Through an analysis of student reactions to several classroom interventions, this article suggests that the single, most important personal characteristic which interferes with the attainment of academic success for the typical community college student is what he or she has already learned about himself or herself and, also, about the process of getting an education. Many students enter the community college with misconceptions about college, about what it will take to earn a college degree, about themselves, and about the world. Unless they discover the truths very early in their college careers, they will begin those careers with such poor results that they will never be able to overcome the difficulties they will have created for themselves in their very first semesters.