Introduction: This study explored the suitable emotion-focused strategies in helping students to regulate their emotional state in a self-regulated tutoring system. Method: A questionnaire which consists of 25 different regulation strategies adapted from Way of Coping Questionnaire (WCQ) was used to determine the strategies deployed by the students to regulate their emotional state during stressful learning episodes. The questionnaire was distributed in person to 227 unpaid students (132 males and 95 females) from the College of Information Technology, University of Tenaga Nasional in Malaysia. This questionnaire was distributed at the beginning of their class and no time limit was imposed. Students were asked to hand in the survey as soon as they had completed the questionnaire. Results: Findings from this study indicated that students used both emotion-focused and problem-focused strategies as their self-regulation strategies in dealing with stressful learning episodes. In addition, the selection of the self-regulation strategies was influenced by student' gender and religion. Discussion and Conclusion: Moreover, two emotion-focused strategies were identified to potentially be integrated into a self-regulation tutoring system framework: relaxation exercise and supplication strategies.