Good news: I was right—Pep in Your Step does help with the ring test, the way No Pain does with the Resistance Test and Steady Hand does with the Target Test. I got a special message and 6 XP in Reflexes instead of 3.
Bad news: I was so excited I forgot to C&P the text before clicking on a profile in chat.
Worse news: I'm never careful enough to count, but I'm pretty sure these special test encounters are costing one Energy. :/
EDIT: A hypothesis, based on the text that gave 3 XP:
You pull out all the tricks you can manage, hitting a lot of hoops.
When I got that, I had Dive for Cover, Cinematic Dodge, and Leaping Dodge in my deck. Bloating up my deck with 9 instances of Dive for Cover instead of 4 and throwing in an extra Cinematic Dodge didn't change the result. Generalizing wildly from a tiny sample and taking the "all the tricks you can manage" as a hint, maybe the number of XP you get and how well you do on the test depends on how many different kinds of Evasion techniques you have in your deck when you get the test. It may be that only techniques that involve jumping and running (as opposed to, say, Parry) help. Ones that seem plausible other than the ones I already have:
Getting Hoop Jump is probably the key to the whole thing and may suffice all by itself, but I'll try getting some of the others and see if having a more diverse bag of tricks helps at all.
EDIT SOME MORE: Another more boring possibility is that having more Evasion Power and/or Reflexes helps. I know I had a Twitching Bat Wing equipped when I got the 3 XP results, and it gives a bonus to both.
ANYTHING TO AVOID A DOUBLE POST: Kept it together long enough to get the Pep In Your Step text this time.
Got 7 XP this time, with 22 Evasion Power, 16 (29) Reflexes, and Dive for Cover, Dance of Silver, Cinematic Dodge, and Leaping Dodge in my deck. The extra unique evasion tech may be responsible for the extra XP. Guess I should get Hoop Jump now.
THIS IS GETTING RIDICULOUS NOW: The second half of that message
There are still plenty you don't get, but you feel like you're making solid progress.
suggests yet another hypothesis. Maybe you gradually get better at the test if you do it a bunch of times in a row, regardless. Maybe the thing to test is if I can get the worse result now if I try.
SOMEBODY ELSE SHOULD POST IN THIS THREAD: With only Dive for Cover in my deck, I got the basic message and 1 XP in Reflexes, so that rules out the steady, inevitable progress idea. I managed to get Cloak of Feathers, Dance of Silver, and Hoop Jump, and, just in case, Parry. So until somebody records some fights so I can try for Practiced Step I've got all the plausible evasion techniques. I'll try and see what having all of them in my deck does when my Ocean Sight wears off.
SERIOUSLY: With no bonus Evasion Power and 18 (14) Reflexes (containment suit…), and a deck with one instance each of Parry, Dance of Silver, Dive for Cover, Cinematic Dodge, Cloak of Feathers, Hoop Jump, and Leaping Dodge (and some attacks), I got a new, better result and 5 XP in Reflexes. I'll try with lots of Evasion Power and buffed Reflexes next time, but I suspect that will get me an extra XP or two, and I'll need more instances of Hoop Jump to get a better result.