Introduction:

The influence of personality traits on the academic performance of students has been studied, however the results of the various investigations are not conclusive.

Objective:

To describe the personality profile and academic performance of the first semester´s students of the Physiotherapy Degree of the UNAM Faculty of Medicine.

Method:

Analytical cross-sectional study of 271 students of physiotherapy. Year of admission, sex, age, type of income, high school final grades, personality profile and final first semester grades, were the variables studied. The information was obtained from the Comprehensive School Administration System, Physiotherapy Coordination.

Results:

71.2% of the sample were women. The age range was from 19 to 29 years old. There were no differences between the high school final grades versus the first semester grades, or the personality profile by sex versus personality profile, either the final first semester grades.

Conclusions:

Physiotherapy students obtain a suitable academic performance (8.5 to 10). A profile with adequate characteristics (enthusiastic, creative, with apparent psychological adaptation) was obtained and there is no association between the personality profile and academic performance in the first semester.