As you describe in you thread that your optional are socialogy and jounalism.i am also going to appear in exam with Accounting,socialogy,jounalism,islamic law,pnjabi.plz help me regarding socialog and jounalism being a senior member.I am studying now a days these subjects which are intersting and i hope that your suggestions would refine my study.plz keeping in view that i have finance backgroung(MBA Finace,ICMA inter).so these subjects are new for me and i dont know technical points about it.All other seniors are Also requested to comment.

Thanking you in anticipation

Gul: Have you made any personal notes on anything that you have read? Some people make notes as they go along with their readings. Others dont, and then make notes afterwards, which are more of a precis of their original readings. I have made notes of Sociology (Sociologists, Theories, Pakistan's Issues), Indopak history and Journalism as I was reading them. Now I am done with the reading part as well and am trying to focus more on the mcq's and revision from the notes.

For indopak history, please consider consulting Azmat Farooqui's book for indopak as it is a collection of his personal notes on indopak history. Outlines are given for each question and important points are included as bullet headings, which makes it a lot easier to review.

For sociology, please consider JBD's exam cram book. It has 20 key questions for sociology paper alongwith mcq's at the end. In addition, please refer to Muhammad Khalid's book Sociological Theory: A historical perspective published by kifayat academy. This book will cover all your key sociologists: Marx, comte, weber, spencer, durkheim, and ibn e khaldoon.

For journalism and geography I'll post my own outlines soon, and will also post my own time table here later today inshAllah. All the best!

Salman..Thanks.

yeah I am finished with reading.as far as notes are concerned.i am doing that right now.I am finished with indo pak.sociology and journalism.and i am making notes of them along with revision.

plz tell me your method of making notes in details as i end up copying the meterial on my notebook.infact i have never made any notes.i just read books and that's it.so now i am facing difficulty making notes.plz tell me your own method of making notes.

I already have loads of books here.further books will turn me crazy for sure.

I am using 6 books for this purpose.they are quite good.I am satisfied with the books.they are enough.But i will try to get this second book which you mentioned as I need some material on sociologists.

yeah plz post your time table.I will be waiting.Thanks.

Gul! 6 Books for sociology????? Less is more my lady! Thats way too many books and I feel bad for you for having to read all that material. About Azmat Farooqui's book, its basically a collection of outlines about every single topic for both paper 1 and 2, and i strongly suggest that you get it since its definitely different from any other books you have. It will serve as kind of a reinforcement of what you have previously studied. Anyway, about making notes, heres my strategy:

Once you have done a thorough reading of the material, you already have the basics in your head, notes are only a method to recall all that information by using smaller terms. Make your notes more like an outline. For example, here's the question about cultural impacts of arab conquest upon india from indopak history (also included in this year's paper):

Intro: A prelude with high verbosity, include the darkness prevalent in subcontinent, the advent of islam and its prowess, and the wonderful impacts islam had the potential of leaving upon its areas of influence. dont get too much in the whole detail of raja dahir's excesses or the pirates etc.

Impacts:
1: Arts - Persian paintings.
2: Music - Incorporation of arabic raga's with indian ones.
3: Architecture: Grandeur, arches, domes.
4: Language: introduction of persian and arabic in india, foundation for urdu
5: Religion: Spread of Islam, Sufism
6: Move to Egalitarianism: Class structures of india shattered
7: Education
(there can be many more added to this list)

Critical Analysis:
- Pre-existing indian culture changed by islamic conquest
- Introduction of islam as a cultural element in india.

Conclusion:
-Islamic culture augmented indian society
-Cleared ambiguities, promoted egalitarianism, laid basis for progress.

This is how i make my notes. basically they're just outlines of all the important topics so that it will take me a lot less time to go over them and refresh my mind when exams are right around the corner inshAllah. I hope this helped.

Shahid:
I would recommend covering as much current affairs related topics in both journalism and sociology as possible, since the recent trend has been one of making papers very general and not book-specific.

NO.6 are good enough.I dont read all.I just read the best one where ever i find it. Na na dont feel bad for me.I love to mess around things especially books.

Ok.I will definitely buy that book.Bus samajh lo aa gayi....

You are right.Thats why at first I decided to go through the books.Now I am clear with things only notes are left.

That's quite good.You know tomorrow I was making notes of M.B.Qasim and I was just putting all the stuff like pirates,ships,treasures,etc on paper.And I thought that I was just copying all the material.
So I think at first I should try to distinguish between what is important and what is ''aewain'' I mean unimportant for notes.

