There’s no penalty for guessing, so don’t leave any question unanswered. That’s really all the help I can give you. There will be questions you don’t know. There will be sections that will startle you. When I took the test, I remember being shocked by a number of questions dealing with the policy process (i.e., cabinet seniority, the function of the NSC, etc.) Basically, pay attention throughout college and you’ll be fine.
So, how do you prepare? I would suggest for a year before taking the test that you start reading a lot of periodicals. The New York Times, The Washington Post, The BBC, The Economist, and Foreign Affairs are my favorite. I strongly recommend you read The Hegemonist at least weekly (sorry, I couldn’t resist that one). Look for other views too; The Daily Yomiuri, Xinhua, and Granma all have interesting things to say. State maintains a reading list as well as a list of suggested courses if you’re still in college. In the end, you’re going to need to read voraciously, get a good education, and probably have a little luck in order to pass this section.
This post is part of my unofficial Guide to the Foreign Service Exam.
{ 1 trackback }
{ 55 comments… read them below or add one }
This was very useful. I’m a very good test taker, and a good writer, but I was unsure of what the test content was.
Since I’m somewhat considering applying in a couple years (depending on a number of factors), I will make sure to pay a little more attention to policy, et al in the meantime. I tend to know more about politics and govt. than most of my friends, but sadly, that’s not saying much.
What kind of score or percentage is considered good for the FSOT?
I bought the FSO study guide and just took the job knowledge section (50 questions). I’d be interested in knowing what a good percentage is.
I’m not sure that I can study much for this test since the source for questions is so large. Anything I study is likely not to be on the exam.
Some things I’m just not going to know, such as which musician helped develop the bebop style of jazz (example question in the study guide). I think luck is the biggest factor.
I like to know if is going to be the same question are in the book?
I just took the test and boy were these questions random! I felt prepared walking in but did a fair amount of guessing. Didn’t ask on certain areas I was sure they would and for which I was prepared. I agree that the only way to prepare is read a lot. I studied math and econ a fair amount but there were few asked in these areas. Quite a few obscure ones that even with lots of studying I would wonder how anyone would know! I really could go either way on this part. It was harder than expected. Thanks H, for the encouragement to answer every question. I felt rushed, but did get them all done.
How long does it usually take to get the results from this section? I passed my FSOT in June and just submitted my PN questions. Just curious.
I am taking the test in October and have been studying for about 2 months now. I have a bunch of review books on US history and bought a $100 dollar set of flashcards that cover economics, world history, government, etc. One book in particular that I bought is by NLC (National Learning Corp) and is called “Foreign Service Officer Test Preparation Guide.” There are such ridiculous questions in this book and I can’t possibly believe that this information is expected of us.
Here are some examples:
1. Approximately how many tons of the nerve agent VX remained unaccounted for in Iraq by 2002. a) 500pounds, b) 900 pounds, c) 1.5 tons, d) 14 tons
2. In the summer of 2002, longtime Palestinian terrorist Abu Nidal, whose grouped was blamed for attacks in more than 20 countries was found dead in the city of a) Gaza, b) Mecca, c) Baghdad, d) Ramallah
3. The terror group in the Phillipines with ties to al-Qaeda is a) Jemaah Islamiyah, b) ELA , c) Tamil Eelam , d) Abu Sayyaf
If you guys know the answers to these, than respect.
For those of you who have taken the test, can I expect questions like that to be on the exam??
I just wanted to follow up on Me’s posting regarding percentage/score that is considered passing on the Knowledge section. I’ve done a few practice exams and consistently miss one out of four questions. Is that sufficient to pass or should I really ratchet up my studying and start worrying? Also, is it a cumulative score taking the essay, knowledge and English sections together, i.e., if I score really well on the English section but mediocre on the knowledge section, is that sufficient?
Thanks!
scott- try some practice exams from the foreign study guide by NLC. i guarantee you wont be getting such good scores on those practice questions.
What are we supposed to bring to the test, besides an ID and registration ticket? I saw a list of stuff on the website to NOT bring, but no guidance at all as to whether to bring something like a pen, pencil, et cetera. I’m guessing a few no. 2 pencils and maybe a black ink pen???
I registered for this exam a while back and I’m taking it tomorrow. I did zero preparation (I’m banking on a diverse background of education/experience and I generally keep up with news about the topics that are tested, simply because I have an interest in them - maybe this is wishful thinking). In the months since I registered, other opportunities have come my way and I’m actually starting to lean away from the Foreign Service. But it’s now too late to cancel without getting charged $50, so I’m taking the test! Besides, I’m curious to see how I will do.
