Time spent studying for the 2012 Foreign Service Officer Test (Oral Assessment) (and languages for extra points)…55.5 hours

Thursday, 3/8

Group Exercise, 2 hr

• Skype study group

Wednesday, 3/07

SOI, 1 hr

• A fellow hopeful critiqued my SOI

Sunday, 3/04

CM, GE & SI, 5 hr

• UK Fast Stream In-Basket exercise
• Read: 201 Knockout Answers to Tough Interview Questions
• Read: Consensus-Oriented Decision-Making
• Read: How to Succeed at an Assessment Centre

Saturday, 3/03

CM, SI and SOI, 6 hr

• Met in-person with another FS hopeful, and we reviewed the Shangrila CM exercise (phew, that was hard!), discussed hypothetical situations and cleaned up my Statement of Interest.

Thursday, 3/01

Group Exercise, 2.5 hr

• Skype study group

Monday, 2/27

Group Exercise, 3 hr

• In-Person Group Exercise

Sunday, 2/26

Statement of Interest, 4 hr

Saturday, 2/25

Structured Interview and Case management, 7.5 hr

• In-person study group
• Read through some more files on the FSOA Yahoo group

Thursday, 2/23

Group Exercise, 2 hr

• Skype study group

Sunday, 2/18

Case Management, 2hr

• Sample CM exercise from Yahoo group

Wednesday, 2/15

Group Exercise, 2 hr

• Skype study group

Sunday, 2/12

Case Managment, 1 hr

• Border Patrol in-box prep guide (while not exactly like the CM, the instructions offer good advice and the exercise allows for practice in organizing/prioritizing information).

Saturday, 2/11

Case Management & Hypotheticals, 5 hr

• Met in-person with two other hopefuls – discussed CM strategy and talked through sample hypothetical scenarios.
• Walked through the “Slavakistan” sample CM exercise with a third hopeful.  Took our time and discussed what was important about each item, how we would summarize it and how we would approach writing the memo.  Also reviewed a sample memo that someone from the FSOA group uploaded.  While we didn’t agree with many of the points the author made, was a good foundation for us to build on.
• Downloaded the CM files from the FSOA Yahoo group.

Thurs, 2/9

Group Exercise, 2 hr

• Skype study group

Wednesday, 2/8

Group Exercise, 1 hr

• Switch by Chip and Dan Heath

Monday, 2/6

Group Exercise, 1 hr

• Study session with friend regarding general strategy

Thursday, 2/2

Group Exercise, 2 hr

• Skype study group meeting

Tuesday, 1/31

Group Exercise, 1 hr, 30 min

• Switch by Chip and Dan Heath

Monday, 1/30

Group Exercise, 1 hr, 30 min

• Switch by Chip and Dan Heath

Sunday, 1/29

Case Management, 20 min

• Started an e-tray exercise

Group Exercise, 1 hr, 40 min

• Chapters 1-3 of Switch by Chip and Dan Heath

Saturday, 1/28

Case Management, 1.5 hr

• Researched case management, in-box/in-tray and situational judgement exercises
• Pricewaterhouse Cooper Assurance Challenge
• Downloaded the official Officer Oral Assessment Guide

Persian language, 30 min

Time spent studying for the October 8, 2011 Foreign Service Officer Test (Written Exam) (and languages for extra points)…210.25 hours

