Aims: In each educational system, educational achievement is the most important indicator of the success of educational and scientific activities and investigating the effective factors on students’ academic achievement is important to education and psychology researchers particularly. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of procrastination, self-regulation and metacognitive beliefs in predicting academic achievement motivation of students.

Methods: This study is cross-sectional and correlation type. The study was done on all students of Arak University of Medical Sciences in 2012-13. 302 subjects were selected based on systematic random sampling method according to Morgan and Krejcie table. Academic achievement motivation scale, self-regulation scale, metacognitive beliefs scale and procrastination academic students’ scale (PASS) were used to collect data. Data were analyzed by the SPSS 18 software using Pearson Correlation coefficient and stepwise regression analysis.

Findings: There was a positive and significant correlation between metacognitive beliefs, self-regulation and achievement motivation and there was a negative correlation between procrastination and achievement motivation (p<0.01). In addition, about 18% of the variance in achievement motivation by procrastination, self-regulation and metacognitive beliefs were explained.

Conclusion: Procrastination is the strongest predictor of academic achievement motivation.