Short answer: Yes, your number can change, and it changes for two different reasons. In a single day it moves with your mood, your sleep and which examples come to mind. Over months and years it moves when your habits and responsibilities change. Reading about the quiz, or retaking it ten times in a row, changes nothing real.
I'm Muhammad Husnain Zahid. I'm 22, and my own result on this quiz landed in the 28 to 39 band, "Right on schedule." That is well above my real age, so people sometimes ask me whether the number is fixed. My honest answer is no. It is a snapshot of the answers I gave on the day I took it, and that is all it is.
Two kinds of change
The first kind is fast and a bit random. You answer the same quiz on a Monday morning and a Saturday afternoon and the numbers differ. The second kind is slow. Your life changes, your habits change with it, and a year later your answers look different.
These two get mixed up all the time. A small difference between two attempts is the first kind. A real shift over a long time is the second. They need different explanations.
Fast changes: what moves your answers in a day
- Sleep. When I haven't slept enough I feel older and slower, and I'd expect my answers to lean that way too. Tired people pick the easy, quiet option.
- Mood. After a good day the spontaneous options look more fun. After a stressful one, the settled options look wiser.
- What you happened to do recently. If you were at a wedding last weekend, the party questions feel different from how they would after a week at your desk.
- Close options. Each question has four answers, and two of them are often both true for you. Which one you click can depend on the minute.
A difference of a few points between two attempts is normal. If your result jumps a whole band, it is worth asking what was different that day before you decide your mind has changed.
Slow changes: what moves your habits
Responsibilities. A first job, running something of your own, moving out, looking after family. Many questions on this quiz ask about money, work and relationships, and I wrote about this bias in Is the Mental Age Test Fair? When your life fills in, your number can rise even if you feel like the same person.
Routine. Research on personality across adulthood finds that, on average, people become more organised and more emotionally steady as they get older (Roberts, Walton and Viechtbauer, 2006). That is an average across many people. It says nothing certain about you.
Work habits. My own days changed when I started working every day. I plan my week, and because of SEO I check small details for a living. I think that is where most of my settled answers come from.
Health and energy. A few questions ask about the body, and those answers shift with age, injuries and fitness.
How long does a new habit take?
If you want your answers to lean differently, you are really talking about changing habits. A study from University College London followed volunteers as they built a new daily habit. It took 66 days for the habit to feel automatic in the typical case, and anywhere from 18 to 254 days depending on the person and the habit (Lally and others, 2010).
So if you changed something last week and your number has not moved, that is expected. Weeks, not days.
Should you try to change the number?
I'd say no. The number is not a score to beat. If you pick answers to look more settled, or more playful, you are measuring who you want to appear to be, and the result stops meaning anything.
If there is something you want to change, change the habit itself and leave the number alone. A few that are easy to start:
- Fix your sleep first. It affects patience and mood more than any trick.
- Add one planned thing a week if your days feel messy.
- Add one unplanned thing a week if your days feel too tight.
How to check fairly whether yours has changed
- Take it rested and in a normal mood, not after a bad night.
- Write down the date, your number and your band.
- Wait a few months before you take it again. A week later mostly tests your memory of the first time.
- Compare the category averages on your result page, not only the total. A category can move even when the total stays put.
- Answer for who you are most days, not who you wish you were.
What this article does not claim
It does not claim the quiz measures growth. The quiz is not validated by any research body, and I do not have data on how people's results change over time, because only the final number is ever collected and never anyone's age or an earlier result. Everything here comes from how the quiz is built, my own result, and the sources below.
To see how the number is made, read the age guide. For what your band says about you, read What Does My Mental Age Mean?. If you want to see where you are now, you can take the test. It takes about ten minutes and your answers stay in your browser.
If feeling stuck, tired or low is behind your question, the help resources page lists free, confidential support.
Sources and further reading
- Roberts, B. W., Walton, K. E., and Viechtbauer, W. (2006). Patterns of mean-level change in personality traits across the life course: A meta-analysis of longitudinal studies. Psychological Bulletin, 132(1), 1–25.
- Lally, P., van Jaarsveld, C. H. M., Potts, H. W. W., and Wardle, J. (2010). How are habits formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world. European Journal of Social Psychology, 40(6), 998–1009.
- This site's scoring method: the age guide.
Frequently asked questions
Can your mental age change?
Yes. In a day it moves with your mood, sleep and which examples come to mind. Over months and years it moves when your habits and responsibilities change.
Why did my result change when I retook the quiz?
A difference of a few points is normal, because mood, tiredness and close answer options all affect which option you click. A jump of a whole band is worth thinking about: ask what was different that day.
How often should I retake the test?
Every few months is enough. Retaking it within days mostly tests your memory of the first attempt.
Can I lower or raise my mental age on purpose?
You can pick answers to push the number, but then it stops meaning anything. If you want a change, change a habit you actually care about and leave the number alone.
Does a changing result mean I am growing up?
Not necessarily. It shows your answers leaned differently on a different day or in a different stage of life. It is not a measure of growth.