The FP Quiz: Take the Foreign Service Challenge

Do you have what it takes to be a U.S. Foreign Service officer?

The Foreign Service Officer Test was once a proving ground for a privileged fewthe often Ivy League-educated, striped-pants diplomats who populated Foggy Bottom and U.S. embassies around the world. As Andrew Curry writes in The Diplomatic Surge, this 72-year-old test and the State Department staff it cultivates have certainly evolved over the past 30 years. But the tests latest and most extreme transformationthe McKinsey makeover of 2007may alter the world of Foreign Service officers beyond recognition. Nowadays, even if you arent descended from diplomatic royalty or werent groomed to hold court with multilingual attachs, you might be better prepared than you imagine.

The Foreign Service Officer Test was once a proving ground for a privileged fewthe often Ivy League-educated, striped-pants diplomats who populated Foggy Bottom and U.S. embassies around the world. As Andrew Curry writes in The Diplomatic Surge, this 72-year-old test and the State Department staff it cultivates have certainly evolved over the past 30 years. But the tests latest and most extreme transformationthe McKinsey makeover of 2007may alter the world of Foreign Service officers beyond recognition. Nowadays, even if you arent descended from diplomatic royalty or werent groomed to hold court with multilingual attachs, you might be better prepared than you imagine.

So, do you think you have what it takes to be a diplomat? Have a go at these official sample test questions from six key knowledge areas: U.S. society and culture, management, communication, computers, administrative methods and procedures, and mathematics and statistics.

If you cannot see the quiz please make sure you have the latest version of Adobe Flash Player installed to your browser. var so = new SWFObject(“https://foreignpolicy.com/flash/statequiz.swf”, “fp_state_quiz”, “700”, “450”, “8”, “#FFFFFF”); so.write(“state_quiz”);

To learn more about what it takes to be a Foreign Service officer, visit the U.S. State Departments career page or download the complete sample test.

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