This article deals with a report by ninth graders on their use of learning strategies when solving modelling problems and to what extent the strategy use is related to modelling competency. 86 ninth graders from 2 German middle track classes (Realschule) and 8 upper track classes (Gymnasium) first took a modelling test. Afterwards they were asked about their use of general and task-specific learning strategies while solving the problems. The students reported that they used planning strategies more seldom than the control, elaboration, rehearsal and organisation ones. The analysis of the task-specific questionnaire shows that the strategies "make a drawing" and "search for analogy" were reported to be more frequently used while solving modelling problems about the "Pythagorean theorem", than about "linear functions". There were no significant correlations between the self-reported strategy use and the modelling competency. Therefore, both the role of learning strategies in performance and the method of measuring learning strategies and performance ought to be explored in further studies.