what do they look for in an essay?
my command on english is ok. several of my articles have been published in leading english newspapers of pakistan. my teachers were covinced that i would definitely pass this time around.i passed essay in 2014 but fell through in 2015 with 30 marks.
my question is what is the criteria for passing the essay paper.?
some say that we should write in a very simple language.is that really something we should be doing on a competitive exams level?
some say it is the essays length
while others think that the length of the outline matters most.

so seniors please help me out

what is it exactly?

Take heart, my friend.

Write a good essay and bring forth honour and victory.

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D:

We will know more once the successful candidates shed some light on how they attempted the Essay paper.

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When essay is in slaughter, it becomes very difficult to pass the subject. I qualified css in 2011 and now in this year too and both times, essay was targeted by the authorities as most candidates flunked in it.
Remember just one thing: knowledge counts 60 per cent while language carries the 40 per cent weightage to pass this paper. Even if your language is normal but you give the ideas required, you can surely make it.

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Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.

I am having a feeling that probably this time length of the Essay was the deciding factor...!!

@METLO

so you are saying that its the ideas that count more?

Cogito, Samman, Lee, King Falcon... Was there anything 'wrong' with your essays?

One cannot say for sure but I wrote less than 2500 words, however, that doesn't mean people in the past have not passed with fewer words. I also wrote in joining handwriting and didn't fill sheets by wasting space and using large fonts. Attempted War on Terror and tried my best to cover it from all aspects I could think of. I did support the notion that WOT has contributed to the growing abuse of human rights.

Last year almost 50% of the candidates passed in Essay but most failed in Precis and Islamiat.

FPSC seems to pass few people and target one or the other compulsory subjects so that few people have to be psychologically tested and interviewed. There will be fewer legal cases to deal with as well. This is shear injustice, if 7000 people can pass Essay then let 7000 pass Essay, if 7000 can pass all compulsory and optionals, then let 7000 people be tested/interviewed.

Who stopped them from implementing the MCQ screening test prior to CSS Exams to filter out a lot of people so that there is less burden on FPSC and their interviewing board who are too busy to interview the best talent in the country.

How many pages is 2500 words in your handwriting King? Just to get an idea of how much I should be writing

Bro in Pakistan it always is more about quantity than quality. If only we had some criteria or benchmark to compare our performance...this way we are only heading into a black hole not knowing what to do and what to expect.