This article explores the current literature on student characteristics and performance in an accounting course. When planning to teach or design a course, student characteristics play a role as part of the "situational factors" (Fink, 2003). Research has widely shown that college graduation rates are associated with student characteristics (e.g., Astin & Oseguera, 2005; Gold & Albert, 2006). This article focuses on student characteristics and performance in an accounting course. The following factors are discussed: math, English, gender, age, and prior accounting course. These factors are chosen, as they are often available from course enrollment data. The literature shows that some characteristics (math, prior accounting course) have a positive relationship with performance in an accounting course, while other characteristics (English, age, gender) have a mixed effect on performance.