In this study, the correlation among the academic performances of 50 Nigerian university preliminary students with either little or no interest I (< 50 %) and positive inclination or interest (I ≥ 50 %) towards this aspect of physics and some physiological parameters such as Body Mass Index (BMI), Systolic Blood Pressure (SPB), diastolic Blood Pressure (DPB), pulse rate, PR (before, during and after the examination) were found. The academic performance of students ranged from 20-51 and 50 -75% for the two groups respectively. Using SPSS 17, significant differences exist between the performances of the two groups (p < 0.05, t = 0.005) and the physiological parameters (t = 0.014 - 0.043) except weight for the group with I < 50% (t = 0.45), DPB and PR for the group with I ≥ 50 % (t = 0.055-0.061 respectively).  For students with I < 50 %, the academic performance negatively correlated with pulse rate during the examination (r = - 0.676) with r-values between -0.298 and 0.067. This suggests that students’ academic performances could be influenced by their interest, pulse rates and some of these important parameters of nutritional importance at that level.

Keywords: Correlation study, students’ interest, academic performances, physiological parameters