Posts Tagged ‘ Foreign Service Exam ’

All Foreign Service Candidates bring a Statement of Interest (SOI) to the Foreign Service Oral Assessment, and it’s read by the examiners who asses the Structured Interview (at the very least – I don’t know who else reads it). No one knows for sure the guidelines for the SOI other than “Please us the...
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In the first half of this loooooong tutorial-like string of advice, I wrote about studying as a group. The value of practicing with your group is priceless, so please make sure you do it. However, there’s plenty of preparation you can do as an individual. This post is going to focus on the Case...
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Part II will be primarily about how I prepared on my own, but this post is devoted to how my group studied and, most importantly, practiced together. A little over a year ago, I started regularly meeting in the MLK Library with my FSOA study group. An alternate title for this post would be...
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My friend and former room mate Joel introduced me over email to a friend of his who had passed the written portion of the Foreign Service Officer Test (FSOT), and was finalizing her Personal Narrative to send to the Qualifications Evaluation Panel (QEP). She wanted any advice I could give her on clearing this...
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When I first heard about the Foreign Service, I thought: “Wow! I can get paid in dollars to live abroad and have an adventure!” Yes, yes, service to country, helping people, etc, that’s all important too (and one of these day’s I’ll post my “Statement of Interest,” but if I’m honest with myself (you...
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I recently convinced a friend to take the Foreign Service Exam – she registered for the last day of the October round.  I really hope she makes it – she’d be an excellent FSO (good luck Carmel!).   As we were talking about the examination process, I realized that I’ve never written about how I...
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This post is going to be long, but the day was pretty long too. When I went to bed on Sunday night it was snowing lightly and I was worried that the government might close and I would have to reschedule for a much later date. At about 3am, someone started snow blowing the...
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I met with my FSOA study group last night – seems like a good group. We’re all pretty focused and driven. I just hope I didn’t step on any toes by sometimes taking the lead in the conversation. I suppose working on the speaking and leadership skills should begin sooner rather than later. I’ll...
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me: I passed the QEP! you: the what? me: the Qualifications Examination Panel reviewed my structured resume and I passed!  I get to go to the Oral Assessment! you: what are you talking about? me: while I was eating lunch, I checked my email and saw I had an email with the subject of:...
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I got my foreign service score breakdown in the mail yesterday: Job Knowledge: 60.63 Biographic Info: 46.58 English Expression: 59.74 Total: 166.95 Essay: 8 According to the letter, I had to get at least a 154 on the multiple choice in order to have my essay graded. A passing score on the essay was...
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