ReadingRate · What's new · 2026-10-27
Find out what your reading would earn you a PhD in
ReadingRate has a quiz at /phd that asks what your reading would get you a doctorate in. Over ten rounds you pick one book from four, and the result names one of 65 fields, a dissertation title, a committee of three writers, the picks that earned it and a close second. It then lists the field's ten core books with the hours each takes, so the time to your degree is the hours of the ones you have not read. It takes about two minutes and needs no account.
Available on web.
The first three rounds show household names from different traditions. From the fourth round the books follow what you picked, and a line says which pick a round is following. No book or writer appears twice.
The field is the tradition most of your picks share, provided at least three of them do; otherwise it is the subject most of them share. It is scored on the same domain tags the catalogue uses everywhere else. The dissertation titles were written by hand.
On the result you can tap the core books you have already read and watch the hours fall. The result can be shared as an image in two sizes or as a link that opens on it.
What it can't do
- It is a quiz. Ten picks from a fixed pool of books say something about your taste and nothing about your scholarship.
- Books you would have chosen may not be in the pool, and a round can only offer four.
- The hours are estimates from each book's length and difficulty.
- Without an account, the books you mark as read are remembered only in that browser tab. Saving them needs a free account.
- There is no version in the iPhone app.
Questions people ask
- What is the ReadingRate PhD quiz?
- Ten rounds of four books. You pick one each round, and the result names the field your picks point to, a dissertation title, a committee, and the ten core books of that field with the hours each takes. It is free and needs no account.