CSS Tips by Amubarak

[amubarak]

Thank you for your kind remarks. I’ll share with you how I prepared each subject:

Pakistan Affairs:

•Books consulted: Ikram Rabbani’s Pakistan Affairs and Jehangir Book Depot’s Exam Cram Top 20 Questions for Pakistan Affairs.
•I prepared every topic keeping in mind that I will not exceed 6-7 pages for a single answer. Supposedly Aligarh movement comprised of 7 pages in the book, I highlighted from those 7 pages a total of 2 pages worth of text book material and focused on memorizing it well
•All my answers had an introductory paragraph that did not exceed 5-7 lines but was very rich in content in explaining the concept that was later discussed.
•All questions had sub headings
•With in subheadings, where possible I bulleted each separate point
•At the end there was 7-8 line conclusion, summarizing the impact, advantages or disadvantages of whatever event discussed
•There was no repetition of any point
•My handwriting is normal (neither big nor small), I did not exceed 7 pages for an answer

Every day Science:

•I did my B.Sc with zoology, chemistry and applied psychology, so I had the necessary background
•I prepared from Bhatti’s Everyday Science, but I realized that the detail given in the book was way too much. So I focused on remembering key facts and figures

Geography:

•Books consulted: Certificate Physical and Human Geography (3rd Edition) by Goh Cheng Leong published by Oxford University Press and Jehangir Book Depot’s Exam Cram Top 20 Questions for Geography
•This oxford university press book is really good and not available commonly, you should check with the oxford outlet or at old book shops. You will notice that exam cram author has copied his certain answers of physical geography word to word from Certificate Physical and Human Geography. However the exam cram book really helped me prepare human and population geography
•I made some notes as well from the internet, I’ll post them in the geography sub forum
•In physical geography all my long questions were supported with properly labeled diagrams.

In all of my papers, I did not ask for extra sheet, this was something that bothered me a lot. I felt especially depressed in my Islamiat paper, people were asking for extra sheets left right and centre. And I didn’t have any of my long answers going beyond 4 pages. My Urdu vocabulary is good, so I made sure my sentences were properly phrased, but 4 pages was the maximum I could do for a long answer as I made sure I finished each answer in 30 minutes.

[Dr.G.AsgharMemon]

@amubarak :- dear it is really nice of you to reply to our queries.

i have psychology as my optionals. i got 115 marks in it. i attempted paper thus: 2-3 pages , mcq portion was not prepared well enough. no diagrams,tables. i refered feldmans book on introduction of psychology.
Plz throw some light on this subject if it is possible, with refrence to same indicators....as mentioned in ur previous post. did u prepare notes,sovled past papers? got these checked by a qualified proffessional?
regards

[Noor_2009]

@ amubarak

aaa,

can u tell m about psychology papper........... n about books n plz tell me about those books ........ jo zayada parts cover karti haa...as papper 1 n papper 2..... psy objects kasa karna haa..............thanks..

[amubarak]

Dear All,

Sorry for skipping out on psychology and mercantile law earlier:

Mercantile Law:
I have never studied law in my life, I guess now that journalism would have been a better option. But I really enjoyed studying mercantile law, I took help from a law graduate who himself scored 72 in mercantile law in CSS exam. But it didn’t work out for me. However it was a good experience studying something different

Psychology:
I have done my masters in Applied Psychology from Punjab University Lahore. The books I consulted for CSS prep were:
•Gerrig, J. Richard & Zimbardo, G.Phillip. (2005). Psychology and Life. (17th Ed.). Dehli: Pearson Education in South Asia
•Morgan, C.T., King, R.A., Schopler,J. & Weisz, J.R. (1986). Introduction to Psychology. (7th Ed.). New York: Mc Graw Hill Book Company

Morgan’s book is an old book, but it’s great for beginners and you find lot of topics both for paper one and two in it. As for Gerrig and Zimbardo, it’s ‘the book’. It covers almost 80% of paper one and two. Well 80% of what I prepared, because I didn’t prepare 2 chapters each for paper I and II. As for Feldman, it’s a very good book, but I always preferred Morgan over Feldman during my graduation. And at master’s level it was Gerrig and Zimbardo.
David G. Myers is another great author. Make it a point; do not consult books by any Pakistani authors on psychology.
I would like to add that I was not happy with my psychology papers, I was able to answer 95% of MCQ’s correct but in the subjective part, I didn’t write very long answers. The reason being that we had semester system at PU, our papers comprised of MCQ’s, Fill in the Blanks, True False and Short Answers. I was just out of practice of writing lengthy answers as a result. But short answers practice really paid off, it trains one to remember the key phrases and stay to the point.

The name of book is 'psychology and life' it is mentioned after the year of publication(2005). Once you are through PU's applied psychology department, writing a book's reference in APA(American Psychological Association) format becomes second nature. This book is available in the market in paper back. i think the price is 625 Rs, dont get it photocopied. Same goes for David G. Myers, his books are now available in paper back (special edition for south asia) published by Tata-Mcgraw Hill in India.

