BALS degree Foreign Service Officer Test

[vetvso]

I took and passed the exam many years ago. I wouldn't say that it is broadly social science-based. It's political science-based mixed with some humanities. More specifically, it covers international relations, which is a sub-field of political science. Someone with a background in political science (internationally-focused), international relations, world history, world geography, cultural anthropology, journalism, or security studies should do well on it. Also, anyone who pays attention to current events should do well. The rest is mostly common knowledge from high school. I don't think the behavioral sciences are as helpful for this test.

To me, the personal narrative is the most difficult part to pass if you don't come from a white collar background. At that time, I was in my mid-20s and not a white collar worker, and the questions about work and volunteer experiences did not align with the work I had done.

Note: The test could have been refreshed since I've taken it.

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I took this test while waiting for the conferral of my BA in Social Science, so I took the exam before starting on my BSBA in CIS and my master's in security studies. I mostly relied upon my knowledge from daily viewing of cable news and reading the newspaper.

This is great feedback, and helpful to people considering the field of work.