The author examines the determinants of success in introductory microeconomics, in the context of a Middle Eastern society but within an American educational setting. The data set is rich and covers over 3,500 students in one regional campus, allowing control for a wide range of student and class characteristics, one of which, nationality, is novel. Many of the results are consistent with the results of various studies using American or Canadian data. The author finds that, overall, students in the Middle East share the same experience in an economics course as do North American students. One result unique to this article is that nationality significantly explains student performance. Nationality is a good proxy for unobserved effort. Because students face different labor market conditions upon graduation, depending on nationality, the value of education is higher for some nationality groups and, therefore, is worth greater effort. (Contains 3 tables and 25 notes.)