AbstractWe intend to research if the useless of learning diary are important for development of metacognitive strategies and if these are influenced by the level of motivation for learning and by the evaluation process. The sample of our study comprised 92 students from the first year at Faculty of Science of Education and it was developed during 2008 -2011 academic years. The students filled in learning diaries during their first year of study (2008-2009) and they have participated at an investigation based on questionnaires (Achievement Motivation Inventory and Metacognitive questionnaire). The results provide a better understanding upon the students’ learning needs and upon the necessity of working on the development of the metacognitive competencies during the university initial training.