Ante-test Music

Classical music is purported to improve mental capability. Sometimes I listen to it in the car in the time prior to a test. (During finals week last term I may have listened to nothing else until the last final was done.) It may be beneficial - I don't know.

Today I had a test in diagnostic imaging*. Pre-test music: Handel's Messiah. Result: Part of the piece was going through my head during part of the test. I wonder if that distraction outweighed the benefits from listening to classical music.
Of course, it might have been better to have Handel's Messiah running through my head than a song by the (mostly) a capella group Rescue (as was the case during my pathology test last week).
Maybe no pre-test music would be best.

*The test style was gnarly - it was multiple choice with the possibility of multiple correct choices for each question. If we chose a wrong answer points will be subtracted beyond whatever we lose by not choosing the right answer.