I've been asked by Nicol to write about my experience taking the Foreign Service Officer Test (
FSOT). First, I will like to make it clear that I cannot give ANY specifics about the questions I had to answer. My integrity is worth a lot and I am bound by a
NDA (Non Disclosure Agreement). As you start this process, you will realize there are hundreds of acronyms, however I digress.
I took the test Friday morning at a community college in my area. The exam is computer based and proctored by ACT. You do the entire exam on a computer and the test is 3 hrs long. No kidding. 3 hrs! By hour 2.5 I was beat. Anyway, I checked in and filled out a form, they took a photo and directed me to a small room where 2 other test takers were taking the same test. There were cameras in the room, but at least the room temperature was nice. Anyway, you can take bathroom breaks as long as you tell the ACT person at the counter.
There are four parts to the test. Everything I will be discussing here can be found in the official state department website. Please do not ask details, remember that pesky
NDA? I read this on one of the Yahoo groups, the
FSOT test is 1" deep 3 miles wide. A great source is the Yahoo Group FSOT. They have a wealth of information
there.The first part is the Job Knowledge Section. Here I was asked what seemed random questions ranging from how the
Internet works, history, culture, basic math, management, US government, The US Constitution, geography, current events, etc. I don't think this portion of the test was meant to find out how much I know about the Consular Cone (that is the career track I chose), I think that part will come later on the process. This was VERY general.
The next part was the Biographical Section. You can't prepare for this section. Here you are asked to provide very short examples of how you demonstrated some of the 13 dimensions. Then they ask you the same questions in a different format, this is probably to check your honesty, but I don't know. This part of the test felt like a personality test. You can find the 13 dimensions
here.
The third part was the English Section? (I can't remember the exact name). Here you are shown sentences with
mispelleengs and grammattikal errors. You are supposed to be able to re-arrange and catch the mistakes. I don't think I did very well on this part.
The last portion of the test was the English Expression?, here you get to write two essays to support your thesis on two different prompts. You do not get to choose the prompts, they were given to me. You are given 30
mins each, the clock starts when you are shown the prompt. I think my prompts were about the international banking and
multiculturalism.
At the end of the test I received an email letting me know the results will be provided in 3-5 weeks. This was my second time taking the test, the last time I took it was in 2008. There were two main differences, in 2008 the computer told me right away that I did not pass and there was only one essay to write.
If I don't pass the test, I will have to wait another year to take it again. If I pass it, the next steps will be a Personal Narrative (PN) that will be reviewed by the QEP (Qualifications Evaluation Panel). Til then . . .
~Ed~
