Bishop (2004) studied the role of money and motivation in student learning through studying high school student exam program in Michigan. Some states in the US such as New Jersey and Texas have standard competency exams for their high school students, the very low passing marks serve to motivate the students to give their best performance; By contrast, the ones in New York and North Carolina increase student¡¦s motivation by offering incentives in exams and their outstanding achievement levels are highly recognised by colleges and universities. While in Michigan, the exam is intended to be challenging and the first step towards motivating students to do good is to include scores in the transcripts. The second is to offer a student who scores at Level 1 or 2 the Michigan Merit Award which is a one year $2,500 scholarship. This amount is payable to those who will attend college in Michigan while a lower amount of $1,000 is applicable to those going out of state. There is obviously a marked improvement on exam scores as expected but it raises the question where the real motivation lies: money or the promise of future education?