After IQ, control was the personality dimension giving the best indicator of what kind of grades a pupil would be getting.

The more meticulous, controlled and conscientious a person was, the better their chances of getting good grades on their artium degree.

Extraversion correlated negatively with academic performance – the more extraverted a person was the less chance they had of getting top grades. This is probably because the more socially active pupils spend less time studying than introverts.

Rosander writes that she was surprised that pupils with neurotic personalities are more apt to get good grades than some of their more emotionally stable peers. 

She sees a possible explanation:

It is quite reasonable that teens with more anxiety and stronger vulnerability are more afraid of failing in an academic situation – and this motivates them to study harder.

Dutiful daughters did well

Rosander also found a gender-based explanation for performance in her tests: As expected girls got better grades than boys. This is probably because girls are often instilled with a greater sense of dutifulness and anxiety than boys.

The boys are propelled more by desire and curiosity – but that doesn’t always pay off as much in our current school systems.

Rosander says she was surprised to find an inverted relationship between conscientiousness and IQ among the boys: Dutiful boys had lower IQs than those who were less deferential.

“Being extra meticulous about avoiding tardiness, delivering homework on time, etc. can be a way in which boys compensate for a lower IQ,” says Rosander.

Anxiety is a bad kind of motivation

Rosander thinks teachers and school authorities should give her results some careful consideration.

For instance how should they help gifted pupils who have the “wrong” type of personality – smart teens who are unstructured and extraverted and who in this study were getting poorer grades than their IQs would suggest? 

“Another thing is that it surely cannot be good to be driven by anxiety,” says Rosander.