How we check
Before a practice question reaches you, it goes through three steps.
- 1. Written to the published format. We write each question and its answer key to the content the State Department lists for each part of the October 2025 FSOT, at the official practice test’s lengths.
- 2. Answered blind, twice. Two independent automated checks answer every question without seeing our key, and each says whether the wording, the facts or the options are open to doubt.
- 3. Shipped only on agreement. A question goes live only when both checks reach our answer and neither raises an objection. If we edit a question, it goes through steps 2 and 3 again.
An error this caught
A Logical Reasoning question asked for the assumption behind an argument: a museum added evening hours and visits rose 30 percent, so the evening hours brought in people who could not come during the day.
Our draft key was the option saying that a substantial share of the extra visits came during the new evening hours.
Both checks rejected our keyed answer. That option is not enough on its own: the argument also needs the evening visitors to be people who could not come during the day, not people who simply switched from the daytime. The question was kept out of the test.
What it does, and what it does not
- Every FSOT practice question in the test passed both checks.
- Our FSOA briefings, model memos, scenarios and model answers were reviewed in several rounds before release.
- The written feedback on your own memo and the report after a mock session are written for you when you ask; they are practice feedback, not an official score, and they are not checked by a second system each time.
Independent practice built to the published October 2025 format. Not affiliated with the U.S. Department of State or Pearson VUE.