[QUOTE=amnatariqshah;380760]Thanks a lot for your kind words. Sure, I am here to help!
A little intro of myself – I am an English Literature and Applied Linguistics major from Peshawar University. I have worked as a lecturer in English for two years. However, I currently work as a freelance writer for an American writing firm (online). I have always been a position holder throughout my academic life, so if you are wondering on the ‘three months’ preparation time!

1. Very simple – have an undaunted faith in Allah and the abilities that he has bestowed you with. Walk to the mirror and tell yourself you can conquer the world ;). While studying, think about all the good things you could do for your country in a capacity of a CSP officer. Feel excited and tell yourself, this is your only chance!
2. Don’t study each and every topic that you come across – though, reading through everything could be a great strategy. I would study 8 hours a day with full concentration. Try to practice old year papers to see the nature of questions and notice the recurring stuff. Watch TV to revitalize your mind – don’t consider it a taboo, like most studious students would do. However, those 8 hours that you have for study – concentrate fully and don’t let your mind bug around on anything irrelevant. Keep your cell off – The biggest source of distraction on earth!
3. While you sit for paper – read the entire paper thoroughly. Bear in mind two things: ~ What questions you know well ~ What questions look scoring to you. Now, while the first one is easy to do, it needs smartness to have a go on the second one. This is especially applicable for EDS – go for questions with solid marks. For instance, the ones those ask you to give examples or abbreviations. (If you know what I mean!) If you are wondering, what made me think this – told you I have been a lecturer, so simply using my experience.
4. ‘MCQs’ is the part where you can grab most marks – so it is wise to spend some time preparing them. Don’t leave them for the last day. Examination schedule is hectic – so do it beforehand. Use exam cram series, Jahangir series and even dogar. Tell me your subjects?
5. Strong writing skills can assist you big time. You are not given straightforward questions like those you had in college exams or so. These are often sculpted out to check your ability to put them effectively into writing. As for me, I am a freelance writer so it wasn’t much of a thing for me. Work on it by reading English newspapers and practicing questions from old papers. Develop a smooth flow in writing – MUST!

If any more questions, feel free to ask. Thanks! Best of luck and pray for my interview please – much appreciated![/QUOTE]

Thankyou for ur detailed answer
Plz also share all the names of the books that u studied, as i believe u must hv selected very good books which worked so well for u that u got prepared within 3 months, right.

Plz comment on my writing expression, coz i hv noticed that my scheme of commas & full stops is quite different from your's.

And what do u say about :Political Sc, Indo-Pak history, Interl Law, Const Law, IR.

And weren't you doing any job during those 3 months before CSS?

Amna I see that you've had psychology as your optional subject. Now having passed your exams, i believe you are in a better position to answer a question or two of mine, only if you'd be kind enough to do so. Please do answer:)
1: Which books should I consult for psychology?
2: Is one month time enough for its preparation?

[QUOTE=andleeb Akhter;380471]@NASR KHAn
congratulations on your success!
So you have an edge of being qualifer of the written portion....
Here are the questions which i like to ask from you...
1)What are the pre-requisites to become a smart worker? I mean which qualities you are emphasing for?
2)"English Essay" is a nightmare for me(though i never seriously prepared it yet even after failure of css2011) and i am curious to know your strategy?
I am afraid of writing and you can say very moody in writing practice...what should i do?


Impatiently waiting for your comments & suggestions.[/QUOTE]
thanks a lot for your wishes. now i come to your queries.

the very important prerequisite for smart working is the COMMON SENSE, i mean one must know his strategy about every subject of css. like i did for myself. i will share with you some other time about the strategy of every subject.

