How the MPT works, and how to pass it

What this chapter is for

The subject. The MPT is the screening test you must pass before FPSC lets you sit the written CSS exam. MPT stands for MCQ-based Preliminary Test. An MCQ is a multiple-choice question: you pick one of four answers.

Why it comes first. Most candidates who fail the MPT do not fail for lack of knowledge. They run out of time, leave questions blank, or spend too long on one section. This chapter shows you the paper, the pass mark, and a plan for the 200 minutes.

How to use it. Read it once. Then sit one section paper from this module. Then come back to the plan in section 4.

1. What the MPT is

The MPT is a screening test. A screening test does not rank you. It only decides who may go on.¹

• If you pass it, you may apply for that year’s written exam.
• Your MPT marks are not added to your final merit. Your final rank comes from the written exam, the psychological assessment and the interview.¹
• A pass counts for that year only. If you sit CSS again next year, you sit the MPT again.¹
• The fee is Rs 250.⁴

FPSC started the MPT for CSS 2022. The first test was held on 20 February 2022.¹

2. The paper, exactly

One paper. 200 questions. 200 minutes. One mark each. Four options, A to D.¹²

The question numbers come from FPSC’s own practice paper.² The marks come from FPSC’s rules.¹

Non-Muslim candidates may take Civics and Ethics in place of Islamic Studies. It is also twenty questions. The rest of the paper is the same for everyone.³

Rules in the hall.²

• There is no negative marking. A wrong answer costs nothing.
• If you mark two options on one question, it counts as wrong.
• You mark your answers on a paper answer sheet. It has a pink copy and a blue copy. You hand in the pink copy and keep the blue one.
• Use a ballpoint pen. No lead pencil and no marker.
• No calculator. Phones, smart watches and similar devices are not allowed.
• FPSC puts the answer key on its website on the evening of the test. Your blue copy lets you check your score that night.

3. The pass mark

You need 33%. That is 66 marks out of 200.¹ There is no separate pass mark for each section. Only the total counts.

Most candidates pass. This is how many passed each year, out of those who sat the test.⁵

So the test is passable. It is not a formality. In 2025, nearly three in ten candidates failed it. Each of them lost a whole year.

What this means for you. You do not need a high score. You need a safe score. Aim for 100 in practice. Then a bad day in the hall still leaves you above 66.

4. The plan for the 200 minutes

Rule one. Answer every question. There is no negative marking. A blank earns nothing. A guess between two options earns a mark half the time. So never leave a box empty.

Rule two. Keep to about one minute a question. That is the pace of the paper. This budget leaves you time to check.

The General Abilities section gets the most time. Its questions need working out by hand. Islamic Studies, Urdu and General Knowledge are recall. You either know the answer or you do not. So they should go fast.

Rule three. Two passes. On the first pass, answer what you can at once. Mark the hard ones and move on. On the second pass, come back to the marked ones. Never let one hard sum eat five minutes.

Rule four. Fill the answer sheet as you go. Fill it section by section. Candidates who leave it all to the end run out of time with a full question paper and an empty answer sheet.

5. How to prepare, section by section

Islamic Studies and Urdu (40 marks). These are the cheapest marks on the paper. Questions are short and factual. Learn the basic facts: the pillars, the battles and their years, the caliphs, the collections of hadith. For Urdu, learn gender, plurals, synonyms and opposites, and common idioms.

English (50 marks). Most of this is vocabulary. Learn a few new words every day, with their opposites. The rest is grammar you can learn by rule: tenses, prepositions, articles, active and passive voice.

General Abilities (60 marks). This is the biggest section and the one where practice pays most. The maths is matric level: percentages, ratios, averages, speed, simple equations, angles and areas. The reasoning questions follow a few fixed patterns, such as number series, coding and seating arrangements. Once you have seen each pattern ten times, it becomes routine.

General Knowledge (50 marks). This mixes everyday science, current affairs and Pakistan affairs. The General Science & Ability, Current Affairs and Pakistan Affairs notes on this site cover the same ground.

6. How to use this module

1. Start with a section paper. Sit one section against the clock, such as English, 50 questions in 50 minutes.
2. Read every explanation for the questions you got wrong. That is where the learning happens.
3. Practise your weak topics. Your result lists the topics you did worst in.
4. Sit a full paper once a week. It is 200 questions in 200 minutes, in FPSC’s order. Build the stamina to stay sharp for more than three hours.
5. Track your score. Every paper you sit is kept with its mark, so you can see yourself climb.

The questions marked Past paper 2025 are from the real CSS 2025 MPT. The ones marked FPSC practice paper are from the sample paper FPSC published before the first MPT. Every other question is written for this course to the same syllabus and level.