In today's world higher education gives people the opportunity to fulfill their potential and achieve success. With the changing perspective in modern education systems, success means more than grades and includes emotional, social, cognitive, and academic development. Numerous studies confirm the multidimensionality of the concept of "success" in the academic environment and prove the impact of various factors on the success. According to American researchers there are three general components that influence student academic success. These components include: ability factors (inherited or previously attained), circumstances factors, and personal factors. All three components affect success in different ways. But the most important influence (up to 40%) has personal factors, which are individual differences that depend on a person's ability to influence them in a certain way. The role of personal variables such as academic self-efficacy, organization and attention to study, stress and time pressure, involvement in college activities, emotional satisfaction and classroom communication is analysed in this article. According to scientists these factors play a crucial role in predicting student success. In order to assess and identify personal variables important to college student success in 2008 Kansas State University (USA) researchers developed The College Learning Effectiveness Inventory (CLEI), which was constructed using empirical approaches grounded in a conceptual model. The CLEI assessment helps to get individual student profile of six factors and to identify strengths and limitations on these personal variables. It can be used as a screening tool to design interventions for student academic success and retention efforts. Keywords: success, students, components of success, personal factors, assessment tool, The College Learning Effectiveness Inventory.