DOES MOTIVATION AFFECT ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN BIOCHEMISTRY AMONG FIRST YEAR MEDICAL STUDENTS

Emotional intelligence (EI) is a measure of a person's ability to assess his or her emotions and that of others. It plays a vital role in physician-patient interactions. One important component of EI that is relevant to medical students is motivation towards life and daily activities. Motivation is shown to have a positive influence on students' ability to understand concepts and their academic performance. This study investigated the research question whether there is an association between motivation and academic performance in Biochemistry among first-year medical students. Students admitted to the MBBS course in Christian Medical College, Vellore for the year 2012 were the subjects of this study (n-97). Data on their academic performance in Biochemistry included marks obtained in periodic assessments and summative assessments. Students were asked to grade their motivation levels on a scale of 1 to 7 which is the motivation score. The results showed that students in the lowest quartile of marks scored in periodic assessments tended to have lower motivation scores. Those in the upper quartiles of marks scored tended to have higher motivation scores. In summative assessment, students in the highest quartile of marks scored also had the highest motivation scores. These correlations were, however, not statistically significant. When students were categorized into three groups low, moderate and high motivation based on their motivation scores, the results showed that students in the high motivation group tended to perform better in periodic as well as summative assessments compared to the low and moderate motivation groups. In summary, we conclude that there appeared to be a positive association between academic performance and motivation levels of students, though the differences seen in this study were not statistically significant. This could be due to the small sample size in this study.