Customer Reviews

Master the AM for Svs Off, 3/e (Arco Master the American Foreign Service Officer Exam)

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I have not taken the test yet, but the questions in this book do not even resemble the question style of the study published by ACT (the company that publishes the official study guide and publishes the test). I have been leaving messages with someone at ARCO and no one has returned my calls. Like one of the other reviewers, I would like my money back.

I took the Foreign Service Written Examination (FSWE) on 24 Apr 04 and used this book as a means of preparation. I was sorely disappointed. It is not representative of the examination at all.

The sample examinations do not match the FSWE in the types or number of questions for the job knowledge or English expression sections. There are no examples of essays in the book that are required for the FSWE. Either this edition (2001) is grossly outdated or it never was representative of the FSWE. Additionally, there are numerous errors in the book, including missing multiple-choice answers and poor grammar.

The majority of the book is dedicated to information that already is available free on the State Department web site or through its free test registration booklet, such as explanations about the Foreign Service, lists and examples of forms, et al.

The only value the book provides is to ask questions that generally are related to "current" affairs (again, this edition dates to 2001) and American government. It also provides a reasonable guide to grammar, but then asks questions in the English expression section solely related to the rules it presents in the grammar guide.

The problem is that aside from a $15 online exam guide, there is no other book, to my knowledge, that claims to prepare one for the FSWE. The online version is produced by the same company that produces the examination, but it is far too brief to be of any use.

Buy either at your own risk. You're welcome to have my copies.

Not sure you need any guide at all, as it is mostly intuitive.

If you need help passing the test, you would be better served using the official study guide. It is cheap and updated annually.

Best of luck!!

I bought this book in order to prepare for the Foreign Services Test, but I ended up ignoring it all together. The background information contained within this book was almost verbatium off of the ...website from the Foreign Services section.

The only reason to purchase this book would be for the practice questions. However, I found at least 2 questions in the knowledge section were wrong, and another couple that contained typos that caused me to select the wrong answer. Thus, I questioned the whole legitimacy of the examine book. The English section is NOT reflective of the English section contained within the actual Foreign Services Examn, which was a complete SHOCK during exam day!

...completely, useless book.

I am very disappointed in this book. As I remmeber, The first section is devoted to how to get into the Civil Service which is pretty worthless for someone looking into the Foreign Service.

What was unpardonable is that I actually found one of there questions that has a wrong answer in the answer section. If you can not trust the answers they are giving you, then what is this book worth????

I would like Arco to give me my money back. Or better yet - they should not be lazy and send someone to write a really good, up-to-date prep book. It seems to me they did a lot of cut and paste from the Department of State website, and gave no real time or efort to its preparation

The people writing positive reviews must be from the publisher and have never taken the test. This was a real waste of money. The state department web site provides all the information that you really need to know and it's free.

I used a similar book 2 years ago and passed written exam with ease. Too bad I cannot find it because this book is a disaster. Lots of questions without explanations - like charts - answer key mistakes that conflict with their explanation, etc... The English expression section is not even in the same neighborhood as what the State Dept's own literature illustrates.

There are other agency's in the government that have Foreign Service Officers, or their equivalent, with no test requirements, including Agriculture, USAID, Peace Corp, Commerce, etc... Also there are ways of converting from Civil Service to Foreign Service or coming on as a Specialist. These options are all worth looking into if this is where your interests are.

I hadn't heard good things about this book, but given the scarcity of exam preparation guides available for the FSWE I decided it was worth a shot. I did not receive any pleasant surprises.

There is a modicum of useful information about the Foreign Service, but as a test preparation aid, which I suspect is the main reason people purchase it, it is flawed and impractical. While, I was hoping it would provide study strategies and reading recommendations that would pare down the State Department's overwhelming reading list, instead it provides just general information on the test itself, (here's a hint, if you need a chapter that explains how to fill out a civil service job application you aren't going to pass the FSWE), and a few practice tests.

As for the practice tests, I found them to be much more difficult than the real thing, (I just took it). So much so that it did more to undermine my confidence than build it. It also doesn't help that the book is poorly edited, so that when I took the practice tests I wound end up thinking I did worse than expected, until I start digging through and realizing that they answer key is full of mistakes and typos.

In Arco's defense, I will say that if you can pass their practice tests that you will definitely pass the multiple choice parts of the FSWE, but practicing this way is like running marathons to prepare for a 10k. Sure it works, but there are better ways to go about it.

Skip this book. If you want to prepare for the exam my advice is to get the $15 study guide from the State Department Website. It is a much better representation of the material you can expect to see.

I take the exam tomorrow, so I don't know how relevant the questions are yet, but I am shocked by the number of typos that the book has. The book is full of misspellings, answers that don't match questions, and some very strangely worded questions. It's a shame that the only study guide for this test is so poorly edited.

I'm glad so many other people out there agree with me. Obviously little care was put into this book, which can only be a cynical way to cash in on the demand for a legit FSWE study guide.

Not only have I read elsewhere that the practice tests don't resemble the real test,
but during the practice tests, I was not only trying to find the correct answer, but also trying to figure out typos in the multiple choices offered. More than once did I get answers wrong because of poorly written questions/answers.