Wednesday, 10/5

General Knowledge, 1.5 hr

• Cliffs Test Prep guide for FSOT: English and math sections

Tuesday, 10/4

General Knowledge, 3.5 hr

Monday, 10/3

General Knowledge, 2 hr

Sunday, 10/2

Persian language (Farsi/Tajik), 20 min

• Rosetta Stone

General Knowledge, 6.5 hr

• Khan Academy Exponent Properties Involving Quotients
• Khan Academy Lines, Line Segments, and Rays
• Khan Academy Angle Basics
• Khan Academy Complementary and Supplementary Angles
• Khan Academy Angles at the intersection of two lines
• Khan Academy Proof-Vertical Angles are Equal
• Since the FSOT is as random as Trivial Pursuit, thought I’d study some PR questions
• Khan Academy Circles: Radius, Diameter and Circumference
• Khan Academy Area of a circle
• Khan Academy The Pythagorean Theorem
• Khan Academy Simplifying Radical Expressions1 
• Khan Academy Simplifying Square Roots
• Khan Academy Solving Radical Equations 1
• Khan Academy Identifying Percent Amount and Base
• Khan Academy Solving Percent Problems 3
• Khan Academy Multiplying Decimals
• FSOT Mathematics Practice Questions
• Khan Academy Introduction to interest
• Khan Academy Interest (part 2)
• Khan Academy Converting units of length
• Khan Academy Area and Perimeter
• Khan Academy US History Overview 3
• Khan Academy Algebra II: Mean and Standard Deviation
• Khan Academy Converting Gallons to quarts pints and cups
• Geography games
• GMAT sentence correction exercises
• The Constitutional Convention in 15 Minutes
• The Articles of Confederation in 15 Minutes 
• Mankiw\’s Ten Principles of Economics
• How Supply and Demand Interact: The Slope of the Demand Curve
• An Intro to Graphing Supply and Demand 
• Consumer and Producer surplus 
• Price floors and surplus 
• Economics Price Floors and Ceilings Economics 
• Itunes U The American Revolution, #8

Saturday, 10/1

General Knowledge, 5 hrs

• FSOT Communication Practice Questions
• FSOT US Culture practice test (flashcard format)
• US Constitution review
• The ultimate US history quiz
• Itunes U The American Revolution, #7
• FSOT World History and Geography Practice Questions
• Protestant Reformation
• William of Ockham
• Occam\’s razor
• Thomas Aquinas
• Averroes
• Maimonides
• Council of Trent
• Johann Reuchlin
• Wars of the Roses
• Acts of Supremacy
• Thirty Years\’ War
• Pope Innocent X
• Counter-Reformation
• The Ninety-Five Theses
• Peace of Westphalia
• Westphalian sovereignty
• John Wycliffe
• Jan Hus
• Huldrych Zwingli
• Pope Sixtus IV
• Pope Alexander VI
• Khan Academy Percent and decimals
• Khan Academy Converting fractions to decimals
• Khan Academy Dividing decimals
• Khan Academy CAHSEE Practice: Problems 1-3
• Khan Academy US History Overview 2 – Reconstruction to the Great Depression
• Itunes U The American Revolution, #8

Friday, 9/30

General Knowledge, 2.25 hr

• Itunes U The American Revolution, #6
• UP US Government flashcards

Thursday, 9/29

General Knowledge, 2.25

• Itunes U The American Revolution, #5
• AP US History flash cards

Wednesday, 9/28

General Knowledge, 2.5

• PRI’s The World podcast – September 27, 2011
• US government flashcards

Tuesday, 9/27

General Knowledge, 1.25 hr

• PRI’s The World podcast – September 22, 2011
• Sentence correction – GMAT Verbal Review book.  Exercise questions 1-16

Monday, 9/26

General Knowledge, 1.5 hr

• PRI’s The World podcast – September 23, 2011
• The Takeaway podcast – Swiss Scientists Challenge Einstein’s Law of Relativity
• Itunes U American Presidents – Martin Van Buren

Wednesday, 9/21

General Knowledge, 3 hrs

• Itunes U The American Revolution, #2, 3, 4
• Khan Academy, SAT 1: Questions 11-12, 13-14; Probability 1-2
• Roy’s Writing Tools podcast, #43, 37, 36, 14, 18, 16
• Itunes U What Great Bosses Know, Communication Skills and Critical thinking skills

Tuesday, 9/20

General Knowledge, 40 min

• Itunes U The American Revolution, #1

Monday, 9/19

General Knowledge, 4 hours and 45 min

• Itunes U Global Geopolitics w Martin Jones, course intro and East Asia
  
• PRI’s the World in Words podcast, “Separated by a Common Language,” “In Britain, a New English” and “Punjabi Immersion”

