JazaakAllah

It happened only and only because of Allah's mercy, and my mother's efforts. My optionals were,

1. Islamic History & Culture
2. Law
3. Journalism
4. Punjabi

1. Islamic H&C:
I had this subject in my F.A. Also I have immense interest in the subject since my childhood.

2. Law:
I have done LLB Hons. Shariah & Law. Had already studied the 6 subjects that are included in Law (200 marks) well. (Though the exam did not go well at all)

3. Journalism:
Studied it for the very first time, prepared selected topics in 5 days.

4. Punjabi:
I heard punjabi from my parents and siblings from the very beginning; it is the language of both my parents and i am fluent in spoken punjabi. Though, reading punjabi and writing was a new experience altogether.

Most important thing is one's parents' prayers. Allah listens to parents big time. For all those prayers and the efforts they made for me throughout my life; I owe them a lot!!

Regards.

congrats seemab
share your strategy of compulsory also

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life is precious so live and let live:)

Well Seemab, No doubt these are just the prayers of your parents at first, then anything else which did it for you . I am really happy and amazed over your success. May God bless you in coming stages as well

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A person's a person, no matter how small

For everyone, ways of studying are different. I was unable to focus completely on CSS since i work at 2 places, which required me to give some time at home as well to work related issues. I passed this year in my first attempt by studying 2 months.

However, i joined an academy, NOA Islamabad... the only reason i passed was because of the tips and tricks the amazing teachers there give throughout their lectures.

My optionals were, Muslim Law, International Law, Sociology, Psychology and US History.

Another very useful tip is to focus on concepts. the papers were very general, and it was only because my concepts were clear, was i able to attempt the general questions.

US History and Sociology were entirely general knowledge based and International law was entirely current affairs.
If one was aware of current affairs thoroughly, then subjects such as Pak Affairs, Essay, Islamiat, Sociology and Psychology were easy to attempt.

I did not especially prepare for the Essay, because I had made my mind earlier not to write on any technical and data-based essay like disaster management, energy crisis, global warming, economy etc.

For English Precis and Composition, I prepared past papers' idioms etc from this very forum, and revised my grammar from Wren & Martin's book.

For EDS, I consulted Kashmiri and Internet (like howstuffworks.com). Also, I made notes of Scientists by gathering information from the said book as well as from Wikipedia. Here again, my prep was very selected as I had practically no time to prepare in detail.

As far as CA is concerned, I again had extremely little time. So, I asked my father and husband to gather all the important information regarding current issues and pour that into my ears. I was at my parents' place for exams, and my husband used to call me in the eves for an hour daily to give me a briefing of what was going on in the world and the country. Whenever I got tired of studying, I used to go sit with my Abbu and he would then tell me about current situations and we both had discussions. Also, I studied about most important issues from the internet. This is how i prepared for CA (in almost 3 days).

PA was my favorite in terms of preparation. Again extremely selected study. I had almost completely left the post-partition till musharraf era.

Islamiat My Love! Jahangir's books for subjective as well as objective prep. Plus internet and this very forum regarding contemporary issues.

One thing that would inshaAllah surely help you is to make bullet-notes or highlighting the important points. I did both, along with writing short notes on the book with related topics (this helps a lot, seriously).

Regards.

I cleared it this time with less than a month of preparation as I was already doing my residency in surgery which is pretty hectic plus had a couple of other problems because of which couldn't really give any time to study.I didn't even touch the books of Islamiat,English precise and essay and American history due to shortage of time.

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Bringing rhymes back to the strings of my life.....

I prepared for CSS -2012 in 4 months and By the grace of Allah cleared it.. It was my first attempt. As i am a medical graduate, i had no prior knowledge of any of the optional subjects.

My subjects were US-History, Sociology, International Law, Public Administration, Psychology.
Criteria for me to opt the subjects was more based on schedule of examination and i took note of previous schedule of css exams. I wanted to have one paper on a single day. So i left journalism and opted for Us history.

I think, one can choose any optional subject as far as he has some inclination toward that subject. Students with various optional subjects clear css. So, one can opt any subject in css.

