| In recent years, there has been a focus on test taking strategies and preparing students for high-stakes exams (Alderson and Hamp-Lyons, 1996); however, it is unclear whether test-takers' increased strategy awareness lends itself to a better test performance. The CAEL, a high-stakes university entrance exam taken by 10,000+ test-takers world wide, a criterion-referenced test, that encompasses the four language skills related to first-year university tasks (Fox, 2003). This study investigated whether test-takers' increased strategy awareness from a preparation course resulted in a desired performance. A mixed method approach comprised of preparation course observations, pre-test semi-structured interviews, including a retrospective verbal protocol, post-test interviews and a post-test questionnaire was used. Overall, it was observed that some test takers may have resorted to non-test-wise strategies while taking the live test, and as the result of taking a preparation course strategy use may be different for high (40-90 total bandscore) and low (10-30 total bandscore) level test takers. |
