The rules
- Press Start test. The panel turns red.
- Wait for green. It comes after a random pause of about 1.5 to 5 seconds.
- Click, tap or press Space the moment the color changes.
- Play all five tries. Your score is the average in milliseconds.
- Find your rung on the ladder below.
Clicking before green is a foul. The try is cancelled and you repeat it, so a twitchy finger gets you nowhere.
The scoring ladder
| Rung | Average | Rating |
|---|---|---|
| 6 | Under 200 ms | Exceptional |
| 5 | 200 to 229 ms | Fast |
| 4 | 230 to 259 ms | Above average |
| 3 | 260 to 299 ms | Average |
| 2 | 300 to 359 ms | Below average |
| 1 | 360 ms or more | Slow |
Most people start on rung 3, since typical online scores fall between 250 and 300 ms.
Three ways to play
Climb one rung. Note the rung of your first run. Your goal for the session is the next rung up, nothing more.
Hold the rung. One good run can be luck. A rung only counts as yours when you land on it three runs in a row. This is harder than it sounds, because a single slow try out of five can pull the average down a rung.
Head to head. Two players take turns on the same device. Whoever finishes on the higher rung wins. If both are on the same rung, the lower average takes it.
Why the ladder is hard to climb
Each rung is only 30 to 60 ms tall, and reaction time does not change by much. Practice mainly improves consistency, so the realistic prize is holding your rung more reliably and now and then reaching the next one.
Your equipment has a say too. Hardware typically adds 20 to 50 ms to an online score, which is about the height of a rung. A wired mouse and a fast monitor can lift you a step without any change in you.
More than a game
What the game times is a voluntary reaction, and the reflex test page explains how that differs from a true reflex. For group play, see the reaction game. If you want to climb for real, start with how to improve reaction time.