Quote Originally Posted by Jedburgh View Post
I took the FSO phone test in Arabic - and passed - last year. My experience was that the tester (native speaker - pure الفصحى) went directly from initial introductions to level 3 discussion about politics in the region. None of the incremental feeling out for capabilities like with a DLI OPI.
I read on the State Dept website that they were looking for all versions of Arabic. I am a Level 3+ (or above, according to their language reference website) speaker in Syrian "a3meya" or Colloquial Arabic. I also read and write Arabic.
If the phone test is in "Foos-ha" or Formal Arabic, for sure I will fail.

It makes more sense to me - with their broad interest in the Arab region- that they would first ask the test-taker what their specialty is and then match an appropriate test administrator to them.

Any words of wisdom and/or encouragement now would be greatly appreciated!