Hypermobility Test: See Your 5PQ Score and Everyday Impact Rating
This hypermobility test screens for possible generalized joint hypermobility using an adapted 5PQ. You get an instant flexibility score and a separate everyday impact rating to discuss with a clinician.
Reviewed by Michael Callans, MSW 
Hypermobility Test is a free, confidential 15-question self-assessment, adapted from the 5PQ (Hakim and Grahame 2003). It takes about 9 minutes, runs entirely in your browser, and gives you a plain-language score across 3 interpretation bands plus an optional in-depth report. It is an educational screening, not a diagnosis.
Two questions, not one: are your joints hypermobile, and what does that cost you day to day
Joint hypermobility means that joints move beyond the usual range of motion. This hypermobility test separates reported flexibility from everyday difficulties such as pain, instability, fatigue, and dizziness, so your results can help you describe both movement and its impact during a medical appointment. The flexibility questions are adapted from the 5PQ; the everyday impact questions are original to Psychology.com.
5PQ hypermobility screen
The five-part questionnaire (Hakim and Grahame, 2003), a validated self-report tool clinicians use as a first pass before a hands-on exam. We keep the meaning of each question while making the wording easier to answer online.
Everyday impact scale
Original questions about the things a flexible joint can actually cost you: pain, instability, fatigue, clumsiness, easy bruising, and dizziness on standing. Shown separately from your 5PQ score, because impact is what usually brings people here.
Honest about its limits
This page explains plainly what a self-report screen can and cannot tell you, including why the Beighton score, the exam clinicians use to confirm hypermobility, has to be done in person.
| Feature | Typical free quiz | Psychology.com |
|---|---|---|
| Uses a validated screening questionnaire | Rarely | Yes, the 5PQ, adapted wording |
| Separate everyday-impact scale | No | Yes (10 items) |
| Breakdown by symptom area | No | Pain / instability / fatigue / coordination / bruising & dizziness |
| Explains the Beighton exam honestly | Rarely | Yes, in detail |
| Names the neurodivergence overlap responsibly | Overclaims or ignores it | Cited, not overstated |
| Optional in-depth personalized report | No | Yes, written to your exact scores |
| Confidential (no data sent) | Often tracked | Runs in your browser |
How scoring works
Answers are scored 0–5 in total. Your result falls into one of 3 bands:
| Score | Band | What it suggests |
|---|---|---|
| 0–1 | Low likelihood of hypermobility | You answered yes to zero or one of the five 5PQ questions, below the threshold research associates with generalized joint hypermobility. Check your everyday-impact score too; some people below this cutoff still have one hypermobile joint worth mentioning to a doctor. |
| 2–3 | Possible hypermobility | You answered yes to two or three of the five 5PQ questions, at or above the cutoff research links to generalized joint hypermobility. This is common, and for many people it comes with no symptoms at all. |
| 4–5 | Likely hypermobility | You answered yes to four or five of the five 5PQ questions, well above the threshold linked to generalized joint hypermobility. Combined with an elevated everyday-impact score, this is worth a proper conversation with a clinician. |
How the Hypermobility Test Is Scored
The Hypermobility Test gives separate scores for reported joint flexibility and everyday impact. The five 5PQ questions are each scored yes or no, for a total from 0 to 5. Research on the questionnaire found that a cutoff of two or more yes answers gives the best balance of sensitivity and specificity for flagging generalized joint hypermobility, which is why the bands on this page split at that point. The ten everyday-impact questions are scored separately, from 0 (never) to 3 (very often) each, for a total from 0 to 30, and are shown as their own score plus a breakdown across five areas: pain, instability, fatigue, coordination, and bruising and dizziness.
Keeping the two scores apart is deliberate. Someone can score low on the 5PQ but still have real joint pain from a single unstable joint, and someone can score high on flexibility questions while barely noticing it in daily life. Reading both numbers together, rather than collapsing them into one, gives you a more honest picture than a single flexibility score ever could.
