CSS General Science & Ability Notes & Study Guide

CSS Paper 7 — 100 Marks (Part-I General Science: 60 Marks | Part-II General Ability: 40 Marks)

This is the index for General Science & Ability. Each syllabus section below has its own sub-page with full notes, MCQ traps, and self-test questions.

Quick Outline

Part-I — General Science (60 Marks)

Part-II — General Ability (40 Marks)

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Past Paper Weightage (2021–2025 solved papers)

• Paper structure: Part-I General Science (60 marks) tests Sections I–V; Part-II General Ability (40 marks) tests Sections VI–VIII. Candidates attempt a fixed subset of short/long questions from each part, so breadth across sub-topics matters more than depth on any single one.
• Highest-frequency areas (recur almost every year): Physical Sciences (Natural Hazards, Renewable/Non-Renewable Energy), Biological Sciences (Human Physiology, Common Diseases & Epidemics), Environmental Science (Atmospheric Pollution — Montreal/Kyoto, ozone/greenhouse), Food Science (Balanced Diet/vitamins), IT (ROM/RAM, fiber optics, GPS), and in Part-II: Quantitative Ability (Solid/Plane Geometry, Algebra) plus Logical & Analytical Reasoning puzzles.
• Lower-frequency but still testable: Modern Materials/Chemicals, Bio-Fuel, Population Planning, Remote Sensing/GIS — easy marks if prepared since fewer candidates revise them.

Past-Paper Questions That Do Not Fit a Chapter (FPSC)

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Every question below appeared in the FPSC papers you shared (2015 paper) but does not belong to any syllabus chapter, so I kept them here. Answers are model outlines written by me; dates and figures come from general knowledge, so verify before quoting.

• CSS 2015 Q2(a): Ibn-e Battuta's famous book Rihlah is an important source of history and geography. Justify it. (5)

  • Ibn Battuta (1304–1368/9): a Moroccan scholar from Tangier who travelled for about 30 years and roughly 120,000 km across Africa, the Middle East, Central and South Asia, South-East Asia and China
  • Rihla: dictated to the scholar Ibn Juzayy in 1355; its full title is Tuhfat al-Nuzzar fi Ghara'ib al-Amsar wa 'Aja'ib al-Asfar
  • Source of history
    • Eyewitness accounts of rulers, courts and events (e.g. the Delhi Sultanate under Muhammad bin Tughluq, where he served as a judge)
    • Records of customs, religion, law, trade, food, dress and social life
    • Records of the Muslim world's networks of scholars and Sufi lodges
  • Source of geography
    • Routes, cities, ports, rivers and deserts, with distances and travel times
    • Descriptions of climate, products and local economies
    • Pakistan link: he entered Sindh in 1333 and described crossing the Indus and visiting places such as Multan and Uch
  • Limits: written from memory, some exaggeration and borrowed passages, so it needs cross-checking
  • Conclusion: despite these limits it is a unique 14th-century record of the medieval world

• CSS 2015 Q2(b): Al-Biruni is recognized more as a natural scientist than a theorist. Comment. (5)

  • Al-Biruni (973 – after 1050): a Khwarazmian polymath, mathematician, astronomer, geographer and historian, who spent years in the Ghaznavid lands and in India
  • Why he is a natural scientist
    • Relied on observation, measurement and experiment rather than speculation
    • Measured the radius of the Earth (≈ 6,340 km, very close to the modern ≈ 6,371 km) by a trigonometric method using a mountain's height, near Nandana in the Salt Range of present-day Pakistan
    • Studied specific gravity of metals and gems and wrote on mineralogy (Kitab al-Jamahir) and pharmacology (Kitab al-Saydana)
    • Wrote the astronomical encyclopaedia al-Qanun al-Mas'udi; considered the possibility of the Earth's rotation on its axis
  • Also a scholar of people and ideas: his Kitab al-Hind is an account of Indian science, religion and society, based on firsthand study
  • Comment: he valued evidence and testing over argument alone, a scientific method centuries ahead of Europe

• CSS 2015 Q8(a): Write a note on forensic science and criminology. (5)

  • Forensic science: the use of science to investigate crimes and settle legal questions
    • Branches: fingerprint analysis, DNA profiling, ballistics (firearms), toxicology (poisons, drugs), document and handwriting examination, trace evidence (hair, fibres, soil), forensic pathology (cause of death), digital/cyber forensics
    • Process: secure the scene → collect evidence → keep the chain of custody → lab analysis → report and court testimony
    • Pakistan: forensic labs such as the Punjab Forensic Science Agency (Lahore) support police and courts
  • Criminology: the scientific study of crime, criminals, causes, prevention and punishment
    • Theories: classical (free choice, deterrence), positivist (biological/psychological causes), sociological (poverty, environment, social strain)

  Feature	Forensic science	Criminology
  Focus	Evidence from a specific crime	Crime as a social phenomenon
  Methods	Laboratory and physical sciences	Social science research and theory

  • Link: forensic evidence proves what happened; criminology helps explain why and how to prevent it

• CSS 2015 Q9(b): Write a short note on the space shuttle. (5)

  • Space shuttle (NASA Space Transportation System): the world's first reusable crewed spacecraft that launched like a rocket and landed like a glider
  • Parts
    • Orbiter: the winged crew and cargo vehicle
    • External fuel tank: liquid hydrogen and oxygen for the main engines (discarded)
    • Two solid rocket boosters: reusable, dropped after about two minutes
  • History: first flight Columbia, 12 April 1981; five orbiters flew (Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, Endeavour); 135 missions; retired in 2011 after Atlantis's final flight
  • Uses: launching and repairing satellites (including servicing the Hubble Space Telescope), carrying the Spacelab laboratory, building the International Space Station
  • Accidents: Challenger (1986) and Columbia (2003), both with the loss of crew
  • Today: replaced by other launch systems, such as reusable rockets and capsules

Syllabus Coverage Check (CSS Revised Scheme)

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Each item of the official General Science and Ability syllabus is matched to the chapter that covers it. Checked on 16 October 2026; the items marked new were missing and have just been added.