Smart Way - Qamar Riaz Cheema
 

Hello Dear Friends,

No one can swap hard work and dedication with anything else in success stories that are epic tales of horrible midnight oil smoldering and with sleepless reddish retinas having glimpses of a dozen12 fierce battles fought by pen then a blistering trial with top brass while taking the weight off one’s feet on the other side of the table and story ends with a Hero living happily ever after. You are rightly thinking, Yes I am talking about CSS aspirants.

I will in this session tell you little something practical about CSS exams….No boring lectures (I suppose). Lets start

[B]Exercise 1[/B]-------Smart Working
[B]Task:[/B] In one jump you have to cross a 10 meter high wall?
[B]Conventional Way[/B]

Start jumping and increase your jumping competence in terms of elevation. Try to gain more and more elevation until you cross the barrier of >10 meter. Increase your stamina, exercise hard and do lot of practice and pray to Allah that you may succeed in your attempt to cross the barrier. And it is quite possible that your jumps gain so much of bounce due to your extra toil that eventually You jump and you cross the wall one day(I cant say when that day supposed to be arrived)…..Congratulation!

[B]Smart Way[/B]
Start with your objective: To jump across the Wall
[B]Constraints:[/B] In one single jump only
[B]Resources:[/B] Limited in terms of physical strength but other means may be available
[B]Plan: [/B]Search for an option that can give >10 meter bounce in one jump……May be a spring, may be a propellant based thrust engine…etc according to your resources.
[B]Action:[/B] Provide with the selected option and start a perfect practice to achieve your objective in one go. Pray to Allah for your success. And you make that in one go…. Congratulation.
[B]Conclusion:[/B] Smart way is one of the proven approach to achieve what otherwise seems unbelievable

I don’t want this to be a long boring message… so I will tell you something about practical ways for your Compulsory subjects in next message.
One request……Be patient

[B]Practical Ways to be CSP
Compulsory Papers
Paper I
How to put in order “Essay”?[/B]

Ladies and Gentleman,
Here we are going to explore the techniques to pass essay paper. Essay paper is characteristically considered as one of the toughest nut to crack and plainly it is. Lot of candidates could not cross this very first barrier that desires a good dominion of English syntax, vocabulary, ideas, imagination, spellings, logical reasoning, and excellent writing expertise. SO there are two ways to get through this barrier in one go

[B]Conventional Way:[/B]
Start reading lot of books on history, literature, social sciences. Current affair , philosophy and improve your style of writing, broad your imagination, be factual, memorize quotes and struggle hard all the way so that time may comes when you shall be able to write on any topic in an extemporal tone and off course pray to Allah for your success. (This is one of the proven ways)
Smart Way: ( Based upon our examination system)

Ladies and Gentleman, one thing is positive that Examiner does not know or even does not want to know weather the candidate he is examining has been preparing for last 5 years or for five days! What he wants: an impressive and inspirational essay on the topic.

[B]Objective : [/B]To get passed in English Essay paper
[B]Plan:[/B] If we clearly look into the problem, we will land on a logical consensus that lot of candidates actually got failed due to fact that they had never written anything on the topic before. They were writing first time in the paper. So my dear, we got the key to unlock this blockade. We will be able to pass this paper if we know the probable topics and then we practice them at home.

[B]Action:[/B]
Essay paper is normally composed of following issues
Current Affair (Least burning but really important Issues related to National Interest)
Quotes
Philosophy
And sometimes …. No broad-spectrum category
So perceptibly only contemporary Affairs is the category we need to spotlight maximum.
How to go for an extreme logical conjecture or Educated guess?
Start reading Newspaper (Dawn Recommended)
Go to only editorial page and note few things and save them as
(Example as I made my chronicles)
table attached (See attachment)


So on every day Make this table for at least 3 months and it is better if you can make it in Microsoft Excel worksheet. It is better to read the newspaper daily but if you can not manage no problem, go to [URL="http://www.dawn.com.pk"]www.dawn.com.pk[/URL] explore the paper and save articles in respective folder i.e Energy. So stop making entries 1.5 months prior to the commencement of the papers, since paper has been made. Now it is time for speculation!

