ISSB preparation tips

 overview about what all is there

All the tests are given on a website named Hawinfo as well
The first thing which you will be doing there is a lot of form filling. try to write the same things in all the forms because you will be asked to fill more than 2 forms there.

Then comes the address by commandent ISSB. The very 1st day there are intelligence tests. You can find some exercise which are relevant to the tests here
After the intelligence test is done you will be doing mechanical aptitude test which includes some easy questions from physics.
The next things is psychologists tests which are the main crux of ISSB. this includes tests such as
Sentence completion English. You will be given two papers which contains 26 incomplete sentences in English and you need to complete them in 6 minutes. You can find some examples here
Next is the sentence completion in urdu. Here you have the same thing 2 papers of 26 incomplete sentences and the time is also same. find some useful examples of the test here
then you will be shown 2 pictures on a projector now you have to write stories on these pictures. Make sure you right a positive one. Some example stories are solved here read them
Next comes word association test now you will be shown some 100 words and each word will be displayed for 10 seconds you have to make sentence on it during that time....See some useful exercises here
the last test in the psychologist is pointer stories writing ....An incomplete story is given and you need to solve it...See the exercises here
There are 2 interviews in ISSB one by Deputy, and one by psychologist. Psychologist interview is based upon you psychological tests for Deputy and psychologists Interview watch the questions here
then you have many physical tasks which are

CSS versus ISSB : What do you want to do?

 If you want to join armed forces of Pakistan then you'll have to pass ISSB along with other tests. However if you want to serve as civil servant then go for CSS exams.

Comparing css officer with army officer, Well CSP officer right from the start have powers as CSP has to deal with public affairs mostly. So in public affairs matters CSP is powerfull. As for example ASP is more powerfull then Major of Army.

But after promotions of army officer to higher rank for example to Brig. OR Maj .Gen and so on. Powers of these ranked officers are aslo very much, as we all know we are enlslaved of our own army. Army is more powerfull then civil beurecracy.

But if you look in the perspective of direct powers then CSP has more powers than Army officals.

Army is indepennt organization while many CSP work under ministries. so politics can influence csp officer but not to an army offical.

Scholarship : how to get scholarships

 Dear Aspirants: I am sure you read Waqar bhai's post about Italian Scholarship Rejection and I have personally noticed that Pakistani Students are not represented in such a majority in US universities either. While I pursued my Undergraduate Degree in the US and now doing my Ph.D. there, I have noticed this dilemma, and tons of mentors have brought it to your attention as well.

T have other mentors that Scholarships are Competitive not because there are many students but also because you are competing against international talent too.

If you can not make the effort to open the link and read the requirements for the program then I can not comprehend how do you comprehend that you can sustain and do well abroad

If you are so uncertain about giving IELTS/TOEFL, constructing SOP, creating your CV, Giving the GRE, Making a Research Proposal; that we hope that someone just gives us all the information and we do not have to do much then we will continue to lack and be underrepresented

We need to think this fact that we must quit running after acceptance letters. I have seen students just mindlessly asking for an acceptance letter from professors that have research not even close to what they want to pursue.

Students continue to send the same email to every professor and then ask, WHY ARE WE REJECTED?

We do not take time to read the profile of the professor, read their research, read some of their papers and try to understand what are their active projects because we claim that "IT WASTES SO MUCH TIME".

If you think that doing hard work is waste of time than let me tell you that trying to find the shortcut is the biggest waste of your time because to achieve success NO SHORTCUT EXISTS

SO HOW TO RECTIFY THIS PROBLEM?

Try to spend some time reading the requirements of the program. Do not blindly apply as soon as you see the word "FULLY FUNDED"

Stop chasing acceptance letters and try to find a perfect match with you and the lab you want to do research in. 

Please start working on your profile by constructing a compelling CV, SOP and other material ahead of the application deadline. If you start gathering your documents days before your deadline than you will not be able to carefully make sure that you have fulfilled all the requirements

Do apply to multiple programs on the same SOP, IT IS NOT GOING TO WORK IN YOUR FAVOR

If you are applying to US, know that GRE is not some sort of a foreign BEAST! The test is designed for humans by humans and not for robots. We all take these exams and we all can do well, if we put the same dedication as we put in things that are of interest to us

If you can spend hours browsing the internet then you should also be able to spend hours trying to find scholarship opportunities

PLEASE understand the importance of RESEARCH! It is rather impossible to get into PhD if you have no research experience. Instead of sitting and blaming your country, your institutions, and other people, start taking responsibility of your actions!