I’ll leave some feedback here after the test, for the benefit of anyone else who stumbles upon this blog, as I did.
Just took the test - it is not hard at all so I’m guessing the only people who will get called for an interview will be the lucky few who did not make a single mistake. In my opinion, it was that easy. It would not surprise me if many, many people got a perfect score.
In regard to my earlier question about what to bring - just an ID and a copy of the confirmation email; no pen/pencil/etc. It was all done on a computer.
can u bring a calculator?
No. Just a picture ID and a printout of the confirmation email. That’s it. You won’t need a calculator anyway.
Schmedlap-
Do you remember any of the questions?
Mark,
I signed some form before taking the test. I’m pretty sure it said something to the effect of “do not tell others what the questions were” or something like that. FWIW, I posted a question on how to prepare for the test here: http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/showthread.php?t=8452
I got lots of very good responses from knowledgeable folks. After I took the test, I gave a lengthier review of my take on it (comment number 27 on the second page of that thread).
um, just read your post on that smallwars website..
you took the lsat and gmat with only 1 day of studying and was able to go to your school of choice… your a brain
u said you got 95% right on the fsot study guide.
your telling me you knew that canada imports the most u.s. merchandise out of germany, japan, and united kingdom….or that charlie parker was the famed musician who developed bebop style of jazz in the 40s.
I just took the FSOT.
Does anyone have any idea what the “Test by phone” in Arabic will consist of?
anon,
I did say my school of choice, but I didn’t say that my school of choice was highly selective :-)
Regarding whether I knew Charlie Parker developed bebop… did I mention that I got about 5% of the practice questions wrong?
Regarding the test by phone - I highly recommend asking around at the SWC thread (or starting your own). Lots of well-informed folks there.
Schmedlap,
thanks so much for answering but I have no idea what the SWC is.
I tried a Google search to no avail.
Could you point me in the right direction?
Thanks!
See here: http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/showthread.php?t=8452
Thanks Schmedlap
I registered and posted my ? under the thread that you already started about the test. If that doesn’t work I will start a new thread.
Just got back from the test. i didn’t like the knowledge section. i completed every question but felt that there were alot of questions that were ambiguous, and could have had 2 answers. The grammar section was easier than I expected which was nice.
*The review book by Cliffs Test Prep definitely helped prepare me and I recommend it.
The biographical questionairre was a freaken pain in the ass. I wasn’t able to finish every question and spent to much time trying to explain my answers.
**To those who havent take the test: make sure you breeze through that section because it is an awful lot of questions for 42 minutes or however long they give you.
-I was surprised how quick I was able to write the essay. The topic was really convenient for me since I had happened to have written a practice essay about the topic.
if anyone has any questions about the test, feel free to drop a line.
[url=http://www.krop.com/tramadol6h3f/]no prescription tramadol overnight Trimble [/url] [url=http://www.krop.com/viagra55tr/]quick delivery on cheap viagra without a prescription forgotten [/url] [url=http://www.krop.com/venoldar/]buy cheap tramadol overnight delivery hence [/url] [url=http://www.wanderlist.com/lists/lists.cgi?listid=4957]soma overnight delivery saturday steve [/url] [url=http://www.wanderlist.com/lists/lists.cgi?listid=4953]ambien overnight matured [/url] [url=http://www.wanderlist.com/lists/lists.cgi?listid=4951]buy XANAX 2MG no perscription insult [/url] [url=http://www.krop.com/soma4n6k/]soma order kolom [/url] [url=http://www.krop.com/phentermine47uh/] Nellie [/url] [url=http://www.wanderlist.com/lists/lists.cgi?listid=4956]online order ultram CensorModul [/url] [url=http://www.krop.com/ambien4g6h/]ambien order online Clinton [/url] [url=http://www.krop.com/tramadol4r5t/]buy tramadol cod accepted Webspace [/url] [url=http://www.krop.com/ambien45gv/]ambien online without prescription connected [/url] [url=http://www.krop.com/xanax34rt/]xanax without prescription or membership TikaiPasi [/url] [url=http://www.krop.com/adipex4t5f/]adipex no perscription cheap MAIDEN [/url] [url=http://www.wanderlist.com/lists/lists.cgi?listid=4954]cheap discount valium kulprobins [/url] [url=http://www.wanderlist.com/lists/lists.cgi?listid=4955]large dose tramadol experience stressed [/url]
I just took the test today, it was easy/hard. I am that confused, I don’t know what to think. The whole T thing is scaring the crap out of me as well. The Biographic material are just opinions and no right or wrong answers right? Other than that, the knowledge section was piece of cake, nothing like the practice tests.