Pencil in a graph between dates and Topics in excel and you will find the tendency line that will show you unerringly on the basis of 6 months history that what topic has been discussed by people most and over and over again. Pick at least 4 topics with medium rating, (leave burning issue since they are least projected) and start analyzing them, now you have to find the concealed line in these issues that will be the topic of essay coming in paper. Prepare that topics thoroughly as you will be having all germane articles by renowned writers, edit them in e-form accordingly ( Editing also needs smart working—But that is not the issue of our discussion) and take a hard copy, and please write at least once don’t rely on your skills for God’s sake. This is one of the smart ways to get through the essay and let me assure you that it works.

Pray to Allah, have uncontaminated crystal belief in Allah for your success.


Disclaimer: This post is only based upon practical experiences and sent herewith good intentions.
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[B]Practical Ways to be CSP
Compulsory Papers
Paper II
How to put in order “English II”?

How to Pass…. English II paper[/B]

Ladies and Gentlemen: Here we are going to thrash out something about English paper II. Let me tell you that more than 90% aspirants fail in point of fact in this paper and it is the foremost difficult barrier than any paper else in the business. But don’t worry you will not be among those. Now let’s have a look on traditional way of preparing for this paper and the otherwise.

[B]Conventional Way:[/B]
This paper stresses that you should be shrewd with English as a language, knowing everything about it, inclusive knowledge of every microscopic facet of its syntax, be acquainted with how to read it précisely, write in extemporal way on anything, enhanced vocabulary, grammar characteristics of the language, idiomatic usage, narration techniques, and an excellent grip on your writing skills.

Get some good books on grammar “A Practical English Grammar” by A.J Thomson etc read it entirely without skipping any word. Practice every rule twice a day everyday with apposite guidance. Develop a strapping treaty with the language by reading lot of English novels ( I can suggest but not now) and autobiographies of only English writers, understand analytically the way authors expose there style to recount the philosophies of life and experience. Find Chamber’s Idioms book in the market and go through all idioms from A to Z. Pray to Allah deeply and I know you ll be having lot of nerves in the end to get through it with flying colors. (This is one of the proven way to learn English and towards success)

[B]Smart Way:[/B]

Please note that it is not the shortcut
Objective: To secure 40 marks in English II
Plan: Complete breakdown of English II w.r.t. marks reveals us some facts:
[B]1 Précis:[/B] 25 = 20+5
[B]2 Comprehension:[/B] 20
[B]3 Expansion:[/B] 20
________________________________
[B]Total[/B] 65


[B]4 Pair of Words:[/B] 10
[B]5. Antn and Syno:[/B] 10
[B]6. Direct Indirect:[/B] 5
[B]7. Idioms:[/B] 5
8. Incorrect: 5
___________________________
[B]Total[/B] 35


Our concentration demands and I believe that all of you people will agree that if we are not going to make it in Serial No 1 to 3, a big portion of our marks, it will be very difficult for the examiner to let us pass. But frankly speaking 40% of 65 comes only 26 (Believe me don’t go for calculations) and we need 14 more from Sr 4 to 8 to get through this hurdle.

[B]Action:[/B]
[B]Serial No 1 "Precis":[/B]
This is the easiest part of the paper and since everything is there, you just have to rewrite it in your own words in a quick speed.
(My experience put in the picture me that mostly précis paragraphs are taken from Psychology and Philosophy books. (Again worked) So go and get a pair of books on Philosophy and Psychology, read them with dictionary on and build your vocabulary. Like, 2005 précis, was taken from Modern Reading in Psychology and 2006 précis passage was taken from “Pleasures of Philosophy” by Will Durant, page 6)

Simplest way is, to read one line and on the rough sheet translate it in simple English. Then next line and so on. If you don’t know the meaning of particular word or line, just skip that but leave a mark in your newly translated Para. You have to be extra nippy; don’t go for the whole précis paragraph, only line to line. Cease it and then examine your on new-fangled paragraph. You dig up some message or premise…..Wonderful that s what we need! ****Now put out of your mind about the missing or difficult words just cross them and never ever read them again. Now you have to reproduce a new précis from your own paragraph in your own style with a relevant title. All this activity will cost you 40 to 50 Minutes in paper and that’s reasonable time. Practice can reduce this time to 35 minutes… so do lot of practice.
And pray to Allah for your success.

