Summary.Correlations between school attainment and various intellectual, personality and social variables are reported separately for the top and bottom thirds of the ability range. The ability groups were formed from an age‐group of 2,538 Aberdeen children, who had been given tests yearly between the ages of 11 and 14. Results suggest that secondary school attainment is more difficult to predict in the high ability group than in the low ability group. But academic motivation is more closely related to school attainment for the high ability group. Among bright boys extraversion is negatively related to attainment, but in the low ability group the relationship is positive. Similar, but less extreme, differences exist among girls in this sampl