Introduction: Study of effective factors on development or academic performance is rather complex because this concept has extensive dimensions which both environmental and individual factors affect it. Two important factors in academic achievement are emotional intelligence and achievement motivation. This study was aimed to predict academic achievement of students of Islamic Azad University, Roudehen branch, based on their emotional intelligence and achievement motivation in 2013.

Methods: This cross sectional descriptive-analytical study was conducted using the stratified random sampling, which 376 male and female undergraduate studentsof Islamic Azad University, Roodehen branch, in the academic year 2012-2013 were selected. Research instruments were Hermen’s achievement motivation questionnaire and emotional intelligence test Bradbry-Graves. To analyze data, multiple regression analysis was used by using SPSS version 21.

Results: The results showed that there was a significant correlation between emotional intelligence and academic achievement in students’ achievement motivation (P<0.01). Among girls, only the relationship between academic achievement motivation variable was significant, while in boys, between both emotional intelligence and academic achievement motivation variable was positive and significant (P<0.01). The findings of multiple regression analysis showed that achievement motivation can predict significantly academic achievement of the students (P<0.001), while emotional intelligence could not predict academic achievement (P=0.423).

Conclusion: The findings of the current study indicated that academic achievement of students can be predicted based on achievement motivation. Thus, strength of achievement motivation accompanied with other effective factors in academic achievement can enhance their performance.