**** And if you could not get any theme ….Sorry……..now it is the situation of do or die… be cool stretch yourself, have some water, avoid chewing gum, if you are smoker please go out have a cigarette, rebuild yourself, enjoy your life for only 5 minutes…….My dears, every examination is a game of nerves so save them till the last minute. Now take your question paper, and a marker, and in the paragraph simply cross the lines you are not getting and take those which are easily understandable and simply write them as it is with only changes in their original position and if possible replace the common words with their synonyms and don’t forget to give it a title. And pray to Allah that you may succeed.

And since our main objective is only to get 40 marks, we need only 10 marks from this question as 40% of 25 comes only 10.

[B]Serial No 2 Comprehension:[/B]
Next to précis there comes the second easiest question of the paper, though lots of aspirants grumble about its difficulty. And to my experience and analysis this happened only due to the fact that there are number of words whose meanings are not known to them. So a diminutive can be done in this regard until you know the meanings of phrases. Smart way to obtain 40% of 20 which comes only 8, is to practice comprehension. Go get a GRE book especially Big Book, there are lot of comprehensions in this book and for your knowledge our examiner does not write his own comprehension but facsimile it from these books. To save our time, you can first read the questions vigilantly and write on rough sheet, and keep them in mind as much as you can, so when you start reading your paragraph, take notes on rough sheet according to question asked. And I hope questions will not pose a big problem since questions are by and large very straightforward and one can easily find in the paragraph. Only write straight answers since any lengthy answer will doubt the examiner about your understanding! Only thing that matters is your understanding of English as lingo and your style. Pray to Allah after and before writing Answers and I hope you will be very near to your Success.

[B]Serial No 3 Expansion:[/B]
Expansion is one of those questions that decide your victory finally. If you are not getting enough percentage in your Ist two questions, you still have an opportunity to impress the examiner. Expansion demands imagination and ingenuity to write epigrammatic but solid and convincing paragraphs in limited number of words. And the most difficult part in expansion is Start! Most aspirants find it very difficult to take off and very few find a good start. First you have to choose the topic of your choice, and please never choose an easy one nor choose a difficult one. Choose an average theme; you can assign 20 minutes for the expansion with First 10 – 15 minutes only for meditation and 5 minutes to write it down. Please never ever attempt it without apposite thinking. Your expansion needs your mind's eye. Take rough notes, Start, Comparison, Example, and Conclusion. Start should be dramatic and striking. Never give statements in the start, save them for conclusions. Simple words impress more than artificially incorporated difficult words, remain simple but logical. People find it very difficult to find examples. No problem, in meditation time, sort out your brain from Eve and Adm, to Musharaf, and you will find the man with the right example that can fit in your expansion…Guaranteed! And always use authentic examples avoid general examples. One is enough and two are more than enough. Never go for third one since we don’t need that. And in final concluding remarks you need to write in an authoritative manner to hammer your point of view. Most Important thing to remember is that this is an expansion; you can not go against the topic, but you have to expand that statement in your own words. And be sure after writing the paragraph that you well end up in limit of words and after reading you get the idea. In English papers spelling mistake is not a mere mistake but a big blunder. Avoid confusing words and be sure about spellings. And Pray to Allah for your success.
I hope you will be able to achieve your objective 26 out 65, remember every number we loose here, it will taut the situation in next questions as we have to secure one more number in that portion.

