A TOEFL score has become a gateway to graduation at many Indonesian universities. At UIN Ar-Raniry Banda Aceh and UIN Sulthanah Nahrasiyah Lhokseumawe, final-year students must reach a minimum score of 400 for non-language majors before they can defend their thesis. For some students, this requirement is less a measure of ability than an administrative hurdle that triggers anxiety and can delay graduation.

Our research team, Khairul Azmy and Muhammad Hafash, compared how the two campuses prepare students for the test. Using a qualitative approach, we interviewed ten informants: two language center directors, four tutors, and four students. We looked at program design, teaching methods, and the challenges that directors, tutors, and students experience.

The two programs are designed differently. At UIN Ar-Raniry, coaching is offered to students who have already failed the test repeatedly. It runs for six meetings for non-language majors and twelve for the three language majors. At UIN Sulthanah Nahrasiyah, students take a pre-test in semester five and then join a free twelve-session course taught by external tutors who have scored 500 or higher on the TOEFL.

Despite these differences, the programs converge in practice. Both focus on test-taking strategies under tight time limits, give tutors wide autonomy, and monitor quality through participant satisfaction rather than outcome data. Students say the clearest benefit of the course is familiarity with the test format. Their anxiety comes from the graduation timeline and from hearing about classmates’ attempts. No informant reported a counseling service for test anxiety. No student described cost as a barrier as well. Students who see the requirement as unfair point instead to general English courses that never introduced the test.

Based on the findings, we recommend that universities:

• Group participants by level using placement test results.
• Introduce the test format and purpose early in general English courses, not in the final year.
• Offer preparation before students fail repeatedly.
• Provide a clear route to support and counseling referral for students with test anxiety.
• Collect outcome data, such as score gains and attempts to pass, alongside satisfaction surveys.
• State the purpose of the TOEFL requirement openly and review whether the TOEFL ITP fits that purpose.
• Improve audio quality in practice rooms and fix device connections.

We hope these findings help universities build language support that is earlier, more humane, and more focused on meaningful language ability, so that the TOEFL requirement no longer feels like an obstacle at the very end of a student’s studies.