European Journal of Personality Eur. J. Pers. 17: 237���250 (2003) Published online 12 December 2002 in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002/per.473 Personality Traits and Academic Examination Performance TOMAS CHAMORRO-PREMUZIC and ADRIAN FURNHAM* Department of Psychology, University College London, UK Abstract British university students (N �� 247) completed the NEO-PI-R (Costa & McCrae, 1992) personality inventory at the beginning of their course and took several written examinations throughout their three-year degree. Personality super-traits (especially Conscientiousness positively, and Extraversion and Neuroticism negatively) were significantly correlated with examination grades and were found to account for around 15% of the variance. Primary traits were also examined and results showed significant correlations between a small number of these traits (notably dutifulness and achievement striving positively, and anxiety and activity negatively) and academic achievement. Furthermore, selected primary personality traits (i.e. achievement striving, self-discipline, and activity) were found to explain almost 30% of the variance in academic examination performance. It is argued that personality inventory results may represent an important contribution to the prediction of academic success and failure in university (particularly in highly selective and competitive settings). Copyright # 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. INTRODUCTION For nearly a century differential psychologists have consistently attempted to understand the major predictors of individual academic performance (Binet & Simon, 1905 Busato, Prins, Elshout, & Hamaker, 2000 Elshout & Veehman, 1992 Harris, 1940 Thorndike, 1920). Recent research by Ackerman and Heggestad (1997) has suggested that individual difference variables such as personality, intelligence, and vocational interests can be used to explain not only variance in academic performance, but also the processes by which traits influence examination outcomes. Accordingly, Ackerman���s (1996) PPKI theory (intelligence as processes, personality, knowledge, and interests) represents an attempt to develop an integrative conceptual framework for understanding the relation between Received 14 February 2002 Copyright # 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Accepted 2 October 2002 *Correspondence to: Adrian Furnham, Department of Psychology, University College London, 26 Bedford Way, London WC1E OAP, UK. E-mail: a.furnham@ucl.ac.uk Contract/grant sponsor: British Council/Antorchas Chevening Fellowship.

non-cognitive and cognitive individual differences underlying the acquisition of knowl- edge and adult intellect. This theory posits that personality traits play an important role in the development of knowledge, in that they direct an individual���s choice and level of persistence to engage in intellectually stimulating activities and settings. The theory of PPKI thus implies that individual differences in personality may influence academic performance (which is essentially a measure of field-specific knowledge) and, indeed, studies have shown that ���non-intellectual��� factors such as personality traits and learning styles are significantly involved in academic performance (Busato et al., 2000 Chamorro- Premuzic & Furnham, submitted De Fruyt & Mervielde, 1996). There are several personality traits that have been shown to relate to academic performance. Openness to Experience (also known as Intellect) has been associated with academic success in school (Shuerger & Kuma, 1987) and university, both at an undergraduate (De Fruyt & Mervielde, 1996) and postgraduate (Hirschberg & Itkin, 1978) level. Some have argued that this association can be explained in terms of the correlation between crystallized intelligence and the Openness to Experience trait (Brand, 1994). Others (perhaps more appropriately) have explained this association in terms of typical rather than maximal performance (Goff & Ackerman, 1992 Hofstee, 2001), since Openness has also been shown to be highly correlated with Typical Intellectual Engagement (Goff & Ackerman, 1992), a trait that refers to one���s typical efforts to invest in intellectual activities. However both Openness to Experience and Typical Intellectual Engagement have not always demonstrated predictive validity with regard to academic achievement (Goff & Ackerman, 1992 Busato et al., 2000 Chamorro- Premuzic & Furnham, submitted Wolfe & Johnson, 1995). The more traditional orthogonal trait variables of Extraversion and Neuroticism have also been associated with academic performance after nearly 40 years of investigation (Child, 1964). Early studies have attributed the relationship between Extraversion and academic performance to introverts��� greater ability to consolidate learning, lower distractibility, and better study habits (Entwistle & Entwistle, 1970). Recent studies (notably Sanchez-Marin, Rejano-Infante, & Rodriguez-Troyano, 2001) have also suggested that extraverts under-perform in academic settings because of their distract- ibility, sociability, and impulsiveness. The negative relation between academic achieve- ment and Neuroticism (Chamorro-Premuzic & Furnham, submitted Furnham & Medhurst, 1995) has usually been explained in terms of stress and anxiety under test (i.e. examination) conditions (Zeidner & Matthews, 2000), although such traits may affect academic performance in a more general way, i.e. not just through exam performance (Chamorro-Premuzic & Furnham, submitted Halamandaris & Power, 1999). Further- more, earlier research suggested a possible ambiguity in the relation between Neuroticism (particularly anxiety) and academic achievement. Specifically, Eysenck and Eysenck (1985) have suggested that the motivational effects of anxiety may be greater in highly intelligent students because they encounter little difficulty in their studying. In this sense Neuroticism is a positive predictor in bright participants but a negative predictor in less talented participants. Perhaps the personality factor more consistently associated with academic performance is Conscientiousness (Blickle, 1996 Busato et al., 2000 Costa & McCrae, 1992 De Raad & Schouwenburg, 1996). Studies have replicated this association in school (Wolfe & Johnson, 1995) as well as undergraduate (Chamorro-Premuzic & Furnham, submitted Goff & Ackerman, 1992) and postgraduate (Hirschberg & Itkin, 1978) education. Some authors have argued that Conscientiousness may affect academic 238 T. Chamorro-Premuzic and A. Furnham Copyright # 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Eur. J. Pers. 17: 237���250 (2003)