Well, 2016 was the first time when exam got held under new syllabus. For 2017 aspirants, including me, these papers are all we have to scrutinize and base theories on till next exam.

However few things are worrisome.
1: What was statistics doing in EDS paper? Mean, mode, median question was not part of outline. Where did it come from?

2: I was checking Environmental Sciences paper and Ursula and Exclusively were discussing how in their opinion, examiners were looking for mphil standard students and how outline was not enough to prepare this optional. (Here is the thread link: http://www.cssforum.com.pk/css-past-...er-2016-a.html)

This is troubling because not everyone has that much knowledge regarding optional subjects because that's how we take them, as optional. If examiners expect mphil level in all optionals then this is a huge problem.

So, if you attempted CSS 2016, how was your experience with this outline-paper relationship regarding your papers especially the optionals. What would you suggest to the aspirant opting those optionals? What did you take away from that exam week that you would like to share with us? warnings?

(If I presented wrong information or conclusion, let me know, will fix it)

The eds question you are talking about is from quantitative section. It is the easiest portion of math.

your comments makes me scared

Matric books are enough for math part

Out of syllabus papers :P you know syllabus = boiled rice and question demanded biryani :P
Zoology paper was hell really but because of my masters in relevant subject I managed it..
Overall it was nice attempt as my first attempt was also good but essay killed me now I am hopeful remember me in prayers

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" When you know better you do better"

New subjects are pretty easy on the surface, however, they have great depth if you wish to dive into it.

An answer with generic descriptions and solutions should be (and hopefully will be) marked accordingly compared to one with researched knowledge and intelligent analysis.

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D:

No wonder why they are making master level education as minimum

i agree to what you are saying. Town planning, Governance and pp, environmental science-all were hell difficult. I opted only town town planning among them and my performance was well in the said subjects, but it took me almost four months to collect material.

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winners never quit, and quitters never win.

I appeared in 2016 with new syllabus. I found Math portion in EDS very interesting. I never knew about Mean, Median, Mode, Range as part of EDS syllabus. I solved all 4 parts in less than 2 minutes. Also, all General Ability part was completed in 25 minutes with exact answers that I rechecked later at home.

Hey,

I'd say this year they gave relatively easy exams, I mean if you compare them with yester years exams. In my experience choose optionals in which you have a slight background and a lot of interest. My optionals were mostly from social sciences because of my social science background; sociology, gender studies, IR, Indo pak history and international law.

You don't, I repeat don't get any time during exam week to revise so if you are someone who has trouble retaining information please devote at least a month before the exam to revising your subjects.
Don't rote learn except the mcqs, dates, names etc. Build an understanding in the optional you take so that if you get a question out of syllabus you can answer it.

What I took from this attempt was that I think the examiners want to assess if we have enough general knowledge to answer any question. They don't want crammers, they want people who read a lot and generally have a wide scholarship.

Regards,

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Without you this house is a hearse without wheels (Babybird)