This simple survey will tell you how left-handed you are and give you an overall score you can compare to the thousands of others who have taken the test.
You can see our analysis of the test results so far here.
So go ahead and tick the options for which hand you use for various things and see how you rate overall…
How left handed are you?
We all have our own view of whether we are left-handed or not and, ultimately, that is the the test - if you consider yourself to be left-handed then you are! That said, most people are mixed in their handedness and it is rare for people to do everything with just one hand or side of their body. Our test below will show which side you use for various tasks and how consistent you are in the use of your hands. It will also give you give you an overall score out of 100 for your level of left-handedness and you can see how you compare to other people. To get the overall score, we have weighted the various factors so, for example, writing left-handed gets a far higher weighting in the overall score than which way you hold a bat two-handed (see this page for more information on how we did this).
Good fun that. But I think you’ll find a generational thing happening here. When I first had a cricket bat thrust into my hands just over half a century ago, you were just stood in a line and told how to hold it – no questions about left handedness at all, same as a knife and fork. Similarly scissors. There were no leftie ones so you used right handed ones with your left hand and were consequently lousy at cutting things. Things have moved on though, and I’ve made sure that my niece has anything left handed she needs. Just a thought; Perhaps I could have scored a century at Lords against Australia if I’d been allowed to be a leftie. Dream on.
The reason I write with my right hand is because the teachers 81 years ago would not let you use your left hand. I use my left hand to hold right handed scissors, and never have had any problem. You just have to know how to put the right pressure un them, for them to cut correctly.In all other ways, I am left handed.
Even if you are very left handed, assuming you are reading a book from left to right, you probably turn the pages with your right hand, I would have thought. (I am 95% lefthanded apparently.)
I was a bit puzzled about holding the bat downwards and facing right and looking over the right shoulder. This would mean looking behind, surely? I’m 70, played a lot of softball in my youth, have never played cricket, but I was a switch-hitter in my prime. I would bat left handed if I was throwing the ball up myself and hitting it, but usually (not invariably) righthanded at home plate. I tended to hit line drives when I was batting right handed and flies when I was batting lefthanded. These questions about batting will bring out cultural/national differences.
got 79% mainly because of having to adjust. left handed scissors weren’t available.
I had to learn to use right handed scissors when I was young as left handed ones were not available – thankfully times have changed 🙂
I too thought that I was alright but at a young age figured out that I was LEFT handed!!! Out of 4 boys in our family 2 of us, the eldest are left handed and the other 2 just missed out, to bad for them…
Hi,
I came out at 80%, which sounds pretty high but surprised me a little because a test I took while at university (25 years ago) had me as one of the most left-handed women the tester had ever seen. His results at the time seemed to show quite a gender difference too, with left-handed men generally being “more so” than women – I notice your test isn’t capturing gender: are you able to get a sense from names of whether you’re seeing the same?
Also like lots of others, I tend to think the scissors question needs a bit of weighting as that’s not entirely a matter of choice. By the time left-handed scissors were first available to me, I’d already become pretty competent using right-handed ones right-handedly (really no point trying to use them left-handedly, even for the pig-headed like me), and it didn’t seem worth changing. In an otherwise right-handed family, having to replicate all the various different scissor types – we’re very practical and crafty! – just for me would have been quite an expense and not always possible.
another thing to remember,is over time people learn how to use right handed items with there left hand,i personally always have used right handed scissors with the left hand,and many others also.
Interesting one about the bat which I play left handed but what about my golf. I use a right handed golf club but always put my left hand at the bottom and my fellow players can’t get their head round it!