Abstract. This study aimed to investigate the challenges and strategies faced by undergraduate students in Islamic Higher Education when writing theses. The study had four participants, two of whom completed their degrees on time (SGO) and two who failed to do so (SGN). Despite both groups facing challenges and employing strategies, they had some differences in their experiences. Common issues faced by both groups were difficulty generating ideas, selecting a topic, feeling confused and anxious, and procrastination due to various reasons. SGN students faced additional problems such as laziness, unexpected events, and issues with supervisors. The study also found that family support and spiritual practices like prayers and invocations helped students complete their theses. The support and encouragement from their parents served as a significant boost to the students' motivation in finishing the thesis. The study highlights the importance of surrendering to Allah's plan and trusting His wisdom, as well as maintaining a positive outlook and seeking support from family and spirituality. Overall, the study uncovered various problems faced by undergraduate students and the strategies they used to deal with them, emphasizing the importance of perseverance and relying on Allah's guidance.Keywords: Thesis Writing, Challenges, Strategies, Islamic Higher Education, Narrative Inquiry

This study aimed at: 1) investigating the move and steps found in quantitative and qualitative research articles discussion; 2) investigating the rhetoric structure patterns of quantitative and qualitative research article discussion. This study is a qualitative-research focusing on genre analysis on qualitative and quantitative RA discussions. There were 20 qualitative and 20 quantitative research article discussions of EFL and applied linguistics journals were investigated in this research. Using Yang & Allison’s (2003) framework to analyze the data, it is found that all moves in the framework were employed in RA discussion of both qualitative and quantitative research. However, the number of occurrences of each move were different between discussion section of these two different approaches. Furthermore, the patterns of both qualitative and quantitative RA discussion was not significantly different. There were two types of patterns in RA discussion both in qualitative and quantitative, repetitive pattern and organized pattern. although there were some variations in each of those patterns. The present study provides more evidence of generic structure of RA discussion section as well as proposes some useful insights related to move analysis on research article discussion in ELT and Linguistics area. Limitations and recommendations are discussed in this study.

Madrasah as one of educational institutions under Ministry of Religious Affairs in Indonesia has been rapidly enhanced to construct civilized generations that can contribute to the Muslim transmission. One of which is through the concern on developing student’s academic tenacity in some learning subjects of astronomy, physics, chemistry and biology in madrasah. Regarding to this growth, this article is intended to elaborate the inspiring students’ profiles at secondary madrasah of Insan Cendekia Serpong (ICS) for their grit, independence and perseverance in education that they excel astronomy, physics, chemistry and biology. By interviewing the students, teachers, parents and peers, and documenting the management of institution, this research elucidates that the socio-cultural factors and the students’ beliefs in nature can optimize the students’ intrinsic and extrinsic motivations for the advancement of their academic tenacity in natural science subjects. Accordingly, the exemplary students of madrasah can be the agent of change maintaining tradition of being knowledge pioneer that instill a self-concept of being a scientific and religious scholar. Madrasah is also an appropriate institution to integrate and deepen student’s spirituality and modern knowledge.