With the recent introduction of the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) in 1992, there were many changes to the curriculum in subject scope, breadth and assessment procedures. This study examines the Languages Other Than English (LOTE) final examination ( CAT 3), a combination of reading, listening and writing tasks, and in particular what strategies students use to complete the task. A pilot study of state high school students studying German in Year 12 found that students were well aware of what the task required and used a variety of strategies, though often students were aware of problems but unable to find strategies to assist them. The present study found that students relied heavily on the bilingual dictionary as there was a marked preference for translation at the word level between languages. Students organised their information according to English structure rules and composed their written piece by predominantly translating from L I to L2.