[amubarak]

Red Hawk: I prepared from Islami Nazria i Hayat by Khursheed Ahmed and attempted the paper in Urdu. I didnt mean to write answers so short (3-4 pages) for a 14 marks question, its just that after HSSC one rarely writes urdu in a hurry, i was completely out of practise for writing urdu as fast as i manage to write english.

Lord AvaLon: thanks and i am a female.

P.S. i guess i should have kept journalism instead of mercantile law, but mercantile law's syllabus seemed shorter and you should be knowing by this time, writng long answers is not one of my favourite jobs. Thats why i lost marks in essay, my essay was just 1800 words long. After writing some 12 odd pages on global warming, i was running out of quality points and wrapped it up.

[happy ending]

hello .

i hope u get to read this . i just wanted to know wht ws ur strategy for preparing psychology . i am well prepared in psych paper 1 . but i am not sure about paper 2 . i have gt some random notes for it . kindly let me know if u have any online source for paper 2 or can refer any good book and also if u can share ur own notes that would be worth it . if it possible otherwise no problem .

God bless i hope you do not mind replying

thanking you

H.E

[amubarak]

Thank you for your message.
First of all, I did not prepare all the chapters, both for paper one and paper two (I wouldn’t suggest that you simple skip as many chapters as i did, but I couldn’t make myself prepare the chapters I didn’t like). The edge I had was my masters in psychology, I was able to get all my MCQ's in paper one correct and I guess I had one MCQ wrong in paper 2.
If you have the concept and know what a certain theory/research/term is about, you don’t need to memorize by heart, you will be able to answer an MCQ about it correctly. The chapters I prepared for Paper 2 were: (if you consider the numbering in syllabus as chapters)

Chapter 1 Completely Prepared
Chapter 2 Prepared till chromosomal abnormalities
(Book consulted: The Developing Child by Helen Bee and Denise Boyd, 10th Edition. Published by Pearson Education in South Asia. Price: Rs. 450)

Chapter 3 and 4: I didn’t prepare

Chapter 5 and 8: Completely Prepared
(Book consulted: Psychology and Life by Richard Gerrig and Phillip Zimbardo, 17th Edition, published by Pearson Education in South Asia. Price Rs. 625)

Chapter 6 : Compeletly Prepared from Gerrig and Zimabrdo mentioned above (you don’t need to do the whole Gerrig and Zimbardo chapter on intelligence, just the topics in syllabus)

Chapter 7: My Own Notes, one just needs bullets points summarizing the main causes, they are more or less over lapping

Chapter 9: I specialized in I/O psychology. If you’d look at past papers they usually ask about the application of I/O psychology. I had done an assignment on this during masters, so that was sufficient.

Send me your email address; I will email the notes I have with me. Try to relate what you study with yourself and those around you, psychology becomes very easy and interesting to prepare and goodluck for you exams!

[INNOVATIVE]

Assalam o alaikum ,it would be an oppurtunity for me to be a part of this forum .i want to opt for psycology paper as my optional and i am an engg. student but i have an interest in this subject .so plz give me ur precious suggestions regarding my querry that shd i go for the psycology paper ? as i have very much impressed by your marks in it .
@ amubarak
the books you have suggested in the recommended books section are suitable enough for the preparation and how much time (roughly idea)will it take for its preparation?
@crankshaft
congratulates on your marvellous score in the pshycology papar .i want to ask one thing how much time have u taken for its study and also have u any idea or background for this subject before? one thing i want to ask what problem u faced in paper 2 of psycology that u couldn't get as good marks as in paper 1. kindly tell me about the books u consulted for psycology. hope for a quick reply

[amubarak]

Thanks for your message. The time required for preparation really depends on your interest. As I am into teaching psychology myself at university level, the key problem students encounter in this case is that they understand everything when they give the text book a read, however when you try to recall it later, one finds that you are not able to phrase your answer as powerfully as required. For the purpose undertake the following steps:
1. In your first attempt high light the relevant material that you will learn by heart, including examples and researches(for examples and researches you can use your own words)
2. Learn definitons by heart, number the points in every topic, you should know the relevant KEY WORDS. It is the use of these key words that makes your answer powerful and concise
3.If you are really into it than psychology should take a week/ten days to prepare
4. When you'll follow this method you will find that you are able to recall a greater percentage on your first revision and it gets better everytime
5. The material that you highlight to remember really matters, if you give all the points even a 4-5 page answer is enough

[nageen]

Hi Amubarak,

I want to opt Geography but I have never studied it earlier.What do you think a person who had never studied it earlier should opt it?
Can a person like me study without taking any tuition?

How much time it takes to prepare syllabus of Geography ?
Any other tip specially for this subject.

I have read your other posts in which you recommended the books.Thank you very much for that. You said in one of your posts that you would post your Geography notes in the relevant sub-forum . I'm waitiong for that as well.

Regards.