Thank you for the good wishes.
I appeared in CE 2013 for my first attempt. Overall it was not an easy going journey but at the same time the learning experience and knowledge acquired weighs much more. The most important factor for a CSS aspirant, in my view, is MOTIVATION. I used to hear this from seniors but i experienced the fact that there are countless new concepts and ideas i had to grasp and sometimes i felt exhausted. Only thing that helped me keep the focus and come back back strong was motivation.
As mentioned in the post most of the papers demanded analytical approach. In my view this trend will be carried forward in next attempts (2014 onwards), as it seems a delebrate strategy to dicrourage cramming and incourage conceptual understanding of subject matters.
In reply to the strictly checked subjects, i am expecting changes in marking style due to analytical approach in exams. So, this time it would be hard to predict which subjects would be marked strictly. However, frequently chosen subjects including psychology, sociology, geography and history subjects can get thorough attention of examiners.

Remember me in your prayers