Civil Service Fast Stream 2024 - Applicants thread

11.12! My harshest criticism was on my written assessment which I thought I did strongly on. My best feedback was on the group scenario which I thought I bombed (there are no individual scores for the tests).

congrats to everyone who has received an offer so far! i have my ac coming up this month - any tips on how to prepare, other than reading the info pack?

congrats to everyone who has received an offer so far! i have my ac coming up this month - any tips on how to prepare, other than reading the info pack?

The examples in the pack are strikingly similar to the actual thing so use them for reference and don't waste money on paid guides. Get comfortable speaking on camera if it's not something you're used to and practice writing under timed conditions/processing lots of info in a short period of time. There are apps for this and happy to give recommendations. Finally, go to bed early the night before and have a good breakfast/cup of tea/coffee before you start. Good luck! ☺️

I agree with diplomat runner, the fsac guide is pretty similar to the actual thing, and it really is the best way to prepare, but i’d also add these things for when u do the actual ac (based on my experience):

Written:
Dont waste too much time on the structure of your piece. In one of the SDIP meetings on fsac tips, they said bulletpoint-ish paragraphs are fine and it shouldnt be shorter than a page but no longer than 1 1/2 pages. i honestly just numbered each point and referred to them as idea 1/2/3 etc when talking about it in my bullet points. It seems to be fine since my best task was my written.

Team:
Don’t be reluctant to talk incase you accidentally talk at the same as someone else, because it will happen either way. One downside of being online is there is a lot of “oh sorry you go talk first” because everyone ends up talking over/at the same time as another and thats ok. So if u want to say something, just say it!

Make sure your points are evidence-based, and don’t be brief about them. If you’ve also changed your view on something, i.e. you started to prefer another policy over the one you initially thought was best, make sure u acknowledge it and say why.

Leadership:
The possible assessor questions presented in the fsac guide are pretty good already, so i’d say just do the examples and draft up how you would answer those questions and i think u’d be okay in the real life thing. I mean, of course there are unpredicted ones but thats the whole point of the exercise - to think on your feet.

Thats all i can think of, hope it helps. Best of luck, you got this! 🙂

that's great advice, thanks so much 🙂 in the written scenario, was it entirely written or did you then have to present your ideas? I've seen some people say it's important to come up with creative / different ideas, do you agree? I'm worried I won't be able to think of anything particularly outside of the box lol

thank you so much for this! would definitely love the app recs

it was entirely written and in terms of coming up with creative ideas, the feedback i got said i had some really creative and fresh approaches but when i was writing it, i really thought it was nothing too outside of the box lol. It's all very subjective i guess and so i suppose all i can say is, it is important but at the same time avoid overthinking too much and spend a lot of time trying to think of an idea thats "original" because ur 50 minutes writing time will definitely fly by.

I also want to comment that my feedback was that my ideas were "unremarkable" but I articulated myself well enough to pass. I agree, don't spend too much time worrying about your ideas being amazing; as long as you follow the given structure and can back up what you're saying you should be fine. ☺️

Yesterday found out I passed FSAC with 12.13 for Diplo and Dev and have made it to final assessment board. I was wondering if anyone knows if, in the event that I’m unsuccessful in that, am I still likely to get my second choice which did not need that extra stage ?

Was there any structure to follow beyond ideas and then possible issues? I think I did ok but didn't realise I had to lay out solutions too until near the end so couldn't write more than a sentence at the end of each paragraph about my idea for a solution.

Does anyone know the answer to this? Obviously this particular score of 12.13 is strong but I'm unclear about what happens if unsuccessful at the final selection board? I'm assuming it depends on what the lower choices were? Thanks!

Does anyone know the answer to this? Obviously this particular score of 12.13 is strong but I'm unclear about what happens if unsuccessful at the final selection board? I'm assuming it depends on what the lower choices were? Thanks!

Yea, I remember having a sort of Q&A session thing I went to a while back where one of the people running it from the CS said it was their understanding that you would be dropped down into a lower preference one by default. I think in previous years diplo and dev (much like HofP) has been quite competitive so I would imagine the FSAC score required to reach the final selection board may well be higher than the score required for my lower choice options such and Digital and Cyber for example, obviously I may well be completely off the mark here but that’s my current understanding of it, but as is obvious from my initial question I’m really not 100% on this and was wondering if anyone else had anything more clear?

From last years thread, if you fail the FSB for your first choice, you're then considered for your second choice as long as you meet the pass mark for that stream. IIRC Diplo has one of the highest pass marks so if you get to the FSB for that you've likely passed your other choices!