The published 5PQ threshold supports follow-up, but the wording on this page is adapted and this online version has not been independently validated. Its higher result bands do not establish disease severity or the probability of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. Answers marked unsure or prefer not to say do not increase the score here; if several questions were uncertain, tell the clinician rather than treating a low total as reassuring.
The Beighton Score: What a Clinician Actually Checks
The Beighton score is the physical exam clinicians use to confirm generalized joint hypermobility. It assigns points for specific movements, bending the pinky fingers and thumbs back, straightening the elbows and knees past neutral, and placing palms flat on the floor with straight legs, scored across both sides of the body for a maximum of 9 points. A trained clinician has to watch and measure each movement in person; there is no honest way to do that from a screen, which is exactly why this page uses the 5PQ, a validated questionnaire designed to be filled out rather than examined.
If your 5PQ score suggests hypermobility, a Beighton exam from a doctor, physiotherapist, or rheumatologist is the logical next step. It takes a few minutes in a clinic visit and gives you an actual measured score rather than a self-report estimate, which matters if you are trying to understand pain patterns, plan physiotherapy, or rule in or out a connective-tissue condition.
The Beighton score samples selected joints and does not assess every joint that might hurt or feel unstable. A clinician may also ask about past flexibility and examine other areas when symptoms warrant it. Avoid forcing a joint into an extreme position to answer a screening question or improve a score. Explain what you remember being able to do, and leave uncertain movements for professional assessment (The Ehlers-Danlos Society; NHS).
Generalized Joint Hypermobility vs Hypermobile EDS
Being hypermobile is common and, on its own, is not a diagnosis or a disorder; plenty of dancers, gymnasts, and musicians have flexible joints and no symptoms at all. Generalized joint hypermobility (GJH) simply describes a body with an unusually large range of motion across multiple joints. Hypermobility Spectrum Disorder (HSD) describes hypermobility that comes with recurring pain, instability, or injury, without meeting the specific criteria for a named connective-tissue condition. Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (hEDS) is a distinct, clinically defined condition with its own diagnostic criteria, set out in the 2017 international classification of the Ehlers-Danlos syndromes, that only a clinician familiar with those criteria can confirm.
This screener cannot tell the three apart, and no online test honestly can; that distinction depends on a physical exam, a detailed history, and sometimes family history and skin findings a clinician checks in person. What this page can do is flag whether hypermobility and its everyday costs are worth raising with a doctor, and give you language, 5PQ, Beighton, GJH, HSD, hEDS, to use once you get there.
Hypermobility and Neurodivergence
A growing body of research has found that joint hypermobility shows up more often in autistic and ADHD adults than in the general population; one 2022 study found elevated hypermobility in more than half of neurodivergent adults studied, compared with roughly a fifth of the comparison group, and linked hypermobility to higher rates of dizziness on standing and pain in that group specifically. Researchers are still working out why the two travel together, with connective-tissue differences and nervous-system regulation both proposed as part of the picture.
This link does not mean hypermobility causes neurodivergence or the reverse, and plenty of people have one without the other. If your results here stand out and autism or ADHD traits also resonate with you, our Autism Test (Adult) and Neurodivergent Test are free, honest starting points, not diagnoses.
What to Bring to a Hypermobility Appointment
Write down which joints hurt or give way, what you were doing when symptoms occurred, and how symptoms affect work, sleep, or ordinary activities. Include previous injuries, episodes of dislocation, and any family history you know. Discuss dizziness and easy bruising as symptoms in their own right: this questionnaire cannot establish their cause. A primary care clinician can help decide which examination or referral fits your concerns.
The Psychology.com tests hub includes the Daily Functioning Test if you want to organize how symptoms affect everyday tasks. A Self-Care Plan can help you record practical support needs while awaiting an appointment. For emotional support with ongoing pain or uncertainty, the Psychology.com therapist directory can help you look for a therapist; medical assessment remains the route for investigating joint symptoms.
