Academic performance in first year medical students: an explanatory multivariate model

Introduction: Current education is focused in intellectual, affective, and ethical aspects, thus acknowledging their significance in students' metacognition. Nowadays, it is known that an adequate and motivating environment together with a positive attitude towards studies is fundamental to induce learning. Medical students are under multiple stressful, academic, personal, and vocational situations. Objective: To identify psychosocial, vocational, and academic variables of 2010-2011 first year medical students at UNAM that may help predict their academic performance. Material and methods: Academic surveys of psychological and vocational factors were applied; an academic follow-up was carried out to obtain a multivariate model. The data were analyzed considering descriptive, comparative, correlative, and predictive statistics. Results: The main variables that affect students' academic performance are related to previous knowledge and to psychological variables. Conclusions: The results show the significance of implementing institutional programs to support students throughout their college adaptation.