Research studies have shown that to develope conceptual understanding of mathematics, practice needs to that focus this skill. In this study, the aim is to examine how different practice tasks, which promotes either imitative or creative mathematical reasoning, can influence which variables (i.e., cognitive abilities, mathematics grade, and gender) that are important for task completion. Two earlier studies show that cognitive abilities are more important in the test situation when students have practiced with imitative tasks. The result from this study indicate that although cognitive abilities are important when practicing with creative tasks, the influence of cognition is only implicit during the test. Since students often practice imitatively with given solution methods, this study suggests that a substantial part of what we test in school could be cognitive abilities rather than mathematics.