Every parent preparing a young child for an ability test runs into the same tension: you want them to do well, but you don't want to make them anxious. Here's the reassuring part — those two goals point in the same direction. Studies of test anxiety consistently link higher anxiety with lower test scores, and anxiety can crowd out the working memory that reasoning depends on. Those studies show an association rather than proof for every child, but they give good reason to keep preparation calm and low-pressure: it is kinder, and it is unlikely to cost anything.
How anxiety and scores are linked (it's not just nerves)
Anxiety isn't only an unpleasant feeling — it competes for the same mental resources a child needs to reason. When a child is worried, that worry can take up working memory and attentional control — the exact faculties a reasoning test depends on. Researchers call this the cognitive worry dimension, and it's the part of anxiety most strongly tied to lower performance.
The numbers back this up. A large meta-analysis of over 900,000 participants found a reliable negative relationship between math anxiety and achievement (around a −0.30 correlation) — modest but real, and consistent across studies. A separate 20-year systematic review of test anxiety in primary-school children (76 studies, more than 53,000 children) found that test anxiety is common in young children, that the link between anxiety and performance tends to be stronger in older children, and that high-stakes testing produces more anxiety (and more physical symptoms) than ordinary classroom testing.
The encouraging flip side: studies of programs that lower test anxiety, mostly with older students, suggest that reducing anxiety can go along with better performance. No study promises a result for one child, but the calm you create is worth having for its own sake, and it may help too.
What to do instead of drilling
1. Short, spaced sessions instead of marathons
A few minutes of practice several times a week is easier on a young child than one long, tense session. Spreading practice out is a well-studied way to help learning stick (the research is mostly with older students and adults, on remembering material), and short sessions keep the whole experience low-stakes.
2. Build familiarity, not memorized answers
Practice is optional. The NGAT's developers say no test prep or studying is needed, and some districts ask families not to prepare with test materials at all, so check your district's own guidance first (how to find it). If you do practice, aim to make the format unsurprising rather than to learn answers: a child who has seen the question types before may find test day less foreign. That is different from drilling leaked items, which doesn't build reasoning and does add pressure.
3. Frame it as thinking, not testing
Young children take their emotional cues from the words you use. "Let's play some puzzles" lands very differently than "let's study for your big test." Treat the practice as a game of figuring things out, because that's genuinely what these tests reward.
4. Protect the basics: sleep, food, timing
None of the reasoning matters if a child is tired or hungry. A rested child on a normal schedule, fed and unhurried, is one of the simplest things you can control — and it costs nothing.
5. Manage your own calm first
Children are remarkably good at catching a parent's stress. If you treat the test as high-stakes and fraught, your child will too. One of the most useful things many parents can do is regulate their own anxiety — keep your tone light, don't over-talk the stakes, and let your child see that you're not worried.
A simple, calm plan
- Weeks out: a few short, playful reasoning sessions a week. Puzzles, patterns, "what comes next?" games. No timers, no grades.
- The week before: one light familiarization pass so the format isn't a surprise. Keep it brief.
- The night before: normal bedtime, normal routine. Don't cram.
- The morning of: a good breakfast, a calm send-off, and genuinely low-key encouragement — "just try your best and have fun with the puzzles."
That's the whole approach, and it's the philosophy we build into everything we make: short, calm, familiar exposure to the right kinds of thinking — never frantic drilling. Our free Practice Lab is built exactly this way (get one wrong and it offers a calm explanation, not a red X), and our workbooks include explanations a parent can read aloud without being an expert.
New to the tests themselves? Start with what the NGAT is or the NGAT vs CogAT comparison.
This article is general information for parents and is not medical, psychological, or testing advice. If your child experiences significant or persistent anxiety, talk with your pediatrician or your school's counselor.