CSS Officers Forum

nabling them to frame policies and make decisions that may positively benefit millions. CSS competitive examination is held regularly on a yearly basis and a large number of aspirants appear in it (12000 in 2009). This mode of examination is qualitatively different from exclusively an academic exercise and entails a well rounded approach. The CSS examination is held to recruit officers in grade-17 of All Pakistan Unified Grades (APUG) that go up to grade-22. The twelve occupational groups comprising Central Superior Services are Commerce & Trade Group, Customs & Excise Group, District Management Group, Foreign Service of Pakistan, Income Tax Group, Information Group, Military Land & Cantonment Group, Office Management Group, Pakistan Audit & Accounts Service, Police Service of Pakistan, Postal Group and Railways Group. The lower age limit for appearing in the examination is 21 and the higher is 28. The academic qualification required is a second class graduate degree of Pakistan or equivalent foreign qualification. Three attempts at the examination are allowed. The allocation of service is done on the basis of merit and provincial/regional quotas that are: Merit (7.5%), Punjab including Islamabad Capital Area (50%), Sindh(R) (11.4%), Sindh(U) (7.6%), KP (11.5%), Balochistan (6%), GB & FATA (4%) and AJK (2%). 10% and 5% quotas are reserved for women and minorities from the share of provinces/regions except merit quota. The examination is held simultaneously at Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta, Multan, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Abbottabad, D.I. Khan, Muzaffarabad and Skardu. The examination comprises of written part based on six compulsory and six optional subjects totaling 1200 marks and psychological test and viva voce carrying 300 marks. The usual aggregate for qualifying the examination is fifty percent. The allocation to occupational groups is done according to the merit position obtained by the candidate, provincial quota and suitability requirements determined by the Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC), the statuary body mandated to conduct this examination. The written examination is usually held in the month of February every year and its result comes out in or around the month of September followed by psychological test, viva voce and medical test. The selected candidates become probationary officers and are sent to train at Civil Service Academy, Lahore for common training followed up by departmental training. Attached is a list of subjects offered by FPSC for the written part of the examination. The general trend is to take social science subjects dealing with history, politics, public administration and international relations because their subject material is similar to the compulsory subjects. Since graduates qualify to take the examination therefore the questions asked commensurate with that level of qualification. The medium of expression in the examination is English although Islamiat paper can also be answered in Urdu. Since the last decade the CSS results have shown downward trend and there was a massive drop of 50% between the years 2008 and 2009; 15% candidates qualified the written part in 2008 but only 8% could do so in 2009. The reasons are attributed to declining standards of education, emphasis on rote learning and lack of coaching for CSS examination that still is taken as a part time exercise by aspirants. CSS Officers Forum is cognizant of the underlying assumptions necessitating incisive understanding of the study material offered in this competition. We offer a well thought out course design that not only is easy to comprehend but also caters to the scoring potential of subjects contained there in. We emphasize that preparation for this examination should begin as early as possible and should continue without break till the examination. We provide interactive method of learning and emphasize on writing skills that are essential for such competition. At CSS Officers Forum we treat, train and teach our candidates as officers. We operate from a purpose built facility containing aids considered appropriate for preparation. We maintain a disciplined and regulated regime aimed at instilling sense of responsibility in our participants.