Abstract
The aim of this paper is to emphasize the role of a diagnostic test in order to find out what are the strengths and weaknesses of the students who take Integrated English I, the first course in the first year of the English
major in the School of Modern Languages of the University of Costa Rica. This test was applied at the beginning of the second semester of 2011. It included three parts: a listening part, a written part with the different basic units of grammar and tenses, and a composition section, in order to detect the previous knowledge that these students bring to class. At the end of the course, the same diagnostic test was applied to find out if the objectives of the course were achieved or continued having the same problems as those from the beginning of the course. An analysis was carried out comparing the results of both tests. At the end of the study, the strengths and weaknesses of the course were determined to give the staff of professors who have taught or are planning to teach the course, important feedback that they could take into account to help students succeed in the second part of the course, LM-202 Integrated English II.