Academic motivation is an essential part of learning and achievement. It is the most important factor that leads one to one’s goals. This drive is known as motivation. This study aims at investigating the effect of academic motivation on secondary school-students gender and habitat wise. The authors adopted a test (Bhattacharya, 1980) on academic motivation selecting 6 (six) dimensions. Internal consistency of test was found by Cronbach Alpha. The test was administered on 700 ninth grade students of both sexes drawn from different schools under West Bengal Board of Secondary Education. The analysis with ANOVA conclusively showed that students significantly differ sex wise on academic motivation, but there is no significant difference between urban & rural students or in any strata of them.