Preparation is an effective and necessary activity; however, most students do not prepare for future lessons. The present study addressed this problem and examined how learners' motives, beliefs, and perceptions affected their strategy use during preparation for future lessons. Participants were 219 Japanese junior high school students who responded to a questionnaire about mathematics learning. The result of a path analysis suggested that learners' intrinsic motives, extrinsic motives, and cognitive beliefs about learning positively related to their spontaneously obtaining prior knowledge and solving example problems. In addition, noncognitive beliefs positively affected perceived cost of preparation and decreased obtaining prior knowledge. Implications for educational practice, limitations of the present study, and suggestions for future research are discussed.