predicting academic achievement through critical thinking and sociodemographic variables

Identifying factors affecting students'' academic achievement and paying attention to them is a step toward sustainable development. The aim of this study is predicting academic achievement through components of critical thinking and some sociodemographic variables. 114 first-year medical student of Tehran University of Medical Sciences participated in this research. They completed California Critical Thinking Skills Test (CCTST) at the beginning of the academic year. At the end of the academic year، their average and some demographic variables were collected. Stepwise regression results showed that there is a significant relationship between inference and academic achievement (R=0/251)، (R2=0/063) and (R2Adj=0/054). Among the four components of sociodemographic variables a significant relationship was found between the subscale scores and academic achievement (F (2،101) =7. 317 P<0. 001). The results of this research showed that with density of subject content، students cannot think and use evaluation methods based on memorization of large volume of information. Students learn memorization techniques without thinking and reasoning. Therefore، it is necessary to focus on the volume of subject content and student evaluation method. Also، students admission must change until the effectiveness of subscale scores become reasonable.