Hi All!
My brother is preparing for CSS'19. Today, the Director of his university conducted a seminar on CSS in which he asked his pupils to prepare the past ten years papers. He said and I quote, "Do not work hard, work smart". My question is, would it be okay to only prepare the past 10 years paper? Is it possible that one can qualify the written examination by doing so?

Your suggestions will be highly appreciated.
Regards!

I've been through many threads & find out that study course outline is necessary ..

This was a "smart work" a few years ago but not anymore. Have a look at this year's papers. You will get the idea. Now, one needs to study all the topics in detail. Examiners are asking applied questions. Critical analysis is required in almost all the papers. Even they are not giving MCQs from past papers. Just check papers of last 3 years. You will get the idea that how they have changed it. Also, there is no use to prepare past papers of all the subjects. Preparing few things from past papers is good but not all. Syllabus was changed 3 years ago. Many new subjects were added and almost all of them have got their syllabus changed. Your brother should get guidance from senior aspirants and from people who have recently cleared CSS in 2016 and 2017. They can guide better. How can a university principal guide about it? He has not cleared CSS himself. If we suppose he has, it was a long time ago and since then a lot has changed. Ask your brother to check syllabus and past papers. Right now one should do detail study. Since papers are applied and critical analysis type, so one should pay special attention to these by taking aid from newspapers and journals. After that, one can solve past papers in revision month or a month before that.

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WA-TU-IZZU MANTASHA; WATU-ZILLU MANTASHA

I endorse Anum Zara's point .Notwithstanding significance of some core topic of each subject, contemporary nature of knowledge for instance extracting by news papers , magazine , reports of national and international institutions are more convenient to embellish answer with all required aspects,if one meticulously observe current pattern of paperers .

paat papers definitely would your bro but in all papers it would not work. english essay is purely based on ones intellecual skills prrsentation grammer and knowledge on the topic. topic might be the same but now being asked in tricky sense. morover, this time current affair paper was on int relations not even a single question from yhe internal issues. newspaper is the key now a days. in all papers only two question were asked related to the subject others are on contemporary related issues. that,can be viewed if one consults paspters. therefore past papers giving idea on the basis of aspirant going to prepare the subjects but material has to be collected from,books net news then the way one presents in the paper.


majority of the aspirants opting IR considering it would help them in current affair essay and int law therefore competition has increased and being made tough evrry year. on the other hand pol sc is opeted by a few... but this year paper was too general rather subjrct specific.

in my view get idea from past papers about the subjects and prepare completely in the light of contemporary affairs. givr max time to newspaper and make notes of all subjects. baki luck aur parents ki duain b zyada kam krti hain.

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HoPe AgainsT HopE

Anum i have a question for you that what is your strategy for vocabulary part of Precise & Composition paper and one more question Sociology or Psychology? what's your take?

Everyone has their own strength. I am not a good crammer. It was impossible for me to cram extensive lists like GRE 3500 word list etc. I did prepare a list this time but it was a short one. I prepared GRE critical list of around 350 words and Manhattan 501 list. I had GAT book which has around 500 words and it was already prepared as I appear for few other tests. I prepared less than 1000 words. Many of the words in these lists were same. I kept revising them in order to retain instead of learning too many new words. I was able to solve 12 MCQ's in first reading of paper. Rest was guess work and I do not know how many I have got correct. If someone has good cramming ability, they can retain more than that. You can build your vocabulary from newspapers as well.
For pair of words, I prepared past papers and rest just tried to go through lists 2,3 times. I was able to solve 4 correctly in examination. Rest, I had knowledge of only 1 word from each pair. I solved it anyhow. Same I did with idioms. First past papers than from book of Karimdad. I do not cram them. I just try to understand their meaning. After going through all of them 2-3 times, I was able to solve 4 in first reading. But understanding meanings give me an idea to solve unseen ones. So I did managed to correctively solve all. I am a very bad crammer. I cannot retain much. One should cram reasonably long lists. Neither too short nor too long. Past papers are important for pair of words and idioms. I generally focus on other questions like precis, comprehension etc. as they are my strength. In this paper, one should not take risk and give importance to all parts to fetch passing marks.

Sociology is easy no doubt but very low scoring. Most of the aspirants had score between 40-55. Do not know about past papers of this subject. Psychology has medium scoring trend. It is not very easy but it is not difficult either. It is highly interesting. Only one chapter of nervous system can give aspirants a little tough time if they have no background. Last year, questions were straight and just bookish crammed knowledge was enough. This year, examiner gave general and twisted questions which no one really expects in this paper. One can fetch 70-80 in this subject if prepared well.
As I am appearing next year as well, I may go for psychology again. My second option from this group can be anthropology and third can be journalism and mass communication. I will decide after seeing final DMC's of pass students of 2017. I am not in favor of sociology, geography and Punjabi at the moment but other regional languages are still a great choice.

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WA-TU-IZZU MANTASHA; WATU-ZILLU MANTASHA

Your answers are always very detailed, thank you for that. But you said you are preparing for next year. Is not it too early to say that. As it's only been two weeks. Secondly, should not one wait result of written part first.

Actually, I have to stay prepared. I will appear even if FPSC declare that I have cleared written. 2019 is going to be my last chance as I will turn 30 next near. If I get lucky and pass the written pass, there is no guarantee of allocation since I am from Punjab. I cannot let next chance go because after that I will never be able to appear.
Every candidate should decide according to his or her age, chances and circumstances. If he or she is not facing the situation like I am facing, they can skip 1,2 years.

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WA-TU-IZZU MANTASHA; WATU-ZILLU MANTASHA

For starter it’s good . One cannot skip past papers. However, merely past papers aren’t enough.


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