[B]Serial No 4 to 8[/B]
Usually my dear friends, this portion is by chance. You know the meaning of Antonyms you get one mark and you don’t know the meaning you don’t get that number. Don’t risk your success at the cost of not preparing Idioms, Pair of Words. Try to memories them in last week before examination start and prepare them full from A to Z, no short cut available here. And smart way to get 14 out of 35 needs a full schedule preparation of English Grammar. Please for God’s Sake if you are not good at rules of grammar, be expert by practice. Leave everything right now and prepare for Grammar. There is no alternate here and no analytical approach can tell you the method to correct the wrong sentence but only rules, so learn the art of English grammar well before you appear in the exam. And pray to Allah for your success he will never let you down there.

[B]Practical Ways to be CSP
Compulsory Papers
General Knowledge Paper II
How to put in order “Everyday Science”?

How to Realize Maximum Marks in General Knowledge Papers?[/B]

Ladies and Gentlemen:
Hard time is over, first day of CSS exam is really a real test of your nerves and skills and first day almost 70% aspirants get knocked down and you don’t observe them on next papers. And take it for granted that if you have done exceptional on first day, next papers will not facade a serious threat to your triumph. So keep in brains that you have to come out of examination hall with lot of buoyancy on first day and this will be the foundation on which you are going to erect your next tactics. And if God prevent, if this is not the case, it will impinge on you badly in next papers. So Pray to Allah for your first two papers especially.
Here now comes the General knowledge papers, and we are now going to evaluate these papers one by one.

[B]Paper I Everyday Science[/B]
Mostly mistreated part of CSS business. Yes it is true; aspirants generally overlook this paper and give very modest time to this paper. And in fact they are not absolutely wrong but little less smart. And it is very humanely that we ignore the weak and prepare for the tough rivalry. But this will not be the case in our Smart Working since we are now going for winning line of attack in the contest ahead. So our objective for this paper will be entirely different from rest of our papers.

[B]Objective: [/B]To Obtain 90% Marks in Everyday Science Paper
[B]Plan:[/B] To few it may be a very idealistic approach but it is possible …….Guaranteed
A close analysis reveals us that Everyday science papers consist of following pattern based 3 papers (2004, 05 and 06):

[B]Question having Only 1 Marks = 60 questions (6 x questions with 10 parts)
Questions having only 2 Marks =17 Questions (3 questions with average of 5 parts)
Questions having 5 Marks = 5 Question (2 x questions with 2.5 average parts)
Questions having 10 Marks = 3 questions (You have to write a descriptive note on a single topic)[/B]


And there are following broad categories

[B]1. Physics = 35 % contribution
2. Chemistry= 20% Contribution
3. Biosciences = 15%
4. Space = 9%
5. Computers = 11%
6. Misc = Rest[/B]

So our main area of deliberations should be the MCQs having only one mark and it is advised that attempt all 60 MCQs and since 1 wrong MCQ will only charge you a single mark. If there is tie between 2 question, for example There is a descriptive question about Pollution having total of 10 marks and an MCQ question in you which you only know 5 questions and rest you don’t know, please go for the sure 5 numbers weather you know every thing about Pollution. Rationale in the wake of this advice carries the weight of certitude of 5 numbers which you will definitely gain and in descriptive questions you can not get beyond 7 marks how exquisite you have written your answers, and still that is unsure. Then you must go for the questions having 2 marks and then 5 and in last resort for 10 mark question. Reason yourself in skeptical questions, think cool and for God’s sake never go for blind and wild guess, you are an erudite and smart person and must have an educated guess …….It works.

Now we have to prepare for the test, very simple. Go to library and get a hold of handbooks of Physics, Chemistry, and Biology, and a good detailed book on everyday science they have an Index ordered in alphabetically and try to memories and understand them daily every term since you never know which might be in paper.

