The main objective of the article is to identify and analyse the dominant factors influencing the motivation to perform during a university study in Y and Z generation groups. The selected research sample were the first-year students of the first grade of their study (Bc.) who represented the generation Z and the first-year students of the second grade of study (Eng.) who represented the generation Y. Several factors have been identified in the pre-survey that affects motivation to performance during the learning process within the two generational groups. In the research process, there were used three psychodiagnostic standardized questionnaires (NEO Questionnaire, respectively two of the five items: conscientiousness and neuroticism, Motivation of Performance from D-M-V Questionnaire and the HO-PO-MO Questionnaire, namely its part Motivation to Performance - MO). The NEO questionnaire shows that neuroticism and the scale of performance braking from the D-M-V Questionnaire is much higher for the first-year students (Generation Group Z) than for fourth-year students (Generation Group Y). In overall, Y and Z generating groups have poorer results at a high score of neuroticism and, on the contrary, too low values at high scores for conscientiousness.