The purpose of this study is multifold: (a) to describe the academic background of students enrolled in LLD 99 classes during the summer of 2001 at San José State University, (b) to study the kinds of reading and writing strategies these students use, (c) to assess their perceptions with regard to the validity of the Writing Skills Test (WST), and (d) to explore whether their background, their use of certain reading and writing strategies, and their perceptions with regard to the validity of the WST have any significant correlations with their test performance. A 48-item questionnaire was used to collect the data. Results showed that students preferred some strategies to others and that three strategies positively correlated with passing scores on the WST. There were also positive correlations between prior elementary and/or high school education in English and passing scores.