Go through the essential prescribed items from Pre-Partition era (Sufiya, Ulama-e-Din, Sir Syed's Contribution, Nudwatul Ulma, etc.) using any of the books available.

Get some basic idea of important events, missions, plans and conferences in Pakistan Movement. You don't have to know about each and everything but having a bird's eye view is mandatory.

Briefly touch upon the constitution development, and the democratic crises due to military interference.


When you are done with that, revise, repeat and put the books down.

The next phase would take a bit of effort and it usually comprises of post 2000s. Get into as much detail about the important events of last 17 years as you can. Focus on WoT, political upheaval, optimistic situation of democracy post 2008 handover, water crises, possible Kashmir Intifada, economic situation, fiscal deficits, Pakistan-India, Pakistan-Iran, Pakistan-Afghanistan, Pakistan-China and Pakistan-Russian relations, theories of defense, strategic situation in region and all that stuff.

Since 2016, more importance is being given to issues which are current, and to questions which ask for your opinions rather than a straight fixed answer. Your ability to construct logically coherent answers is going to be more important than your ability to reproduce the facts.

Source: Been there, done that - cleared CE-2017 (Written).