Tests, quizzes, questionnaires, all these serve as introductions to the Enneagram. These are the entree before the grand dinner. They get you to start thinking in ways that might help with uncovering your motives and your fears, and that's where the process of typing yourself begins. But just like no hunger can be satiated with appetizers alone, an Enneagram type cannot be determined without further study, introspection, and examination of the psyche.

A quiz serves to determine your preferences in the moment. Preferences can and do change based on mood, environment, fatigue, and many other factors. This is why you might get different results over time. Even when the results remain constant, the result is only as reliable as the truthfulness of the one taking the quiz, the lack of a change in mood or environment (etc), and the competency of the one(s) who made the quiz. Everyone is biased about themselves, and it is mightily difficult to create accurate questions that cannot be misinterpreted. Personally, I have yet to encounter a questionnaire that didn't have very skewed results. Each had their problems, each had their biased method.

If you wish to know your preferences and how they hold up over time, I would suggest looking into the Big 5 model, as this is a model for personality TRAITS, not for personality TYPES. Tests and quizzes are excellent at measuring traits, but they are horrible at measuring type (because traits overlap in different types). Anything that test for a personality TYPE, this includes both the Enneagram and the MBTI, requires further study and confirmation.

Because of this, the Big 5 allows for one's preferences to CHANGE, even if most traits tend to be stable over time. This is completely different with the Enneagram where type does NOT change. One can be a healthier or unhealthier version of the SAME type, but the type itself remains the same number. No matter what.


Don't rely on a computer to learn your type.

Know thyself.