The results herein enclosed are based in a three-year research[1]. We try to analyze, among other aspects, what the students, what the students with the best grades to access to University do which can explain 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 way of learning 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. In order to obtain it, we are assessing their learning strategies, their learning approaches, their styles, their attitudes towards learning and other relevant variables (self-concept, IQ, the perception of their teachers and their classes, the integration at the university, the assessment of their professors, etc). In this research, started in 2010, we will do a monitoring of their progress for their first two years of permanence at University, by taking several measures to collect data throughout the whole period of research.

 The aim of this study is to know if there are differences in learning styles between the two groups of students (excellent and average), as well as the structure of these two groups. We also want to state the influence of learning styles on academic achievement.  In order to obtain it, we will use the first data collected.

 Learning styles are habitual ways of processing information (Hernández Pina, 1993). They are predispositions, relatively general and constant, responding to a subject’s trend. They derives from the willingness of an individual to adopt the same strategy in different situations, regardless of the specific demands of the task (Schmeck, 1983). In this issue we have the works of Honey and Mumford (1986), which distinguish between "active", "reflexive", "theoretical " and "pragmatic" style; Pask (1976), which distinguishes between "holistic" and "serial" style; and Kolb (1976), among others, which distinguishes between "disturbance " and "assimilating", "converging" and "divergent" style.

 The relationship between learning styles and academic performance is not analyzed by many studies. Camarero, Martin and Herrero (2000) reflect a greater use of active style in students with lower performance, in a sample of 447 college students from the University of Oviedo, but the results are not conclusive. The study of Contessa, Ciardiello and Perlman (2005), which uses Kolb's questionnaire (LSI), reflects a relationship between learning style and academic achievement, greater in students with convergent style. However, we do not have data on the subject in scientific Literature contextualised in excellent and average students, reason why we think that 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).

Alonso, C., Gallego, D. & Honey, P. (1995). Los estilos de aprendizaje. Procedimientos de diagnóstico y mejora. Bilbao: Ediciones Mensajero. Camarero, F., Martín, F. y Herrero, J. (2000): Estilos y estrategias de aprendizaje en estudiantes universitarios. Psicothema, 12 (4), 615-622. Contessa J, Ciardiello KA, Perlman S. (2005). Surgery resident learning styles and academic achievement, Current Surgery, 62(3):344-47 Hernández Pina, F. (1993): Concepciones en el estudio del aprendizaje de los estudiantes universitarios. Revista de Investigación Educativa, 22, 117-150. Honey, P. y Mumford, A. (1986): The Manual of Learning Styles. Maidenhead, Berkshire: P. Honey, Ardingly House. Kolb, D. (1976): The Learning Style Inventory: Technical Manual. Boston: McBer and Company. Pask, G. (1976): Styles and strategies of learning. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 46, 128-148.