Wahoo! I finished the exam on Friday and feels good to be done. However, I ran out of time in the bio section. I spent too much time listing multiple examples in the beginning thinking that I needed at least three to four (and since I have had a lot of work experience, it was easy to think them up). Unfortunately, I chose the “often” option a lot so I think I was asked to give more written examples.
Does anyone know how this will affect my score?
Even though I feel good about the other sections and the essay, I am not even sure how many questions I did not answer in the bio b/c my time literally expired mid click?
KC, I made the exact same mistake in the biographic section. Not sure how much of an impact it’ll have on our score, but I was sorely tempted to start saying “never” instead of “yes, many times” about halfway through!
Do you all know when we who took the October session will start getting results? Any ideas???
supposed to be 3 weeks after you took the test.
I took the test on Oct 9 and found out today, Oct 28, that I passed.
So if you haven’t heard yet, I guess it’s any day now.
This website was such a tremendous resource, although I kind of wonder if I could have just walked in and passed the test. It was a lot easier than I expected.
Good luck.
Huzzah, I passed!
Yes, the test was easier than expected, probably because I read “Eats, Shoots & Leaves” by Lynne Truss, and bought the Official study guide. By the way, I studied this material for only one weekend.
I saw a blinding light and heard the voices of singing angels when “THE it’s ” question came upon the screen…
Lynne Truss prepared me well, for, its, questions, and, all, the comma, questions.
Yes, the bio part was too long because I have tangible work experience. It seems that it did not matter that I did not finish that portion.
I passed the test, registered three days before I took the test and didn’t really study except for the practice questions the State Dept. provides via pdf. Reading this blog made me extremely scared to take the test, but in the end it was actually cake. Now I am freaking out about the PN questions, and if I get past those I will freak out about Oral examinations.
I took the test in Early October and got the congratulations email this week. I thought the job knowledge test was really easy. Which one of these countries is Venezuela? Seriously? I was memorizing the capitals of the Central Asian Republics.
I also thought that I poorly represented myself on the essay portion. I’m worried about the QEP, though. If that Chinese-speaking, graduate-degree having, embassy-working guy got rejected, then I’m in trouble.
Passed as well, received my results letter a few days ago but couldn’t do anything with it cuz work is exhausting. Will be working this weekend on fine tuning my PN answers and picking a good time to schedule the critical language testing.
i’m glad i’m not the only one who felt this blog was exaggerating the “scary’ factor of the exam. :)
……………………………….I am completely fluent in Arabic. That test was so easy! I finished all sections. My essay, I felt, was expressed well! I studied their official study guide.
I just found out last week that I failed.
I am not happy at all right now. (Hence the choppy form of self-expression.)
Robert, do you know that you just violated the NDA you signed when you took the test??! Do you seriously want to be an FSO?! If so, you are not starting out well. If you can’t even keep the test questions to yourself, there is no way you should ever be granted Top Secret clearance.
@Allison — while Robert signed an NDA.. there is a major, major difference between SCI/TS information and a silly civil service/foreign service exam. A failure to realize the difference is evidence of faulty judgement that would indicate one’s propensity to not be good in the ambiguous world of foreign service. While NDAs are legal agreements, the contents within are hardly secrets, additionally an NDA is a civil issue, not a criminal or even indicative of one’s abilities to safeguard genuinely sensitive information. It would be possible to FOIA past tests if one were so inclined. Personally, I’d rather have a foreign service consisting of people who have some ability to judge nuance as opposed to hypersensitivity on non-sensitive things. Besides, he didn’t reveal a question. I have no idea what the question was that he supposedly disclosed. Something to do with Venezuela apparently.
@B.D., Actually, you can’t FOIA past tests. You could send a request, but they would deny your request because it would give you an advantage over others. Look it up - Exemption 2. Second, whoa. You are assuming an awful lot. My issue is that the exam requires one to sign an NDA agreeing not to reveal test questions, and he did just reveal a question. If he can’t keep something as inconsequential as simple test questions to himself, I think that’s a problem. Obviously, TS material and test questions are totally different, I didn’t say they were the same thing. You don’t think that even the small stuff counts? That’s fine, but personally if I were really passionate about getting a job in the FS, I wouldn’t ignore the very first thing they asked of me.
