The Oral Assessment (OA) takes place about six to nine months after the FSOT. According to DOS, "in recent years, more than 20,000 candidates have taken the Foreign Service Officer Test annually. A much smaller number advance to the QEP review, and then only a few hundred are invited to the Oral Assessment," which means that fewer than 10% of FSOT candidacies advance this far. So if you've made it this far, you are in elite company.
According to the official DOS study guide, only about 30-40% of OA participants pass. Sometimes, everybody in an OA group passes. Other times, nobody in the OA group passes. There is no set quota for how many passers are needed on any given day. It's just you, the assessors, and the 13 dimensions on which you will be evaluated. You've got three tasks to complete: the Group Exercise (GE), the Structured Interview (SI), and the Case Management written exercise (CM).
Your assessment day is approaching. Here's what to expect.
The OA begins at 7:00. Do not be late. I recommend arriving in Washington one day before so you can figure out how to reach the assessment center. DOS is pretty strict about this and warn you to take into consideration the possibility of flights being delayed, taxi drivers getting lost, subways and trains breaking down, and baggage getting lost. The assessment center is located across the street from a Department of Education building and next to a Federal Emergency Management Agency building. A CVS, McDonald's and Quizno's are also nearby. The closest hotel is a Holiday Inn.
When you enter the assessment center (hopefully around 6:30 or 6:45), you will present photo identification to the security guards in the lobby. After walking through a metal detector and having your bags screened, you will wait in the lobby with other anxious candidates. You will be impressed by their backgrounds. Some will have made international flights to get here. Some speak three languages. Some are straight out of college; others are combat veterans. But do not be intimidated by these stories because you made it this far too. And that means DOS believes you have something to offer.
I strongly recommend remaining professional, courteous and discreet at all times. You never know what is being monitored. And you never know if the person you think is a fellow OA candidate is actually an FSO who is one of the assessors.
At 7:00, a program assistant will come out of the elevators and welcome you to the assessment center. You will all then follow her into an elevator and go upstairs to a waiting room. This waiting room will be where you spend most of your time between OA components. There are reasonably comfortable chairs and a few diplomatic magazines to read. You will be asked to turn off all cell phones and electronic devices and leave your bags and coats in a separate room. You will also be briefed on the ground rules of the day, including how to get kicked out of the assessment center by doing something stupid.
Next you will receive paperwork to sign, including a non-disclosure agreement that forbids you from discussing the content of the OA with anyone, including with other candidates. You will also sign paperwork stating that you accept the three conditions of employment (flexibility in assignments, worldwide availability and publicly supporting American policy). You will also receive a sheet detailing the 13 dimensions on which you will be evaluated and a document detailing the three components of the Oral Assessment (that also has information on what NOT to do).
Each OA candidate will be given a nametag that has a number and letter, such as 1A, 2B, or 4C. You need to remember your letter and number because these will be used to divide you into groups for the GE. The schedule you receive will also use your letter and number. Note that not everyone's schedule is the same. While the GE is always first, half of the candidates will do the SI while the other half does the CM. Lunch will be after the second exercise, leaving the final exercise for the afternoon.
One of the assessors will then come into the waiting room and greet everyone. The assessor will congratulate you on making it this far and will try to put your mind at ease while they make their final preparations before the first component of the OA begins. Now is the time to steady your nerves and hope for the best. It's showtime.
The Group Exercise (GE)
When all preparations have been completed, the assessors will come out and divide the candidates into two or three groups based on their candidate letter or number. Each group will head to a different section of the assessment center.
Your group will be led to a small room with a large round table with assigned seating. Each seat at the table will have a notepad, some pens, and a binder. A pitcher of water and some cups are also provided for you to consume at will. And finally, there will be four more chairs positioned in the corners of the room. The assessors will sit here, but you will not know which assessors are monitoring which candidates.
One assessor will then give your group the instructions and rules for the exercise. And then you're on your own. The best advice I can give you is to follow the instructions you are given. The BEX explicitly states which behaviors to avoid if you wish to pass this exercise. Remember that the GE is not a competition. And there are specific times during the GE when it is okay or not okay to advocate for the project you are assigned to review. Also make sure that you take good notes, actively contribute to the discussion, watch the clock, and try to draw out the more silent members of the group.
After the main part of the GE is finished, the assessors will summon you one by one to participate in the final part of the GE, the debriefing. The debriefing is a new component to the OA that was added in March 2014. My theory on why this was added is that the BEX wanted to discourage candidates from slacking off during the GE by going with the flow and not paying attention to the discussions. The debriefing forces candidates to be accountable for their group's negotiations. If you were zoning out or simply not properly focused during the group discussions, you will likely be rated poorly.
In the debriefing, a mock ambassador will ask you about the results of your group's deliberations in the previous part of the GE. This is why it is important to take good notes and understand the rationale behind the decisions your group made. Make sure you are respectful not just of the ambassador's title, but also the ambassador's time, which is limited.
Once this exercise is completed, you will be escorted back to the main waiting area. All OA candidates complete the GE first. Whether you will be assigned the SI or CM next is totally random. Your lunch break will take place after your second exercise. Remember not to talk about the GE you just completed while you are in the waiting area! The program assistants may be monitoring your conversations and you could be removed from the assessment center for violating the rules!
The Structured Interview (SI)
The SI is probably the easiest of the three components of the OA. You will be interviewed by two assessors who are trained not to give you any feedback (verbal or nonverbal). The best way to prepare for this is to look at the six Personal Narratives you submitted shortly after passing the FSOT. Without violating the nondisclosure agreement, I can tell you that you should be prepared to field standard interview questions as well as questions about why you chose your particular career track. Make sure your answers are concise and make sure your answers address what was asked. Do not try to shoehorn canned responses about a tangential or unrelated topic in your answers.
