CTE Quiz
How heavy have your ordinary days felt over the last few weeks, really? This quiz turns what you notice about memory, mood, and your body into a plain-language picture of that weight, not a score. It takes about 4 minutes, and it’s built to be honest rather than reassuring: it can describe a rough stretch, but it can’t diagnose anything.
This test is not a diagnosis and does not replace a specialist. If something here worries you, talk to a professional.
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Morning Momentum
«Your days still run themselves for the most part.»
The test is new — you are among the first hundred to take it.
You fling the curtains open, dance through getting dressed, and don't notice your keys are in your hand until you're already at the door. That's barely noticeable weight in the everyday cognitive, mood-and-impulse, and physical experience this test tracks — next to nothing gets in the way.
That's a real answer, not us brushing off whatever brought you here. This only reads the last few weeks, and days like these have plenty of ordinary explanations that have nothing to do with any one condition — no self-report can turn a distant knock on the head and an ordinary week into anything like a diagnosis.
Keep dancing through your mornings — nothing here says otherwise.
Note Taker
«Your days need a little backup to hold together lately.»
The test is new — you are among the first hundred to take it.
You catch yourself at the fridge door again, scanning six sticky notes for the one plan you already agreed to twice. That's a slight, just-starting-to-take-shape weight in the everyday cognitive, mood-and-impulse, and physical experience this test tracks — small, but it's there now.
This only reads a recent stretch, not the whole picture, and more than one part of your day leaning on a workaround has plenty of ordinary causes unrelated to any single condition. Add a distant head injury into the mix and this still isn't built to turn the two into a diagnosis.
You're already doing exactly what a slight uptick like this calls for.
Puzzle Piece
«Your recent days don't add up to one clear picture.»
The test is new — you are among the first hundred to take it.
You sit with the puzzle half-finished, sure about one whole corner and stuck on a piece that could belong in two different places at once. That's an uneven, not-clearly-settled weight in the everyday cognitive, mood-and-impulse, and physical experience this test tracks — some parts heavier than others.
This reads only the last few weeks, and an uneven mix like this has plenty of ordinary explanations that have nothing to do with any single condition. Whatever history is or isn't in the picture, this total was never built to turn it into a diagnosis alongside what you've described.
Your half-finished puzzle is still worth sitting with.
Team Effort
«Getting through an ordinary day now takes real planning on your end.»
The test is new — you are among the first hundred to take it.
You hand your partner the sticker book because today's page needs two sets of hands to finish, and you've stopped pretending you'll get to it alone later. That's considerable weight in the everyday cognitive, mood-and-impulse, and physical experience this test tracks, shaping real choices about your day now.
This still only reads what you've described about a recent stretch, and a heavy pattern like this has plenty of ordinary causes that have nothing to do with any single condition. Your history and symptoms don't get weighed against each other here — this total isn't built to add them into a diagnosis.
That's a heavy stretch you're carrying, and it's worth naming out loud.
Steady Hand
«Someone else is holding a lot of this with you.»
The test is new — you are among the first hundred to take it.
You let someone else set the alarm, hand you your phone, and sit close while you catch your breath before the day even starts. That's extensive weight in the everyday cognitive, mood-and-impulse, and physical experience this test tracks, sitting at the center of most ordinary days right now.
This still only reads the days you described, and plenty of ordinary, unrelated things can weigh this heavily too — a self-report can't weigh a past knock on the head against a present symptom, or add the two into anything like a diagnosis.
There's enough here worth going over with a doctor, calmly, whenever it suits you — not because a diagnosis is waiting to be found, since no one can hand you that while you're alive, but because a heavy stretch like this deserves a second look.
About this test
How this test works
This quiz splits a recent stretch of ordinary days into three areas: memory and thinking, mood and impulse control, and the body — head, balance, coordination. The first two draw on current research into the lived side of a specific brain condition; the third comes from that same symptom research. This only asks what your days have felt like lately, against how things used to feel — never the research checklists themselves.
A self-report can't look at brain tissue, run a scan, or check any biological marker, and it isn't measured against anyone else's results. The same distraction, short temper, or unsteadiness this quiz asks about has plenty of everyday causes that have nothing to do with any brain condition.
CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) is often the reason people land here: nothing available today can identify it in a living person — no scan, no blood test, confirmed only once someone has died. Researchers behind the criteria used for living patients say plainly they belong in a study, not a doctor's office, and specialist use has matched the real condition only a small share of the time. Head-impact history is named here only for context, never scored — weighing it against a symptom would turn a self-report into a made-up danger score.
This is not a diagnostic tool and doesn't replace a clinician — and for this one condition, nothing does the job of a diagnosis in a living person, research tools included. For a plain-language overview, see this Cleveland Clinic overview.
Frequently asked questions
Can a doctor actually diagnose CTE while someone is alive?
Not with anything that exists right now. Confirming CTE takes a direct look at brain tissue, and that only happens once someone has died — there's no scan or blood draw that can do this earlier. Researchers have floated criteria meant to spot the condition in living people, but the same researchers say those criteria belong in a study, not in a doctor's office. This quiz works the way any self-report has to: it describes how your days have felt, nothing a checklist like that — or anything else — could turn into a diagnosis.
Does this quiz tell you if you have CTE?
It doesn't, and nothing available today does that for a living person, this quiz included. What actually comes out of it is a picture of how heavy your recent days have been — memory, mood, the body — not a yes-or-no on CTE itself. If you want an actual answer to that question, a doctor is the one who can weigh it properly, alongside everything else going on in your life, and decide whether anything's worth pursuing further.
