Post-Japan plans?

First, try some of these:

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16. In American education, which of the following issues or policies has generated the LEAST amount of controversy?

(A) School vouchers
(B) School busing
(C) Local control over the curriculum
(D) National, standardized high school exit exams

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34. An administrator with overall responsibility for all administrative operations in a large operating agency is considering organizing the agency's personnel office around either of the following two alternative concepts:

Alternative I: A corps of specialists for each branch of personnel subject matter, whose skills, counsel, or work products are coordinated only by the agency personnel officer

Alternative II: A crew of so-called "personnel generalists," who individually work with particular segments of the organization but deal with all subspecialties of the personnel function

Of the following, the one that is the biggest drawback of Alternative I, as compared with Alternative II, is that

(A) training and employee relations work call for education, interests, and talents that differ from those required for classification and compensation work.
(B) personnel office staff may develop only superficial familiarity with the specialized areas to which they have been assigned.
(C) supervisors may fail to get continuing, overall personnel advice on an integrated basis.
(D) the personnel specialists are likely to become so interested in and identified with the operating view as to particular cases that they lose their professional objectivity and become merely advocates of what some supervisor wants.

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68. Native Americans have been much admired for their skill at arts and crafts and at artistic design, but are seldom given adequate credit for their intellectual achievements. All of the following are Native Americans who are correctly paired with their achievements EXCEPT

(A) Sequoya--developer of the Cherokee phonetic alphabet and creator of a literate Indian nation
(B) General Eli Parker--civil engineer and draftsman of the articles of Lee's surrender at Appomattox
(C) George Caitlin--author and artist
(D) Dr. Charles Eastman--physician, YMCA director, organizer of Boys Scouts and Camp Fire Girls

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These three questions were taken from Arco's "Master the American Foreign Service Officer Exam" test prep guide. I took the diagnostic test last month and got 17 out of 49 wrong. Not a great start. I took the first of three full practice tests a day later and scored similarly: 60 out of 180 wrong. Studying a little bit seems like a good idea.

Passing the Foreign Service Officer Exam is a necessary step in getting a job in an embassy. I have enjoyed living outside of the U.S. but teaching English isn't what I want to be doing in 10 years. Working in an embassy seems like a desirable alternative. I'm learning about what I would be expected to do for the Foreign Service (I must choose from one of the five specializations) and how feasible a career would be. I have two main reservations. First, I would be representing the U.S. government abroad and I hate the Bush administration. On the bright side, Bush doesn't have much longer in office. And secondly, as an officer, I would be expected to accept any assignment handed down, which means that I could be assigned to Baghdad as early as 2009.

But first, the test:

The test is divided into English and Knowledge-based questions. There are 110 questions in the English section and you are allotted an hour to finish them. The Knowledge section consists of 70 questions, but you're given an unnecessarily long 2 hours. This doesn't include the time required for a personality test and an essay section. The test guide I picked up says very little about the essay.

After reading through two books on English grammar and usage, I significantly improved upon my test score (48 out of 180 wrong). I'm currently rereading some Economics textbooks from college, after which I'll take the last practice test and hopefully see a little further improvement. I'm not in a rush though, as I'll have plenty of time while in Las Vegas to study and read up on the Foreign Service.

The answer to each question is C.

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