thanks 4 sugestns... " wat kind of details i wanted to know about ur experience"!!..well these were nuthing more than ur
css exam experience Sir..,,,

best of luck

regards

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..."Every exit is an entry somewhere else."...

Salam Sir Mahmood.

I appeared in CSS-2007 but failed in many papers. Now Iam willing to appear in CSS-2009, but get bogged down when it comes to presentation, i.e. writing style. I try to cram every new word that I come across, but so far, Iam depressed with my vocab. I feel provoked when I find out my way of presenting ideas is rudimentary. Dejection and disconsolation ramps up when trying to articulate in A class formal language. Now this problem is getting so much on my nerves that Iam starting to forget even my native language. I believe I was good at english before hankering for CSS. All this misery is because Iam not getting guidance from any proficient person and Iam mostly going on my own.

The point of all the clack is that, would you please tell me how many difficult words are sufficient in one paragraph and how good I need to be at english. And also how much hand writing counts in the exam. My distress will be appeased, perhaps transiently, by getting inspiration from someone who has passed the exam Iam yearning for.

Thanx

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Stealth or Death

@kashif

while reading your post, it seems like you have tried your best to put in words that are hardly in anyone's vocabulary. but i must tell you something; that wont take you far.

I dont know if you have ever read any of my posts. you will probably notice two things about my writing. one, i dont write difficult words to impress people. two, i dont use text language. unless it is very necessary to use, avoid the hard diction. why? i will tell you.

the first thing that you want to do is to make the examiner read what you have written. now if you make it so difficult for the examiner that he has to consult dictionary at every step, he wont even look at your paper and will either give you average or below average marks. you want to engage him, not distract him. think of it as a conversation. people like those people who are easy to understand; people like ideas that are easy to understand.



your goal should be to make the person understand, not bamboozle him. the examiner will not be amused if you keep giving him a hurdle after hurdle. he wont even go through all of what you have to say.

in essence you should try to make your writing as effective as possible. your ideas should be clear, and precise.

i remember the precis from 2006 paper. it was the most idiotic one i had ever seen. in my view the paper setter had taken a paragraph, had gone through the electronic thesaurus, looked for some hard words in place of the easy ones and had placed them there. the end result was that i could only think one thing: the papers setter was an idiot.

if you want to have a look at some effective, simple english, try reading Amartya Sen's The Argumentative Indian. I think that will give you a good idea of what i am talking about.

i think someone has given you the wrong idea about the exam. I hope you understand what i am trying to say.

the positive in your writing is that you have a good grip over grammar. dont spoil that impression. use simple language. you will always succeed.

regards

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thankyou so much sir mahmood. i desperately needed such advice. the problem with me is i get overrun by amnesia whenever i try to write on paper. while writing on the computer, there are theasaurus, urdu-english etc lexicons available for assistance, but when writing on paper, its competely different. i think all this problem is because i never attended any english school or institute to learn the language and whatever english i know today is what i learnt during my BSc(Hons) in software engineering. But anyways, i must admit that i desperately needed morale lift that you just gave me. i am grateful to you for that.(and proof of soothing is that, iam not using any theasarus while writing this post, whereas i used it extensively when writing the last post

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Stealth or Death

@mhmmdkashif:- Brother the amnesia in your case is not becos of lack of words, but ideas. be engaged in varied reading, try noting important points such as specific arguments, details, concept maps.
i would like to share a word on improving vocabulary. i believe that words are just like pegs of ideas. now keep your subjects in view and read time ang again its glossary of words, these are the words u will need the most while attempting paper. u should have ample words relating to sociology[if u opt this subject] likewise with other papers. extensively read newspaper for current affair vocabulary, diction, arrangment.. however do not get OVER RUN by number of words.go for ideas, and words will naturally flow to you.
Afterall the piece you r reading now is only a collection of ideas[suggestions etc] but it is knit in ideas!
it doesnt mean that u become totally carefree. It is essential to work on grammatical structure ,reason is that your english should be understood sentence by sentence, but it should retain structurly forceful arrangment.for this i would recommend you to read TOEFL, read model language. it is, according to my estimations, easy way of avoiding common mistakes in grammar.
secondly, do not think that lack of words was the only reason for your failure [in 2007] there could be other reasons try to sort out those.practise past papers, have them checked by a proffesional in his field, also by a css qualifer,if possible.


wish u success in upcoming exam.

regards
dr.g.asghar

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Quote: i hate quotes !

Dr Memon

I truly admire your advice and realize that heeding to what u said is the key to success. But the problem is that Iam not in touch with any qualified person or teacher, or even a group studying together. Iam going on my own, and thats why I get confused where to stop, how to asses requirements of the exam and sort of other problems like these. The reason I have reckoned accounted for failure in previous attempt is that perhaps my study was not focued to the point and amnesia arose because I couldnt recall the substance I had studied regarding the question. And the other reason which I believe caused failure in the exam is that I was unable to adopt a passable writing style which would have presented my ideas in a more lucent way. Nevertheless, I think I have figured out my weaknesses and need a bit of encouragement and supervision to attain my goal, but the problem is that, I dont know where to get it from???

And one last thing, where in hyderabad do u live.

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Stealth or Death

@ Kashif

because you had just put in the words from the thesaurus, your last post did not feel natural. the subsequent ones do look like to have been written by a good writer. there is one little thing that i wanted to mention though;avoid long sentences. long sentences usually lead to many errors. short sentences are the way to go.

also dont rote learn the words. instead of that try learning the language through reading a lot of material. newspapers are fine but to tell you the truth, most of the English newspapers use wrong English in Pakistan. if you keep reading wrong English, you will inculcate it. as a result you will write wrong english. "you write what you read". keep that in mind.

the only exception is DAWN. they write correct English. but their English is a little too insipid. what i will advise you is to read any of the foreign newspapers that are readily available on the internet. NY times, LA times, Washington post, Guardian and Observer are good newspapers. also you should read magzines. the one that i recommend is the weekly Economist London

try to read a lot of good English books. read foreign authors. not only will they improve your English language skills, they will also add to your ideas. then when the time of the exams come, you will have enough words, expressions and ideas to put them down on paper.

regards

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I dont know how to return the favour, Sir mahmood. Intrinsically, I applaud to what you said as it has truly uplifted my self-esteem.

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Stealth or Death

dont mention it. you dont have to return the favor. but keep in mind what i have said. start reading what i have told you. read the Argumentative indian to begin with. and i hope you succeed in the next exam.

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for those of you who want to read my blog, please send me a private message since i can not display it here per policy.

, your view is inrespect of attempting or dishearting is good but again , one can not be guided by another cause no similarities are found amoungst us who are trying their best for getting on that list.

although you have said for betterment and not dishearting yet it dependence that how one has tried his best. so its a natural phenomenan , heart breaks.......dil to tot tah yah yar.