The purpose of this paper is to explore how gender and personality preferences affect student attitudes towards effort response to higher grading standards. Data collected from 150 economics and business students at a Scandinavian business school reveals that higher grading standards enhance effort and time devoted to learning to a higher degree among male than female students. Furthermore, personality dimensions from Myer-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) indicate that students having extrovert, thinking and judging preferences respectively do respond more positively towards a harder grading practice, compared to those who have introvert, feeling and perceiving preferences, respectively. Further research is needed to see whether these findings are readily generalized, or whether they should be interpreted in light of Scandinavian culture and business school settings.