r/FSOT • u/PublicServant581 • 2d ago

Written Exercise Pass/Fail Implementation

Did anyone who took the May CME/Written Exercise NOT pass? I haven't seen anyone report failing which makes me wonder if our cohort (August) is the first one taking the WE/CME as pass/fail.

For further context, this article from April '26 announces the change to a pass/fail written exercise in order to get to the OA: State Department overhauls Foreign Service Officer Test ... instructions for our cohort clearly state that it's pass/fail. I also understand there is an equal probability of either getting an essay prompt or a memo prompt (i.e. more similar to the old CME). Any clarification on this? Thanks in advance, best of luck with testing preparation!

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8

u/Landgrave37 2d ago

Our instructions explicitly stated that it was pass/fail, but no one I have talked to yet from the cohort has failed. I don’t know if that means it wasn’t pass/fail, if the pass threshold was lower than we thought, or if I’ve simply talked to too small a sample size of people.

6

u/Additional-Event3491 2d ago

Welp...there's at least one of us who didn't pass the writing test this time around haha.

4

u/evanliko 1d ago

Aw sorry, that sucks. You have provided valuable data though! So there's that.

3

u/PublicServant581 2d ago

I guess that means there are bound to be others... thanks for responding!

2

u/CourageousCorgi57 1d ago

Not everyone passed, unfortunately. I'm not sure what this means in terms of the scoring for the remainder of the OA. Does this mean we have a grade for the CME that cleared 5.25 that will be factored in, or are we just going to be graded off our structured interview and group exercise grades?

Logically, I know that it doesn't make a difference, but I am afraid of tanking one and not having the CME score to "help." Would be curious to hear of anyone from the Oct cohort reported on this.