Guides and notes
Civil Service Exam guides and notes
Dated, sourced, and revised when the facts change. Where the CSC has not announced something, these say so rather than guessing.
Exam dates
What the CSC has announced, and what it has not.
Exam coverage
What the examination covers and how it is scored.
Practice by topic
How a question format is decided, with the rule stated plainly.
16 posts
- Subject-verb agreement: the rules the exam actually tests
The exam does not test agreement you can hear. It tests the four constructions that hide the subject, and each one has a rule you can apply without an ear for it.
- Word analogy: name the relation and the answer follows
An analogy is decided before you look at the options. Say the relation as a sentence, keep its direction, and tighten it until one pair survives.
- What are the common questions in the Civil Service Exam?
Not a list anyone can honestly give you. But the formats repeat exactly, there are about a dozen of them, and knowing which is in front of you is most of the speed.
- Fractions and decimals without a calculator
Converting is the slow way. A dozen equivalences worth knowing by sight, and the two habits that turn a minute of long division into ten seconds.
- Word problems: turning a sentence into an equation
The arithmetic is never the hard part. Naming the unknown is, and there are only about six sentence patterns the exam builds problems from.
- Is 75 a good score on the Civil Service Exam?
It does not pass. The passing general rating is 80.00, and 75 is below it - but what the number should change about your next few months is the more useful question.
- Percentage and ratio problems, worked end to end
Percent of, percent change, discount and commission are one idea in four costumes. Find the whole, find the part, and the arithmetic is the easy half.
- Number series: how to find the rule in under a minute
Four rules cover almost every number series on the exam. Take the differences first, and the rest follows. Worked items from our own bank.
- Everything on the Subprofessional paper, section by section
What each section of the Subprofessional Career Service Exam asks, including the clerical ability section that replaces analytical ability.
- Everything on the Professional paper, section by section
What each section of the Professional Career Service Exam actually asks, what the questions look like, and where the time goes.
- Professional or Subprofessional: which one to take
The two levels are one examination with a single section swapped. Which you sit is decided by the posts you want to be appointable to, not by how hard the paper is.
- What civil service eligibility is actually worth
It does not get you a job. What it does is make you appointable to permanent positions, it never expires, and the two levels open different doors.
- What the Civil Service Exam is, and who actually needs one
The Career Service Examination in plain terms: what it is for, the two levels, who is required to take it, and who is already exempt without knowing.
- The 9 August 2026 civil service exam was suspended in NCR and parts of Luzon
What the CSC announced, who was affected, and what is and is not known about a rescheduled date. Updated as the CSC announces.
- When the August 2026 civil service exam results come out, and how to check them
The CSC's target dates for the results and for the online result system, what each one means, and where to look when they land.
- What a passing rating of 80.00 on the civil service exam actually means
The passing general rating is 80.00 for both levels. What that is not, what the CSC does not publish, and why aiming for exactly 80 is the wrong target.
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