Thursday, 9/15

General Knowledge, 1 hour

• US government flash cards
• History of Key Institutions podcast
• Credit Crunch Global Crisis podcast
• Roy’s Writing Tools podcasts, #41, 15, 3, 33

Thursday, 9/1

General Knowledge, 17 min

• Khan Academy, Economics of a Cupcake Factory
• Khan Academy, Appomattox Court House and Lincoln\’s Assassination

Persian language (Farsi/Tajik), 30 min

• Rosetta Stone Persian

Wednesday, 8/31

Persian language (Farsi/Tajik), 1 hour

• Educational Services Persian audio course
• Rosetta Stone Persian, lesson 1

General Knowledge, 3.25 hr

• Stuff You Missed in History Class podcast, The Rise and Fall of Carthage
• Stuff You Missed in History Class podcast, The Rite of Spring Riot
• Stuff You Missed in History Class podcast, How the Swing States Works
• Stuff You Missed in History Class podcast, The Trial of Leo Frank
• PRI’s The World podcast – August 29, 2011
• Khan Academy, Simple Equations
• Khan Academy, Equations 2
• Khan Academy, Equations 3
• Khan Academy, Algebra: Linear Equations 4
• Khan Academy, Banking 1

Tuesday, 8/30

Persian language (Farsi/Tajik), 30 min

• Educational Services Persian audio course

General Knowledge, 1 hr

• PRI’s The World podcast – August 26, 2011

Monday, 8/29

Persian language (Farsi/Tajik), 30 min

• Educational Services Persian audio course

Sunday, 8/28

General Knowledge, 1 hr

• The Moral Foundations of Politics (iTunes U), episode 2

Saturday, 8/27

General Knowledge, 1 hr

• Sentence Correction Introduction
• Sentence Correction
• Grammar Girl: Which Versus That
• Reading Comprehension
• Grammar Girl: A versus An
• Grammar Girl: \”A Hold\” or \”Ahold\”?
• Sentence Correction: The Subjunctive revisited by Master GMAT
• Sentence Correction: Parallelism
• Sentence Correction: Tackling Conditionals
• Sentence Correction: Practice Makes Perfect
• Grammar Girl: Formatting Vertical Lists
• Grammar Girl: The The — The Double The
• Grammar Girl: Dashes, Parentheses, and Commas
• Grammar Girl: On Accident Versus by Accident

Friday, 8/26

Persian language (Farsi/Tajik), 30 min

• Educational Services Persian audio course

Sunday, 8/14

General Knowledge, 3.5 hr

• Lincoln the Politician podcast – the Huntington
• Introduction – The American Revolution, Yale University
• Episode 2 – Game Theory podcast
• Currency Exchange, Introduction – Khan Academy
• Currency Effect on Trade – Khan Academy
• Pegging the Yuan – Khan Academy
• US History Overview 1: Jamestown to the Civil War – Khan Academy
• Order of Operations – Khan Academy
• Distributive property – Khan Academy
• Multiplying Mixed Numbers – Khan Academy
• Multiplying Fractions and Mixed Numbers – Khan Academy
• Economics of a Cupcake Factory – Khan Academy

Sunday, 8/7

Persian language (Farsi/Tajik), 30 min

• Pimsleur Farsi, lesson 9

General Knowledge, 1 hr

• Economics on the United States History Test in Ten Minutes
• Sectionalism in Ten Minutes
• The Vietnam \”War\” in Ten Minutes
• Adding and subtracting fractions
• Multiplying fractions
• Dividing fractions

Saturday, 7/16

General Knowledge, 1.5 hr

• FP magazine, June/July issue

Thursday, 7/14

Persian language (Farsi/Tajik), 4 hr

• Critical Language Institute

Wednesday, 7/13

Persian language (Farsi/Tajik), 4 hr

• Critical Language Institute

Tuesday, 7/12

Persian language (Farsi/Tajik), 4 hr

• Critical Language Institute (we practiced geography today, so double credit counting towards general knowledge!)

