The results that we present are based on a three years research.[1]. We try to analyze, among other aspects, what the students with the best grades to access to University do which can explain its academic achievement, in order to concrete effective operational models that can be generalized and taught, as far as possible. In order to do it we are analyzing the learning ways of several groups of 1^st year students with the best grades when accessing at University. Students are from different degrees and belong to the Polytechnic University of Valencia. Their results will be compared to other students’ results with average grades of the same degrees.

To obtain it, we are assessing their learning strategies, their learning approaches, their learning styles, their attitudes towards learning and other relevant variables (self-concept, IQ, the perception of their teachers and their classmates, the integration at University, the assessment of their professors, etc). In this research, started in 2010, we will do a monitoring of students’ progress for their first two years of permanence at University, by taking several measures to collect data throughout the whole period of investigation.

We want to state the possible existing differences in the self-concept between the two groups of students (excellent and average) using the initial data collected. We also want to state the influence of attitudes on academic achievement. These are the results that we present in this paper.

Concerning the theoretical founding, we want to point out that, in the present research we understand self-concept as a construct that represents the concept that one person has about himself as a physical, social and spiritual  being (García and Musitu, 2001). Affective-evaluative component attached to it is the self-esteem, being the personal satisfaction of the individual himself. The self-concept is defined by how one person sees himself and self-esteem by how one person values and appreciates himself. Both terms have been used, sometimes, like synonymous, and sometimes like complementary. In any case they would be two faces of the same coin, one of them integrating the cognitive dimension and the other one the affective dimension of the same reality. The research has confirmed the existing significant positive relationship between self-concept and academic achievement, usually of the academic self-concept dimension (Amezcua and Fernandez, 2000; Boxtel and Monks, 1992; Gargallo, Garfella, Sanchez, Rios and Serra, 2009, Herrera, Ramirez, Roa and Herrera, 2004, Jones and Grieneeks, 1970).

We have no data on this subject contextualized in excellent and average students in the scientific literature, so we believe we can make a significant contribution.

[1]It is the "Longitudinal approach: an analysis of the influential factors that enabled some University students to achieve excellent grades. Design of an intervention’s model" research, approved by the Spanish Education and Science’ Ministry  into the National Basic Research Program, 2009 (2010-2012) (Financing Plan E, PGE), directed by Professor Ph.D. Bernardo Gargallo (code EDU2009/08518).

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