The present study examined the relationship between goal orientation, coping with school failure and school achievement. Two questionnaires, Goal Orientation (Niemivirta, 1996) and The School Failure Coping Scale (Rijavec & Brdar, 1997), were administered to 1131 high school students (their age ranged from 15 to 17 years). The first goal of this study was to explore whether students can be classified in groups according to their goal orientation. The results identified four clusters of students with different achievement profiles: learning oriented ; performance - work-avoidance oriented ; performance - learning oriented, and work-avoidance oriented group. These groups differed significantly in their coping with school failure and in their school achievement. Compared to other groups, learning and performance - learning oriented students used problem-focused coping strategies most frequently. Learning oriented students used emotion-oriented coping strategies least frequently when compared to other groups. The second goal of this study was to investigate what role coping with school failure plays in the effects of goal orientation on school achievement. It was hypothesised that goal orientation could predict school achievement directly and indirectly through coping strategies. Coping strategies were considered as mediators between goal orientation and school achievement. Results from path analysis demonstrated that direct effects of goal orientation on school achievement were not significant. The relationship between goal orientation and school achievement was mediated by coping strategies. Learning and performance orientation have positive effects, whilst work-avoidance has negative effect on problem-focused coping. The relationship between motivation and problem-focused coping was the strongest for learning orientation. The relation between motivation and emotion-focused coping was stronger for work-avoidance than for performance orientation.