Hello All,

I was waiting anxiously for my approval from admin to post this. I am currently doing BS Social Sciences (3rd Year) from SZABIST Karachi, with majors as International Relations. I intend to appear in CSS by 2014 Inshallah, I have been working on my selection for optional subjects. I need the analysis of all my seniors on this. Please reflect on the following aspects, (a) Marking trending of the subject (b) Difficulties that I may face in the subject(s) and (c) What are the best books that needs to be strictly followed so that the syllabus of the course is covered. I want to get done by these optional course by this year 2012, Inshallah.

The subjects which I have thought are:

Sociology, Public Administration, Journalism, International Relations and Muslim History.

Please reflect on the combination keep in mind the above three aspects which I am looking for.

Will be thankful for your time and advice.

Lashary

Dear,

a)Scoring trend of any subject may change every year. One may not be sure about this except in case of few subjects.

b)I don’t think you may face much difficulty considering your selection of subjects which consists of general subjects.

c)Books for all subjects are mentioned in relevant threads of subjects.

It has been observed that scoring trend is not consistent for most of the subjects in CSS. This always creates confusion in the minds of aspirants which subjects to opt. In a particular year, some subject(s) turns out to be very scoring and many candidates appearing in next year opt the same subject in hope of similar scoring trend but the same subject plays havoc causing severe damage to the overall score of candidates. I personally think this is really unjust on the part of FPSC. It does not matter much if they follow any scoring trend in compulsory subjects, because it will affect all candidates alike. However, targeting/low scoring a particular optional subject may be very harmful for the candidates opting that subject.

In CSS 2008, Histories, Sociology, Arabic gave low scores. In CSS 2009, Histories scoring trend was ultra-high with scores in 180s… Sociology, Arabic also gave very good scores. In CSS 2010, Histories and Journalism proved disastrous with average scores below 100 for Histories and below 40 for Journalism. In CSS 2011, Muslim History and Journalism has performed well.

To be on safer side, what one can do is to select those subjects which are more or less average scoring even in the worst case. Subjects like Geography, Sociology, Journalism, IR, Regional Languages, Agriculture, Forestry, Constitutional Law, Muslim Law, International Law, USA History and Public Administration have usually been performing well in recent years.

However, it is said; ‘the higher the risk the higher the return’! While it may not always be true even in case of CSS because one has limited no. of attempts. However, again some candidates opt subjects with odd scoring trends like Histories, Arabic and technical/science subjects and score really high. Like Mathematics, Psychology, Physics and Computer Sciences etc are considered technical subjects not usually advised to be opted. But this year, these subjects have been very high scoring.

The bottom line is that scoring trend may vary each year. However, there are some subjects which are safer to opt. If one has interest/background in a particular subject and one is confident to perform well, opting that subject may be a good choice. Lastly, one should always pray that the subject combination he/she has opted remains scoring in that particular year.

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