CRAAP Test Worksheet: How to Evaluate Sources Using Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, and Purpose

A CRAAP test worksheet is a checklist that walks you through five categories before you decide whether a source is reliable enough to use: Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, and Purpose. Each letter maps to a small set of questions, and a CRAAP test worksheet usually leaves a line or two under each one for you to write a short answer, not just a checkmark. That written answer is the point. A checkbox tells you a source passed; a written note tells you why, which matters when you need to explain your source choice later or come back to the source months after the fact.

The method was developed by a librarian at CSU Chico and has since spread into library instruction, high school and college research assignments, and journalism training, because it turns a vague instinct, "this source feels credible," into five specific questions with specific answers. Running a source through a CRAAP test worksheet does not guarantee the source is correct, but it does guarantee you actually looked at the things that determine reliability instead of assuming them.

A CRAAP test worksheet works on almost any source type: a news article, a company blog post, a government website, an academic PDF, or a dataset. The five questions stay the same; only the specific answers change based on what kind of document you are looking at.

Most people already evaluate sources informally: a site looks professional, an author has a familiar name, a claim matches what they already believe. The problem with that approach is that it is inconsistent from one source to the next and easy to skip entirely when you are working through a long reading list under deadline pressure. A CRAAP test worksheet fixes both problems by giving you the same five checks every time, in writing, so the evaluation does not depend on how careful you happened to feel that day.

The written record also matters for a reason that is easy to overlook: instructors, editors, and reviewers frequently ask why you trusted a particular source, and "it seemed reliable" is not a defensible answer. A completed CRAAP test worksheet gives you an actual answer, tied to specific evidence about the author's credentials, the publication date, or the source's funding, that you can point to instead of reconstructing your reasoning from memory.

A CRAAP test worksheet is also faster than it looks once you have run through it a few times. The five questions take a minute or two per source once you know what you are looking for, and that time is far cheaper than discovering after a paper is submitted that a key source was outdated, biased, or wrong.

Each letter in a CRAAP test worksheet stands for a specific dimension of reliability, and each one catches a different kind of problem. A source can pass one check and fail another, which is why all five matter rather than just picking the one or two that feel most relevant.

Filling out a CRAAP test worksheet is faster if you go letter by letter across every source you are considering, rather than fully evaluating one source before moving to the next. That order makes it easier to compare sources side by side once you are done, and it keeps you from getting five paragraphs deep into one article before realizing it fails on authority.

A CRAAP test worksheet only helps if it is filled out honestly and specifically. A handful of habits quietly undermine it.

A CRAAP test worksheet is one specific tool for source evaluation, and it works best on individual articles, websites, and reports where you need a fast, repeatable check. It is not the same exercise as primary source analysis, which asks a different set of questions about firsthand documents and historical context, or general critical thinking questions, which apply more broadly to any claim, not just a specific source.

For academic and scientific sources specifically, a CRAAP test worksheet pairs well with a closer read of the source's methods and data, the kind of work covered in our guide on reading scientific papers. Use the CRAAP test worksheet as the first filter, deciding whether a source is worth your time at all, then apply the deeper method once a source has passed.

Many researchers also keep a running source note for each source that passes, pairing the CRAAP test worksheet's verdict with a short summary of what the source actually says. That combination gives you both the reliability check and the content in one place, instead of two separate documents you have to cross-reference.

Running a CRAAP test worksheet across a stack of articles, PDFs, and web pages gets slow when each source lives in a different tab, a different app, or a different format. Notelyn is built to bring the source itself, your evaluation notes, and your summary into one place, so the CRAAP test worksheet stops being a separate document you have to keep in sync with your reading.

Import a webpage or article by pasting the link, or bring in a research PDF directly through PDF import, and Notelyn generates a structured AI summary alongside the original text. That summary gives you a fast first read for the Relevance check, while the full source stays available for the closer Accuracy check. Add your own Currency, Authority, and Purpose notes directly alongside the source, so the completed evaluation lives with the material it describes instead of in a separate spreadsheet.

For the Accuracy step specifically, the AI Q&A feature lets you ask direct questions of the source, such as what evidence backs a specific claim or whether the piece cites its data, without rereading the whole document. When you are comparing several sources through the same CRAAP test worksheet, that speed adds up, especially for a longer reading list or a lecture-based assignment where you need to evaluate sources quickly during a study session.

A CRAAP test worksheet works because it is simple enough to run on every source, not just the ones that already look suspicious. Pick a source you are about to cite, and run it through the five checks: Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, and Purpose. Write a short answer under each letter, not just a checkmark, and finish with a one-line verdict you can reread later.

Do this consistently across a reading list and the pattern becomes fast within a handful of sources. The habit also carries beyond a single assignment: once you are used to asking who wrote this, when, and why, that same discipline shapes how you read news, research, and claims generally, not just the sources you are formally citing. If you are working through a stack of articles, PDFs, or web sources for a paper or report, Notelyn can hold the source, your CRAAP test worksheet notes, and your summary together so the evaluation stays attached to the material it is judging.