middle-school sleepover activity5. The test showed up in various subreddits in February 2020 and drew jokes on Twitter, including an October 25, 2020 post from @alfuckuhard about 'studying' for the exam that pulled over 1,000 likes1.

TikTok is where the format really turned into a repeatable meme. A common early trend was making family members take the test on camera, with @chloeweinstein's October 8, 2020 video racking up more than 3 million plays and 400,000 likes, and @official_lightning's October 6 entry hitting over 1 million views1. VTuber group NIJISANJI EN took the quiz on stream on January 24, 2022 in a video that pulled more than 500,000 views, and Twitch streamer Hasan Piker posted his own attempt to YouTube on June 1 that gathered over 400,000 likes1. Netflix's Big Mouth even worked the quiz into season six, episode four on October 28, 2022, showing its characters taking the test1.

How to Use This Meme

The typical Rice Purity Test ritual is simple: open ricepuritytest.com, tick every question you have done, hit submit and share your final score out of 100. A common convention treats scores in the 90s as 'pure' and single-digit scores as bragging (or self-deprecating) material6. On TikTok the format often includes filming your reaction to the score, or handing your phone to a parent, sibling or friend group and filming theirs1. In college O-Week groups the test is usually done together but people are under no obligation to reveal individual answers, only the final number if they want to4.

Frequently Asked Questions

Rice Purity Test

1924quizclassic

The Rice Purity Test is a 100-question self-scored quiz that rates how 'pure' a person is based on their sexual, romantic, and rule-breaking history. Originally printed by Rice University's student newspaper in 1924, the modern web version at RicePurityTest.com went online in 2012 and spread widely on TikTok, Twitter and Reddit through the late 2010s and early 2020s.

campus memes single serving site memes dating memes gen z memes pre digital memes

Overview

The Rice Purity Test is a self-scored quiz of 100 yes-or-no questions covering sex, drugs, alcohol, dating and minor brushes with the law. Takers start at 100 and subtract a point for every question they answer yes to, so a high score signals inexperience and a low one signals a wild backstory3. The current web version lives at RicePurityTest.com and is run by Rice University's undergraduate newspaper, the Rice Thresher1.

Questions range from tame prompts like holding hands or being in a relationship to explicit ones about oral sex, drug use and running from the police5. The gimmick is the flatness of the scoring, where a first kiss and doing heroin each cost the same single point, which the Thresher itself flagged as an obvious philosophical hole in the format back in 20124. Score-swapping is the whole point of the ritual, with people comparing numbers at sleepovers, in group chats and inside college orientation groups5.

The test is best known as a middle-school and college bonding activity that later jumped to social media. Urban Dictionary entries describe swapping scores as a status game, with a 100 marking someone as 'pure' and a low number treated as a badge of chaos6.

How It Spread

The 'official' web version of the Rice Purity Test picked up massive traffic in the late 2010s. In the twelve months leading up to August 2017, the Thresher-run site was visited 1,524,204 times, with Atlanta as the top city for test takers, followed by Houston, Dallas, Chicago and New York2. Traffic spiked around Rice's own orientation events, jumping from roughly 100 daily tests to 274 on Dis-Orientation Saturday in 20172.

Search interest hit a new high in April 2020 as COVID-19 lockdowns pushed people back to the quiz, and lifestyle site Society19 ran an explainer on April 28, 2020 that framed it as a nostalgic middle-school sleepover activity5. The test showed up in various subreddits in February 2020 and drew jokes on Twitter, including an October 25, 2020 post from @alfuckuhard about 'studying' for the exam that pulled over 1,000 likes1.

TikTok is where the format really turned into a repeatable meme. A common early trend was making family members take the test on camera, with @chloeweinstein's October 8, 2020 video racking up more than 3 million plays and 400,000 likes, and @official_lightning's October 6 entry hitting over 1 million views1. VTuber group NIJISANJI EN took the quiz on stream on January 24, 2022 in a video that pulled more than 500,000 views, and Twitch streamer Hasan Piker posted his own attempt to YouTube on June 1 that gathered over 400,000 likes1. Netflix's Big Mouth even worked the quiz into season six, episode four on October 28, 2022, showing its characters taking the test1.

How to Use This Meme

The typical Rice Purity Test ritual is simple: open ricepuritytest.com, tick every question you have done, hit submit and share your final score out of 100. A common convention treats scores in the 90s as 'pure' and single-digit scores as bragging (or self-deprecating) material6. On TikTok the format often includes filming your reaction to the score, or handing your phone to a parent, sibling or friend group and filming theirs1. In college O-Week groups the test is usually done together but people are under no obligation to reveal individual answers, only the final number if they want to4.

Frequently Asked Questions