Complying With The Non-Disclosure Agreement
When you take the Foreign Service Officer Test (FSOT), you are asked to agree and sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA). The NDA is meant to not only safe guard the information created by the State Department and/or Pearson VUE, the FSOT administrators, but it is also meant to allow for the equal testing of all applicants, which is an important belief to uphold.
It is because of this belief, and the protection of copyright laws, that I take the NDA seriously.
In writing about the FSOT, and the Foreign Service as a whole, I will make sure I keep to the conduct policy statements laid out in the NDA. This is inclusive of my blog posts, correspondence to readers, comments made by readers (non-NDA compliant comments will be deleted), the FSOT Essay Simulator, and the FSOT Simulator.
To focus on the latter two: to the best of my ability and knowledge, non of the questions asked in the simulators break the NDA agreement. All the questions asked were of my own creation. If a State Department employee believes otherwise, I ask him or her to notify me immediately so that I may try and remedy the concern. These tools are created to assist applicants become better prepared for the FSOT, and no intention is made to infringe on laws.
Thank you,
Jack
