This article is a review on the methods of swimming tests of mice and rats such as forced swimming, weight- loaded swimming, water maze, etc., indicatiors such as immobility duration, the swimming time, escape latency, etc., physiological and biochemical changes of mice and rats, the impact of swimming test of mice and rats in anti-depressive, anti- fatigue and cognitive-enhancing drugs research. This paper also gave a concise description of recent utilization of the computer techniques in the swimming test studies.