The Relationship Between Student Motivation and GPA

The pressure to uphold a grade motivates students to look for and memorize the information on upcoming tests. Furthermore, students will be more likely to opt for projects and classes with more basic content to learn because easier classes increase the student's likelihood of receiving an A. To students, the easy way out is the right way since the success of gaining an A on transcripts has become more important than learning.

In college, predicting academic success is a difficult challenge facing institutions of higher education. Unfortunately, before completing degrees, majority of students leave. Andrew Carnegie once said, “Anything in life worth having is worth working for.” High academic achievement in college certainly requires a great deal of effort over an extended period of time and is undoubtedly worth having. However, students who have high levels of frustration intolerance are at particular risk of falling into patterns of procrastination. But those who are more willing to tolerate frustration in pursuit of academic achievement tend to have higher GPA’s. In most students, studying for exams, writing for papers, and engaging in other academic behaviors

Prior to college, I never had GPA. The schools I attended stimulated and focused on the love of learning, not a grade. I developed a passion for the process of learning and being curious, going beyond what is required to gain a thorough understanding. With this mindset I have approached my undergraduate years and plan to approach my graduate school education. It is my love for education and curiosity to discover new things that keeps me infatuated with atmospheric science. Additionally, it helps maintain my focus while faced with difficulties in both my professional and personal

Why are some students more motivating to pass than other students? Some students have a challenge with their self and some not. Can you consider for five minutes in which kind you are? However, everyone like to be the best in this world, but if you will not come your class, do not do your homework, or you cheating from your friends how you will be good college student? Some students failing their courses because they do not have enough attention in class, they broken rules, and they do not study

Accurately predicting academic persistence for incoming and returning college students is constant problem for all involved. Multiple predictors currently exist to help determine the academic motivation of students. Traditional predictors cover the cognitive aspects of students. The most common predictors are standardized tests and high school GPA. Noncognitive predictors are difficult to accurately measure but still contribute to a student’s persistence. Cultural predictors such as economic status, moral support and ethnic differences also play a role in a student’s academic motivation. The purpose of this paper was to explain the effectiveness of these predictors.

Motivation affects many different areas for students in education. Areas include how the student feels about school, teacher relationships, testing performance, and time and effort spent on academics. Without motivation, academic engagement is almost impossible to achieve. However, research has shown that highly motivated students perform better academically, have a better self-esteem, and tend to complete high school. As a student progresses through school, motivation tends to decline. According to a 2004 analysis by the National Research Council, approximately 40 percent of high school students report being disengaged from learning. In addition, a similar survey showed that 70 percent of students who dropped out of school stated that being unmotivated was a key factor (Kober and Usher, 2012).

At school we can often see two types of students: some doing everything to achieve good grades while others excel in the art of procrastinating. What can explain this difference of behaviours towards studies and learning? Motivation is the key answer.

There are many people who attend college to obtain a higher education and increase their earning potential. While attending college, there are many scholarships and academic opportunities presented to students that are dependent upon their grade point average. Academic achievement is an important aspect of a college student’s academic career. Many college students spend their academic career searching for the best methods to assist them in obtaining a satisfactory GPA. There are many ways a student could study for their courses, but which method leads them to their end goal?

Through quantitative approach and survey she selected 200 students (100 males and 100 females) from different colleges of Karachi, whose age ranges from 18-21 years. She used (AMS) Academic Motivation Scale to assess academic intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. She derives statistical result by using demographic form and questionnaire and its result shows that motivation and academic were positively correlated. Findings also suggest that females were intrinsically motivated then males and males were more extrinsically motivated then females because they are expected to be the main breadwinner of the family in this society. The researcher can also used interview to make result more reliable and it can also be investigated on school level

College seems to be a constant battle for students to do well in classes and remain above water. It is as if students are attempting to figure out what mixture of coffee, sleep, and studying makes for a perfect college student. With so much pressure being put into getting a degree and going into professional schools after college, it would be a helpful tool for students to know what makes an individual more successful academically than the next. Resent research by Ackerman and Heggestad (1997) has suggested that individual differences such as personality and motivation can be used to explain not only variance in academic performance, but also the process by which traits influence examination scores. Motivation is a composed of four main components including academic self-efficacy, attributions, intrinsic motivation, and achievement goals (Pintrich, 2002). O’Neil, Goffin, and Gellatly (2010) have found that when test taking motivation is high students tend to perform better on exams increasing the rate of academic success.

