Having cleared my written portion of the exam, I thought to share my strategy and recipe to prepare for the exam with all those who want to appear for this exam in future. So here you go:

Background and decision making:

 Back in December 2005, I passed out from my medical school and thought to appear in the CSS.
 In January 2006, some friend of mine suggested me to join some academy in Lahore to prepare for the exam.
 I went to Lahore and reached there on January 27, 2006 and joined the academy next day.
 Prepared in Lahore for next three month and came back to my native place by first week of May 2006. So I prepared for the exam for no more the 3 months in a row for my first attempt.

My first attempt:

It went well but I failed in only one subject and it was English essay. Though a failure but results were encouraging and I thanked God since it was no bad with a preparation of mere 3 months.

The Gap:

Went to do my house job and for 6 months I was completely out of touch.

Preparation for Second attempt:

By December 16 2006, I was done with my first six months of house job. Since the schedule for the CSS 2007 got announced I thought to move to Karachi for exclusive preparation. I started preparation for in January 2007 and appeared in March. Alhamdulillah I passed it!

So total time that I spent for preparation was six month with a gap of Six month between both cycles of three month for first and second term.

My skills:

I was a medical student with a good deal of stamina for study moreover I was good at English since beginning and use to write for periodicals in English so it was not an issue. I was widely read but my current affair knowledge was rudimentary but my literature knowledge was exceptional for my age.

At Academy:

The academy did help me in two ways. One it was like a guided tour to CSS, two, it had a great influence on my mind since I got encouraged and had a chance to compare myself with a lot of aspirants. About material, I didn’t followed any of the notes available with the academy but learnt a great deal of stuff regarding how to approach the questions in the Examination. Here I would like to mention two persons, Prof. Dr Mehdi Hassan and Mr. Mehmood Jafri (CSP). Prof. Mehdi Hassan is a familiar name for those who have opted for the journalism since his book is recommended by FPSC. He was the person who made my life easier with journalism and I earned maximum marks in this subject in my first attempt. After him Mr. Jafri taught me how to attempt the paper not only of his subject of Indo & Pakistan history but his principles applied to all the subject.

This was how academy helped me out

After Academy: First attempt preparation:

My daily routine use to start news paper i.e. Dawn. I use to chew this paper and use to read it for atleast 3 hours a day and I am of the view that 50 percent of the CSS examination can be passed by reading Dawn only (Any one can disagree but its my personal opinion).

Now I am going to write about preparation for the individual subjects:

1. First Attempt: English Papers

I didn’t prepare for these papers except reading the newspaper

2. First Attempt: Everyday Science:

Being a medical student, I use to teach few of my fellow aspirants so it helped me to sail smoothly

3. First Attempt: Current Affairs:

Daily Dawn with world map hanging in front of me is the gear. I use to plot every event on map and use to analyze it on the basis of geography. This helped me a lot. Moreover, selected programs of BBC world helped me a great deal.

4. First Attempt: Pakistan Affairs:

Dawn news and my preparation for the optional subject Indo-Pak History helped me

5. First Attempt: Islamiyat:

Remembered the translations of Surahs and use to read the special column of Dawn every Friday on editorial page.

6. First Attempt: Indo & Pakistan History:

K. Ally both volumes plus quotations narrated by Mr Jafri back during classes. He taught us to deal the questions by giving as many quotations as possible. He gave us idea about the relative importance of topics and helped us a lot.

7. First Attempt: I.R.

Parakash Chandra with input from the teacher from academy who gave us a list of important topics and style to approach the question

8. First Attempt: Public Administration:

Book by Sultan Khan, nothing else just straight study, no tricks nothing in this subject

9. First Attempt: Journalism:

Prof. Mehdi Hassan’s lectures and book by Imtiaz Shahid helped

10.First Attempt: Sindhi

My previous study of the subject helped plus the books by A. Jabbar, Leghari, A. Majeed Sindhi helped but no need to study all thoroughly. One needs to go for topics of interest.

This how I prepared for the first attempt. Now I will put some light on my preparation for the second attempt:

Essentially, my preparation for the second attempt had foundations in my preparation for the first attempt. The only difference was style of working. I will try to highlight those points only:

1. I got hold of a computer and 24 hrs internet connection.
2. I downloaded the BBC ticker for my desktop that used to display the current news.
3. Set of CDs from Virtual University on my subjects.
4. Started a current affairs blog for the practice of writing.
5. Famous documentaries by different channels

That’s it. So having all those things with me I started my journey. I use to write and write and write for more than 4 hours a day and use to publish it on my blog available for the public viewing. Latter, I deleted it due to some reasons.

 I use to follow news from BBC’s ticker.

 I use to watch the lecture on CDs that I purchased from VU

 I use to transcribe the text from documentaries and use to read and read for sometime. (This helped me a lot with writing)

 I use to try guessing the questions for the examination and use to write as if in Exam, used to check, modify and read them afterwards.

 I use to practice drawing the world map and practically did the same in my papers too.

Conclusion:

 Hard work is necessary but smart work is very important.
 Try to stay analytical.
 Practice, practice and practice writing about anything you feel important.
 Daily Dawn is must read thing everyday.

This is my success story. If you do have any questions, you can put and I will try to answer.

Dear Dr.
what abt sindhi subject, cos m very weak in sindh poetry, particularly that of Shah Abdul Latief? should i opt for that?

@Bokhary: Please check this thread out for your question regarding Sindhi

Click here.

__________________
Dr Farrukh Raza

Persistence is Victory!

salam

can u please guide us how to prepare for journalism ............how can we boost our score in this subject....what steps we must take.............how to attempt questions....is it necessary to write quotations to boost our score in this subject...i dont want to just pass in this subject....kindly guide us

Book by Sultan Khan for public admin....is this book sufficient....???
can u please tell us ur score in this subject..............

regards

In journalism, I happened to read Imtiaz Shahid's book namely Mass Communication and it proved great moreover its an advice to get hold of Mass Communication lectures recorded by Virutal university and delivered by Prof. Mehdi Hassan. It will really boast the score. You can buy the lecture CDs from VU's online book shop.
Quotations obviously use to increase score but in my case I didn,t write 'em.
In public administration, Sultan Khan's book is sufficient but Niazi's book is also good. Moreover one need to stay updated with the recent issue through internet and newspaper. I happened to watch Pub Ad lecture by Seemi Waheed on VU Cds and it helped in making charts and etc that you cant find in Sultan's book so it is advisable to have a look at those lecture too. One can again buy them from online book store of VU.

__________________
Dr Farrukh Raza

Persistence is Victory!

Dear dr.
kindly reply this that what is the nature of medical test conducted in css?
one of my friends told me that its very typical test just like the one taken in ISSB for joining army. what is your opinion?
regards,
bokhary

@Bokhary: Its not that difficult. At the moment you need to concentrate on your written and when time comes you can start worrying about it. You can find the details of medical test in the form you will get for application.

__________________
Dr Farrukh Raza

Persistence is Victory!

sir,

From where i can find lectures of prof mehdi hassan.........as i cant find them in virtual bookshop......are they available at virtual bookshop???

regards

They are available with code MCM304 "Mass media in Pakistan" by Syed Mohammad Mehdi.

__________________
Dr Farrukh Raza

Persistence is Victory!

dear I am just beginner in the field of CSS .Please guide me that ,are six months enough to be well prepared for above mentioned exam. or not.