Schema Test — Free Check for 18 Early Maladaptive Schemas

The Schema Test asks you to rate 36 statements on a 5-point scale from “Strongly disagree” to “Strongly agree.” Each of the 18 schemas gets 2 statements, written in the first-person voice the schema might actually have inside your head — for example, never quite feeling at ease because someone close might leave one day. There are no reverse-worded items, so agreeing more always means the pattern feels more familiar to you. It usually takes about 6 minutes.

The 18 schemas are grouped into five domains, and each domain holds a different number of them: Disconnection and Rejection 5, Impaired Autonomy and Performance 4, Impaired Limits 2, Other-Directedness 3, and Overvigilance and Inhibition 4. A domain score is the average of its schemas, so Impaired Limits, with only 2 schemas, rests on just 4 statements and moves more with a single answer. In domains with many schemas, by contrast, one high schema can get diluted in the average — so always look at the chart of all 18 schemas alongside the domain bars.

Each schema and domain is shown on a 0 to 100 scale and labelled Low below 30, Moderate from 30 to 49, Marked from 50 to 69, and Strong at 70 or above. Your highest domain becomes your main domain, and your 3 most vivid schemas appear with their core belief, an explanation and a reframe. When scores tie, the domain listed earlier and the schema with the lower number are picked first. So if two or three domains are nearly equal, your main domain may reflect the order of the list rather than a real gap — compare the bars as well.

Schemas are long-standing patterns, but answers are easily colored by your current mood and recent events. Right after a breakup the abandonment statements may feel truer, and in a week of deadlines the statements about unrelenting standards or punishment may hit harder. So a high score is more accurately read as “this pattern switches on often these days” than as “this is simply who I am,” and on its own it does not mean a diagnosis. If reading the statements brings back painful memories, it's okay to pause and take care of yourself first.

The framework comes from Jeffrey Young's theory of early maladaptive schemas and follows the structure of 18 schemas in five domains set out by Young, Klosko and Weishaar in their 2003 book Schema Therapy: A Practitioner's Guide. The statements were developed in-house with reference to that theory; they are not a translation or authorized edition of the Young Schema Questionnaire (YSQ). With 2 statements per schema, it is a screening and self-understanding tool for sketching the whole map quickly, and it does not replace a clinical assessment.

A good first step with your result is to read aloud the reframe attached to each of your top schemas and to try the small act of care suggested for your main domain once within a day. If you save your result, a later retake lets you compare the five domains and all 18 schemas side by side with your earlier ones. If the same schema comes out strong several times and the same pain keeps repeating in your relationships or work, taking the result sheet to a counseling professional and exploring that pattern together is a good next step.