To investigate students' self-monitoring practice and effects of educational level and task importance on self-monitoring, 510 students, varying in educational level from elementary through graduate school, reported the self-monitoring strategies they employed in three learning situations with different levels of task importance. The study identified six self-monitoring strategies used by students but found a low involvement in self-monitoring at all educational levels. It was found that older students used more complex self-monitoring strategies more frequently than younger students. The study also showed that students' self-monitoring increased with task importance. The self-monitoring deficiencies that students experienced in difficult learning tasks were attributed to the lack of a system of self-monitoring. Educational applications of teaching self-monitoring strategies and developing self-monitoring systems for difficult learning tasks were discussed.