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Reliable and valid assessment of students’ academic potential has huge consequences for their future success. To date, this has almost exclusively been achieved through the administration of pencil-and-paper aptitude assessments or self-report instruments. Performance on these assessments can be influenced by factors such as test anxiety, providing an inaccurate prediction of a student’s potential. These methods also ignore that academic performance is the product of brain activity. Limits associated with these past practices can be addressed through the identification of robust neuromarkers of academic performance. The P3 component of the event-related potential, thought to index cognitive processes underlying learning, is one such promising candidate. Previous studies have identified significant associations between temporal characteristics of the P3 and a number of academic performance measures, highlighting its utility as a neuromarker. This brief review summarizes previous work on the P3 component and academic performance, and outlines considerations for future research.