Interestingly, for people who didn’t take that particular test, no one would recognize that as a test question. What was the question? We just know it was about Venezuela. Of course, by acknowledging that Robert revealed a test question, you’ve actually violated the NDA by confirming something that was on the test. By having said nothing about it, no one would have even been aware that a possible disclosure occurred. Confirming or denying information that someone else has disclosed (especially if classified) is a much more dangerous problem than simple disclosures. Why? Because of the signal to noise ratio. There is just so much “stuff,” especially concerning the FSWE — just reading pages like this, one isn’t going to easily be able piece together an FSWE because these places are filled with conjecture or study guide questions and the like — but when someone starts confirming something, even in an effort to condemn the release of the information — it validates it. Don’t try that with classified information or people can die and ops are blown. Some things are better left unsaid. If Robert did something wrong, DSS would be knocking on the door, but I hardly think they care about an oblique reference to a silly screening test when they actually have real issues to investigate. As far as FOIA exemption 2, the purpose of that exemption is to free an agency from an excessive administrative burden of complying with requests, not as a means to protect any specific internal information. The Courts have ruled that exemption 2 doesn’t apply when there is a “genuine and significant public interest.” (Department of the Air Force v. Rose, supra, 425 U.S. at 369.) In determining if the test is fair or accurate for the selection of foreign service officers in fulfillment of of the statutory responsibilities of DoS (and their resulting appropriations) it would be pretty easy to win an FOIA case for past tests. I’m not too concerned about it personally — it’s just academic. Besides, if someone were that ambitious to take on DoS on an FOIA case — they’d be just the kind of person you’d want working for them in the first place. I’d say good for them.
Ok, well thanks for the information, I’m glad you are so well informed. I will take that into consideration in the future. I was just reminding him not to violate the NDA, and I do think people could tell he was talking about a test question. I’m used to the Yahoo! board, and if his comment were posted there, it would have been promptly removed by the administrators. Thanks for paying attention and showing me the other side, now let’s move on!
I received a 56% on the knowledge section which was enough to bring up my English and bio sections to the required pass of 154. However, I only got a 4 of 6 on the essay so I failed.
What is the highest % possible on each of the three multiple choice section?
how do you know your %, wut is 56 points on job and 48 points on english?
Nobody knows the highest possible scores on each of the multiple choice sections. The scores are based on a t-score, so your score for each question depends on what others in the testing group scored on that question. Also, say you score 57.55 on English Expression. That doesn’t mean 57 percent, it means you received 57.55 points for the section. If you are still curious, look at the Yahoo! group, there are databases where people post their scores. You can get an idea of the highest possible scores from that.
You can find out your scores on the test by requesting them from ACT.
BD –
Agency testing materials have been determined to fit within the scope of the exception and are thus not subject to disclosure. Patton v. FBI, 626 F. Supp. 445, 447 (M.D. Pa. 1985) (testing materials withheld when release would give future applicants unfair advantage). But don’t take my word — file a FOIA request, run it up the flag pole, and create some new law. You’ll lose, but it’d be fun trying.
Also, the earlier comment was an NDA violation, as innocuous as it may seem. Probably won’t get caught. But future readers of this board should be warned that DoS takes the NDA quite seriously and candidacies have been terminated for violations.
Greetings All,
Such interesting discussion on here. My question to whomever it may concern; how many non-college graduates have had success becoming an FSO? There is much to be said about real world experience and international exposure. Thank you for your time.
CPE
I’ve just been looking at the FSOT practice test on the website — what are considered to be adequate scores on the job knowledge / english expressions portions? (how many out of 50)
Thanks –
I have two questions….
1) I know you are graded against others when you take the test, but does anyone know, on average, how many questions out of the total for the job knowledge section do you need to get right to have a good chance of passing the exam?
2) How long was your (anybody’s) essay? 30 minutes doesn’t seem to be enough time to make a cohesive, 3-point essay…
1) http://fsotstudyguide.com/fsot/t-scores-explained/
I found this blog post and it seems to explain how they score the test.
2) I took the test on Monday. 30 minutes was tough, I spent around 8 minutes outlining and the rest typing like a mad man. Just make sure you don’t spend too much time thinking about it. It’s better to type it all out and then use the time to fix it up. This is my 2nd time around, passed last time and got a 6. I never finished the essay. This time around, I made sure I got it all out in a structured 5 paragraph format. We’ll see what happens.
I’m taking the test today for the second time. I took it first as an intern for the State Department in 2008. I did well on the job knowledge but failed miserably on the rest of the exam. This time around I bought the official study guide and the CliffsTestPrep FSOT study guide. I read The Economist weekly and selective articles from the Financial Times, Wall Street Journal and the BBC. I’m in my senior year of college and majoring in International Business and Economics. One thing I am having trouble figuring out is what is actually a passing score? Can anyone help me out with this one?
Hey Kyle,
This should give you a handle on the scoring system for the test. There is no set-in-stone “passing” score.
http://eaubergine.com/blog/?p=7