The purpose of the thread is not to discourage any candidate frm opting US History but to keep you guys in sync (or to warn you, setting aside the euphemism ) with the changing trend of US History's exam in CSS. This is my personal assessment and others' opinion might differ.

The standard recommended book for US Hist is Majumdar's two books on US History covering period from 1492 to 1970s. And these books were enough to score 80+ till 2010. The MCQs used to be too much repititive. Mere 15 years' past papers' study guaranteed 75+ marks.

But from what I have observed, last 2 years' exams have been really tough. 2011's Objective paper was hazardous. Most of the MCQs were pretty far from the political history of US whereas Majumdar stresses on political history of US (and so do majority of historians. Studying some book for covering rest of history is even out of the scope of CSS in my opinion).

But 2012's exam was the real blow. In subjective, only 2 topics were asked from Majumdar's book and they were both merged in a single question (1775 plus 1812's wars with Britain). Rest of the questions demanded a critical discussion of some major incidents which is again not covered by historians we study because books recommended to us are hardly enought to cover important milestones of history, let alone the critical narrative of history. One question was from the Social transformation of America post WW2 (again not touched by Majumdar) and one question was from current affairs- whether US will be able to maintain its global hegemony in 21st century. Similarly the objective portion was also killing. There were quesions like when was american bar association formed, how many states permit death sentence etc. I dont think we can answr such questions by the limited study we do for css.

Moreover I've hardly seen any candidate crossing the 60 marks barrier in 2011which corroborates my assessment I'm afraid. Now the more important question: How to tackle the situation. There are two solutions I can think of

a- The cheap solution - Let go of US History. Replace it by Sociology, Journalism, Forestry, Intl' law, Punjabi or something like that

b- The audacious solution: Set aside the fear of anamolies, take Amreeeeekan History by the scruff of the neck and study enough of it to be able to stump the paper setter. This is possible by consulting another author or go through the material available on internet (and there is too much of it for anyone willing to do so). Moreover you need to stay in loop with the current US Socio-economic and political scene as well as US's foreign policy (especially towards Asia), its elements and how it is being employed to safeguard US's strategic interests. There was a question in US History as well as Current Affairs pertaining to this in 2012.

I'm impetuously waiting for the 2011 and 2012's candidates' views on it, plus future aspirants are welcome for any possible help I can render. God bless us all

Mr. Rubraiz, I second your opinion about US history paper of 2012. I opted US history because I was told by seniors that one can score really good by just studying 15 topics. This opinion was further augmented by a printed page given by NOA academy(islamabad) with more or less the same topics. A cursory look of the past papers corroborated these claims. I braced myself up for this piece of cake, and with a study of a fortnight I was easily able to solve past papers . Alas ! the exam day turned out to be a nightmare that shattered all erstwhile reveries; I came to know the meaning of the term "contrast" when my eyes moved from the row of candidates who opted for US history and those of the candidates who opted for other subjects of history. The gloom on the faces of the US.history examinees and the mirth on the faces of other candidates was obvious. While reading objectives, only one thought occupied my mind: what was the examiner thinking while setting this test ? Did he expect the candidates to study all the encyclopedias ever written on anything related to the US? Was he expecting us to be omniscient?In short, it really was not a test to judge a student who would have given a maximum of 2 months to this subject( which is well neigh impossible) .
The subjective part made it clear that this paper was really not meant for CSS candidates. Majority of the candidates could satisfactorily answer one question.The rest of the paper was for the PhD fellows who can afford the luxury to express their own view point about everything, not for a CSS aspirant whose one badly attempted paper can ruin his whole career and life.
In short, i do not harbour any special affinity for the history of United States; I only opted this subject for its short course and straight forward and often repeated questions. Comrades, that's no longer the case.To attempt such paper in a manner that can fetch one desirable score requires atleast 3 months of thorough study.So all the praise for the Almighty who has bestowed upon us the free will and thanks to FPSC which has given us the freedom of opting any six subjects out of a myriad choices. NO to US history.

i would disagree with you on this. limiting your study to this one book is not a great idea. US history covers other aspects like current affairs as well. the paper of 2012 was quite easy to attempt if a candidate had ample knowledge of important topics ( 1. America's war with Britian, 2. US president Woodrow Wilson, 3. US President Richard Nixon, 4. Civil rights movement, 5. Current affairs wrt america, china and eu!). it is my personal suggestion to start reading times magazine regularly and other online articles as it can prove beneficial to improve the marks and to stand out from other aspirants.

Hy

I would agree with you people that the papers of 2011 and 2012 were quite different from the past ten year papers. But all students had problems due to certain reasons like

1. Most of the students just prepare past few years papers and ,no doubt, there had been repetition of questions in css exams from past many years but now the trend has been a bit different

2. Selective study- including a range of topics like President Thomas jefferson, Andrew Jackson, War of Independence etc

3. Academies , like the one mentioned above, stresses that if u prepare these few topics form notes you will easily be able to attempt four to five questions in final paper. And these notes have many mistakes as well.

4. Students normally go through Majumdar book only.

The solution is not to leave US history as an optional subject but to consult other books and topics as well ,leaving selective study, going through recent developments (upcoming elections,US downfall, US and emergin powers) and reliance on academy notes.

And still if anybody needs help in US history can contact me

It is an assessment in the first place. I second what you have recommended. The purpose of this post was to warn those who have opted for USA History thinking that a week's cursory study will be enough to fetch graceful marks. This has been the case for many years but not anymore.


If you think adventure is dangerous, try routine. It's lethal

__________________
"And how can man die better than facing fearful odds, for the ashes of his fathers, and the temples of his Gods?"

that is so true! I opted U.S in CE12 but now am replacing it with Journalism..

@ sara: in my opinion u shud stick to US History as u have studied it before. a major part of US history is prepared studying for current affairs as it is.. for the other half use the internet along with one textbook.

Not only US history, after 2009 most subjects are showing a different trend. Mostly the questions were asked from current affairs. So emphasis on current affairs will help for better preparation.

Brother, being a Student ov a Competitive Exam, i must say that restricting yourself to the notes of Sir Zulqarnain Nizamani Sahab is merely your fault. Yes the academy provide note to cover the important topics but they never ask you to restrict to them only. You should have gone through some other good book on US History along with Academy notes.

Academies can only polish your skill they cannot claim success, success can only be achieved with your own efforts and hard work. if academy notes were all to be read and understood than every 2nd person in our country would have been a CSP.

Regards

__________________
True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing. "Socrates"

I appeared for first time in 2012. I didn't prepared well for USA history paper. I attempted only two questions. Question no. 2 and a short note "China emerging as a super power." I scored 40 marks. I would suggest all aspirants to use books only for facts. Try to develop your own conclusions and analysis. Study with great concentration. Try to link things. For example, if you are accessing John Adams' presidency, you should know what were the problems before his presidency and what he did to solve those problems. You should also have a knowledge about John Adams political views. So, these things should be applied to each and every topic.

__________________
CSS is my Obsession !!!!!!