The study began in January 2010. Ethics approval for the conduct of the study was gained from the UTS Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) before the recruitment of student participants commenced. Final clearance from the UTS HREC was obtained at the end of March 2010 and 40 places were then reserved at the UTS IELTS Test Centre for the Academic module of the IELTS Test to be conducted on 10 July 2010. A research assistant was contracted in April, her first task being to recruit participants for the study. Student email addresses were accessed through university databases and a broadcast.
