# Rice Purity Test 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. ## 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 backstory[3]. The current web version lives at RicePurityTest.com and is run by Rice University's undergraduate newspaper, the Rice Thresher[1]. 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 police[5]. 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 2012[4]. Score-swapping is the whole point of the ritual, with people comparing numbers at sleepovers, in group chats and inside college orientation groups[5]. 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 chaos[6]. ## 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 York[2]. Traffic spiked around Rice's own orientation events, jumping from roughly 100 daily tests to 274 on Dis-Orientation Saturday in 2017[2]. 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 activity[5]. 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 likes[1]. 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 views[1]. 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 likes[1]. Netflix's Big Mouth even worked the quiz into season six, episode four on October 28, 2022, showing its characters taking the test[1]. ## How to Use 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) material[6]. 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 theirs[1]. 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 to[4]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is the Rice Purity Test? It's a 100-question self-scored quiz about sex, drugs, dating and minor rule-breaking, run online by Rice University's student newspaper at RicePurityTest.com[1]. ### Where did the Rice Purity Test come from? The Rice Thresher, Rice University's undergraduate newspaper in Houston, first printed a purity test in 1924 for women students, and the current 100-question web version was published in 2012 after editors rewrote a 2011 edition[2][4]. ### What does your Rice Purity Test score mean? Everyone starts at 100 and loses a point for every question they answer yes to, so a high score signals inexperience and a low score signals a more eventful history[3]. ### How do you take the Rice Purity Test? Go to RicePurityTest.com, check off each of the 100 questions you have done, submit, and the site returns a score from 0 to 100[1]. ### Is the Rice Purity Test still popular? It stayed a fixture of college orientation and social media into the 2020s, with Google search interest spiking in April 2020 and viral TikTok versions running through 2022[1][5]. ### Why did the Rice Thresher rewrite the test in 2012? In 2011 the Backpage editors refused to print the test because it included references to non-consensual and homosexual acts, and a cleaned-up version replaced it the following year[4]. ### How much traffic does the Rice Purity Test website get? The Thresher reported that the official site was visited 1,524,204 times in the twelve months before August 2017, with Atlanta as the top city for takers[2]. ### Did the Rice Purity Test appear on TV? Yes, Netflix's animated series Big Mouth featured the quiz in season six, episode four, which aired on October 28, 2022[1]. ### Who took the Rice Purity Test on TikTok? Creators like @chloeweinstein and @official_lightning posted family-takes-the-test videos in October 2020 that pulled millions of views, and VTuber group NIJISANJI EN did a group version in January 2022[1]. ### What was the average score in 1924? The 119 women who took the original 1924 Rice Purity Test averaged a score of 62[2]. ## References 1. [https://www.ricethresher.org/article/2017/08/purity-test-evolves-spreads-beyond-rice]() 2. [https://www.ricethresher.org/article/2012/08/release-of-new-purity-test-long-overdue]() 3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/rice-purity-test]() 4. [https://www.society19.com/the-rice-purity-test/]() 5. [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Rice%20Purity%20Test]() 6. [https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/big_mouth/s06/e04]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/rice-purity-test Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library