In four experiments studying the think-aloud method, two first-year and two fifth-year students of translation were asked to produce a written translation from English into Finnish. This paper discusses the differences in how the two levels of students used various sorts of reference material. The fifth-year students proved to be very skillful and efficient dictionary users while the first-year students were clearly inexperienced. The results suggest that instruction in the use of reference material is sufficient in translator training. The results show that the main differences between the two groups studied were not in the quantity, but in the quality of dictionary use. Contains 13 references. (Author/LB)