In response to the difficulties of many masters degree students, this on-going project aimed, first, to identify cognitive and metacognitive skills needed for masters level study; second, to develop an instrument to determine students' readiness for masters level work; and, third, to design bridge courses to prepare prospective students. An investigation into the required skills determined that these included cognitive and metacognitive operations. Cognitive operations were defined as those that produce meaning, and metacognitive operations as those that direct or control how that meaning is produced. In developing an instrument for assessing student readiness the project is identifying key words and phrases which could prompt students to use different cognitive skills. The project will then formulate examples of questions at various cognitive levels to try to clarify the differences between the intent of questions at various cognitive levels. A final step will be to formulate examples of questions at various cognitive levels in terms of a short text selection with a view to contextualizing the phrases developed in the second step. Three tables set out examples of cognitive and metacognitive skills and examples of questions for the instrument with explanation of their intent. (Contains 16 references.) (JB)