The Essential Body of Knowledge

Candidates are encouraged to review the eight fundamental knowledge domains identified by DIE Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) as being essential knowledge for personnel working in the DIE at the entry/developmental level. These eight knowledge domains make up the Essential Body of Knowledge (EBK).

The EBK played an integral part in the creation of the content for the IFPC exam. Once the eight knowledge domains were identified, SMEs weighted the domains for their relative importance (i.e., how crucial they were to the success as a defense intelligence professional). These relative importance weightings (see percentages in the table below) were used to set the number of questions on the exam that would assess each topic area. For example, a topic area with a relative importance weighting of 25% means that 20 of the 80 test items are used to assess that particular topic area.

The EBK also includes a list of references that relate to each knowledge domain; this list of references is broad but not exhaustive. Each contains key concepts that an intelligence professional is expected to know and understand, but only a subset of the references was used to generate items for the IFPC exam. Candidates are encouraged to review these resources, but are not expected to know all content.