This article reports a study on test-taking strategies utilized by low and high proficiencyudfemale participants in an open-ended reading comprehension test. Based on purposiveudsampling, 10 students were selected from one tertiary institution. The study seeks toudexplore the test-taking strategies employed by female students of two levels ofudproficiency. Verbal reports from these participants were obtained via the retrospectiveudprotocol and playback sessions. The data provided information on participants’ thinkingudprocess and revealed how they arrived at their answers and the reasons for their choice ofudanswers. The data were transcribed verbatim and analyzed qualitatively whereby patternsudof strategies were identified and categorized. On the whole the results showed both levelsudemployed almost the same total number of strategies, 24 and 22 for the high and lowudproficiency participants respectively. The conclusions were drawn upon the results of theuddata provided by limited number of participants and thus thrust aside the claim ofudrepresentativeness in terms of test-taking strategy studies. However, the study allows audpeek on the types of test-taking strategies utilized by students in the study which mayudalso be employed by students in general.
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