You should be knowing:
[B]All Scientific Abbreviations from A to Z
All Units from A to Z
All Human parts from A to Z
All big inventions from A to Z[/B]
And please never rely on your skills and background knowledge since this is the only paper in which you can make a lot of difference with others. And never plan half but always prepare full. And one thing you must be doing in next hour is the installation of Encarta Encyclopedia in your pc. Pick a subject and discover each and every facet of that topic. Pray to Allah for your success because with out his consent you can not be successful.
[B]Request:[/B] Start Preparing
Thanks for your kind reading. Pray for me and my family and do reply this message if you find it practical.

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[B]Practical Ways to be CSP
Compulsory Papers
General Knowledge Paper III
How to put in order “Pakistan Affairs”?

How to Realize Maximum Marks in Pakistan Affairs?[/B]

Ladies and Gentlemen:
Here we are now in the phase where you can not make difference without Hard Working. A simple word for any success is “Hard Working”. But in my point of view Hard Working can never out class Smart Hard Working. So always think beyond the normal expectations of a common human being, plan everything in your life even if it is the Pakistan Affair paper, and then develop a strategy to accomplish that goal while praying to Allah for your success since if he does not want, every planning and strategy just can not do anything.

[B]Objective:[/B] To Obtain 70% Marks in Pak Affair Paper

[B]Plan:[/B]
Now dear Ladies and Gentlemen, every paper ahead contains a prescribed course content that is available with FPSC. So now every plan onward will be same largely if not entirely for every paper ahead. To secure 18-20 marks in MCQs and 10 -12 marks in rest of 4 questions.

[B]Action:[/B]
A close analysis of course content and papers of last 5 years of Pak Affair shows that examiner has emphasized more on post independence era than pre partition events. Mode of paper was usually creative and you won’t find such questions in the course books. So a different strategy needs for Pak Affair paper. General categories of Pak affair paper are as follow w.r.t. frequency on the basis of last 5 years:

[B]Personalities = 12%
Ideology = 8%
Pre Partition events = 35%
Constitutional Developments + Problems = 30%
Current Issues i.e Water = 7%
Misc = 8%
[/B]
So to embark on homework one must avoid choosy study since this is a competition and half prepared aspirant can’t win the game…….That s for sure. Organize a consolidated catalog of all questions, segregate them in different categories and read them circumspectly. Since most of the questions apart from few exceptions are tricky and needs serious thought and a thought searching answer. An irrational answer will not serve the purpose and we will not achieve our objective.
Main emphasis should be laid on Pre Partition events and then so on with other categories. Select recommended books by commission and read them in time frames. Such as when you are preparing 1900-1906 era, read from apiece book, more than ever Formative Phase by KBS, Emergence of Pakistan by CH M Ali etc Jinnah of Pakistan by Stanely Walport or any useful book you hit upon appropriate, never read in disconnect sessions but in single session. Don’t make notes but note important points. You should extract important lines in exact words, make a separate register and write quotations of different authors. [Since in paper you have to write these quotations as “ Pakistan”, said Ziring in his book about Pakistan, “ is a state of idealogy………..] Read at least two to three recent but decent books on Pakistan and you should be au fait with the contemporary issues. Please don’t skip any topic how meager it may be. And remember when you are preparing Pakistan Affair, don’t prepare extraneous paper alongwith. Choose a related subject that may provide you an extra help and vice versa. If possible study in group, and hold group discussions on each topic since a thing you learn through discussion will have a deep dent on your memory rather you read alone. And share out sections to each member of your group and ask him to give you lecture about that section or topic in a fully prepared class room style, black board, cross questioning, reasoning and understanding the motives and consequences of a particular event. Think what if this event happened in a different way what would be the situation. But that needs dedication and commitment and honesty among the group members otherwise that will be a mere waste of time.

For MCQs, do consult a good book but if you have planned for 20 out of 20 marks in this section, then you have to create your own database from books and from current affairs otherwise you will not be going to achieve your goal. Pray to Allah a lot for your success before and after paper, think positive always and don’t take CSS as a very big achievement in your life, it is just a test for Job, That’s it. Say your prayers five times a day and be down to earth always.

