Having passed Central Superior Services (CSS) Examination Pakistan, I feel that, simply studying is not enough. We need to understand the art of passing it and it is only possible when one has a guide who can provide him with timely advice on preparation related issues. For that matter, I happened to start a series of advice columns that received a very encouraging response by my readers and it kept me motivated to continue writing. To me, this was not enough. I always wanted to go for a better option but limited time never allowed me to run an extra mile. The things went on as such until Prometheus came up with idea of starting a CSS related forum. I was impressed with his work plan and motivation so agreed to help him out with all my heart and soul. Time proved that Prometheus was serious when he discussed this idea with me so with his firm determination he has started this Forum named “The Competitive Exams Preparation (CEP) Forum”. The Competitive Exams Preparation Forum aka The CEP Forum at the moment is passing through its beta but it has already a good collection of material on almost everything related to Competitive Exams Preparation. In this post I will provide you a detailed insight.

The Forum is divided in six categories namely:

• General
• The Central Superior Services Examination
• The Competitive Examinations other than CSS
• Miscellaneous opportunities
• Past Papers and learning Resource
• Common Room

General

It is place for general discussions, news and article sharing, introductions, everything and anything one can imagine. Simply, the user can post the things of general interest out here for everybody to see and discuss.

The Central Superior Services Examination

This place is a heaven for those who are aiming to get through CSS examination. One can find CSS FAQs, information about compulsory and optional subjects around. Moreover, one can share his experience, tips and tricks around. Apart from this, if you have some query related to CSS, you can post it here.

The Competitive Examinations other than CSS

Besides CSS, there are several other Competitive Exams in Pakistan and this category helps those who want to go for them. In this category, one can find information about exams like PMS, PCS, Ministry of defence Jobs, Judiciary etc. Apart from this, a board is dedicated to ISSB exam for recruitment in Pakistan Army, Navy and Airforce.

Miscellaneous opportunities

This category deals with Scholarships, Jobs and other related opportunities.

Past Papers and learning Resource

In this category, the past papers of CSS and other competitive exams are shared with the forum user. Apart from this, learning resources like websites etc are also shared by users here. In this category, the Boards for Past Papers are read only and one need to register before gaining access.

Common Room

Last but not least, the category named Common Room is a hang out for all those who are tired ready serious things. One can share Islamic information, General Knowledge, Poetry, Jokes, do informal chit chat aka Gup Shup, wish fellow member birthdays and tons of other things. Moreover, board for Site Feedback is included in this category so that users can put forward their suggestion and ideas for improvement.

Lastly, I would like to say that this forum has just started and I see a strong growth potential in it to meet preparation related requirements of aspirants. I personally think and encourage all my readers to join this forum for exploiting it to meet their CSS help and guidance needs. Moreover, I have agreed to visit them frequently so one can catch me there time to time for assistance on regular basis seven 5 days a week since weekends are mine and I wish to spend them my way.

sir taking evething in generall i think we hav done alot of conversations but we never act people are striving hard for getting into professions to be know as a cicvil officers but when they are in the field they make fun of their own writings i think noone of them have recall what they wrote in theirr exams to make the examiner go for them we hav not found good people in civil services beacause they were all good writers only what i think is that we need someone who is pratcle who says what he mean there mustt be another category whichh cann judge the practicle skills of person the determination a writeen materiall can not provide whatt we need in practicle. i listen to discusiion made eveday in soem talk shows but i hav not found anyone being parcticle when it comes onn detremination standby stiffneckness eveone step off i am confused do we need good writers or we doo we good practicle people who hav got confidence determination and skills…. well i hope to see your replyy soon thank you i am trying my bestt to gett intoo the services to bring the change because its onlyy the cahneg we need its only the akin up of nation and i think we are all in a slumberr once agaiin didi you ever imagine why prices go high why we are ruled by culprits ??? because we let themm we are weakk we accept them we hav made them our heroes so we are the one to suffers why dont we think while casting votes ??? well a man in civil services acann make eveone civilised but whatt is happening is tahtt they are justt writing and writing nothing elsee discusion and discusions are taking place we hav got loys of arguments butt no solutions ??? and we are farr insane of our needs the need is to CHANGE a change is to be made in order to survive in order to get rid of the wholle bad cocoone of culprits may Allah help us to judge leaders not just immpraticle candidts…thank you

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Gilani said it was necessary to keep the age limit at the existing level in order to attract the best among the country’s youth.

Retirement age: Commenting on the issue of increasing retirement age from 60 to 63 years, the prime minister informed the cabinet that the federal government was not considering any such proposal, as it would hamper the promotion prospects of younger officers.