Monday, 7/11

Persian language (Farsi/Tajik), 4 hr

• Critical Language Institute

General Knowledge, 23 min

• The French Revolution in 23 Minutes

Saturday, 7/9

Persian language (Farsi/Tajik), 1 hr

• Easy Persian

General Knowledge, 1 hr

• Roy’s Writing Tools podcast, episodes 19-21
• The Moral Foundations of Politics (iTunes U), episode 1
• Sheppard Software geography games

Friday, 7/8

Persian language (Farsi/Tajik), 5 hr

• Critical Language Institute
• Pimsleur “Short Course”

Thursday, 7/7

Persian language (Farsi/Tajik), 4 hr

• Critical Language Institute

Wedensday, 7/6

Persian language (Farsi/Tajik), 4 hr

• Critical Language Institute

Tuesday, 7/5

Persian language (Farsi/Tajik), 4 hr

• Critical Language Institute

Friday, 7/2

Persian language (Farsi/Tajik), 4 hr

• Critical Language Institute

Thursday, 7/1

Persian language (Farsi/Tajik), 4 hr

• Critical Language Institute

Wednesday, 6/30

Persian language (Farsi/Tajik), 4 hr

• Critical Language Institute

Tuesday, 6/29

Persian language (Farsi/Tajik), 4 hr

• Critical Language Institute

Monday, 6/28

Persian language (Farsi/Tajik), 4 hr

• Critical Language Institute

Saturday, 6/25

Essay prep, 1 hr

• Critical Reasoning for Beginners podcast, The Nature of Arguments

Friday, 6/24

Persian language (Farsi/Tajik), 4 hr

• Critical Language Institute

Thursday, 6/23

Persian language (Farsi/Tajik), 4 hr

• Critical Language Institute

Wednesday, 6/22

General Knowledge, 40 min

• American Presidents podcast (Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History), Madison and the Constitution

Persian language (Farsi/Tajik), 4 hr

• Critical Language Institute

Tuesday, 6/21

Persian language (Farsi/Tajik), 4 hr

• Critical Language Institute

Monday, 6/20

Persian language (Farsi/Tajik), 4 hr

• Critical Language Institute

Sunday, 6/19

General Knowledge, 1 hr

• AP US History flashcards

Friday, 6/17

Persian language (Farsi/Tajik), 4 hr

• Critical Language Institute

Thursday, 6/16

Persian language (Farsi/Tajik), 4 hr

• Critical Language Institute

Wednesday, 6/15

Persian language (Farsi/Tajik), 4 hr

• Critical Language Institute

Tuesday, 6/14

Persian language (Farsi/Tajik), 4 hr

• Critical Language Institute

Monday, 6/13

Persian language (Farsi/Tajik), 4 hr

• Critical Language Institute

Friday, 6/10

Persian language (Farsi/Tajik), 4 hr

• Critical Language Institute

Thursday, 6/9

Persian language (Farsi/Tajik), 4 hr

• Critical Language Institute

Wednesday, 6/8

Persian language (Farsi/Tajik), 4 hr

• Critical Language Institute

Tuesday, 6/7

Persian language (Farsi/Tajik), 4 hr

• Critical Language Institute

Monday, 6/6

Persian language (Farsi/Tajik), 4 hr

• Critical Language Institute

Friday, 6/3

General Knowledge, 30 min

• CSIS Trade and Economy podcasts

Persian language (Farsi/Tajik), 4 hr

• Critical Language Institute

Thursday, 6/2

General Knowledge, 15 min

• PRI’s The World podcast, 5/24/11

Persian language (Farsi/Tajik), 4 hr

• Critical Language Institute

Wednesday, 6/1

General Knowledge, 30 min

• AP US history flashcards

Persian language (Farsi/Tajik), 4 hr

• Critical Language Institute

Tuesday, 5/31

Persian language (Farsi/Tajik), 4 hr

• Critical Language Institute

Monday, 5/30

General Knowledge, 1.5 hr

• Stuff You Missed in History Class podcast, Queen Victoria and Abdul Karim
• The State We’re In podcast, Image busting
• AP US Gov flashcards

