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EKG quiz: 10 rhythm strips

Ten EKG strips, easy to hard. Name the rhythm on eight of them and measure the other two. Each answer is marked as you go, with the one thing on the strip that decides it. Free, and no account needed.

Question 1 of 10 · Name the rhythm

1 small square = 0.04 s · 1 large square = 0.20 s

What rhythm is this?

Lead II · 25 mm/s · 6 s

Keys 1 to 4 answer. Move the pointer over a strip to magnify it. Simulated strips, for education and practice only.

What this EKG rhythm quiz covers

The quiz draws on 10 rhythms that every dysrhythmia course starts with: the normal one, the fast ones, the AV blocks and two ventricular rhythms that are emergencies. If a strip beats you, its page in the rhythm library shows it measured and explains how it differs from the rhythms it gets mistaken for.

The order of this list is alphabetical, not the order of the quiz. The whole library has more than forty rhythms: see them all.

How to answer a rhythm strip question

Guessing from the overall look is how strips get missed. Ask the same five things of every strip, in the same order, and the answer is usually the only choice left.

  1. 1

    Count the rate

    Count the QRS complexes on the 6-second strip and multiply by ten. Under 60 is slow, over 100 is fast, and that alone rules out half the choices.

  2. 2

    Check the spacing

    Are the R waves evenly spaced? Regular, regular with an odd beat, or never the same twice: three different families of rhythm.

  3. 3

    Find the P waves

    One before every QRS, more P waves than QRS complexes, a sawtooth, or none at all.

  4. 4

    Measure the PR interval

    Three to five small squares is normal. Longer, changing from beat to beat, or impossible to measure are each an answer.

  5. 5

    Measure the QRS

    Under three small squares is narrow and started above the ventricles. Three or more is wide.

After the quiz

Practice that never repeats

A new strip every time, across more than forty rhythms. After each answer the strip is marked up with its own measurements and explained.

Open practice

A full practice test

Thirty-five questions under exam conditions, with a pass mark, the lethal rhythms scored on their own, and a report at the end.

See the practice test

The heart blocks, side by side

The four AV blocks are the strips most often confused. One page puts them next to each other with calipers on the PR intervals.

Compare the blocks

Questions about the quiz

Is this EKG quiz free?

Yes. The ten questions, the marking and the explanation after each answer are free, with no account. What a paid plan adds is strips that never repeat, a measured and explained strip after every answer, the caliper trainer and timed practice tests.

How many questions are in the quiz?

Ten. Eight ask you to name the rhythm from four choices, one asks for a PR interval and one for a heart rate. They run from easy to hard and take about five minutes.

Is an ECG quiz the same as an EKG quiz?

Yes. EKG and ECG both mean electrocardiogram; EKG comes from the German spelling and is the more common one in the United States. A heart rhythm quiz, a cardiac rhythm quiz and an arrhythmia quiz are other names for the same kind of test.

Where do the strips come from?

Every strip is drawn by our own waveform engine from the textbook criteria for its rhythm, on standard paper at 25 mm a second. That is how we know the exact rate and intervals of each one.

What is a good score?

Hospital dysrhythmia exams usually ask for 80 or 85%, and many require every lethal rhythm to be right. Eight or more out of ten here says you are ready to practise at exam level, on full papers and harder strips.

Can I take the quiz again?

Yes, as often as you like. It is the same ten strips each time, so a class can take it together and compare scores. Once you know these ten by sight, move on to the unlimited practice, where every strip is new.

Where this comes from

The criteria and rules on this page are taken from published sources, and every strip is drawn to them and then measured by a separate program before it is shown. How the strips are made and checked