English essay must be given due importance as it is the most dangerous subject in which you are doing only one question of 100 marks, if it hits the mind of checker your done or otherwise. so please do practice it on continuous basis. there is no other way of getting it cleared beside practicing it again and again. at times it sounds too boring but still you have to continue with it.

honestly i wrote only 2 to 3 pages daily as a practice and i focused on current affairs for essays. i did not fix my mind to any specific topic and i went to hall with very open mind. so when i had the paper in hands i was very relax as i was able to write essay on more than 4 topics very easily. my friends who went through specific topics (6 to 8 even) and had a fix mind set they were in trouble as they had a big shock when they saw no topic in the paper. so i suggest not to fix your mind for any specific topic and have good writing practice and outline making practice.

most importantly keep praying to ALLAH and ask your parents and family members to keep praying for your success. :)

i wish you a very best of luck

A tip for Smart work

Buy all the books you can....seriously!! I have nearly all the (good) books available in the market for all my subjects. While I didn't even read even 10% of all of them, they served some important purposes

1)They made me feel good that I had every possible resource at my disposal. (This btw is VERY important)

2)Handy reference material immediately available.

now comes the SMART WORK!
 

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.

[B][I][U][COLOR="Blue"]ENGLISH COMPOSITION:[/COLOR][/U][/I][/B]

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.

[B][I][U][COLOR="blue"]PAIRS OF WORDS:[/COLOR][/U][/I][/B]

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

[COLOR="blue"][B][I][U]GRAMMAR[/U][/I][/B][/COLOR]

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 [COLOR="blue"][B]SADAT ALI SHAH'S EXPLORING THE WORLD OF ENGLISH[/B][/COLOR], which is a good book for this paper.

[COLOR="blue"][I][B][U]IDIOMS[/U][/B][/I][/COLOR]

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.

[COLOR="blue"][U][I][B]PRECIS WRITING:[/B][/I][/U][/COLOR]

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.

[COLOR="blue"][U][I][B]UNSEEN PASSAGE:[/B][/I][/U][/COLOR]

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

[COLOR="blue"][U][I][B]SHORT ESSAY:[/B][/I][/U][/COLOR]

For this buy [COLOR="blue"][B]SUNDRY REFLECTION[/B][/COLOR], which is an outstanding book. do cover 2 to 3 short essays on daily basis from this book.

thats it. :)

[COLOR="blue"][U][I][B]HOW TO ATTEMPT THE PAPER?[/B][/I][/U][/COLOR]

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

other subjects i will share tomorrow inshaALLAH.

[quote=nasr khan;380914]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.

[b][i][u][color="blue"]english composition:[/color][/u][/i][/b]

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.

[b][i][u][color="blue"]pairs of words:[/color][/u][/i][/b]

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

[color="blue"][b][i][u]grammar[/u][/i][/b][/color]

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 [color="blue"][b]sadat ali shah's exploring the world of english[/b][/color], which is a good book for this paper.

[color="blue"][i][b][u]idioms[/u][/b][/i][/color]

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.

[color="blue"][u][i][b]precis writing:[/b][/i][/u][/color]

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.

[color="blue"][u][i][b]unseen passage:[/b][/i][/u][/color]

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

[color="blue"][u][i][b]short essay:[/b][/i][/u][/color]

for this buy [color="blue"][b]sundry reflection[/b][/color], which is an outstanding book. Do cover 2 to 3 short essays on daily basis from this book.

Thats it. :)

[color="blue"][u][i][b]how to attempt the paper?[/b][/i][/u][/color]

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[/quote]

dear means precis writing question and comprehension u attempted in the end, as they are first and second questions in question paper of english. So i think one should have to go for sequence of question like this1, 2, 3, 4,------- and not like this 5,4,1,3,6,2-----
hope u got my question. Ur comments plz????

would you like to elaborate SMART WORK

Just passing the exam is not the task, it's for sure. You have to compete with others, so you must have the skills extra than others; in Marketing we term it as Competitive Advantage. Keep yourself distinct, for the ultimate success.

[QUOTE=Ali Mubashir;380988]dear means precis writing question and comprehension u attempted in the end, as they are first and second questions in question paper of english. So i think one should have to go for sequence of question like this1, 2, 3, 4,------- and not like this 5,4,1,3,6,2-----
hope u got my question. Ur comments plz????[/QUOTE]
ya you are rite, i went in reverse order as i was comfortable with this. those who attempted precis as their 1st question were in trouble as after one hour they realized that they had covered only one question and in this tension their paper was not answered up to the mark. are you getting my point??

there is no harm in going this way. i secured 64 in 2010 by the same method. :)