It’s 2A.M, everyone around you is asleep, sitting within hands reach lays a 16-ounce can of Monster, and a heaping tower of homework still to be tackled. You know it will be a long night and hope that you will be able to finish all the work. Some students end up in this position because of procrastination, others out of determination, and the few extremists who piled on a full course load looking for a challenge. Regardless of the student, all of them have a common goal…success in their academic endeavors. Every time a grade gets posted online students hesitantly click on the little red notification bell, half full of excitement and the other half worry. But why is academic success so important to students? For many students, they fear that their grades will determine their fate; from the job they will land, to the car they drive and everything in between. They think that their entire future is predetermined based off of their academic performance and unfortunately due to the structure of the education system they are often correct. Grades affect a students’ motivation, intelligence, and how they shape their identity.

Janssen and O’Brien’s (2014) article from International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning describes how motivation and ability factor into the variation of homework and exam scores. Researchers found that attitudes like procrastination will affect homework grades but not affect exam scores. The study also analyzes the indirect impact homework may have on exam performance. Researchers collected data from 687 college students all enrolled in several different economic courses. Data was collected through surveys in the first two weeks of classes. Students self reported on their motivation. Researchers found that motivation and ability matter, but are independent of one another. Ability can predict both exam and homework grades and homework score is a strong indicator of exam scores. Other major findings include homework related behaviors indirectly effect exam scores and how students approach their homework greatly affects grades as well. A limitation of this study was the inability to separate motivation, attitudes and behavior in order to conclude causation. Some other limitations included the lack of data analyzing motivation as well as the students were all taking a similar class subject whether it was microeconomics, macro, or others. Some strengths of this study include the results being consistent with suggesting homework is beneficial and concluding students enjoy homework that is online because it allows them to work at their own

Marcus Credé and Nathan R. Kuncel (2008) in their research at the University of Albany said that Study habit, skill, and attitude inventories and constructs were found to rival standardized tests and previous grades as predictors of academic performance, yielding substantial incremental validity in predicting academic performance. The meta-analysis examined the construct validity and predictive validity of 10 study skill constructs for college students. They found that study skill inventories and constructs are largely independent of both high school grades and scores on standardized admissions tests but moderately related to various personality constructs; these results were inconsistent with previous theories. Study motivation and study skills exhibit the strongest relationships with both grade point average and grades in individual classes. They also said that Academic specific anxiety was found to be an important negative predictor of performance. In addition, significant variation in the validity of specific inventories is shown. Scores on traditional study habit

The purpose of this study was to examine the validity and predictive power of the high school GPA and the Admission Test scores on college academic performance. This investigation was limited to undergraduate students attending the University of Umm Alqur’a in Saudi Arabia. Specifically, the aim of this study was to identify which one of the two previous predictor variables that contributes more in the prediction of academic performance of college students.

In view that Ning and Downing (2010) have conducted a research study among 581 university students in Hong Kong and found that student motivation is the strongest predictor to their academic performance while few attempts to investigate more specific factors such as curiosity and external regulation that whether they affect intrinsic motivation among university students in Hong Kong, the relationship between these factors and intrinsic motivation are deeply investigated so as to improve student intrinsic motivation. Also, whether males or females would have higher level of intrinsic motivation is also studied. These serve as the purpose of this paper. We attempt to fill the research gap by asking the following research questions: