Registration Overview
From The State Department's FSO Registration Guide
"Applicants register online by completing a registration package consisting of an Application Form and six Personal Narrative questions about their qualifications and experiences. Registrants must submit the registration package before they can reserve a test date at a test center." Note, however, that practice has now changed and the Personal Narrative questions are only posed to persons who have passed the online test.
Remember that the latest Foreign Service Officer Test information is available exclusively on the State Department's website: http://careers.state.gov/officer/register.html
When to Register
You can now register on-line at anytime. As soon as you're sure you'll be applying, it's time to head over to http://www.act.org/fsot.
The Foreign Service Officer Test is offered several times a year. Assuming you've completed your on line application, you'll be invited to scheduled a test during the next opening.
What You'll Need
- You'll need to choose a Career Track
- You'll need a copy of your resume to complete the work history
- You'll need contact information for references for your work history and for your essays
Where To Go
Head to http://act.org/fsot/. From here until you're at the Oral Assessment, your dealing with the State Department will be through ACT, a contracted testing company who manages the process.
Personal Narrative Essays
These questions are critical. If you meet a minimum cut-off score in your FSOT, these questions combined with the work and education history are used by the Qualifications Evaluation Panel to determine whether you are a suitable candidate to move on to the Oral Assessment. This information along with your work and education history is used by the State Department during your oral assessment.
You are advised to spend plenty of time writing and rewriting them off-line and then copying and pasting them into the application.
These questions are directly related to the [[Thirteen Dimensions]] measured during the Oral Assessment process. You need to show that you are a compelling candidate through quality writing of quality experiences.
Because these are behavior, you are advised to follow the SARI format:
- Situation: Describe the situation you were in.
- Action: Describe the actions you took.
- Results: Describe the results of your actions.
- Interesting Information: Provide any interesting or memorable information relating to the experience
It's critical that you answer these questions as specifically as possible and remember that these need not come from your professional life.
A Note On References
You are not required to give references for your employers but you are required to provide references for the Personal Narrative Essays. During the last several rounds of testing, these references have been contacted for every successful candidate. It's critical that you choose the correct references and notify them ahead of time. These references do not need to be superiors but they must be people familiar enough with your work to verify your stories.
