The Qualifying Exam

Truth be told, the Qualifying Exam was the part of the Foreign Service Officers Exam that I feared the most.  I have no real explanation for this except that apart from heights and spiders, my greatest fear seems to be that of taking standardized exams.

The Qualifying Exam (QE) is the first part of the FSOE and apparently, it has the greatest mortality rate among all of the stages.  Out of 800 examinees, for example, only 300 usually make it.  Sometimes, the number is lesser.  But then again, it all boils down to preparation and practice.

The QE is reminiscent to the Professional Civil Service Exam--only a little bit harder.  The type of test is entirely multiple choice which means that the answers will be staring straight at you.  The bad news is that sometimes, you just don't know which among a, b, c, d, or e is the correct one.

You need to deal with four subjects for the QE: Verbal Ability, Analytic Ability, Numerical Ability, Managerial Ability.

Verbal Ability
This is more of a return to English grammar, vocabulary, and sentence construction.  Do not be fooled by how simple this exam sounds like.  The exam also includes a comprehension type of exam so it's best to review this kind of test as well.  Drill yourself with vocabulary words that are being covered in GMAT and GRE exams because I'm telling you, they will rear their ugly heads in particular items of the exam.

Check Out: English Grammar for Dummies

Analytic Ability
This is a logical reasoning test.  You've probably taken this kind of test before so this should not be new to you.  Here, you are asked to spot out which word goes with the group, what kind of pattern is present in a particular situation--well, you get the drift.  The way to ace this subject is to practice, practice, practice until your brain gets used to it.  This is a test on both verbal and visual logical reasoning.

Numerical Ability
You will regret it big time if you did not pay attention to your college algebra and statistics class because this is one of those instances where you will need those lessons.  Focus on word problems like age problems and the like.  As far as statistics goes, make sure you are adept at interpreting graphs, forecasting, projecting growth, basically, basic statistics if you must.  Remember, no calculators during the exam.

Managerial Ability
I thanked the high heavens I was great friends with the business management students in Silliman because of this subject.  Managerial Ability deals with leadership and organization concepts like leadership styles, communication flow, industrial psychology.  If you have business management friends, by all means, borrow their first-year text book in management and review the concepts and theories discussed in those books.  You will already have won half the battle that way.

I'll be posting the list of books I reviewed so you guys will have an idea of which books to keep and which to cull as you review for the first part of the FSOE.

On a final note, allocate 3-4 hours a day reviewing for the QE.  You need to get used to how the questions will be asked so the real exam will be a breeze.  Don't say you can't do it because I juggled this review with my full-time job and my MA.  If I was able to squeeze it into my schedule, anyone can.

Enjoy your review!