One of the objectives of the national curriculum in the subject of Swedish is to give students an opportunity to establish reliance on their language, and make full use of it, by giving them tools for expressing themselves in everyday life, at work, and as members of society. This article takes a social-semiotic and multimodal perspective in order to point out some dilemmas for students in upper secondary school when interpreting and understanding the instructions introducing the task of writing an essay in the national test in the subject of Swedish. To pass a writing test as it is formulated in the curriculum of Swedish, students have to be able to follow quite complicated instructions. The article will show what can happen when students try to understand these instructions; what signals the instructions convey and how students respond to these signals. The results point out that most of the students act in an instrumental way or show reluctance while completing the task. The instructions convey implicit norms and rules, and are also perceived as confusing and diffi cult to understand, making it harder for students to use optimal verbal resources and establish reliance in using their language in writing.