Using subjects' own ratings of their academic performance, a group of American university students were divided into academically successful ( n = 312) and unsuccessful ( n = 170) subgroups. A comparison of mean scores of the two groups on nine personality variables covered by Eysenck's PEN Inventory and Lanyon's Psychological Screening Inventory showed that academic success, as rated by subjects themselves, is associated with low psychoticism, neuroticism, and discomfort but high extraversion and defensiveness.