exploring motivation and english test preparation strategies of iranian pre-university candidates during and at the end of test preparation period for konkur examination

the current study aimed at investigating the relationship between motivation and test preparation strategies (tpss) used by iranian pre-university students in their preparation period for the university entrance exam (uee). due to the importance of uee in iran, this study also attempted to show its impact on these two important variables. to this end, 100 pre-university students in an iranian public high school were selected to fill out two questionnaires reflecting their motivation towards learning english and their tpss using in the preparation period for uee, during two sessions, both in during and at the end of this period. a modified version of gardner’s 64-item amtb (attitude, motivation test battery) questionnaire was administered to the selected respondents. in addition, the researcher’s 25-item questionnaire was administered to measure the students’ tpss. eight students were interviewed at the end of the period, as well. regarding qualitative and quantitative data, there was significant relationship between motivation and their tpss. the impact of uee was seen on these two variables in their preparation period.