Step 3: The Foreign Service Officer Test (FSOT)
STOP! Read this before going any further!
When you embark on your journey to become an FSO, an important thing to remember is that you are not at liberty to divulge any information about the test to anyone for any reason--even if that person took the test with you. All assessment materials used by the Department of State (DOS) are covered by a strict non-disclosure agreement (NDA). The NDA prevents candidates and officers who have taken these tests previously from disclosing their contents. By taking these tests and assessments, you are agreeing to abide by the NDA. Respecting the NDA is the main reason why I (as well as other Foreign Service bloggers, officers, veterans and aspirants) cannot be too specific when talking about the test. Additionally, Diplomatic Security and the Foreign Service Board of Examiners regularly scan webpages, message boards, and blogs to make sure confidential test and assessment information is not being disclosed. Violating the NDA can result in the termination of your candidacy or the termination of your job if you actually make it into the Foreign Service. I encourage everyone to study hard, share your tips, and help others when you can. But don't be stupid and risk everything because of a lack of discretion.
And now, back to the test...
The FSOT takes three to four hours to complete and contains four sections: a job knowledge section, a biographical information section, an English usage section, and a final essay. These will each be discussed in turn.
Section 1: Job Knowledge
This part of the test focuses on a grab-bag of knowledge. You may encounter questions about civics, current events, American history, world geography, cultural icons, management principles, basic mathematics, popular sports, and general statistics. Many FSOT-preparation sources recommend purchasing or studying various books in order to master this section. However, I personally think that the best study aids are daily newspapers, online news sites, world maps, and even Wikipedia articles on history.
Questions are all multiple choice. Scratch paper is provided for all examinees, but you are not provided with a calculator. Any math you have to do should be basic stuff you can do in your head or perform longhand, such as finding a percentage of a certain number. Each question is worth the same number of points. Because there is no penalty for guessing, you should answer every question here.
Be careful! You don't have a lot of time to complete this section. However, you are allowed to skip a question and come back to it later. Since all questions are worth the same number of points, it is wise not to waste time ruminating over a difficult question when you have several easier ones remaining.
Section 2: English Expression
This part of the test focuses on English grammar, the nuances of vocabulary, punctuation rules, and organizing your sentences or paragraphs for the sake of flow and clarity. This section is more challenging than it may appear because of the bad habits we may have developed courtesy of posting in "netspeak" on message boards, in text messages and in personal emails among friends. But if you are the type of person who gets annoyed by people who write things like "Me and my girlfriend went shopping" or "I talked with some boy's at school" or "I saw a dog, it was brown," then you should do quite well here.
Section 3: Biographical information
This part of the test is the most opaque. Unlike the other two sections that you can actually study for, this section is tricky simply because you don't know what DOS is looking for in a prospective FSO. This section of the test will ask you various personality-and behavior-related questions, such as how often or how likely you are to do certain things. Sometimes the test will ask you to provide names of people or examples of situations that address how you responded to the actual question. There is no point in trying to game the system here because only DOS knows if it is good that you are "unlikely" to do X or "very likely" to do Y.
Section 4: Written essay
The final section of the FSOT is the written essay. I personally found this to be the most nerve-wracking part of the test, and I consider myself a talented writer. You will have 30 minutes to write about an assigned topic. The examiners don’t care what your opinion is on the assigned topic; they just want to assess how well you write under deadline pressure. I recommend a standard four- or (ideally) five-paragraph essay complete with a topic sentence or thesis in the first paragraph, a restatement of the thesis in the final paragraph, and two or (ideally) three supporting paragraphs in the middle.
When writing this essay, it is important not to waste any time making outlines or extra notes. Thirty minutes is not a lot of time at all, especially if you are not a skilled typist. Every time I took this test, I completed my essay just before time expired. In fact, on my most recent attempt, the computer locked me out about two seconds after I typed the final period in my final sentence. Needless to say, if you have to "hunt and peck" when you type, you will bomb this section.
At the end of the test, you will answer a few survey questions about the proctoring, the test site and whether the time allowed for each test section was sufficient. Once these questions have been answered, you are free to leave the test site.
Congratulations! You survived the FSOT!
About three weeks after taking the FSOT, you will be notified of your test results via email. You will have to log into the test administrator's site (currently Pearson VUE) and download your FSOT results letter. You cannot call for your results or have them sent to you via postal mail.
A passing score is 154 points for the first three sections of the FSOT. If you scored at least 154 points, you then needed to score at least a 6 on the written essay in order to advance to the next round. Essays are not scored for candidates who scored below 154. Scores provided are t-scores, which mean the numbers listed show what percentage of candidates scored below you in a given section. So if you answered 49 out of 50 questions correct within a section, but most of the other test takers answered 50 out of 50 correct, your score will be lower than you may have expected.
If your composite score was below 154 or if your essay score was below 6, unfortunately your FSOT candidacy ends here. You cannot take the FSOT again for another 11 months. (You can pay to have your test and/or essay rescored by calling 866-389-8339. A successful rescore will allow your candidacy to continue, but at the time of a later test cohort. An unsuccessful rescore simply means you'll be out of a little bit of cash. Considering that you can't take this test so often, I think a rescore is worth it if your essay score was a 5 or if you came up just shy of 154 points on the multiple-choice section.)
If your score exceeded the 154/6 minimums, then you are eligible to participate in the next round of the Foreign Service gauntlet: the Personal Narratives (PNs) and Qualifications Evaluation Panel (QEP). This stage will be discussed in my next post.
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