Memory

These are the ones where your score is a span — how much you could hold before it slipped away. Digits, blocks, words, patterns. Each round gets a little harder until you drop it, and finding your ceiling is the fun part.

Your hardware matters far less here than it does in the speed tests, since we're counting things rather than timing them. What matters instead is exactly how we scored each round and when we called it. So that's what these pages tell you. Change the rules a little and the number changes a lot, which is why we'd rather be specific than impressive.

Sequence Memory Test

Blocks light up one by one. Tap them back in the same order. Every round you survive adds another block, and your score is the longest run you got right.

Open tool →Number Memory Test

Digits flash past one a second, then you type them back. Each round you clear adds another digit. Your score is the longest string you got back intact.

Open tool →Verbal Memory Test

Words appear one at a time and you say whether you've seen each one already. Scored as d′ rather than a streak, because a streak climbs if you just answer “seen” more often.

Open tool →Visual Memory Test

Half a grid lights up for three seconds, then clears. Mark what was lit. Each round you nail adds another square, and we print the exact odds you got it by luck.

Open tool →Chimp Test

Numerals scatter across a board and vanish the moment you touch the first one. Tap the rest from memory. We also time how long you looked, which is the number every other version leaves out.

Open tool →