Methodology & sources
The core five questions on this page are adapted from the five-part questionnaire (5PQ), developed by Hakim and Grahame (2003) as a quick self-report screen for generalized joint hypermobility. We kept the meaning of each item, covering hand-to-floor reach, thumb-to-forearm bending, childhood flexibility party tricks, joint dislocation history, and self-perceived double-jointedness, while rewording for plain, readable English. This is an adaptation, not a verbatim reproduction, and it is not the Beighton score, which requires a clinician to physically measure joint movement.
The ten everyday-impact questions are original to Psychology.com. They were written to capture what actually brings people to search for a hypermobility test: joint pain, instability or dislocation, fatigue, clumsiness, easy bruising, and dizziness on standing, grouped into five balanced categories of two items each. These are not part of any published instrument and are not scored against a clinical cutoff; they describe the strength of your reported everyday impact, for education and self-reflection.
This test cannot diagnose hypermobility, Hypermobility Spectrum Disorder, or any form of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. Those require a hands-on exam, and in the case of hEDS, criteria set out in the 2017 international EDS classification. Research also links joint hypermobility to higher rates of autism and ADHD traits in adults; this test names that link honestly, without suggesting one causes the other.
References
- Hakim AJ, Grahame R. A simple questionnaire to detect hypermobility: an adjunct to the assessment of patients with diffuse musculoskeletal pain. Int J Clin Pract. 2003;57(3):163-166.
- Malfait F, Francomano C, Byers P, et al. The 2017 international classification of the Ehlers-Danlos syndromes. Am J Med Genet C Semin Med Genet. 2017;175(1):8-26.
- Csecs JLL, Iodice V, Rae CL, et al. Joint hypermobility links neurodivergence to dysautonomia and pain. Front Psychiatry. 2022;12:786916.
- Juul-Kristensen B, Schmedling K, Rombaut L, Lund H, Engelbert RH. Measurement properties of clinical assessment methods for classifying generalized joint hypermobility: a systematic review. Am J Med Genet C Semin Med Genet. 2017;175(1):116-147.
- Hakim AJ, Grahame R. Original 5PQ study abstract. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12723715/?dopt=Abstract
- The Ehlers-Danlos Society. Assessing Joint Hypermobility. ehlers-danlos.com/assessing-joint-hypermobility/
- NHS. Joint hypermobility syndrome. nhs.uk/conditions/joint-hypermobility-syndrome/
Cite this source
Psychology.com. (2026, September 15). Hypermobility Test. Psychology.com. https://psychology.com/tests/hypermobility
Hypermobility Test FAQ
What is a hypermobility test?
It is a short screening based on the five-part questionnaire (5PQ), a validated self-report tool researchers use to flag possible generalized joint hypermobility. It cannot replace a physical exam, but it can tell you whether raising the topic with a doctor is worth doing.
Is this the same as the Beighton score?
No. The Beighton score is a nine-point physical exam a clinician performs by watching and measuring specific joint movements in person. This test is adapted from the 5PQ, a self-report questionnaire that correlates with Beighton results but cannot replace an in-person exam.
What counts as a high score on the 5PQ?
In the original 5PQ research, two or more yes answers was the screening threshold with the best combined sensitivity and specificity. This adapted online version uses that threshold to suggest discussing hypermobility with a clinician. A higher total does not diagnose a connective-tissue condition or measure how much pain or disability you experience.
Is hypermobility linked to autism or ADHD?
Research has found joint hypermobility at notably higher rates in autistic and ADHD adults than in the general population, along with more reported pain and dizziness on standing. The link is real but not fully understood, and having one does not mean you have the other.
Does a high score mean I have Ehlers-Danlos syndrome?
No. Hypermobility is common and does not by itself mean you have hypermobile EDS or any other connective-tissue condition. hEDS has its own diagnostic criteria that only a clinician can apply, usually a rheumatologist, geneticist, or clinician familiar with the 2017 EDS classification.
Is the test really confidential?
Your answers are scored in your browser and are never sent to us. They stay in this tab so you can come back to your result, and closing or clearing the tab clears them. If you choose to have the PDF emailed to you at the end, we receive your summary scores along with your email address so we can write to you about the result, never your individual answers.
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