Foreign Service Exam
Those who want to serve as Foreign Service Officers have to pass both the written and oral examinations. These officers will be serving in various countries throughout the world to assist in improving and maintaining diplomatic relations. Their job involves consular services, administrative management, public diplomacy, and economic and political reporting and analysis.
Written Test
The first step to take is the Foreign Service Written Exam that will assess the candidate's knowledge and understanding of various subjects that have been specified by a job analysis to be essential for the tasks that a Foreign Service Officer will perform.
There are no specific requirements for educational background but most candidates are those who have taken some college courses and those who are widely read. The US Department of State has a Study Guide for those who want to take the exam. US citizens who are 20 to 59 years old are eligible to take the Foreign Service Written Exam.
The written exam has three multiple-choice segments that focus on English expression and usage, job-related knowledge, and a non-cognitive component. Candidates will also need to write some essays but only those who are able to pass the multiple-choice sections will have their essays graded.
The essay section is actually the first part of the written exam. The candidate will be asked to take a certain position regarding certain issues and effectively support this with arguments. The position taken does not really matter as long as it is not considered to be generally offensive.
The job-related knowledge multiple-choice section tests the candidate's knowledge on a wide range of subjects. These include the:
- History of international affairs
- World geography
- Major institutions, movements and events in US history
- US political process and its relation to policy
- History of US cultural, artistic and intellectual life
- US economic systems and their philosophical foundations and institutions
- Structure of the US Government and the Constitution
- US educational system
- Basic principles of economics
- Foreign political systems
- Major contemporary commercial and economic issues in the international scene
The English expression usage section of the written exam ensures that the Foreign Service Officer will be able to write reports correctly. This segment tests the knowledge of the candidate in correct grammar, spelling, organization and punctuation. This part of the test will also evaluate the capacity of the candidate to express his or her ideas precisely and clearly, to read with comprehension, and to correct sentences.
- The writing exercises will focus on the:
- Application of complete sentences
- Agreement between the parts of a sentence
- Sentence joining
- Noun-verb, noun-pronoun
- Proper tense
- Idiomatic Usage of language
- Economy and clarity of expression
- Parallel structures and expressions
- Shift in focus within sentence structure
- Recognition of properly written sentences
- Conventions of usage
The non-cognitive component of the written test is designed to assess the candidate's skills and past experience and accomplishments in school, his or her job, and other activities.
The Qualifications Evaluation Panel (QEP)
A candidate who passes the written exam will need to undergo two more steps before he will be given the chance to undertake the oral exam. The first step is for candidates who are capable of speaking one of the Super Critical Needs Languages, which are Mandarin, Arabic, Farsi, Dari, Urdu and Hindi. They can undergo a telephone test four to five weeks after the written exam and they will be given bonus points if they pass this test.
Candidates who pass the written exam will be required to write a number of personal narratives regarding their experiences that show how the knowledge, talents and expertise can be applied to the job of a Foreign Service Officer. The candidates are usually given three weeks to complete these narratives.
The results are given to the three members of the QEP who will evaluate all information to determine if a person will be invited to undertake the oral exam. Each candidate is given an overall score based on his or her experiences as indicated in the resume and the test results. This will allow the QEP to create a list that ranks all of the candidates. The invitation for the oral exam is then extended starting from the top down to a certain number.
Oral Examination
The oral exam is composed of three parts: the group exercise, case management exercise, and structured interview. For the first part, the candidates are grouped into three to six people. This is supposed to test their ability to make certain proposals for a certain fictional country and defend them to get some funding for them. In the second part, the candidates are asked to read several documents and then write a memo to resolve the problem. The last part is made up of the experience and motivation interview, hypothetical scenarios interview, and the past behavior interview.
Additional Resources
- State.gov
- Others
Report broken link