The cabinet also approved in-principle to start negotiations on a memorandum of understanding (MoU) regarding bilateral political consultations between the governments of Pakistan and Namibia.

Gilani said once the MoU were signed, efforts should be made towards its implementation.

The cabinet also granted permission to a summary moved by the Ministry of Labour and Manpower to start negotiations with the Italian government for an agreement to strengthen co-operation on migration matters. The MoU will facilitate formalising arrangements with the Italian government for job placement of Pakistani professionals and workers in Italy.

The water and power minister briefed the cabinet members about the water and power situation in the country. He said although water in dams was less than the required level, every effort would be made to ensure adequate water supply to farmers.

Gilani directed all ministers to maintain close liaison with the media and facilitate access to information, so that government policies for socio-economic development of the people are properly projected.

Source: Daily Times

Soon after this letter got circulated, it was labelled an effort to defame the Prime Minister and in this context a very interesting news item got published in major dailies of Pakistan. It was basically the statement by PM Gilani warning his relatives to not to use his name for personal interest.

To the Karachi based blogger Tazeen this incident is latest goof to jump in and this time it is not from a Cabinet member but the ‘Sister’ of Prime minsiter and she writes,

It is recently discovered that Mrs Nargis Makhdoom, who is the sister of the PM and wife of the Additional Secretary of National Assembly, has gotten a letter head printed which says …. yeah exactly that – that she is the sister of the PM and wife of some additional secretary dude). Mrs. Makhdoom has gotten a ‘sifarshee’ letter drafted.

In point of view of Teeth Maestro, such an event is no different from the recent incidence when Aiwan-e-Sadar (Presidential Palace) was used as a wedding hall for the marriage ceremony of PM Gilani’s son.

Talking about this letter the Daudpota at flickr writes,

This, I am assured by the sender, is not a doctored document. Since the PM has now publicly disapproved of this odious practice, public and private organizations should scan previous and new letters (listing action taken by them) for display on Flickr for all to see.

Though this advice from Daudpota sounds good but it is least practicable.

So what’s new on the facelifted Porsche Boxster and Cayman?

Porsche’s mid-engined sports car duo gain much of the 911’s new tech, including direct injection for some of the flat-six boxer engines and the seven-speed Porsche Doppelkupplungsgetriebe transmission. Let’s just call it the PDK twin-clutch ’box, shall we? It replaces the Tiptronic gearbox and is geared for efficiency in a tall top ratio.

The new-look models have a pair of new engines. Basic Boxsters now come with a 2.9-litre six mustering 255bhp, while boggo Caymans have an upgrade to 265bhp.

Step up to the S models of each and you’ll be treated to the 3.4 with direct injection. Result? The Boxster S kicks out 310bhp, the Cayman S a stout 320bhp. That means that every facelifted model is between 10 and 25bhp meaner than before.

It is believed by many that after 9/11, the US policy took a new turn. I can recall clearly to what were the statements of then President Bush followed by his doctrine of preemption. Iraq was attacked, followed by Afghanistan in the name of so called War against Terror. Such steps were welcomed by US citizens as well as many others since to then emotional nation it was the only viable option, the option to fight for so called freedom and die in the line of duty but time proved it otherwise. Now, it is widely accepted by many US nationals as well as spectators around world that their policy of preemptive attacks was flawed and it resulted in a damage that will require a great deal of time for repair. Though, this policy of insane confrontation pleased many like Donald Rumsfeld and other disciples of Leo Strauss termed neo-conservative but in the long run since this policy was unnatural so it failed to come up to the expectations of common US citizens. In the after math of this Vietnam like failure of US to get the required results in Iraq and Afghanistan, the support of Bush and his coteries started falling. This offered a window to Democrats and they made it to presidency once again with the dreams of a better tomorrow with change in American policies.

It will not be wrong to point out that US citizens were really looking for a change and when Democrats offered them the dreams of change, they ran after them but will those dreams see the day’s light? It is a difficult yet important question but in order to get the answer, we will have to wait and watch Obama work towards the fulfillment of promises he has made to his nation and world. Let us all see if he is able to bring the change he was professing for so long. Will he be able to curb the torture course adopted in Guantanamo bay Prison? Will he be able to bring the US troops back to home from Iraq? Will he be able to make us see the change? I wonder if it is possible but what else we can do than believing in dreams sold to us in the name of better tomorrow.

