The authors examine the interaction of teaching and culture as it relates to students' perceptions of course difficulty. Course content was found to be the most important factor in students' views of courses. For a difficult course, "study hard" was rated as most important to the students' perception of course success by all ethnic groups. In addition, African-American students indicated that their "relationship with a professor" was an important factor, while Asian-American students stressed the "amount of course content learned" was important, and European-American students reported the "amount of course content material," "hours studying," and "grade earned" were important. The significance of these findings is discussed in terms of student learning and retention. (Contains 2 tables and 2 figures.)