Best Option to Prepare for Game-Based Assessments by BrainsFirst (2026)

BrainsFirst is not a “prep course” company in the way JobTestPrep or other candidate-facing platforms are. BrainsFirst is an assessment provider: employers (and sometimes schools or sports organizations) use its game-based assessments to measure cognitive strengths like attention, learning ability, and focus through a package called the NeurOlympics.

So if you are searching for “BrainsFirst preparation,” what you usually mean is: “How do I get comfortable with a BrainsFirst-style game-based assessment so I do not freeze on test day, waste time understanding the rules, or get dragged down by stress and pace?” That is exactly where the right alternative matters.

Here is the important twist: BrainsFirst explicitly frames its assessment as something you do not need to prepare for beyond a short practice round, and it points candidates to a short demo if they want to get familiar.

That is great for fairness, but it does not solve the real candidate problem: performing well under time pressure is still a skill, and many people want structured practice anyway (especially if they are seeing game assessments across multiple providers in the same job search).

Below is the best practical alternative if you want real preparation, not just a quick demo.

BrainsFirst Game-Based Assessments: what you are actually facing

BrainsFirst’s NeurOlympics is presented as a set of 4 “bias-free” brain games that measure how you think, learn, and focus, typically in about 45 minutes.

BrainsFirst also stresses that:

each game starts with a practice round
no extra preparation is needed
if you want familiarity, you can try their demo games (shorter than the full assessment)

This is useful context because it changes what “preparation” should look like. You are not studying content like a math test. You are training execution: speed-accuracy balance, working memory under pressure, staying calm, and avoiding rule-misreads.

What “preparing for BrainsFirst” really means

Even if an assessment is designed to be stable across repeats, candidates still benefit from practice in four ways:

Reducing cognitive load

On your first attempt, a chunk of your brain is busy translating instructions into actions. Practice removes that tax.

Training the speed-accuracy tradeoff

Most game-based tests punish impulsive speed and slow hesitation in different ways. You want “clean fast,” not “panicked fast.”

Building consistency under pressure

Many candidates do fine in practice but crash when the timer and stakes hit. Practice should simulate the pressure.

Becoming provider-flexible

If you are interviewing broadly, you might face HireVue games, Pymetrics/Harver games, Arctic Shores, BrainsFirst, and more. The best prep improves your general performance across formats, not just one brand.

Best Alternative: Game Assessment Prep (best for candidates who want real practice)

If your goal is true preparation (not just a short demo), the most useful alternative is a platform that offers realistic timed simulations, multiple difficulty levels, and repeatable practice sessions.

Game Assessment Prep is the best fit when:

you want structured training for game-based hiring assessments
you want repeated timed practice that feels like the real thing
you want coverage across the most common hiring-game formats (especially HireVue’s full game set)

Unlike BrainsFirst, which is primarily the assessment provider, Game Assessment Prep is built specifically for candidates who want to practice. In practical terms, that means you can do what most candidates actually need: run many timed repetitions, identify where you lose points (memory decay, misclicks, rushing, rule slips), and steadily improve.

If you are applying to companies that use HireVue game-based assessments in particular, this becomes even more valuable because HireVue can include a full package of games across cognitive, spatial, personality, and emotion recognition categories.

When Game Assessment Prep is not your best match

BrainsFirst’s NeurOlympics is its own product, and you might want something more general depending on what you are facing:

If you are specifically taking Pymetrics/Harver and you want a dedicated simulator for that exact style (many mini-games), pick a Pymetrics-specific prep product. (Pymetrics is often described as a multi-game battery and can vary by employer.)

If you are facing a mixed pipeline (different vendors depending on the employer), you want a prep tool that trains transferable skills: attention control, working memory, processing speed without sloppy errors, and emotional calm under timers.

How to choose the right prep path (quick decision rule)

Choose based on what you expect to take next:

BrainsFirst only (you already have the invite):

Use the BrainsFirst demo to remove novelty, then do timed cognitive drills elsewhere to build speed-accuracy consistency.

HireVue games likely (common in large-company screening):

Game Assessment Prep is the highest-ROI option because it is purpose-built for that ecosystem.

Pymetrics/Harver likely (consulting, large grads pipelines, some enterprise hiring):

Use a Pymetrics-specific simulator so the game mechanics match what you will see.

Ready to start preparing?

If you want the most effective “practice-first” alternative to BrainsFirst-style game-based assessments, start with a platform designed for candidates, not employers.

Access realistic timed practice and build the one thing demos do not give you: repeatable performance under pressure.

[Start Practicing with Game Assessment Prep](/hirevue)