Dr. Angela Duckworth is professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research focuses on two traits that she found reliably predict achievement: grit and self-control.

Her work is best understood from the studies that she conducted in the US Military Army Academy called 'West Point. Here, she researched the achievements of cadets who took part in 'The Beast' training programme. The term 'Beast' is slang in the USA military for 'Cadet Basic Training', which takes place at the US Military Academy at West point, USA. Cadet Basic Training is a 6-week training course before a cadet's first year. It is one of the toughest training schedules in the world, fully designed to separate 'the wheat from the chaff'.

In order to achieve a place on 'Beast', potential cadets need to go through an intense application process which includes having a high 'whole candidate score'. This score is a weighted average that takes into account SAT exam scores, high school rankings, expert appraisals of leadership potential, and performance in physical tests. It is West Point's 'best guess' at how able the applicants are and thus is seen as the best indicator for predicting who will be successful and complete the programme. Indeed, it is the single most important factor in the West Point admissions process, and yet , Duckworth's research showed that it did not reliably predict who would make it through 'Beast'. In fact, those with the highest scores were found to be just as likely to drop out as those with the lowest.

This observation led Duckworth to produce 'The Grit Scale' ; a test designed to specifically measure characteristics such as determination, positivity, self control, resilience and passion. The test asks candidates to consider, among other things, their attitude to hard work and their responses to failure. Duckworth trialled her grit test on the Beast cadets, and the results were surprising. It was the grit test, and not the Whole Candidate Score, that turned out to be the accurate predictor of who would complete the course and who would not. In other words, all of the competencies and talents that made up the Whole Candidate Score, such as academic abilities and physical aptitude, turned out to be irrelevant in predicting success. In fact, those who were precited by the Whole Candidate Score to be best prepared and best suited to the US army where in fact were rarely the ones who made it through. The cadets that did, were those who possessed a 'never give up attitude', who were able to visualise success, who had passion, and who had high levels of self-control. They had grit, which Duckworth describes as the 'passion and perseverance' to achieve for long-term goals (Duckworth 2021).

To further develop her research, Duckworth took her Grit Scale and tested is in the sales industry, an industry where rejection and challenge are commonplace and staff turnover is high. When trialled, the grit test predicted who would stay at a company and would leave. Duckworth then took her research and tested grit in colleges. Grit turned out to be a more powerful indictor in predicting which students would graduate than how much a student cared about school and how conscious they were about their studies.

What we can take from this is that grit is the single most important factor in determining a student's success. This is reassuring since grit can be learned and developed which means that everyone, regardless of background, biology or innate ability, can achieve and achieve highly.

At Warden Park Academy, we believe that developing grit in our students is the single most important thing we can do to affect their life chances. In some ways, it surpasses helping them to achieve good grades because as the Duckworth's research shows, it is the singlemost important factor in determining a person' successes.

How to develop grit at home