If you did not have the opportunity to do research, you must do an internship or a job relevant to your field before you apply for PhD!

Do not assume someone knows that you know the skills. If you do not mention that in your CV, I can not know that you have Research Skills

MORAL OF THE STORY: Let us stop blaming others for our failure and take responsibility of our actions! Work hard! There is no success if you can not take the time to work hard! Failure should not disappoint you but let it teach you!he Biggest Problem is: TRYING TO FIND A SHORT CUT

Failure, turning failures to success

I wish someone told me this 10 years ago when I was just graduating with my bachelor. I wish there were seminars, books, and training courses on dealing with rejection. I wish there were special events where people shared their 'failure stories'.

Dealing with failure is such an important part of any person's life. If you think about it, the majority of our life is spent dealing with failures. We rarely get something on the first try.

What is failure? Failure is not when you half-heartedly applied for a job/scholarship and nobody replied. Failure is when you are at the end of your wits and you have no idea what to do next. Imagine being in an unfamiliar house, alone, and then suddenly power goes out, it is pitch dark, you have no idea where you are and you have no idea where to go. This is what real failure looks like.

Everyone sees failure, everyone witnesses such moments. If by any miracle you are have not seen such failures then there are two possibilities: Either you are incredibly lucky, which is nearly impossible. Or you are not aiming high enough, you are playing safe, in this case, you have failed by default already.

So now we know what is failure, then the biggest question here is how do we deal with it?

There are three possibilities when you suffer from failure:

You are not the right person for the position that you are aiming for.

You are the right person but you are not putting in the effort.

You are the right person, you are putting in your full effort but it is not in your naseeb*.

All the conventional advice on failure focuses on point no.2. The common advice says that you just need to keep going, just focus on your passion, just one more step. Edison failed 1000 times before he perfected the bulb, Dyson made 5126 prototypes before he finalized his bag-less vacuum design. We listen to these examples and curse ourselves, maybe we are not putting in the effort, maybe if we spent 12 hours instead of 8, that would make a difference. Maybe we should keep our head down and keep grinding...

Practice makes perfect, but wrong practice only gives wrong results.

You may be working on the wrong thing because you have the wrong idea of success in your head. It is possible that the idea of success was programmed in you from an early age by your environment and your society. Maybe what you are pursuing is not you, it's not suited for you or your personality. You are pursuing something for which you are a wrong fit.

Growing up in the 90s the idea of success for Pakistani children was becoming an Engineer or a doctor. An entire generation of Pakistani kids was programmed to believe that being a doctor or engineer was the best possible profession. (And it was for good reasons at the time). I was one of such kids, I believed that becoming an engineer or a doctor was the best possible way to be successful. So I did become an Engineer. It was during engineering when I found that I was not able to understand analytical concepts as easily as my other friends. But I still kept on going as much as I could.

It was during my first job as an engineer where I finally realized that I was not a natural at being an engineer. I saw my colleagues who were natural at it. They could talk about engineering problems, figure out solutions whereas I was trailing behind trying to catch up with them. The way they worked felt like a fish in the water. Effortless and enjoyable.

That's when I realized I want to be like a fish in the water. I want to choose what I am natural at.

Accepting your weakest areas is a blessing because when you do that you automatically start to find out what you are good at. Even if you don't know, your colleagues and peers start to see that and they ask for your help in those areas.

For me that area was communication. It was taking complicated ideas, thoughts, and queries and them putting them in words. I was a natural at it. It didn't seem anything special to me. To me it was effortless and therefore it seemed that anyone anywhere can do it. But that was not true. I would be asked several times by my managers and colleagues in drafting a particular tricky email or phone communication. Most of all, I enjoyed it. I enjoyed taking complicated ideas and putting them in words or explaining them to others.

The reason why I explained all this is that we are born with different talents and natural abilities. We have different IQs. It is useless to excel in a field where you are not natural and don't feel you are enjoying it.

So to summarise, this is what you should be feeling internally when you are doing something that aligns with you:

You do not feel it's a special talent because it comes naturally to you. However, when others see you working they tell you that it is not normal. It doesn't seem like work to you. It just flows through you like water.

You enjoy the process, no matter what the outcome you really enjoy doing it. A true blood entrepreneur gets a thrill every time there is a new business idea in his mind, he gets a kick every time there is a roadblock. The hustle, and the grind motivates him. A natural Engineer enjoys the problem, formulating complex equations. Analytical thinking does not bore him.

