title: Academic and socio-demographic factors influencing students' performance in a new Saudi medical school.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The objective of this study is to examine factors such as the students' demographic data, motivation, educational factors and socio-cultural factors, and identify whether these factors affect the academic performance of undergraduate medical students.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional study design utilising grade point averages (GPAs) of two cohorts of students in both levels of the pre-clinical phase. In addition, self-administered questionnaire was used to evaluate the effect of these factors on students with poor and good cumulative GPA.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Academic performance was significantly affected with factors such as gender, marital status, interest and motivation, and the transportation used to reach the faculty. Students with a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or greater significantly differed than those with a GPA of less than 3.0 being higher in female students, in married students, students have interest to study medicine and type of transportation used to reach the college. Factors including age, motivation, learning resources, study time and type of transportation used have shown to create a significant difference in GPA between male and females.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Factors such as age, gender, marital status, interest and motivation to enter medical school, learning resources, study time and the transportation used have been shown to significantly affect medical student's cumulative GPA as a whole batch as well as when they are tested for gender.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine at King Fahad Medical City, King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, P.O. Box 59045, Riyadh 11525, Saudi Arabia. rsalem@kfmc.med.sa
authors.forename: Raneem O
authors.initials: RO
authors.lastname: Salem
authors.forename: Najwa
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Al-Mously
authors.forename: Nihal Mohamed
authors.initials: NM
authors.lastname: Nabil
authors.forename: Abdulmohsen H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Al-Zalabani
authors.forename: Abeer F
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Al-Dhawi
authors.forename: Nasser
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Al-Hamdan
mesh_terms: D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003469:Culture; D003710:Demography; D004521:Educational Measurement; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012529:Saudi Arabia; D012577:Schools, Medical; D012923:Social Class; D013337:Students, Medical; D055815:Young Adult