The community college is an important avenue by which a large number of people gain access to higher education opportunities. Roughly one-half of all students enrolled in college programs attend community colleges. Unfortunately, about half of the students who attend community colleges leave before completing a program of study. The purpose of this study was to examine the nature of the relationship between measures of learning, study strategies, and student persistence. A sample of 169 students, consisting of recent high school graduates enrolled full-time at the community college who had declared a major, were the focus of the investigation. The study is descriptive in nature, and uses the LASSI instrument to investigate whether pre-existing conditions are associated with differences among subjects measured on dependent variables. A total of 169 students who had voluntarily enrolled in a community college orientation program completed the LASSI as a requirement of the program. Of the 169 students in the program, the 125 who had graduated in 2000 or 2001, were enrolled full-time, and had declared a major were the students whose data were evaluated. Findings indicated that motivation explained approximately 6-7% of the variance in measures of course persistence, while anxiety explained 3-4% of variance. (Contains 62 references.) (Author/NB)