Saturday, 5/28

Persian language (Farsi/Tajik), 1 hr

• Pimsleur Farsi Short Course, lesson 1-2

Friday, 5/27

Persian language (Farsi/Tajik), 15 min

• Chai and Conversation podcast, episodes 3-4

Wednesday, 5/25

General Knowledge, 15 min

• Geography of Europe
• Europe Lesson 11: Physical Geography
• Geography – countries of the world Ok, there are some omissions and errors in this one, but I memorized it when I was a child, and it’s still fun.
• Yakko\’s world with flags
• Roy’s Writing Tools podcast, episodes 25-28

Persian language (Farsi/Tajik), 30 min

• Pimsleur Farsi Short Course, lesson 1

Tuesday, 5/24

General Knowledge, 55 min

• HughsDV Youtube: The Constitutional Amendments in Ten Minutes, The Bill of Rights Hand Game, The Great Society in 15 Minutes, Constitutional Flexibility For Beginnners

Persian language (Farsi/Tajik), 15 min

• Chai and Conversation podcast, episodes 3-4

Friday, 5/20

General Knowledge

• McGraw-Hill AP American Government & Politics, chapters 1-4

Tuesday, 5/17

General Knowledge

• The U.S. Congress in Twenty Minutes
• The Bill of Rights in 30 Seconds
• US History in 10 Minutes
• Yale University Game Theory vodcast, 01 – Introduction: five first lessons

Monday, 5/16

General Knowledge

• In Our Time with Melvin Bragg podcast, metaphor
• Roy’s Writing Tools podcast, episodes 8-12, 29-30, 32
• PRI’s The World in Words 100 podcast: A Persian insult, the planet’s northernmost tongue, and an Urdu sense of direction

Tuesday, 5/10

General Knowledge

• The Breakdown podcast, What Will the ‘War on Terror’ Look Like After Osama bin Laden?

Monday, 5/9

Persian language (Farsi/Tajik), 45 min

• Chai and Conversation podcast, episodes 1-3

Thursday 5/5

General Knowledge, 1.5 hr

• Stuff You Missed in History Class podcast – Simon Bolivar, the Jamestown shipwreck
• Easy US Constitution quiz – score 73%
• More advanced Constitution quiz- Score 76% (38/50) [Note: the quiz says the national average score is 48%!]
  • Constitution Facts also has study guides and quizzes on the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the Founding Fathers and the Supreme Court.
• Roy’s Writing Tools podcast, episodes 2-7
• Politically Incorrect Guide to American History podcast – Herbert Hoover and the Great Depression

Hindi, 15 min

• Glossaries Alive podcast, episode 1

Tuesday 5/3

General Knowledge, 1 hr

• AP US Gov flashcards 60-100

Professional Development, 30 min

• The Art of Mingling audio book, ch. 1

Monday 5/2

General Knowledge, 1 hour

• AP US Gov flash cards 1-70
• Stuff You Missed in History Class podcast – Napoleon in Egypt

Sunday 5/1

General Knowledge, 2 hours

• AP US Gov flash cards 1-20
• International Relations and Security Network podcast – The ICC Needs to Explain itself Better
• How to Do Everything podcast – Politics, Minivans and Dog Food
• Virginia Department of Education, Economics and Personal Finance podcast – Examine Fundamental Principles of Economics
• PRI The World in Words podcast – Slumdog
• Roy’s Writing Tools podcast – episode #1
• University of South Floridia, social media podcast – Playing thr Location Game
• US Constitution, quiz 1 – score: 66% (eek!)
• US Constitution, quiz 2 -score: 45% (double eek!)

Saturday 4/30:

General Knowledge, 1.5 hours

• Stuff You Missed in History Class podcast – Hai Ba Trung
• Curiosity Online – historical people, world history
• New Yorker Out Loud podcast – Sri Lanka

Hindi language, 4 hours

• Pimsleur audio lessons
• Meetup group lesson
• Gali Gali Sim Sim (Hindi-language Sesame Street)