School success is an ethnic identifier for Korean American students, and the identity as an academic achiever is an integral part of self-identity among highly gifted Korean- American students. Through focus group interviews, this study examines the factors that affect the academic achievement of highly gifted Korean American middle school students. The major findings of the current study indicate that the exceptional academic success is attributed to six personality factors and two contextual factors; the personality factor refers to the each individuals internal attributes and the contextual factor is defined as the influences of their immediate Korean-specific ethnic environments.