Outline is very good.I got your point.That's quite easy and I think it will save my lots of time too.Less things to copy I suppose.

Thank you so much Salman for your time.Thanks a lot.

Shahid,

Yeah you are right.They are quite interesting subjects.No problem if you are MBA you can do it.My bro is engineer and he is also opting these two subjects.

Dont worry they are quite easy subjects and scoring too.Just get the books mentioned in the threads and start reading them.Just keep syllabus in front of you and shuroo ho jao.

Work hard and stay relevant to syllabus and nothing else.ok.

Best of luck.If you want to ask any thing then most welcome.

@Gul
No worries at all Gul, for someone with a passion for books, any time of mine is good

I am glad you got the difference between mere copying the texts from the books and making your own notes. You'd find a remarkable sense of power over your memory once you jot down the topics in your own language.

I would also suggest almonds and milk along with the prep :P it really does help.

Do study eds on a daily basis, rotate two compulsory and two optional subjects giving at least one hour to each everyday. I don't study in one continuous spell. Instead I keep taking little facebook/cssforum/bathroom/snack breaks after every hour or so. But devise a strategy which suits yourself the best. For any other questions please feel free to contact me on my email which can be found in my contact info on the profile All the best again.

@Shahid bro,
grab css syllabus book, go to the sociology page, and tear it out. Paste it on your sociology textbook, look up all the topics according to the syllabus, and give them all a thorough reading as quickly as you can. Underline sufficiently and make note of whatever jumps out as important or significant to you on a sheet of paper. Read everything another time, and then make your notes. you can cover sociology and journalism both in one month or less if you fully work on them. Following is a list of important topics:

Sociology:
Sociologists, their intros and theories.
Personality: Anomie thoery, looking glass self, Freud's id ego super ego etc.
Culture, its branches, subcultures, subcultures in pakistan etc.
Deviance, deviance in pakistan
Social mobility, ways of social mobility in pakistan.
crime in pakistan
education in pakistan
family in pakistan
drug abuse in pakistan
urbanization in pakistan.

Journalism:
Communication: definitions, modes and methods, processes etc.
Media: Types of media, its role, forms and types, yellow journalism etc.
News: Newspaper, editor, role of editors and columnists etc. Current scenario as in what is the importance of news media in todays world etc.
Advertisement: Very important, cover it all.
History: Journalism in subcontinent, journalism before 1857, journalism and pakistan movement, role of journalists in creation of pakistan.
Role of media in society, media and dictatorship, medias role in democracy, media a menace or messiah etc.

after doing masters in english literature no one is afraid of books becaz in two years of masters we read approximately 50 books.25 each year.
so now books don't scare me.but yes i know that it is better to do one thing from one book beside some other material which you find worthwhile in other books.

already going on with these things along with countless other edibles.

oh my God,I am just doing the same really.It means i am right in my approach.thanks.
bro banned facebook on me as i was wasting my time on that.so no facebook till the last paper of CSS.

ye mein ne bhi parh liya.thanks a lot for your so much attention to us dear moderator.

i have a love hate relationship with mods here becaz of my not so past mischieves.but how you became a mod.i mean you are a junior.but your contributions are really awesome.maybe that's the reason.your writing style is so nice and clear.

once again thanks and i will surely need your help in future.

@all.... any suggestion for me .... My opted subjects are

Indo Pak HIs
mercantile law
International Relations
Business ad
Pushto

@ salma... should i read all in one go.e.g I get start from Muslim invasion to subcontinent till the end of whole boook,, or i should stick to the syllabus only

__________________
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Dear Bro Salman & Sister Gul, first of all I would like to wish you all the very best for 2011 exams.
At the same time I sincerely need your assistance please,I know it will take little time of yoursa but it will be blessing for me... I am Faraz from Lahore but I am workin in UAE and also have started my preparation for CSS. Like you guys I am also working hard but I will appear for 2012 rather to appear in 2011 without preparation as u know while working in abroad its difficult to manae full day study but almost I can try to give 5 hours a day....
I want to know whats should my approach to studies....and what about study material do i need to memorize thorugh books or How can i make my own notes.. and regarding optional subjects I have no idea which subject I have to choose. I have passed B.A thorugh P.university Lahore and my subjects were Indo-Pak history, Journalism , Persian.


I want to know the beginning of yours when u planned to take a CSS leap how u took start.


Stay Blessed.....!
Faraz.