Oral Exam

If you loved the flow of the Preliminary Interview, the Oral Exams will be a tad different.  The Oral Exams is a more challenging version of the Preliminary Interview because it won't only test how much you know, it'll test how fast you can think and how well you can say it.

The Orals is divided into three parts spread out across three days.

The first part is the panel interview where you will be grilled by career diplomats, ambassadors, heads of departments, experts, professors, academics, and even artists.  You will not only be asked about the things you wrote in the CV you were asked to submit (this is a different CV from the one you were asked to submit during the PI).  You will be asked about anything and everything your panelists can and will think of.  This could range from explaining your take on what the Philippines is doing about China to how you can make tangible improvements in say, Tourism.

Once you enter the room, greet your panelists and shake their hands.  Sit down only when you are asked to.  Answer all their questions in English.  Do not stutter.

The second part of the exam is the debate.  The format is reminiscent of the British Parliamentary format but it could also pass for an All Asians format.  Your panelists are your adjudicators.  They will choose your side and your topic.  If in the morning you were given the Government side, you take the Opposition side in the afternoon.  Whatever you do, do not speak for less than a minute.  Develop your arguments well.  It's best to explain at most two arguments so that you will be able to talk about them at length.

If you do not have any debating background, contact your school's debate society and take your chances on a crash course.  You might also want to check out videos of debating championships in Youtube to get the feel of what a debate is really like.

The last and final round if the Pubic Speaking round which also doubles as the social graces exam.  Brush up on your fine dining etiquette and dine with utmost class.  You will be judged by how well you know your social graces and how natural it will seem to you.  You will be judged by your choice of clothes and how you are able to easily chat up the persons right next to you.  This will require a lot of practice so get some while there is time.

The Public Speaking round is a bit more challenging.  You will be asked to pick a roll of paper from a fish bowl which will contain the question or situation you need to answer.  You will be given a minute to prepare and three minutes to speak in front of everyone.  The catch here is that you won't exactly know when it's your turn to speak until the time someone taps your shoulder and tells you that you are up next.

Questions will mostly revolve around Philippine Foreign Policy and current events.  The trick here really is to sound confident without being too overbearing.  Personally, the first time I read my question, my mind just went blank.  Figure out a work around if you get a bad case of stage fright.  Otherwise, just think that there is no wrong or right answer.  You just need to talk with a lot of sense.

It'll take quite a while before the results of the orals will come out.  Until then, take a break or a nice vacation because after you've gone through the last part of the test, you just really have to clink champagne flutes with some pals simply at the thought that you survived one of the most challenging tests there is.