If I recognize a lot of these experiences, does that mean I have CTE?
Not by itself. Trouble with memory, patience, sleep, stress, or balance shows up for all sorts of everyday reasons that have nothing to do with CTE specifically, and a quiz total can't tell those reasons apart from each other. Recognizing yourself in a lot of this says more about how your days have gone lately than about any one underlying cause.
Do you need to be a professional athlete for this to apply to you?
Not at all. People report repeated head impacts from contact sports at every level, military service, and a range of other jobs and activities — that's just where the research has looked, not a requirement for taking this quiz. All this asks about is your own recent days, whatever brought you here.
Sources
- Montenigro PH, Baugh CM, Daneshvar DH, et al. "Clinical subtypes of chronic traumatic encephalopathy: literature review and proposed research diagnostic criteria for traumatic encephalopathy syndrome." Alzheimers Res Ther. 2014;6(5):68. doi:10.1186/s13195-014-0068-z.
- Katz DI, Bernick C, Dodick DW, et al. "National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke Consensus Diagnostic Criteria for Traumatic Encephalopathy Syndrome." Neurology. 2021;96(18):848–863. doi:10.1212/WNL.0000000000011850.
- Montenigro PH, Alosco ML, Martin BM, et al. "Cumulative Head Impact Exposure Predicts Later-Life Depression, Apathy, Executive Dysfunction, and Cognitive Impairment in Former High School and College Football Players." Journal of Neurotrauma. 2017;34(2):328–340. doi:10.1089/neu.2016.4413.
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Breakdown
There's a reason you answer the way you do
Most tests show you a slice of who you are. This one gets to the core: the classic 16-type personality test that goes back to Carl Jung, rebuilt from the ground up and way more accurate. It takes ten minutes, you only ever do it once — and you walk away with an answer most people never quite figure out: why you are the way you are. Why some people just get you, and why with others it's complicated. And that answer won't change: your type is yours for life.
Take the free testHow you compare
The test is new — you are among the first hundred to take it.
Three more tests on the same theme
About this test
How this test works
This quiz splits a recent stretch of ordinary days into three areas: memory and thinking, mood and impulse control, and the body — head, balance, coordination. The first two draw on current research into the lived side of a specific brain condition; the third comes from that same symptom research. This only asks what your days have felt like lately, against how things used to feel — never the research checklists themselves.
A self-report can't look at brain tissue, run a scan, or check any biological marker, and it isn't measured against anyone else's results. The same distraction, short temper, or unsteadiness this quiz asks about has plenty of everyday causes that have nothing to do with any brain condition.
CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) is often the reason people land here: nothing available today can identify it in a living person — no scan, no blood test, confirmed only once someone has died. Researchers behind the criteria used for living patients say plainly they belong in a study, not a doctor's office, and specialist use has matched the real condition only a small share of the time. Head-impact history is named here only for context, never scored — weighing it against a symptom would turn a self-report into a made-up danger score.
This is not a diagnostic tool and doesn't replace a clinician — and for this one condition, nothing does the job of a diagnosis in a living person, research tools included. For a plain-language overview, see this Cleveland Clinic overview.
Frequently asked questions
Can a doctor actually diagnose CTE while someone is alive?
Not with anything that exists right now. Confirming CTE takes a direct look at brain tissue, and that only happens once someone has died — there's no scan or blood draw that can do this earlier. Researchers have floated criteria meant to spot the condition in living people, but the same researchers say those criteria belong in a study, not in a doctor's office. This quiz works the way any self-report has to: it describes how your days have felt, nothing a checklist like that — or anything else — could turn into a diagnosis.
Does this quiz tell you if you have CTE?
It doesn't, and nothing available today does that for a living person, this quiz included. What actually comes out of it is a picture of how heavy your recent days have been — memory, mood, the body — not a yes-or-no on CTE itself. If you want an actual answer to that question, a doctor is the one who can weigh it properly, alongside everything else going on in your life, and decide whether anything's worth pursuing further.
If I recognize a lot of these experiences, does that mean I have CTE?
Not by itself. Trouble with memory, patience, sleep, stress, or balance shows up for all sorts of everyday reasons that have nothing to do with CTE specifically, and a quiz total can't tell those reasons apart from each other. Recognizing yourself in a lot of this says more about how your days have gone lately than about any one underlying cause.
Do you need to be a professional athlete for this to apply to you?
Not at all. People report repeated head impacts from contact sports at every level, military service, and a range of other jobs and activities — that's just where the research has looked, not a requirement for taking this quiz. All this asks about is your own recent days, whatever brought you here.
Sources
- Montenigro PH, Baugh CM, Daneshvar DH, et al. "Clinical subtypes of chronic traumatic encephalopathy: literature review and proposed research diagnostic criteria for traumatic encephalopathy syndrome." Alzheimers Res Ther. 2014;6(5):68. doi:10.1186/s13195-014-0068-z.
- Katz DI, Bernick C, Dodick DW, et al. "National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke Consensus Diagnostic Criteria for Traumatic Encephalopathy Syndrome." Neurology. 2021;96(18):848–863. doi:10.1212/WNL.0000000000011850.
- Montenigro PH, Alosco ML, Martin BM, et al. "Cumulative Head Impact Exposure Predicts Later-Life Depression, Apathy, Executive Dysfunction, and Cognitive Impairment in Former High School and College Football Players." Journal of Neurotrauma. 2017;34(2):328–340. doi:10.1089/neu.2016.4413.