Note: We are almost done with compulsory papers with only Islamic Studies left. After that I will be posting some useful tactics about how to attempt paper and some smart ways to write answers of a particular question.


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Ladies and Gentlemen,

A success may seem to be a very stirring and moving and one may attribute it to hard working. No, my dear friends, any success comes only by blessing of Allah, and we should not try to divide it between My hardworking and Allah’s blessing. It is only Allah’s blessing that you worked hard otherwise you can not.

We are here with last but not least post. Islamic study is an equally very important paper and I rate it with English papers, since there are only three papers in this cut throat competition that are required to be conceded individually, no other support. And according to my knowledge other than English, lot of aspirants get failed in this very important subject. However, this paper should not cause grave threat, otherwise I may doubt about your knowledge in your faith.

[B]Objective: To get pass in the Islamic Studies paper[/B]

Plan: Course content simply reveals that there must be questions about General teachings, beliefs, and Last ten Surah’s of Holy Quran. ( Last two year’s papers tell otherwise……….A commanding answer about certain critical issues. According to a general discussion with a top rank officer in a private meeting exposed me the reality recently that FPSC is now thinking to discover the latent knowledge from Aspirants, and they are discouraging rote learning and simple questioning and every question will demand a very creative and logical answer ). So we have to face the music of creative thinking and logical reasoning. Be ready for that.

[B]Action:[/B]

As everyone of you aware of the pattern of Islamic study paper at this instant, 20 MCQs with 10 translations, so if I hope there will not be any problem in securing 10 marks concerning Surah’s. And with only a petite concentration on facts and figures of Islamic teachings you can make safe rest of 10 too, as evident from last two years paper. But never rely on last year’s paper since there is only one thing is certain in CSS business and that is uncertainty. Get a good book on Islamic Encyclopedia and read that book at least once.

As for as mode of writing is concerned, it depends on your previous education, in either mode you can go. Since I took urdu media to attempt the paper so I may not be able to help aspirant that are going to attempt it in English in some particular aspects.

Ladies and Gentlemen: One thing I observed in Islamic Study paper, that more you familiar with Arabic more you will be in position to write Quranic Verses in your answers. But take it for granted you may not be able to memories them on last day.

Smart working lies in the preparation well in advance.

There are generally following topics:

[B]Creation of Universe, evolution theory and Islam
Woman and its Status:
Social System of Islam
Economic System
Justice
Terrorism etc
[/B]
So get some good books (Of good Scholars) on these issues and just clear your concepts about Islamic point of view. There may be controversial issues and you may not be able to judge in between them. Then don’t try to pull the strings in one direction, just remain neutral and you can quote your incompetency since you are not supposed to give an authoritative judgment about issue. And please set aside your sect for a while, and be a humble and logically reasoned muslim. “Islami Nazria-e-Hayyat” by Porf Khurshid Ahamd is strongly recommended book for clear concepts about Islamic systems. Make a habit to learn one Verse (Ayah) daily, and write it in your register dedicated to Islamic study under definite heading. Like you learn a verse about Woman, so write in Woman portion, try to remember it by Surah No and Verse No alongwith translation. Do study Friday feature in Jang urdu, and cut the useful articles and segregate them accordingly.
Study Islam thoroughly weather you are appearing for CSS or not since you have to face the biggest examination sooner or later, so prepare for that exam too. At least read something from Holy Quran daily with translation and say your prayers five times, but only for salvation, not for mere CSS.

Pray for me and my family, I really need your prayers.
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Sir chaaa gye hain aap to
 

@ Qamar Sb.

Sir great job.you have helped us in a way,we are not able to get these things by our own in the mean time.

Nehayat Shukrya
Allah apko apki family n aziz o aqqarib ko apni hifz o amaan me rakhay n her jaeiz khuwahish halla tareekay say poori kerny ki taufeeq day.Ameeen

Looking forward for your other replies and suggestions.