The Critical Thinking Assessment Test (CAT) is a tool for evaluating students' critical thinking skills in various educational institutions within and outside the United States. While institutions regard the CAT as a high-stakes assessment, students may perceive it as a low-stakes test due to its lack of personal or academic repercussions. This study sought to explore the test-taking motivation of CAT takers by analyzing their test-taking efforts, specifically focusing on the predictive capabilities of two test-taking metrics, total word count and total response time, with the total CAT scores. The study revealed that total response time accounted for 9% of variability by itself but lost all its predictive power when paired with total word count. Conversely, total word count accounted for over a quarter of the variance in CAT scores. Additionally, results from the moderation analysis indicated that the moderation effect of student classification and gender on the relationship between total word count and total CAT scores was not statistically significant. Therefore, it can be inferred that regardless of their gender or the type of institution they attend, students who use more words in response to the CAT prompts tend to achieve better scores. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]