The purpose of this study was to study the effects of goal setting on students in a developmental algebra course. This study examined the effects on test scores for students that were prescribed a test score goal, students that created their own test score goal, and then compared to a control group. Three classes of developmental algebra were chosen with a total of 25 participants with reported results. Results showed that students with a goal on a test did not score significantly better than students without a goal, but did score significantly better on a test after the goal than tests before the goal.