"testing" received generally positive reviews from critics. at metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 67, based on eight reviews. bansky gonzalez of "consequence of sound" gave a positive review, stating "it's a welcome addition to a genre that has become so occupied with spacey, bare-bones operations and overly simplistic results." dean van nguyen of "the guardian" commented that "testing" is "completely out of step with any mainstream rap album you're likely to hear this year", but "is a spottier affair" where "too many tracks minimise his strengths". kassandra guagliardi of "exclaim!" stated that the album is "a shedding of the 29-year-old artist's old skin and a rebirth of something more profound and slightly more complicated", complimenting the album's experimental aesthetic and identity. andreas hale of "billboard" complimented the album's experimentation but believed that asap rocky is "still style over substance and his efforts at experimentation don't always click like he wants them to". jake boyer of "highsnobiety" acclaimed "testing", labelling it "an absolute triumph. it does not have the earth-shattering impact of his genre-defining debut, nor does it have any one track with as much immediacy as, say, a "fuckin' problems", but it is unequivocally his most thoughtful, most ambitious, and most rewarding project to date", praising the album's production, experimentation, cohesion and guest appearances. nina hernandez of "the a.v. club" said, "though the finished project is as loose and incohesive as its title might suggest, there's a lot to like about "testing".