By any standards, this is one of the most sought-after
interests among the young job-seekers of Pakistan and also the one somehow still
shrouded in mystery despite the vast reach of the internet and immense
sprouting of various CSS guide-books and CSS coaching academies.
I remember the time
when I started preparing for it. The available guidance in relation to it was
very scarce and whatever that was available, its quality varied usually towards
the down-side of the quality curve. People who were either already preparing
for it or the ones who had cleared it would exhibit their mood swings whenever one
asked them for guidance regarding something or especially when one asked them
to give away their notes. The newly-sprouted academies were costly to the extent
that one thought of asking for a guarantee of passing the exam after paying
them their demanded sums.
The class of candidates which is often looking to beat this
exam is commonly the middle-class of our society. Many among them are
college/university graduates and often jobless. This extra burden of paying the
tuition fees of the coaching academies is not affordable for them. Moreover,
the overall preparation for this exam is capital-intensive involving a variety
of expenses ranging from buying several books on different subjects to the
expenses of photocopying & stationery etc.
I joined an academy for a very brief period of around 2
months in total. The maximum which I could get out of this experience was a
bunch of friends with whom later on I jointly studied and prepared for the exam.
Other benefits included an interaction with my competitors there (which
granted me the opportunity to gauge the level of my own competence vis-à-vis
theirs) and a slight hint of guideline regarding various subjects to the extent
of getting to know about their books. During my time there, I couldn’t decide
about my optional subjects mainly because of the diverse options being taught
there. So in a way the whole exercise inspired confusion rather than clarity.
But it was worth it for a brief period of 2 months. At least I got to know
where I stood in my preparation.
One general phenomenon which I commonly observed among the
candidates preparing for the exam was the haughtiness towards their fellow
candidates. This haughtiness was mutual most of the times, but in my case I was
always appalled to see it. It often made me think about them that if they are
like that at this stage, how would they behave with the public at large if and
when they cleared the exam. Shun this attitude if you have it. It will not do
you any good. Your humility coupled with your targeted preparation would be
your asset in the exam and not such haughtiness. Be courteous and helpful
towards your fellow colleagues and you might get something worthwhile in return
from them.
Now let’s see how to approach the preparation for this exam.
CSS exam, and by exam I mean both the written and the interview exams, doesn’t
require hard work but rather it requires smart work on your part. Always keep
that in mind, CSS exam doesn’t require hard work but requires smart work. But
that doesn’t mean you don’t have to work hard at all to prepare for it. You
have to, but in a more systematic and organized way. That also doesn’t mean
that you need to look for shortcuts.
I can recall the day when I first got hold of the FPSC
syllabus. Seeing the list of suggested readings at the end of the syllabus of
each subject forced me to forget about the idea of even thinking about
preparing for the CSS exam for quite some time. Every mediocre student would
like to run away from such a volume of hard work and would look to do something
easier instead. Hence that syllabus book remained in dust for a while until a colleague
advised me to forget about those suggested readings since they are mostly
generalized books and don’t cover the whole spectrum of any subject in relation
to its syllabus. That was a sigh of relief!
Now I’ll give you a few tips which are the gist of my whole
experience in preparing for the exam and ultimately passing it in the first
attempt (I didn’t just pass it but I was amongst the toppers in that year).
1)
Treat your first attempt as your last attempt.
If you don’t do that and God forbid don’t pass the exam in your first attempt,
you will be relaxed till you reach your final attempt and as you must be aware,
there are only 3 attempts in all.
2)
Do a conscious and a continuous effort towards
improving your written English expression. It’s all about a good expression of
English in the CSS exam. As a start, read English newspapers, preferably, daily
DAWN. Don’t ignore or over-look the words which are not comprehendible.
Instead, open a new register and start noting them down and finding their
meanings so that when the next time you come across them you must know their
meanings. Continuous and careful reading of the newspaper will eventually help
you in improving your grammar, spellings and the over-all written expression. Grammar
and spellings-related mistakes are the most common ones for which you get
penalized on your compulsory English papers of Essay and Précis, Composition.
Follow it and it might save you an attempt.
3)
Select those optional subjects which best suit
your aptitude and inclination. Don’t simply opt for the so-called “scoring”
subjects which are normally suggested by the coaching academies or your peers
and with which you are not comfortable while preparing or which don’t match
your aptitude. You may avoid a lot of hassle if you do that. In addition to
that, opt those subjects which you can “self-study”. I cannot emphasize enough
the importance of this word: “Self-Study”. The more you can self-study and not
look around for assistance in your preparation the more successful you will be
in your endeavor of passing the exam.
4)
Always consult past papers for any subject which
you are preparing. Pen down the repeated questions appearing in those papers. You
might end up finding the winning combination of questions for any subject.
5)
Always consult the syllabus or the FPSC
guidelines for any subject which you are starting to prepare. The lesser you
digress from the syllabus the better it will be. You will save a lot of
precious time by doing that. Let me serve you with an example. There is a
common perception among the candidates that by opting Indian History as an
optional subject they can easily beat the paper of Pakistan Affairs because the
syllabus of Indian History overlaps the syllabus of Pakistan Affairs. I am not
sure about your inclination towards the subject of Indian History but this
perception is wrong. Syllabus of Indian history is huge while that of Pakistan
Affairs is a small fraction of it and some of the topics especially the post-1947
ones of the latter are not even included in the syllabus of the former.
Preparation of Indian History alone might take three to four months while the
preparation time of Pakistan Affairs is hardly 15 days. So weigh your options
carefully.
6)
Candidates with a non-technical arts background
usually feel intimidated by the subject of Everyday Science. Let go of that fear.
It’s the easiest subject for anyone who has studied science till class 8th
or till matriculation. The best way to prepare Everyday Science is to analyze
its past papers for at least past 20 years and enlist the repeated topics
especially the objective-type question. Also consult the FPSC guidelines while
doing that and you will find hardly any topic there which will be out of
syllabus/guidelines.
7)
The most lucrative scoring opportunity in any
subject is its objective-type questions part. Prepare thoroughly for it. Just imagine
the odds in your favor of not just passing any subject but scoring a
respectable total in it by just scoring the maximum in this part even if your
subject-type questions part doesn’t come along well. Whether it is Précis and Composition,
Islamiat, Pakistan Affairs, Everyday Science or any of the optional subjects,
the odds will be in your favor.
That’s it for the time being. Wish you all very best in your
preparation.
So there are lots of recommended books for the optional subjects. How do you suggest selecting the most useful ones?
ReplyDeleteMy apologies for the late reply.
DeleteI can only speak for the optional subjects which I had opted because every optional subject has its own wide-ranging requirements so I cannot claim to be an expert on all of them. A simple way by which I came to select books for my optional subjects was to go through the syllabus and past papers of each subject. Two things to remember:
1- You don't need to read a book cover-to-cover. Just read those parts which are part of the syllabus or those that have appeared in past papers.
2- The recommended books do not necessarily cover the whole syllabus and you might have to look sideways for answers which means that in a certain case you might be lucky that a whole subject gets covered in 2 or 3 books out of the whole lot of recommended books while in another case even the recommended books are not enough.
But in any case, it is better to limit your study to the contents of syllabus of a subject and to the past papers of that subject. This way, you won't be intimidated with any number of books, either recommended ones or otherwise. I would get hold of a book even if it covered well a topic or two from the syllabus or a certain question which had appeared in a past paper at the most. I used to prepare that topic from that book and moved on.