The English proficiency test can be a stumbling block for international MBAs. This is how to ace it
Harvard Business School requires a score of 109 on the TOEFL.
By Chioma Isiadinso
If you're planning to attend business school outside of your home
country, you'll probably have to jump through a few extra hoops to gain
admission. While you plan your travel arrangements and research visa
requirements, don't forget to make sure you meet the school's language
requirements.
Many top business schools require you to take an English proficiency
exam if you haven’t lived or worked in an English-speaking country for
at least two years.
Different schools accept different tests, but whether you're taking the
TOEFL, the IELTS, the PTE, the CPE, or something else entirely, you'll
need to demonstrate your English proficiency before you submit your
application. Here are five tips to help you ace any English language
test:
1. Know your goal
Business school requirements for English proficiency vary widely. Some
schools state explicit minimums, for example. Harvard Business School
requires applicants to score at least 109 on the TOEFL, and INSEAD
requires a minimum of 105.
At other business schools, there are no stated minimums. Even in
prestigious schools such as MIT Sloan and Yale School of Business,
students are not explicitly required to take English proficiency exams
at all. Wherever you plan to apply, be sure that you understand the
school's requirements for English testing.
2. Vary your approach
Don't limit yourself to a single studying style or strategy. Try to
switch up both the format by using a mix of books, websites, videos, and
podcasts, and the academic tone of the material you're using.
The bulk of the material on the test will be academic English, but
varying the material you work with will give you a chance to become more
comfortable with the language overall, and prevent you from getting too
bored.
3. Don't neglect your speaking
Learning receptive language skills like reading and listening is almost
always easier than developing your expressive language skills, meaning
your speaking and writing, leading most to practice receptive skills
more.
But when it comes to the TOEFL, and to business school in general, your expressive skills will be incredibly important.
Writing skills can be practiced with workbooks, pen-pals, and online
communities. If, however, you don't live in an English-speaking area,
practicing your speaking can be much harder.
In that case, you’ll have to be diligent about finding ways to practice
your speaking, whether that comes through reading aloud, watching
English-language videos and mimicking their speech, joining an English
club or TOEFL study group, or even looking for online communities where
you can practice speaking through Skype or phone calls.
4. Build a strong foundation
Building language skills is much like building a skyscraper. You have
to have a very strong foundation, or your building will crumble.
Go through all of the practice tests and sample questions, but don't focus on memorizing specific questions or question types.
Instead, look at how the correct answers are constructed, and make sure
you understand the grammar behind them. Analyze successful essays and
short answer responses to learn the paragraph construction and
transitional phrases that work for the test.
5. Surround yourself with English
Immersion is one of the best ways to develop language fluency quickly,
and can be achieved even if you don’t live in an English-speaking
country.
Whenever possible, your books, movies, TV shows, newspapers, music, and
podcasts should be English-language. Even little things like changing
your social media account settings to English can help get you in the
right mindset for learning the language.
When you're gearing up for the TOEFL, every little bit helps. Preparing
for yet another test may be the last thing you want to do when you're
trying to put together a successful MBA application, but you’ll be
kicking yourself if it’s the one thing that lets you down.
Chioma Isiadinso is an education entrepreneur and co-founder/CEO of EXPARTUS, the first MBA admissions consulting firm to integrate personal branding into every aspect of the MBA admissions process.
She's also a former Harvard Business School admissions officer and the author of the Best Business Schools' Admissions Secrets.
Chioma publishes on the topics of personal branding, leadership
development and business school admissions for college students, young
professionals, entrepreneurs and executives.
