Searching For Success. : An overview of factors relating to academic achievement.

Abstract: The purpose of this three-part study is to acquire greater knowledge of success in school and the factors that affects it, in order to better understand the school-related reality that students face every day. It is made up of a document study of some of the currently leading literature on academic and other types of success and of the Swedish steering documents that regulate the Swedish school system and a questionnaire based survey on what Swedish high school students believe it takes to succeed in school. Largely, the study finds that both inner factors, like personality traits and soft skills, and outer factors like school organization and good teachers, have a massive impact on academic outcome and therefore also adult outcome. The study largely finds that there are much empirical evidence suggesting that certain things affect achievement both positively and negatively. Nothing is left up to chance.