Lastly, it is worthy of mention that the war against terror is very important but the ways US and other nations are using to deal with this menace are not the right ones. In order to fight terror, one needs to fight the mentality behind it including the causes of such mentality. We can not cure the disease unless we treat the underlying cause similarly, the terrorism has a complex underlying cause that is multifaceted in nature and we need to take it in account before dealing it. Barrack Obama, appears reasonably sensitized to this issue and we hope we will do the homework properly before embarking upon some course and will not repeat the mistakes the others have done in past. I wish him all the very best and hope we will stay sane.

Its 02:37 hrs and I am done with watching a wonderful movie named Kingdom of Heaven. This is sort of a movie I long for and I simply loved it. ‘You are not what you are born but you are what you have in you’, these are the dialogues that got stamped while watching this movie. I would say, I even was not in a mood to blink my eyes. I think I will watch it again some time soon. In this movie, the pride and dignity of men was highlighted. Not only this but the lead character appears to fight for common men in which he takes pride and it turned this movie into a fantastic watch. Moreover, I forgot to mention that I watched it using PTCL broadband’s internet entertainment portal. They have a fair collection of Hollywood, Bollywood, Lollywood movies, all time hit Pakistani Drama serials like ‘Sunahray Din’, ‘Chand Girhan’ and all sorts of music. I think I will explore more with them.

As soon as I was done with this movie, I thought to have a look at my Facebook account and there I found this news in my feed about this guest post titled “Pakistani Bloggers and Zardari: A suggestion for Both!”. The title was catchy so I couldn’t stop myself from exploring it further. Once I was there on Teeth Maestro’s blog, it made a good and thought provoking read. It is about the political situation in Pakistan, the role bloggers have been playing and what they need to do in future. It is sort of an editorial from the author  named Silence who blogs at Islamabad Observer Blog. In this post the author has mentioned his analysis,  his polity and has tried to influence the opinion of bloggers of Pakistani origin. His point is a bit valid but at times, my mind was clicking on something and I don’t know what was it but it felt like something is missing. Keeping these subjective thoughts apart, the writer has rightly pointed out that the ball now is in the court of President Zardari and he need to deal the problems of Pakistan according to the wishes and aspirations of Pakistani Nation. Apart from this he has also emphasized the need of Pakistani bloggers to play an active role.

At the moment, I am thinking that both movie and the post are related in some way. Let’s not go into the details. I am not in a mood of thinking too much at the moment and even don’t want to end this post beautifully, I would simply say good night and sweet dreams since I need to sleep too.

Ahmed Shaukat

Dear Ahmed Shaukat,

To me appearing in CSS is a separate decision from deciding the field of study. You must take in account to what will happened if by any chance you are going to fail in all the three attempts of CSS. Please don’t take it as an offence, I only want to point it out that at times things do not take the shape as we want them to take and in such a situation, your degree qualification will help you out. Therefore, please do not base the decision of your studies solely on CSS. I think you are carrying my point. I wish you all the very best for your future in your preferred field.

i am working with united nation peace corps.
i am happy but as desire and dream i always wanted to work as civil service officer .
what you suggest as i had master in IR from washington state university.

Atta

Dear Atta,

I am glad that you want to serve your country, but decision is all yours. In my personal case, I was serving in WHO international before qualifying CSS 2007 and I had many options but I preferred staying in Pakistan. In your case, it is all about your personal choice.

is it true that there is an age relaxation for two years and now a person can appear in the CSS exams till the age of 30.

Zainab

Dear Zainab

No it is a rumor!

i wanna ask u one thing that i am in the final year of d-pharmacy so the question is that i want to gv css exam after compeletion of d-pharmacy so is there any restriction regarding my degree plz do ans me soon im in a great worry

Hira

Dear Hira

No there is not restriction for details visit the CSS FAQs page.

Hello there Sir,

Iam a graduate in Business Admin, now doing my MBA and after lots of thought regarding my career.. I have come upon the decision of preparing for the CSS examination.
I need to inquire regarding two things, First being, iam a shortsighted girl, with an eyesight of -5.00 for both the right and the left eye, and I am interested in the Foreign services field, am i not eligible for it because of my eyesight?

and secondly, I dont agree with having to cram history, why doesnt the board think of revising the syllabi and on the whole make it more intellectual based?

Many Thanks.

Moomal Ahmed

Dear Moomal,

You are o.k for Foreign services of Pakistan being short sighted. You can take a look at the precedent of Saima Saleem, who is blind and passed the CSS 2007 and is allocated with a seat in Foreign Services of Pakistan. About FPSC revising the Syllabus, this is long discussion and beyond the scope of this post, so we can discuss it latter or you might consider writing a guest post in this context for my blog. I wish you all the very best.

Salam !
Can Any1 plz temmi sum information regarding CSS classes or coaching centers in Peshawar?