In the second part of the SI, you will be given a sheet that has five of the 13 dimensions. Each of the five dimensions listed will have two questions. You will have to choose one question from each of these five dimensions. After about 5 minutes, you will have to discuss your responses to these questions at length. The assessors may ask for elaboration or clarification, but you should not interpret this positively or negatively. A well prepared candidate will have identified one or two examples from his or her past that addresses each of the 13 dimensions before the OA.
Finally, you will have to field questions about hypothetical situations you may encounter as a Foreign Service Officer. Without being too specific because of the nondisclosure agreement, I can say that diplomats have to deal with a wide variety of unexpected situations, such as military offensives, ethical dilemmas. personnel problems, natural disaster responses and more. You are not required to know how am embassy works or what the proper protocol is when participating in this exercise. You are, however, expected to have common sense and to exercise reasonable judgment.
After this exercise, you will be escorted back to the waiting area. You may notice that many of your fellow candidates are not there. Some of them may have already left for lunch. Others are writing their CMs. The program assistant will tell you what you need to do or take with you before you leave the building.
Lunch (even though you are likely too anxious to keep anything down)
While you are not required to leave the assessment center, State strongly encourages it. I remember a McDonald's and Quizno's less than a block away from the assessment center. I don't recommend eating anywhere that is not within walking distance. The last thing you want is to be late getting back to your OA. Also, even though you are most likely a bundle of nerves, I recommend at least trying to eat something. One of the reasons why the OA is so stressful is that you have NO CLUE how you are doing during the day. You don't know if you passed the GE or if you bombed the SI. You don't know if you are currently above the 5.25 cutoff or if you have your work cut out for you. You only have one OA component left, so whatever your unknown score is, you only have one chance to improve it.
The Case Management Exercise (CM)
The final component of the OA, which some candidates may have completed before lunch, is the CM. In this exercise, you will be escorted to a computer room and given a binder full of documents. The first page of the binder will give you instructions on how to address a particular problem. The rest of the pages in the binder are the evidence on which you will base your conclusions. You only have 90 minutes to complete this exercise, which is not a lot of time. The official study guide recommends that you spend 30 minutes reviewing the documents, 45 minutes typing the memo, and 15 minutes editing the memo. Because the volume of information in this CM is greater than the volume of information in the practice exercises available online, I recommend getting in the habit of writing your practice CMs in 60 minutes, rather than 90 minutes. Also consider the fact that there is no official timer or timekeeper in the computer room. Nobody will warn you when you have 10 or 15 minutes left. Therefore, you need to watch the clock on your own.
In the CM, be on the lookout for information that is not relevant to the task you are assigned. You need to be able to filter out this information and stay focused on more relevant information in the binder. Also consider the possibility that the best solution may involve adopting several or none of the options available. Remember that the CM is the only component of the OA that measures your mathematical reasoning ability, so if you can include some statistics or numerical data in your memo, that's great (as long as this information is relevant!). Remember, if you find yourself overwhelmed during this exercise, try to calm down, take a few breaths and continue writing.
After 90 minutes, the program assistant will come into the lab and tell you to print out your memos. You will also be instructed to delete any copies of your memos from the computers. Finally, you will return to the waiting area.
The Hour of Judgment
When you return to the waiting area, you may find other candidates there who had taken their SIs in the afternoon. Remember that you cannot discuss any of the exercises while you wait even though you may be tempted to talk about them! The program assistants and/or assessors may still be observing you, so even though you may have finished all three exercises, your assessment might not yet be complete!
The assessors will need about an hour to 90 minutes to read the CMs, analyze the SIs, and calculate the candidates' average scores. The wait is excruciating. During this time, you can gather your bags and coats, but you still cannot use your phones. At about 3:45 or 4:00, one of the assessors will come to the waiting area and thank everyone for participating in the OA. One of the program assistants will then bring all the candidates to the computer room where you wrote your CMs. Then the assessors will summon the candidates one by one to deliver the news.
Anecdotally, there appears to be no rhyme or reason behind your score and when you are summoned. Regarding the OA components themselves, the consensus among FSOs and OA candidates is that the CM is the most difficult of the three components, the SI is the easiest component, and the GE is typically the swing component that decides whether you exceed the 5.25 cutoff or not. Some candidates pass the OA even though they only passed one component. Some candidates fail the OA even though they passed two components.
Unsuccessful candidates are finished at about 4:30. There is no more paperwork for them to fill out. They are escorted from the assessment center and their candidacies are finished.
If you are one of the candidates who had to endure the walk of shame, I extend my condolences to you. Most candidates do not pass the OA, at least not on their first attempt. Some repeat candidates don't even pass. If you did not make it this time around, pay attention to your results letter and work on the components you failed. And for the parts you passed, find ways to make your performance there even better. Remember that you can register for the FSOT again if 11 months have passed since the last time you took it.
Successful candidates may finish at 6:00 or even later. They will meet representatives from Diplomatic Security and be given information about the next steps in the hiring process, including medical exams, foreign language tests, and background checks. They will also receive conditional offers of employment (!) and get to ask questions about Foreign Service life. Because of the briefings they receive and the paperwork they must complete, successful candidates will leave the assessment center significantly later that evening.
Congratulations! Remember that even if you passed the OA, you can always take the FSOT again to try and get a higher score. But maybe your score is so high that your chances of receiving a formal job offer are good. In any case, whether you got a 5.3 or a 6.0, congratulations again! Security clearances, medical checks, and Final Review Panel, here we come!
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