The examiners will also continue to challenge the candidate with follow up questions that may complicate the issue or take the candidate in a different direction. The questions are designed to assess a range of dimensions determined through a documented job analysis to be key to successful performance as a Foreign Service Officer. The ability to write concise, correct, effective and persuasive English is of paramount importance in the written exercise. This exercise primarily tests written communication skills, but it is also indicative of the candidate's ability to integrate and analyze information. The written examination question will be related to the individual project presentations from the group exercise.
Candidates have one hour to write a report on their project.
Writing will be done via computer word processing. Candidates will have the option to hand-write their reports. After all of the exercises have been completed, the four assessors meet as a group for the first time that day to integrate their scores. The Group and the Writing Exercises together and the Individual Exercise have equal weight in determining the overall score. Scoring is on a scale from 1 to 7, with 1 representing a very poor performance and 7 representing an outstanding performance.