Summary.In this investigation 72 female tertiary students completed questionnaires of their experienced cognitive interference, mind‐wandering, enjoyment, and task difficulty following the administration of Set I, and again following Set II, of the Advanced Progressive Matrices. Subjects were informed that Set I was a practice test. The Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (Broadbentet al., 1982) predicted levels of cognitive interference and mind‐wandering on Set II. The Test Anxiety Scale (Sarason, 1978) predicted cognitive interference, as well as actual test performance, on Set II. The results were interpreted in line with the view that the CFQ and TAS predict different aspects of the manner in which individuals react in stressful testing situati