Books for the CSS Exam

By Nabeel Ahmed
Pakistan Administrative Service
1st in Sindh, 7th in Pakistan, CE-2018
Instagram @nabeelahmedm
Twitter @nabeelahmed
 

This document is a work in progress, please save this link and check back often. 
Last updated: 14 June 2020
 

The books I include here are those I personally found useful in my preparation, or
those other civil servants have recommended. Some of these books (marked with a
*) are from the official FPSC syllabus available here. 

How many books should I read for a subject?

There is no magic number, but for most subjects, aim to read between 1 to 3 books
per subject to cover the syllabus. Your first mission is to cover your syllabus well.
 
Where the main books do not carry a topic in detail, you can supplement your
preparation through the internet: YouTube, Wikipedia, Khan Academy, and websites
dedicated to the relevant topic. For some subjects/topics, the internet is more useful
than any particular book.
 

How do I get started with these books?

Your process may be different, but I recommend this order for each subject:
 
. First read the subject syllabus—see the topics and how they are divided into
sections.
. Then go through the subject’s past papers (especially those papers after the 2016
revised syllabus), and see the kind of questions asked about these topics.
 
Now you can begin to read your book(s) and make notes. Organize your notes
according to the topics in the syllabus. Keep your notes short to make revision
easier, and make notes in your own words to help you digest what you study.
Especially note important statistics, quotes, and diagrams you can use in your paper.
 
. First finish the book that covers the majority of your syllabus — and make notes.
. Identify which topics come most often in past papers. For these, if you have time,
you can study chapters from other books (or Internet articles) to help flesh out
your answers and make them original. Make notes on these under the original
topic.
. Later, you will use your notes to revise and to practice writing answers. 

Where do I find these books?

To read books on your computer or tablet, you can find many of them as free PDF
files on the following websites. Make sure you spell the author and book name
correctly.

Free PDFs and e-books

Library Genesis: https://libgen.is/ OR https://gen.lib.rus.ec
Z-Library: https://z-lib.org 
Ebook Hunter: https://ebookhunter.ch
 
For academic research papers and journal articles, use
Sci-Hub: https://sci-hub.tw/
How to use Sci-Hub: a short tutorial is here
If Sci-Hub is not working, there are some proxy links you can try here.
 
To buy print books, please try
Any major bookstore in your city
The nearest Urdu Bazaar to you
Readings.com.pk or Kitabain.com (order online)
Liberty Books (can be expensive, look for a PDF file first)

I’m also curating a small collection of recommended books here—it’s still

incomplete but you can save it for future reference.
 

COMPULSORY SUBJECTS 
English Essay
*Michael Swan, Practical English Usage
 Strunk and White, The Elements of Style—the most popular style guide for
American English; use it to improve all your writing, but remember that it only
gives guidelines, not rigid rules.
Lauren Starkey, How to Write Great Essays—skim this to understand what
comprises a good essay and strategies to find and organize arguments for your
topic. 

However, the best way to prepare for the English essay is through a good essay
tutor in your city or online, who will teach you the essay structure, different types of
essays, and help you to practice many outlines and essays before the exam, giving
personal feedback. 

English Precis & Composition

R Dhillon, Precis Writing — do at least 2-3 precis questions a week (and time
yourself)
Karim Dad Chughtai, English (Precis & Composition) — for other questions from
this exam
Wren & Martin, High School English Grammar and Composition — to revise basic
grammar
 
Both W&M and Chughtai are lengthy and comprehensive. Make sure to spend more
time doing exercises in your weaker areas. Most candidates will not need to do all
the exercises. 

Pakistan Affairs
In my experience, no single book covers the entire syllabus. You should read a
selection of chapters from the following:

Pre-Partition, 1857 to 1947

Khalid Bin Sayeed, Pakistan: The Formative Phase 
OR
Ahmed Saeed, Trek to Pakistan

Note that the 2016 revised syllabus considerably reduced the importance of pre-
Partition topics. Do examine the 2016-2019 past papers to understand which kinds
of questions repeat. 
 
Post-Partition, 1947 to present
Ian Talbot, Pakistan: A Modern History
 Nigel Kelly, History and Culture of Pakistan

Supplementary books
Yasmeen Mohiuddin, Pakistan: A Global Studies Handbook—this is an excellent
book to fill in the gaps and will help with Current Affairs as well, just use the
table of contents to see what you need to study.
Christophe Jaffrelot, Pakistan at the Crossroads—a collection of essays on
Pakistan’s geopolitical position, again useful for Current Affairs.

Current Affairs
For most of your preparation, read the news daily for 6-12 months before the exam,
to gain familiarity with global/national events and key figures. You should aim for a
good grasp on what has happened in the world over the last few years, and be able
to analyze it.

National
Read the main pages (front, editorial, opinion, major business headlines) from
DAWN, aim to read this daily for up to an hour.
Samaa TV is a useful secondary source, Mahim Maher and her team has
especially done brilliant reporting on local government and metropolitan issues.

World
You can choose to read 1-2 international dailies, or a news aggregator like Google
News:
The Guardian, BBC, and CNN’s World sections 
The International Crisis Group and CFR have long-form articles on world events
Google News puts together headlines from different news sources, and you can
select sections to read from the sidebar e.g. Business, World, Technology.

You should aim to read a cross-section of major international news for 30-60
minutes once or twice a week. Focus on familiarity first, not memorizing everything
perfectly. As you read more, names, figures, and ongoing events will become familiar
to you. 
 
If you want more background knowledge on the syllabus topics, use:
The internet: Wikipedia, CIA Factbook, and BBC’s country profiles
*Akbar S. Zaidi, Issues in Pakistan’s Economy
The supplementary books for Pakistan Affairs here above.
Islamic Studies
First, unless you are extremely proficient in explaining concepts in Urdu, and can
write answers as quickly, I suggest you take the exam in English, like the rest of your
subjects.
 
Study mainly:
*Khurshid Ahmad, Islam: Its Meaning and Message
*Dr Hamidullah, Introduction to Islam
Muhammad Bilal Aslam, Mastering O’ Level Islamiat (available here) 
OR
Farkhanda Noor Muhammad, Islamiat for Competitive Examinations (or her
Islamiat for O Level Students)

The Karim Dad Chughtai book (Islamic Studies) is praised by some candidates, but
compiles information from other books, so it is not an original source and chapters
can be disjointed.

Everyone has studied Islamic Studies at some point before. For the CSS exam, you
should aim to distinguish your answers from others. So, if you have the time, read
these to add depth: 
*Muhammad Asad, Islam at the Crossroads
*Zafar Iqbal, Islamization of Pakistan

I would stress the importance of collecting 5-7 relevant Hadith and Quranic verses
on each syllabus topic (e.g. women in Islam, Tauheed, Hajj, brotherhood), and
making sure to memorize them thoroughly.

General Science & Ability

General Science
Locally published books tend to use incomplete or outdated information. This is
especially not suited to scientific knowledge. So you can use a local book to quickly
cover the syllabus—some candidates recommend Mian Shafiq (JWT)—but do not
rely on them alone.
 
The GS&A syllabus is already divided into different modules, each with topics. For
the General Science portion, here are some useful websites:
Khan Academy’s Science section
 Crash Course’s YouTube playlists — look through the ones on Astronomy,
Anatomy & Physiology, Biology, and Ecology.
howtosmile’s topics page is plenty comprehensive.
National Geographic 
 
Ability
Practice Aptitude Tests and IndiaBix can provide more than enough practice. 

Optional Subjects coming soon — please check back

later.