Originally Posted by amnatariqshah

It was my first attempt and Alhumdullilah I have qualified the written part without having joined any academy. Few things that I believe helped me through this are:

1. True determination and motivation
2. Studying smartly, not necessarily extensively - I prepared in the last 3 months only
3. Smart selection of questions
4. Special attention to prepare MCQs
5. Highly developed writing skills

Good luck to all the CSS-2012 aspirants. Do pray for my success in interview! Thanks!

P.S I hope my post helps!

Originally Posted by WAQAS AHMED89

is there is anyone or any example that any guy who pass CSS exam in first attempt

Originally Posted by NASR KHAN

Well we highlighted the term smart work here on forum at so many places and now i want to explain this term with reference to every subject.

essay i have already explained in my previous post but if someone wants to know anything else regarding essay i will be more than pleased to answer.

ENGLISH COMPOSITION:

Now comes the most important paper beside essay. You go for the paper and you are given a sheet for synonyms and antonyms which carry 10 marks. If you get 6 to 7 correct out of 10 your confidence automatically go to sky for rest of the paper. The thing is how one can prepare them, so the answer is so simple to this, everyone has different level of vocabulary but i talk about myself as an example. i had very weak vocabulary and i was unable to memorize many words so what i did was that i made Flash cards and i daily picked 20 words from Dawn Newspaper and started to memorize them. this really worked for me and i got 6 out of 10 in 2010(my total score was 64) and 7 out of 10 in 2011. i bought digital dictionary which really helped me a lot by saving my much time.

PAIRS OF WORDS:

I daily studied 5 pairs of words with writing practice by which i got a good grip over them.

GRAMMAR

For grammar i went through Matric and intermediate level books to have a command over tenses, active passive voice and direct and indirect. i practiced sentence correction from past papers and SADAT ALI SHAH'S EXPLORING THE WORLD OF ENGLISH, which is a good book for this paper.

IDIOMS

I went through no idioms as i knew that if i had gone through more than a thousand idioms there were still chances of some odd things regarding idioms in the paper. so i left this to the day of paper. read the idioms and made sentences of 5 by my own.

PRECIS WRITING:

Well my friends i never had any experience of writing a precis but i learnt a good thing from my friend. go through the passage again and again to have a good idea about the passage. then take a pencil and start underlining the sentences which make a sense in continuation. after doing so, simply convert it to your own but precise words for example if there were 12 words try to make it 3 to 4 words. practice one precis daily in early morning when your brain is so fresh.

UNSEEN PASSAGE:

Practiced on daily basis and in the paper focused on questions to have appropriate answers.

SHORT ESSAY:

For this buy SUNDRY REFLECTION, which is an outstanding book. do cover 2 to 3 short essays on daily basis from this book.

thats it.

HOW TO ATTEMPT THE PAPER?

You start with vocab which is mandatory. then rest of the paper is done according to your wish and choice. what i did and what worked for me is as follow.

1. Vocab
2. Grammar
3. Pairs of Words
4. Idioms

35 marks done in only 35 to 45 minutes and most importantly only 3 questions are left so a very nice and pleasant psychological impression comes to the mind that only 3 questions are left. it really makes you very confident about your abilities.

5. short essay
6. unseen passage

at the end you are left with precis with 45 min to 1 hour.

now whats so difficult??? nothing i think.

you have to give it a read initially then go through it 2 to 3 more times and you will have a fair idea about it. this fair idea will help you to give a suitable title to the precis passage.

if one follows the same strategy then he will be finishing the paper 15 to 20 min before the time. this is my guarantee. and good marks are also guaranteed inshaALLAH.

If anyone wants to know anything else about this paper then do let me know plz.

thanks and regards