Aims: Educational research often relies on the self-reports of students to determine their grades/GPA for reasons including ease of administration, time constraints, IRB approval, and assumption of accuracy. The main purpose of this study was to determine the validity of student self-reports on their academic grades, and if the benefits outweigh the potential errors. Methods/Results: Participants (n=415) were students in a suburban school in a large metropolitan city in the Midwest. Two methods of self-reported grades were correlated with students' actual transcript grades. Results showed fair amounts of correspondence (r=0.60-0.89), with actual grades being correlated at higher levels than self-reported grades. Conclusion: Younger students and those with higher grades were more accurate reporters. Those with more diligent academic behaviors also demonstrated greater accuracy, and those with a vaguer sense of future goals demonstrated less accuracy. All results are discussed in the context of how valid are students' self-reported grades for research purposes