Background: Motivation is a driving force that starts and maintains a goal-oriented behavior in a person. It plays a critical role in the performance of medical students. It affects the psychological well-being of students and the quality of medical care. This study was carried out to evaluate the level of motivation, determine the year-wise difference between the level of motivation, the effects of residential status of students on their level of motivation and its relation in the academic performance of students. Method: A cross-sectional type of observational descriptive study was conducted among the students of Fatima Jinnah Medical University. The questionnaire provided to the students consisted of two parts.The first part comprised of 4 questions (age, year of study, percentage in the last professional examination, residential status). The second part was the SMMS-R (Strength of Motivation for Medical School) Questionnaire. Data was entered and analyzed in SPSS version 22. Charts and Graphs are used to express the results. Results: The overall response rate was 91.46%. 56.25% of the medical students were strongly motivated, 25.89% were moderately motivated while 17.86% had low motivation. The overall mean SMMS-R Score was 60.544 +/- 8.172. The score falls in the grade of “Strong Motivation”. The mean score for ‘Willingness to Sacrifice’ subscale was 20.55 +/- 2.77, ‘Readiness to Start’ 19.48 +/- 3.18 and ‘Persistence’ subscale was 20.52 +/- 2.16. Conclusion: In our study majority of the students are highly motivated and the motivation shows a positive correlation with academic performance. Highly motivated environment should be provided to students in order to enhance their academic performance and the quality of medical healthcare. More researches should be conducted to provide a better environment to health professionals.

Motivation is a driving force that starts and maintains a goal-oriented behavior in a person.