diff --git a/scripts/test/unit-with-coverage b/scripts/test/unit-with-coverage
index 8c599b43ff..cd1ead8477 100755
--- a/scripts/test/unit-with-coverage
+++ b/scripts/test/unit-with-coverage
@@ -1,6 +1,10 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env bash
 set -eu -o pipefail
 
+# install test dependencies once before running tests for each package. This
+# reduces the runtime from 200s down to 23s
+go test -i $@
+
 for pkg in $@; do
     ./scripts/test/unit \
         -cover \