Across two studies, we provide the first evidence of a positive causal relationship between implicit con-scientiousness and academic performance. Results showed how both implicit and explicit conscientious-ness predicted the number of examinations that students successfully passed in the semester that followed their participation in the study. The implicit measure of conscientiousness is shown to be incre-mentally valid when compared to two different explicit measures. Participants' gender moderated the effect of implicit, but not explicit, conscientiousness. Lastly, we found that motivating students to manage their impression resulted in an increased self-reported conscientiousness which was not reflected in the implicit measure, nor did this manipulation affect the predictive validity of implicit and explicit consci-entiousness. The main theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.