Abstract Background Academic buoyancy is conceptualized as students' capacity to cope with academic challenges. Studies that examine how academic buoyancy and coping responses are reciprocally related, or that include relations with achievement, are lacking. Aims The study examined reciprocal relations among academic buoyancy, coping and achievement. Sample The sample comprised students aged 16–19 years in upper secondary education. At the first wave of data collection, there were 533 students (138 male, mean age = 16.4 years). Methods Data were collected in five waves over two school years. Achievement was collected in waves one, three and five. Academic buoyancy and coping were measured in waves two and four via self‐report questionnaires. Results Data were analysed in a structural equation model. Adaptive coping positively and non‐adaptive coping negatively predicted subsequent academic buoyancy. Additionally, academic buoyancy predicted subsequent achievement. A positive indirect relation from adaptive coping to subsequent achievement was mediated by adaptive coping. Conclusions The findings show that personal resources can operate in cycles of resource gain as ‘co‐travellers’; effective coping can build academic buoyancy, and academic buoyancy can lead to better achievement. Moreover, study support for students could include ways to develop effective coping responses.