The objective of the present study was to examine how motivation is related to academic achievement. The "Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire" (MSLQ) was administered to 1,166 students at a polytechnic in Singapore as a measure for motivational beliefs and self-regulated learning strategies. In addition, students' prior knowledge, achievement-related classroom behaviors, and academic achievement were included in the analysis. Path analysis revealed that motivation is not directly related to achievement. Instead, the relationship was mediated by both learning strategies and achievement-related classroom behaviors. Prior achievement was a good predictor of subsequent achievement but had no influence on student motivation. Overall, the results suggest that motivation as operationalized by self-report seems to be a construct with limited predictive validity for academic achievement. (Contains 2 tables and 2 figures.)