How do we find what we are natural at? We continuously explore, take risks, and then take feedback. We push our limits and risk failure.

So failure is an essential part of failing less. But we learn from that experience. Did we enjoy it? did it feel right to us?

When we find what we are a natural at then the reason no. 2 is eliminated. Because whatever we do it feels like play to us. We are not afraid of working. In fact, it does not even feel like work to us. We can spend hours, days just happily working on that thing.

This brings us to reason no.3 for failure: Maybe we are a natural at something, maybe we are even working as hard as we can, but we are still not getting it. Why does it happen? Maybe it is not in our naseeb. It is not destined for us.

It took me a very long time to understand this, but let me explain with an example.

When I was 15 I started memorizing the Quran. It took me 3 years of continuous studying and I was able to accomplish that. During my time I saw several students, who were diligent, intelligent and hardworking. Their parents came with the most sincere and deep-seated desire so their child can become a Hafiz-e-Quran, they would hire the best teachers, create the most positive environment for their kid. The kid himself would work hard. Studying day and night. But it wouldn't work. They wouldn't be able to do it. Everything on paper would say otherwise. But still, they couldn't. And no matter how much they tried to force it, it wouldn't work. They would fail again and again.

To this day I do not think it was a lack of intention, or hard work. God didn't love them any less than He loved me. It just wasn't destined for them.

It simply wasn't meant to be.

That realization is the hardest to stomach. Because there are no apparent reasons for our failure. We always want to know reasons, but there are places where logic cannot go, and that's where faith comes in. Faith and belief that we did our best, but it wasn't meant to be.

Failure is essential part of life, but it extremely important to fail at the right thing. Learning from the failure and then calibrating our actions.

I hope you learned something important from this guide. Please comment and let me know what you think.

Difference between socialism and capitalism

 Capitalism and socialism are generally seen as polar opposites, and discussions of either system are often framed as in opposition to the other. The modern idea of socialism has roots in Greek philosopher Plato but emerged as a popular political idea in the early 19th century among German radicals like Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. There are many forms of socialism, but at its core, socialism is an economic system in which a whole community — not just bosses or private companies — control the means of production equally. It assumes that people are naturally cooperative, instead of competitive. The goal of socialism is an egalitarian society run by democratically elected representatives for the benefit of all in accordance with a set of collectively determined parameters; unlike under capitalism, industry and production is run by the state, and the acquisition of private property is seen as counterproductive. Capitalist critics of socialism believe that the system slows economic growth, rewards worker laziness, and can stifle individual rights and free expression.

In a capitalist country, the focus is on profits over anything else; in a socialist country, the public is seen to be more important, and social welfare is a major priority. The United States, the U.K., and Germany are examples of modern capitalist countries. Many other countries like Norway, Sweden, Canada, and the Netherlands incorporate socialist ideas into their societies, as does the U.S. to some degree; for example, universal health care and Social Security are both socialistic concepts

Effects of capitalism

 The kind of impact that capitalism has on your life depends on whether you’re a worker or a boss. For someone who owns a company and employs other workers, capitalism may make sense: The more profits your company brings in, the more resources you have to share with your workers, which theoretically improves everyone’s standard of living. It’s all based on the principle of supply and demand, and in capitalism, consumption is king. The problem is that many capitalist bosses aren’t great at sharing the wealth, which is why one of the major critiques of capitalism is that it is a huge driver of inequality, both social and economic.

Capitalism takes the position that “greed is good,” which its supporters say is a positive thing — greed drives profits and profits drive innovation and product development, which means there are more choices available for those who can afford them. Its opponents say that capitalism is, by nature, exploitative, and leads to a brutally divided society that tramples the working classes in favor of fattening the rich’s wallets. The Occupy Wall Street movement, for example, began as an anti-capitalist protest against “the 1%” — the richest of the rich of the capitalist class — and asked why they are allowed to grow fat and happy while 20% of all American children live in poverty

Who is a capitalist

 Individual capitalists are typically wealthy people who have a large amount of capital (money or other financial assets) invested in business, and who benefit from the system of capitalism by making increased profits and thereby adding to their wealth. A capitalist nation is dominated by the free market, which is an economic system in which both prices and production are dictated by corporations and private companies in competition with one another, and places a heavy focus on private property, economic growth, freedom of choice, and limited government intervention. Generally, those to the right of the political spectrum tend to be pro-capitalist; those on the left veer toward anti-capitalism.