Since we can discuss queries regarding interview, Could you please present a breakdown of areas related to which questions might be asked.

What percentage would you assign to questions regarding optional subjects and compulsory subjects as well as Current Affairs (National and International Events)?
I hope you are getting my point.

Arif Bhai!
I am doing my masters at University of Manchester, UK and have vacations for one month from 18 Dec to 18 Jan 2010. Can I request the Commission to adjust my interview and Psychological Test during this period???

I think you should call some officer of the CSS section at FPSC Islamabad and discuss this matter with them. I am not sure whether they will allow you or not.

The areas from which questions can be asked are generally Current affairs, social/ political/ economic issues of Pakistan, your optional subjects, geography, your family background, your qualification or area of expertise, your preferred group/services, your favourite personalities / books etc. etc. Percentage can not be assigned with certainity because I have seen many ppl whose optionals were never discussed at all during the interview and some candidates faced many questions from the optionals.

I will disucss more in detail in the next posts regarding interview strategies and tips.

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Long Live my Homeland

This day you have two group discussions on topics given by the psychological panel, one in Urdu and one in English (almost 8 minutes each).

After that there is a command task to be performed by each of the candidate. Each candidate is assigned a role/designation and asked to conduct a meeting to devise agenda for achieving some goal or dealing with a situation. Each candidiate is allowed some 8 minutes for completing the command task.

Then the final task is the interview with psychological panel. The duration may vary from 10 to 40 minutes.

This completes your psychological test process.

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Long Live my Homeland

Hey seniors

Please identify the issues the panel might ask us...and also the take we should have on issues such as kerry lugar,zardari-nawaz tussle and iran ...


regards

The final interview (viva voce) carries 300 marks and one must take it very seriously. This can make a huge difference in the candidate’s overall standing in the final merit and can prove decisive in one’s allocation into the group/service of choice.

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Long Live my Homeland

Very informative posts Arif bhai. Looking forward to ur posts on interview

in css 2008, in my group there was a gentleman who got his interview rescheduled due to somewhat similar academic considerations by applying to fpsc
so u should also give it a try

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Dr. Hassan Mabroor

Here I will discuss the strategy and tips for psychological test and my experiences of these tests. First of all, remember, being genuine and natural is the best strategy for this part of the exam. However, planning and polishing the different areas and joining them well can prove to be very utile.

Personal Profile:

A useful strategy for psychological test preparation is making a personal profile. This includes (but is not limited to) the following details about you:

• Your family background
• Your academic qualification
• Your achievements in life (if any)
• Your professional experience (if any)
• Your place of birth/ education/ living
• Your hobbies/ interests (your field of interest)
• Your preferred groups/ services (the reasons behind that choice)
• Your parents’ strengths/ weaknesses and their effect on your personality
• Your strengths and weaknesses
• Your personality traits
• Your favorite personalities (3)
• Your favorite books (3)
• Your aims/ inspirations in life
• “Making an autobiography, touching most of the above points, that you can write in or around 8 minutes time”

Note: The timings for different tasks may vary.

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Long Live my Homeland

The profile making is an exercise that is not a direct requirement of the psych test but it is good for a candidate to make it beforehand. It can guide you for your further preparation of psych panel's interview and final interview/ viva. Plus, in the light of heedful observations from your personal profile you can try to give your interview a specific direction or theme.

You should prepare all these areas carefully and try to find out answers to most likely questions from each one of these. The most important part is that how well connected or integrated all these things seem to the psychological panel. For example, if someone says he is a very good cricketer and he is very much fond of social work, or his aim in life is to serve the suffering humanity and he also mentions ‘Imran Khan’ as his favorite personality; it seems quite logical. Then controversial questions regarding his politics or family life can be handled by saying that I like him due to his services for sports and social work and not for his politics. For that I have many differences with him (assuming that you really have those differences). The purpose of saying all this is that the more you link these things with each other, being natural and genuine, the more are your chances of making a good impression on the psychological panel.

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Long Live my Homeland