So as it happens, I live overseas, and wish to appear for CSS 2018. Now might be a good time to start the preparation, and I want to ask you guys if you know anyone who has studied for CSS overseas? The challenges are different in the sense that I do not have access to academies, notes or books that are commonly available in bazars in Pakistan.

I am essentially on my own here. And your help will keep me going.

By profession I am a doctor, and have a very comfortable life outside Pakistan, but there is a little hole in my soul, knowing that I ALWAYS wanted to do CSS but ended up in an entirely different profession in a different country. But time has not run out yet, and I CAN do it, even if my life is hectic.

Do you have any suggestions, any past experiences, anything at all really, that might be helpful?

Many thanks!

Have a look at the subject groups. Opt for the ones you have an interest in. Read Foreign Policy and the Economist for current affairs. Someone here on the forum recommended this to me and believe me i cant thank her enough for this. Build a strong relation with senior members here who have CSS experience (recognisable by their badge) and are oft-present. Dawn e-paper is going to be your pal since you're abroad. If you're in a fix and cant choose between subjects take a look at the past papers it really helps. And, finally, revive your thread during the day hours (Pakistan time, that is.) tomorrow so that the seniors can respond. Salam.

Yes, it is the most appropriate time to start the preparation for CE-2018 But don't go for that without proper guidance. I recently ended up with my third attempt. I can share my books and notes with you.
Best of Luck

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Thank you for your kind words and suggestions! I am going to start with the compulsory subjects first. For that, I am hoping to start with Pakistan Affairs, as I already have an interest in it, and can do it relatively easily. How may I contact you for your notes and help?

Thank you Outsider. Reading Dawn and Guardian is a habit for me since a long time, so I hope I have that covered.

For all senior members, I may be depending heavily on your guidance to get through this. There are some online academies offering notes and access to lectures, but that approach to me is too unidimensional and static to work for CSS, in my humble opinion. Thats where all your experience comes in, and I will depend on it to lead me.

I wish you the very best of luck. I myself started as an overseas aspirant and this year i appeared in my last attempt. If you need any help, i can guide you well. best wishes.

As long as the academies and notes are concerned then it doesn't matter whether you have access to them or not. But, it does matter if you do not have the access to the quality books. Here in Pakistan, most of our reliance is on the books which are published by local publishers because their books are specially written by keeping in mind the syllabus of the subjects but we do not limit ourselves to only these locally published books. Well, there are also books published by these local publishers which are written by CSP officers, which are quite popular among the aspirants. But, along the preparation one needs other reference books which might be written by Pakistani or foreign authors, published by internationally renowned publishers, and probably they are available where you live. Plus, you must have someone in Pakistan who can buy books for you and ship them to your home. As, you can not rely only on pdf sort of notes or books. You need to really think that how you can solve this problem out.

Dawn and Express Tribune are two popular newspapers which are really good for Essay, Current Affairs and Pakistan Affairs. Your main focus should be on editorials and opinions while reading newspaper. You don't need to read whole newspaper, just skim through the news and then focus on what has been conveyed in the editorials and what is written in the opinions. Don't rely too much on foreign newspapers as they will be telling you a different story of happenings in Pakistan. You need to know what our thinkers have to say, that's why I suggested you to read these two Pakistani newspapers. You may read any foreign newspaper of your choice if needed but these two will suffice.

Plus, FPSC recommends a magazine named 'Jahangir World Times' for the preparation of current affairs. It is published monthly by Jahangir Book Depot. The same content which is published in the magazine is also replicated on their website, once the magazine is out. Follow the hyperlink which will lead you to their website.http://jworldtimes.com/jwt2015/. You can have its membership for a year by paying Rs.3500. It's quite popular magazine among aspirants. And, its publisher is also loved among aspirants for the quality books they provide aspirants with. For other publishers, you can search on the google, and one more thing I suggest you before you do anything is that you must go through the threads as there's almost every problem addressed on this forum which an aspirant may encounter while preparing for this exam.

Thank you for this! Yes, I do read Dawn on a daily basis anyway. And Guardian. Its been a habit. I will subscribe for Jahangir World Times too.

What I find confusing is that while I can certainly ask my friends and family in Pakistan to buy books and ship them, I want to know exactly what I should and shouldn't get. And thats proving tricky so far. What books to get for what subjects, where to get notes from, that sort of stuff.

I can order and get them shipped only so many times. So I need to get it right. You're right, these forums will prove to be of tremendous help. Everyone seems to have an opinion about which books to choose and prefer, so Im guessing I should go with the ones more commonly suggested. For e.g Ikram Rabbani's book for Pak Affairs has been widely suggested. So Im making a list and will hopefully have them shipped.

At the risk of sounding intrusive, may I ask how your exams went this time? Did you go for any online academies, or did you only rely on guidance by the seniors? I would love to hear more from you.