Anna

Dear Anna,

I have no clue about it.

aa,sir i start the reading of dawn but due to high vocab i m not fully understand theme of paragraph.is it due to start of prepraration.secondly i m not understand the implmplementation of world map.explain it with example.from where i can buy these maps.lastly,how can i contact wth sir mehdi hassan and sir jafri sb.sir this is may second reply.waiting anxiouslt.thanks

Hasnain Zaidi

Dear Hasnain Zaidi,

You need to stick around with your routine of reading daily dawn and your word power will built progressively and you will come to understand every word of it in long run. About map, all you need to do is that when you read some news of some foreign country, kindly see if you can find it on map, once you have found it on map, have a look at the boundaries of the country and other countries bordering it. About contact of Prof. Mehdi Hassan and Jafri Sahab, I have not clue.

Q.1 Should I “FREEZE” my MBA & go for CSS or CONTINUE it ??

Q.2 Officer’s Academy, Lahore Vs English language professor??

Q.3 How is my subject selection of following subjects??

Samar Ellahi

Dear Samar Ellahi,

I am responding to your queries one by one in above order:

1. This will be the biggest mistake you will ever commit. Freezing your studies will not help in any way. So better continue it and latter you can give CSS a try.

2. To me officers academy Lahore is preferable, it might be the other way around with somebody else but if I had to choose I would have dealt it that way.

3. Your subject selection is at par if you have genuine interest in them.

Salaam to Every One,
Actually I want to appear in css 2009 examination, so will you plz tell me the last date of submission of application…and also tell me about prepration…Allah Hafiz

Omer Farooq

Dear Omer Farooq,

The closing date for CSS 2009 is Jan 1^st, 2009.

sir its well done i need of css 2009 guess paper of essay and current affairs

Murtaza

Dear Murtaza,

I have no such papers with me.

Lastly, the following fellows sent me the queries and I feel that I have already replied their queries in frequently asked questions (FAQs) at Silence. Therefore, those whose names are in the list below are requested to please check out the CSS Pakistan FAQs here.

Sameera Bashir, Zahid Hussain, Murtaza, Sadaf, Zulqarnain, Dr. Sadia Haidar, Zahida Khan, Waqar Younus, Hasnian, Mohammad Ali Zagham, Aisha Mumtaz, Sana Saeed, Madiha, Sobia Afridi, Nusrat, Shamiala, Sohail Nasar Roghani, Syed Jawwad, Sheel, Umar Khitab, Amina Amjad, Aqsa, Muhammad Rustam Ali, Raza, Rana M. Iqbal, Muhammad Noman, Gull Malik, Irha, Bilal, Mudassir, Sehar, Sonia, Mona, Asim, Hina Faiz, Shahnawaz Khan

The advertisement of CSS 2009 is available at the website of FPSC. The rules and syllabus with application form can be obtianed by showing the treasury slip of rupees 1000 only against application fee. It should be noted that the candidates who passed CSS 2007 are waiting for the commencement of training and those who passed the written examination of CSS 2008 are going through the inteview, psychological assessment and medical examination.

Downloading a video from YouTube is simple and just a few clicks away. You can choose the site of choice for the purpose. I personally find this site useful for YouTube downloads. Up till now, I have found no server busy messages and things like that. All you need is a YouTube video URL and you are set to go. Below is the screen shot of the site I am referring:

In the above screen shot you can see the space like an address bar of your browser; it is there for putting YouTube URL. The YouTube URL can be found at the YouTube Video page or in your browser’s address bar is the URL of Video you are playing. The screen shot below will make the things clearer:

The two places I have encircled above are the places where you can find the URL of the video you are playing. Once you have it, you can put the URL in the site, I have mentioned above for download. It will take sometime to process the requested and you will be prompted to save the content. Yes, it is the YouTube Video you wanted. Once you have downloaded it, you will find that it is in .FLV format (the flash video format). If you are o.k. with it, you need to go ahead with other download but if you want it in .mp3 or such other format, you need to have video conversion software. I have searched about it too and found a good deal of for the purpose. To me personally, Kingdia is at par. I have found it very good. Apart from it, if you want to extract the audio, you can do it as well by using this site named FLVTO for audio extraction and that too in .mp3 format. They are running it for free with third party advertisement revenue and donations of many affording users. They have set this page for raising money to run FLVTO for user like me. The great thing about FLVTO is that that you can convert by uploading a file from your computer too.

Once you are done with it, you can convert your favorite video and audio to .3gp format for viewing it on the mobile. I practically did it with my Nokia converter and the quality was at par with original at YouTube.

I think, by now you are ready to download YouTube Videos, change the Formats of Video you have downloaded and extracting Audio from downloaded Video.