“Taking the woeful.”

Gotta love autocorrect.

We got a question from a BSer this past season where they were asking what to write in the optional essay. This sentence was included:

“Because of your advice I’m taking the woeful again and need to know if I have to explain this to adcomm.”

EssaySnark about fell out of the chair laughing.

Of course they meant they were “taking the TOEFL.” And for anyone who doesn’t know, T-O-E-F-L is usually pronounced, “TOE-FULL” which makes “WOE-FULL” absolutely the perfect substitute.

The fact that the TOEFL is an English language test made it all the funnier.

Ah, the humor of an admissions consultant.

Semi-related: If you’ve ever wondered how some of the odd names in MBA Land are pronounced, we’ve got a handy dandy guide for you. It helps to be able to say the school’s name correctly; gives a certain kind of confidence to the interactions, when you’re doing all that outreach to students and alumni at your interested targets.

If you’re a TOEFL taker – typically being international applicants whose prior educational experiences have not been conducted in English – then now is a great time to be tackling that part of your profile. We often hear that the TOEFL is a snap (relatively speaking) after the challenges of the GMAT, so the standard advice is to take care of your GMAT first. The prep work you do in studying for that should serve you well for the TOEFL, too. Don’t put either off; these are things you should work to cross off the application checklist quite early on, so get working on these now. A bare-minimum TOEFL score would be in the 105 range, in case you’re interested in some broad-strokes targets. As with everything, it depends on the details, and on the whole profile – and most successful international applicants to the top U.S. schools are able to pull off a TOEFL score that’s higher than that.

Remember, the schools all use the case method, which means you’ll need to be able to present and defend your ideas in real time in a classroom full of other smart people, which can be intimidating. The adcoms need to know that you have mastered the language so that you’re set up for success in that environment. If you have questions on the TOEFL – or the woeful – let us know in the comments!