As far as preparation is concerned, i had to face difficulties because of time scarcity. One will have to give two reads to their subjects in order to grasp the core concepts of that subject. I made a time table and gave specific time period to every subject, For example, 10 days to psychology's first read, 10 days for eds (as it is lengthy and scoring), 7 days for Islamiat, 7 days for US hisory, 7 days for Public ad.. In my first read i took one subject at one time. As the exams were getting nearer, i started 2 subjects, then 3 subjects in one single day. I practiced writing 1 or 2 essays (7-8 pages) just to get in rhythm. Although i had studied Ikram rabbani for Pak affairs, but the paper of Pak affairs was not from this book altogether. Luckily, i would say, questions based on current affairs, geo strategical location, etc were asked in the paper and I was able to solve them.

US history: Studied and made very brief notes of repeating questions (one should go through past papers to get an idea about mode of questions)
Sociology: (theories were crammed by me, general questions about poverty, etc were asked in paper)
Public Ad: I read Sultan khan, and notes of virtual University.. (bureacracy, and some other questions were again repeated)
Psychology: I used S.K MAngal, and notes of Virtual university+wikipedia for developmental psycho, Shehrbano helped in the review of the subject. (questions are always from the syllabus, and repeated as well. My medical background helped as well)
International Law: I used S Kapoor & Tandon. It is sufficient but requires 2-3 reads. Questions are repeated very often (except 2012). Can be completed in 7 days..

For sec0nd read, I was faster and review two subjects at one time, giving first priority to those subjects which were forgotten by me and also keeping in mind the exam schedule as it was released by Jan.

I concentrated a lot on current affairs, which is the essence and core of css. It helps in almost every subject i.e essay, Pak affairs, Islamiat, and optionals as well.
Daily newspaper reading will be required (1st and last page + International Page) OP+ED + International editorials from dawn can be cut down and read later. Although I bought Contemporary affairs as well, but could not go through it because of time constraints. Dawn+ Jehangir world times ( I bought JAN 2012 edition of JWT and read it as contained Relations of Pk with china, india.)

Pak Affairs: Ikram Rabbani and i made notes of agricultural weaknesses, natural resources, water crisis, balochistan, Economy.
EDS: Rab nawaz samo. go through past 5-6 papers, solve them and EDS will be handled.
Islamiat: Islam..Its meaning and message by Khurshid Ahmed.. Used notes of other people in this forum as well.

English Precis& composition. Exploring the world of English can help in improving the basic concepts of tenses and frequent mistakes in our writings can be avoided if one goes through this book. I used it to view the correct/incorrect sentences, Precis rules, Expansion examples...
I wrote on SELF DONE IS WELL DONE in my p&C paper.
I opted Social and Economic Securities for women in Islam in the essay paper..

I was done with my final year exams on OCT 3rd. Gave some relaxation to my mind for about a week. Then next couple of weeks I started consulting seniors regarding optional subjects and went through every bit of this forum. MY preparation started around last Week of OCT.. Jan was reserved for second read, FEb was reserved for final quick review of all subjects which started around 6th FEB 2012. practiced precis and essay in last few days ( i had reserved last 4 days around 96 hours for English essay and precis&C)

I would strongly recommend everyone to solve past MCQs as it helps to improve the basic concepts of that subject. THIS forum was used by me to get the answer keys...

I was very afraid about about essay and precis result, as i had given very less amount of time to these critical subjects. Luckily, Essay paper was very much predictable in terms of topics and my slightly above average English helped me in P&C....

I could not post regularly on this forum as i had remained a silent observer previously. However, i will try to post and actively participate here from now on, as this forum has helped me a lot.

I consulted following books
Psychology: Sheharbano and Rakhshanda
Punjabi: Punjab Rang by Qamar Sayalwi And Faisal Jappa
Arabic: Tareekh e Adab e Arabi by Ahmad Hasan Zayat
Journalism: Mehdi hassan, Mirza Yousaf and Abid Tehami.

Beyond this, I made comprehensive notes of all those subjects.

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"People take only their needs into consideration, never their abilities".

Best of luck for Interview Sister,
Please tell me some Good Books or other stuff for preparing Islamiyat in Urdu excluding Islami nazariya hayat.

assalam o alaikum

Though the query was not meant for me, but I felt obliged to provide some useful links.

1. Books of Dr. Israr Ahmed Marhoom:
http://www.drisrarahmed.com/

2. Questions and Answers on Islamic Issues:
http://www.islamhouse.com/p/48736

3. A great collection of books on almost every aspect of Islam:
http://www.tanzeem.org/books/index.asp

Hope this helps you.
Regards.